Every week we read a responsive prayer for peace after the Torah and Haftarah reading. It includes a line from the prophet Amos. “Let justice roll down like water, and righteousness as a mighty stream.” Every week I hear this in Martin Luther King’s deep, well measured preacher’s voice. It was part of his last speech, when he said “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!” We have been a long journey as we get ever closer to Yom Kippur, ever closer to the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Martin Luther King had a dream. In 2013 my dream would be similar to King’s. He had a dream that “this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed, “We hold these truths to be self –evident. That all men are created equal.” I would include women in that promise. We have a way to go for the dream to be fulfilled for blacks, Hispanics, immigrants and women. He had a dream that included the ability for sons of former slave and sons of former slave owners would be able to sit down together at a table.” Some of that dream has been accomplished. No matter what your politics it is thrilling that there is an African American in the White House. That his entertaining included a beer with a black Harvard professor and the arresting white police officer does show some progress. However, racial profiling is still rampant, in border states like Arizona and even in places like Hudson, New Hampshire. We live in a country where black men (and young boys) are afraid to walk down the street. He had a dream that his little girls would be judged not by the color of their skin but by their character. I do not think we have achieved that goal. He had a dream like Isaiah’s dream that every valley shall be exalted and every hill and mountain be made low. The rough places will be made plain and the crooked places be made straight. While I see this as poetic, King saw this as real. G-d is real. He added, “This is our hope.” He lived his life through faith, drawing on the theology of Moses and the prophets to bring Americans hope. With his faith he would be able to “hew out of a mountain of despair a stone of hope.” One of the names of G-d is “Tzur Yisrael,” the Rock of Israel. This Rock, hewn out of stone is what brought King hope. It is what gives me hope and courage. He knew the road would be difficult. It was. It continues to be. But through that faith, hope and courage, the nation could achieve his dream to “work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.” We are not yet there. Progress has been made since the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act were signed on the Religious Action Center desk. This is a nation that still discriminates. Where our justice system is not fair, where the scales of justice are not balanced. Where children, black children and white children, one out of four, still go to bed hungry. Where one out of four women are still sexually abused. Where not everyone has access to excellent medical care, to the best universities or to jobs when they are finished with school. I dream of a day when some of these issues are eradicated.

As a child I remember fondly going to peace rallies in Evanston and being part of the political process. I remember when my mother ran for park commissioner and almost got stabbed by someone from the John Birch Society. I remember when the KKK tried to come to Skokie. It was during those turbulent times that I got my start in social action. Not in a synagogue but out marching. Heschel said of marching with King that his feet were praying.  There is much work left to be done.

King understood G-d’s Thirteen Attributes. He understood the power of a dream and the reality of a vision. He understood the connection between the Biblical prophets and the quest for justice. Justice is one of G-d attributes. Working for justice is emulating G-d, doing G-d’s work here on earth. King joined a long line of dreamers—Jacob, Joseph, Moses, the prophets. As he himself pointed out so eloquently in that last speech. “Ours is not to finish the task. Neither are we free to ignore it.” What are your dreams, your visions for the new year or for this country? How can you help to make them real?