Back to the Garden

And the Lord G_d said, “Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live forever” — so the Lord G_d banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.  So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword turning every way, to guard the way to the Tree of Life. – Genesis 3:22
Marc Chagall. The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden. 1960

G_d promised us that if we followed His word, He would deliver us to the Land of Milk and Honey.  We have upheld our end of the bargain, and so He has fulfilled His covenant, and then some.  Anyone who has set foot in a Walmart in the US, or in a Tesco or Carrefour in Europe can attest to aisles of cheap and plentiful food, far beyond just milk and honey.  In fact over the past millennia we have braved the cherubim and flaming sword, and we have vaulted over the Promised Land right back into the Garden of Eden.  The question is only whether we will get ourselves kicked out again in another self-destructive frenzy, before we partake of the fruit of the Tree of Everlasting Life, and thereby enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and finally become holy like G_d, strolling the garden in serenity and ease, perhaps concocting our own brave new worlds if we were so inclined.

The capitalist accumulates wealth so that one day he no longer has to work.  Then he can relax and leave the heavy lifting for others, who can then follow in his footsteps.  Even if they cannot ever free themselves of the curse of mankind, at least they will work the soil of the Garden of Eden – hopefully a consolation.  Many of G_d’s laws make this the explicit goal.  For example: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy…. But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord your G_d: in it you shall not do any work.” Exodus 20:8.  What is ‘holy’?  Simple: not working.  (Notably, the female declension of holy is ‘kadosha’ – prostitute – the ‘oldest profession’.)

The socialist on the other hand believes that everyone should work equally.  The end result is that everyone works as little as possible, and nothing gets done, and people live in poverty and squalor.  They spend their days scheming up new ways to show compassion for the miserable masses to get voted into power, to oppress them further.  They confront the capitalists in restaurants, and their wives at their homes, to force them to heed the call of fairness and justice.  Meanwhile online they quickly block any dissent from their orthodoxies – and mask the hypocrisy with the familiar refrain: “You must throw your body upon the gears and levers!”

But the fact is, even among the poor in capitalist countries, obesity is a far greater public health problem than malnutrition.  The opposite is true in many socialist countries.  As for healthcare, while the government may refuse to pay for expensive health disasters, at least the children can get free care at a local children’s hospital, and then sell their wide, toothy grin showing their gratitude for the precious gift of life, such as it is, made possible not by force but our generosity.  At some point we must be willing to make the hard choices of procreation based not on welfare arbitrage or government decree, but our own free will.

The paradise in which we live is made possible by capitalism, freedom, and equal rights.  We must do a better job of spreading these values to other countries, as opposed to military aid.  Immigrants must take the values that they’ve learned here and bring them back to their home countries.  This more than anything will stop the flow of refugees.  So why don’t they?  Because there is no profit or power in unfurling the blessings of heaven.  Everyone’s a schemer, seeking his own advantage, even at the expense of his own people.  At some point we must make a choice of peace over endless war and oppression.

On the home front, many organizations try to undermine the precious freedoms for which a million brave Americans have fought and died.  The ADL proposes bans of ‘hate speech’, as the SPLC insists that freedom of the press was always just a mirage.  AIPAC tries to criminalize peaceful boycotts, the holocaust museums unite to censor ‘denial’, as Mike Bloomberg tries to erode the very gun rights that have made America safe for the Jews.  Freedom is besieged from all directions – in the name of ‘protection’.  We say, “We have been targeted by hate for centuries – therefore we are experts in preventing genocide.”  However experience is not expertise.  It turns out, everything we did was wrong.  Like putting drug addicts in charge of rehabs, it only perpetuates the problem.

Many intellectual leaders of movements based on various ideologies such as capitalism, socialism, fascism, and open borders, are Jewish.  Yet if any are attacked for their beliefs, the Jews close ranks and cry, “Antisemitism!”  Of course, this only exacerbates the resentment.  People have perfectly valid reasons to criticize us, and we need to acknowledge this.  You will say, “That is blaming the victim – holocaust denial!”  Perhaps it is.

Another threat to the nation is that a man has his finger on the nuclear button, and we are accusing him of various crimes and threatening to throw him in prison.  And then we blame Russia for getting him elected, conveniently relieving ourselves of any responsibility for our choices and those of our neighbors.  The rationalizations never end.  A chorus of “The devil made me do it” was heard right before the downfall.  Why repeat the mistake?

We stand on the knife edge of elections to determine the balance of power in Washington and the future of our country.  To our credit, we know what is at stake and everyone is fighting to achieve their vision of the proper method of child sacrifice, be it socialism or fascism.

Meanwhile in Israel, a people have been dispossessed of their land and rendered powerless.  They have been abandoned by previous allies.  Yet they demonize freedom and equality, even though those are the only things that can save them.  Fortunately at some point they will have nothing left to lose, and can despondently join us in the Garden.  This is the only way to avert a massacre at the Tree of Life.

This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live. – Deut 30:19

3 thoughts on “Back to the Garden”

  1. You have not earned your freedom. You are far too willing to rest on the backs of slaves. This is why you remain tilled to the ground, in what is clearly no paradise. You are as guilty as they who reaped benefits while spitting on the weak they oppress through many hypocrisies. Few are free of the weight. How you speak words you do not know. It is good to seek, however; may you work harder.

  2. A person online gave me a different definition of holy: free from sin. I agree. So here is my new definition of holy: free from sin AND you don’t have to work. (Yes G_d was holy when he toiled to create the world. Because he didn’t have to.)

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