May the Lord . . . strike the loins of those who rise up against him and his enemies, so that they will not recover."
Once in the Chicago airport, I took a picture of myself
in front of the Nuts on Clark store, under their sign
which read “Hot Nuts.”
I sent it to my nine year old, who is now a twelve year old,
because I knew he would delight in this image
at least as much as I did. This reference has been
an ongoing source of joy in our relationship.
Whenever I’m lucky enough to travel anywhere
he’ll ask me upon my return did you get some hot nuts?
and we’ll laugh about this all the way to the bank
which doesn’t mean anything since we do our banking
online and, frankly, he doesn’t even know what banking is.
So you can imagine my delight when I saw the holy text
in which Moses tells the people that God will strike
our enemies in the loins. It’s kind of nuts.
I’d like to provide a list of enemies who deserve this.
Most of them I know by name but have never been
in the same room with. People famous for tearing the world apart
for sowing division, for denying science, for swaggering around
in armored cars while hundreds of thousands die.
These are the enemies who have risen up
who deserve the Holy One up in their front.
so that they will not recover.
As we come to the end of our story –
Just a few more pages to go before we read
the whole thing again. Let these blessings and curses
guide the actions of our elected enemies.
We’ve got all the right protective gear on
as me, and my son, and everyone we’ve ever known
walk into the Promised Land.