Dear Friends,
Like many of you, my in-box is regularly stuffed with emails. Given my line of work, much of mine is from religious leaders of different denominations. Lately, not surprisingly, much of what I'm reading has to do with the upcoming election. Lots and lots of religious leaders are wondering:
What kind of prayer should we recite for our nation during this upcoming weekend?
As those of you who were in shul on Yom Kippur can recall, it isn't clear to me that one and only one prayer could ever suffice. Each of us needs to search deeply within ourselves to discern our concerns and our hopes for our nation. (Click
here to listen to how we prayed for our country during services on Yom Kippur, culminating in the singing of
America the Beautiful.
)
Asking the question, "What prayer should we recite before an election?" raises several serious questions: What's prayer got to do with it? What's God got to do with it? What's religious language in general, or Judaism in particular, got to do with the choices each of us have made or will make to determine who will be the
shoftim v'shotrim
, the elected and appointed officials of our communities and our nation?
I am a big believer in the separation of church and state, so I'm not comfortable when people try to enlist God on their side to wage a political struggle. We want to keep God out of our political life, don't we? After all, different religious traditions understand God differently, which leads to different understandings of what is proper behavior. It's one thing for our religious faith to inform our approach to politics; it's quite another to seek to use political power in a democracy to coerce others to behave according to our religious beliefs.
Moreover, invoking God at a time like this raises all sorts of theological questions. It is parochial and presumptuous to pray to God to ask for specific outcomes in this world, especially when it's a case of "us" versus "them." Such prayers are known in Hebrew as
bakashot
, or "petitions." There is, of course, a place for them in our spiritual life, but bakashot are not as central as they are in other religious traditions. In our tradition,
shevach
("praise") and
hoda'ah
(thanksgiving), which arise out of an appreciation for the miracles that daily attend us -- the fact that we live in a habitable world, that we have lived to see another day, that people can and do devote their lives to helping one another, etc. -- are what we strive to focus on in our prayer life.
Nonetheless, as I mentioned in my previous letter to the congregation, this is a time of high anxiety in our country. Many people are more concerned than they've ever been about the outcome of an election. To add to the woes I discussed previously, we Americans are actually losing sleep over this! (See the recent
Wall Street Journal
article on this phenomenon, accessible
here
.)
This is one place where prayer can be helpful. Articulating our worthy hopes and aspirations can be calming and therapeutic.
Indeed, they can be more than that. A properly composed prayer is more than a balm; it can help us see more clearly. It can remind us of the values we hold dear which, after all, should inform our behavior. It can help us to realize our responsibilities, and goad us to act constructively in the world.
It can inspire us.
And that may help us to sleep better.
And so, I'd like to present a few prayers for your review. The
first comes from what might seem an unlikely source: the Episcopal Bishops of Massachusetts. Although some of its language may seem foreign, you may find yourself resonating with some of the sentiments of the following prayer:
As our nation approaches its Election Day on Nov. 8, we have a deep yearning for the Holy Spirit to be present in our national life. Individually, we express this yearning in a variety of ways according to personal conscience. Collectively, we are called to express this yearning through prayer.
We must pray that God be at work in our electoral process. We must pray for a peaceful transition, no matter the outcome of our elections. We must pray that the demonization of one another's opponents which has characterized this election not be further stoked by its outcome. We must pray that all those elected on that day be moved, strengthened and guided by the Spirit, to lead us through fractious and dangerous times. We must pray in gratitude for those who, with sacrifice of self and noble intent, step up to lead our common life.
The
second selection is a "Meditation on Voting" distributed by T'ruah, formerly known as Rabbis for Human Rights. It is available
here.
The
third selection is a revision of yet another Jewish prayer, this one written by Rabbi David Seidenberg, a colleague in western Massachusetts. It is accessible by clicking
here.
Let me conclude by reminding everyone that Shabbat is coming. (There, that feels better already, right?) We'll gather for Kabbalat Shabbat services tonight at 6:15 pm, and then again for Shaharit tomorrow morning at 9:15 am. Tomorrow will be the first of our
Shabbat b'Yachad programs, starting at 10:00 am. Many thanks to Alisa Levine, our Educational Director, for organizing this. All of our kids are warmly invited to join us for services at that time. There will be special children's programming for them during the morning -- and rumors have it that ice cream will be served during Kiddush for those in the appropriate age demographic.
Let me wish everyone a peaceful and restorative Shabbat. Shabbat is a day on which it's proper to try not to be concerned with one's own troubles and travails. But it's not a day on which to ignore the problems of the world. On the contrary, Shabbat should be a day of discernment, when we explore what the Torah has to teach us about how to live our lives today. Tomorrow, we'll be reading from "Noah," the second parashah in Genesis.
Here's a link to the study sheet we'll be using. We'll be examining Noah's biography and discussing what lessons we might learn about the challenges of the world we live in -- and who might be up to the task of dealing with them. Come join us!
Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Carl M. Perkins
