If there is one thread that seems to tie the entire Jewish experience together it is the hope that someday things will get better.
For much of our history, that hope was placed on the shoulders of a future savior called the “anointed one,” the “mashiach,” the messiah. The sheer weight of Jewish suffering and fear for the future guaranteed that generation after generation would seek such a man. Even one of the most rational of medieval rabbis, the Rambam (a.k.a., Maimonides) himself, included this passage in his “Thirteen Articles of Faith”:
I believe with a perfect faith in the coming of the messiah and though he may tarry, I still believe.
Belief in the messiah is not the only way Jews have expressed hope for humanity’s future. In their earliest enumeration of beliefs, a newly emerging Reform movement issued this proclamation as part of their 1885 platform:
We recognize, in the modern era of universal culture of heart and intellect, the approaching of the realization of Israel's great Messianic hope for the establishment of the kingdom of truth, justice, and peace among all men.
This was a big step toward promoting human empowerment in place of a messiah. But followed as it was by a couple of world wars and more, it was a little too lofty, falling short on the “how-to” portion of the exercise.
As Humanistic Jews, we’ve come to believe that statements of hope are not enough. Betrayed by fantasies of both flesh and blood messiahs and imagined eras of “universal” anything, we decided that the only way to get from here to there is through hard work. This is what Rabbi Wine meant when he wrote:
Hope is an act of will,
affirming, in the presence of evil,
that good things will happen,
preferring in the face of failure, self-esteem to pity.
I choose to understand “self-esteem” as the realization of exclusive human empowerment. We are our messiahs.
The past four years have been historically horrible times in this country. Much of it was the result of our fellow Americans’ support for bringing “the presence of evil” into our daily lives. From the scalding racism and empowerment of white supremacy to the xenophobia that climaxed with family separations to the complete and utter rejection of science that helped usher 400,000 Americans to their graves, we’ve been living in a daily nightmare. What wasn’t nefarious was mendacious or carelessly nonchalant. This is what we empowered ourselves to overturn.
November’s election was not about policy. No one can convince me that a coalition that included William Kristol and Angela Davis was about policy differences with the other side. This election transcended that entirely. It was about ending a bottomless bedlam of autocratic-rule-by-personality-cult. It was about restoring our democracy.
Together, facing a high degree of difficulty, we managed to validate Rabbi Wine’s understanding of hope, that it is “never found, never given, always taken.” We succeeded well enough to earn a deep breath of relief and a few moments to celebrate victory before getting back to work.
When we do get to work, we have great damage to undo. So many remain in need. So many still suffer. Our nation has been bowed to the point of almost breaking by a vicious virus that met a malicious administration. And even as all of that was going on, our constitutional principles were threatened as never before in the modern era. We are the first generation in over 150 years to stand in horror as — to evoke President Lincoln — our nation of, by, and for the People nearly perished from the face of the earth. Not through the plans of enemies abroad, but at the hands of our own people.
Now at last we stand at the dawn of a new hope. It is hope that we created and to which we must hold on for dear life as we embark on the new journey lying before us.
I believe — though with a somewhat imperfect faith — we are up to the task.
