The Shofar Calls on our Moral Conscience

Without consciousness
we’d all be sociopaths.
I claim this because all decisions made
without it
might be morally mistaken,
since any we might make while choosing
moral paths
could not be by what I call conscience,
or our consciousness,
be taken.

Paths taken while we act unguided by it are
as likely to be morally as incorrect
as ones that we from anyone
who has no conscience
might expect.
By creating what becomes our conscience,
unconsciousness
deserves respect
for its power to prevent us from
the moral path to deviate and
defect.

Matspun, the Hebrew word for conscience
signifies
unconsciousness,
its root
denoting “hidden,” like the meaning of
sounds of shofars Jews every Rosh Hashanah
toot.

In “Pope Francis Is Turning Certainty on Its Head,” NYT, 9/19/24, David French writes:

Pope Francis made two comments last week that touched off a tempest in Christendom.

First, during an interreligious meeting at Catholic Junior College in Singapore, he said that religions are “like different languages in order to arrive at God, but God is God for all. And if God is God for all, then we are all sons and daughters of God.” ….

The idea that we are sons and daughters of God is basic Christian doctrine. He is the creator, and we are his creation. But the pope’s statements go farther than simply recognizing God’s sovereignty. He indicated that other faiths can reach God as well. “But,” he continued, “‘my God is more important than your God!’ Is that true? There’s only one God, and each of us has a language, so to speak, in order to arrive at God.”

Then, in a news conference on his flight home, he addressed the American presidential election and criticized both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. “Both are against life,” the pope said, Harris because of her stance on abortion and Trump because of his stance on immigration. Pope Francis would not choose between them. Instead, he said, “Which is the lesser evil? That lady or that gentleman? I don’t know. Each person must think and decide according to his or her own conscience.”