I have been making these posts for almost a decade now. When I open WordPress, it defaults to its statistics page, where I am somewhat painfully reminded, that despite my ruminations, confessions, and philosophizing, almost nobody will be reading this.
Part of me figures why bother, but another part, an odd mix of ego, hubris, and, most importantly generosity, wants to share these ideas with the future. Art is always a gift to the future, and generally made with a little prayer that it will also find a place in another humans’ heart, become another connection between the nodes of the network that compose the ever-expanding evolution of our collective intelligence and soul.
In Judaism, one earns their place among the blessed not by a declaration of faith, but by good deeds: mitzvah. Sadly, for the most observant, mitzvot are not judged by intent or outcome, but simply by following the detailed procedures of the laws as laid down in the torah and talmud. But some reformed and conservative rabbis take a more humanistic approach, and imagine acts like the tahara, the ritual washing of a corpse, as a higher more worthy mitzvah, in that its recipient cannot reciprocate, making corruption of a good deed by self interest less problematic, even tho it may only be an act of virtue signaling.
But of course any gift always reflects on us and our own reputation. We cannot split these soldiers among the legion from which our selves are composed. They march as a cohort, making our pride and joy in the selflessness of the gift inseparable from our vanity over choosing a gift that is most cherished by the recipient.
The gifting of Holly Days is blown up from the more meager of Christmas and Hanukkah, with a full 12 days of gifting, continuing both before and after other holidays. Generosity lives here in the hearts and egos of both the giver and given, naughty with pride and vanity, and nice with selflessness and benevolence. And isn’t that ever so, with purity nothing but an idealistic construct, with no real existence except as a limit toward which all things material may only approach.
And of course, all this navel gazing is just the same, at once arrogant and generous; undertaken in solitude for strictly personal and selfish motives, but still laid out to you, hypothetical reader, as a gift that the writer sincerely hopes will delight, enrich, or expand you.
Please, let us all try, as I have so arrogantly done with the construction of these Holly Days, to generously work to perfect the universe. Not dent it as Steve Jobs’ hubris liked to imagine, but let us try to fill its dents with bondo, sand them smooth and match their paint so that, despite its underlying flaws, the universe, and especially we humans as a component of it, become all the more beautiful, durable. and sublime.
Happy Generosity and Happy
HOLLY DAYS 