I have been ruminating for some time about courage and the lack of it in our world today. I began this thought while listening to my Rabbi’s sermon on Yom Kippur. He has a strong personal and familial connection to Israel as do many of us. Yet, he decided to use the most attended service of the year to express his dismay over what was happening to the people of Gaza. He was profoundly disturbed by what Israel was doing without being blind to the horrors perpetrated by Hamas.

It was a courageous thing to do. He was speaking to the congregation full of Jews who are connected to Israel in many ways. These same people decide who their rabbi will be and he spoke his heart to them understanding the personal risk he was taking. That was courageous.

Contrast that with the cowering by elected leaders who fear they may not be reelected if they stray far from the prescribed party script, particularly those who watch Trump do things that they know are wrong but fear his anger more than their own guilty conscience. These people have no courage and deserve our disdain.

Perhaps as the walls around Trump begin to crack some will summon up heretofore hidden courage to speak out. Who would have thought that it would be Marjorie Taylor Greene to point out that the Emperor has no clothes?