Of course, we know that tomorrow and Wednesday, with the Congress out of session because of the Jewish holiday, the markets will calm down.  So the thought of Congress taking another vote on today's or a revised proposal before Thursday would not occur to anyone as an action which might conceivably help to stabilize the situation.

But, on the off chance that the markets don't calm down, but instead continue to nosedive, have Pelosi and Reid categorically ruled out any possibility of calling Congress back into session to vote on either the same or a revised package?  

Am I the only Jewish American who is not so sure that is the right thing to do under the circumstances?

It should take a fairly extraordinary set of circumstances for there to be any possibility of calling Congress back into session when it was scheduled to be out of session for the Jewish New Year, or any other scheduled recess due to the observance of a religious holiday.

Well.  It seems to me as though another huge dive in the markets tomorrow might qualify as such an emergency.

Some might say, "Would they call Congress into session on Christmas day in a true emergency?"

I don't know.  Perhaps not.  But the Jewish New Year is not to Jews what Christmas is to Christians.

I come from the Reform Jewish tradition, the least formal regarding norms of adherence to ritual.  I know there are many Reform rabbis who, if a member of Congress approached them privately to seek their guidance on whether it would be permissible to not attend religious services in order to attend to pressing national business, would not hesitate to say yes.  Some might even say the member should do so.  

I believe, but may be incorrect on this, that there are Orthodox rabbis who would say this is not permissible for a Jew striving to be observant. 

I am sure there are Jews who frequent this site from the Conservative and Reconstructionist Jewish traditions who are well able to share the wisdom of these faith traditions as applied to this situation.

Trying to put myself in the place of a voter, if my Representative or Senator were Jewish and had a history of observing the holiday, I would like to think I would not take the member's observance of the holiday under these circumstances as a reason to vote against them in the next election.  This is, after all, a matter of individual conscience. 

There are practical questions were Pelosi and Reid to consider calling Congress back into session tomorrow or Wednesday.  If they believed that the absence of those members committed not to return until Thursday (from among both the 13 Jewish Senators and the 30 Jewish members of the House and non-Jewish members who have made plans to be back in their states or districts or elsewhere because the break was scheduled long ago) meant a bill could not pass, there would be no reason to call Congress back into session before then.

IF, and we can hope it doesn't come to this, but if the market starts heading far south, fast, tomorrow, I imagine there is going to be increasing pressure from citizens urging their members to do something.  

It seems possible that might cause some who voted no today to vote yes on a revote on the same proposal.  Or, some minor change(s) might be made to today's bill to try to give anxious members a way to say they didn't simply vote no and then yes to the identical bill within 24 or 48 hours in the face of constituent sentiment (heaven forbid they do something like that).   

I don't think I am paranoid or exaggerate the extent to which some of my fellow citizens do not particularly care for Jews, or, if they have never actually met someone they knew to be Jewish, what they perceive "Jewish people to be like." 

Still, if things go badly tomorrow and/or Wednesday in the markets, some may wonder whether Congress' unwillingness to consider coming back into session before Thursday to take action on account of a prior decision to shut down for the Jewish holiday was really necessary or the right thing to do under the circumstances. 

I can imagine some having thoughts along the lines of: "Well, the country is going to hell in a handbasket.  But Congress couldn't act because the Jews were celebrating their new year."   And worse than that, of course.

I haven't seen any indication Pelosi or Reid have held open the possibility of calling Congress back should the situation continue to deteriorate rapidly.  So I am pleased to be corrected if they have in fact done so.  I tried reaching someone by phone in Pelosi's office not long ago on the off chance someone might be there who would both be able to get an answer to the question and be available to pick up the phone.  But I got a recording saying they are closed for the day.

So go ahead.  Fire away.  I figure if anyone was going to raise this it had to be a Jew.