There are many issues facing the United States this day. I have already voted. Simon and Sarah have as well. I spoke about the election last Friday at synagogue. While I have a strongly held position, it is not appropriate for me as a rabbi to state what that is from the bimah. I can say this. The election is very close. We have been granted a constitutional right to vote. In the beginning of this country, had I lived in Chelmsford in the 1600s, I could not have voted, I am neither male, Christian, nor a landowner. We have come very far. Jews have been praying for their secular leaders since Jeremiah’s day. “Thus said the Lord of Hosts, the G-d of Israel, to the whole community which I exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters. And seek the welfare of the city to while I exiled you and pray to the Lord in its behalf; for in its prosperity you shall prosper.” (Jeremiah 29:4-7). Some have said that it means to pray for peace, because if the country we live in knows peace we will know peace.

There are several examples of praying for non-Jewish kings throughout the Talmud. Avot 3:2, Avodah Zarah 4a tell us that “Rabbi Hananya the Deputy High Priest says, :Pray for the welfare of the Kingdom (Rome) for were it not for the fear of it, a man would swallow his neighbor alive.” Yoma 60a contains an argument that Alexander the Great should give the Israelites back the Temple in Jerusalem because, “Is it possible that a House in which we pray for you and your kingdom that it should be destroyed?!” After the destruction of the Temple, Jews continued to pray for their secular leaders wherever they were. In the fourteenth century, the Kol Bo in Provence says that on Shabbat after the Haftarah “there are places where they bless the king and then the congregation all according to custom.” In Sefer Abudraham Hashalem (Spain 1340) that after reading the Torah on weekdays, “it is customary to bless the king, at he and to pray to G-d that He help him and strengthen him against his enemies.” He used the Jeremiah and the Avot text to justify this custom. In the 15th century the Jews of Aragon prayed, “He who blessed Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, may he bless, guard protect and help our Lord King Don Fernando. May the King of Kings put in his heart and in the heart of all his advisors mercy to do good to us and to the entire House of Israel and let us say, Amen.”

This early prayer for our country is in the collection of the National Museum of American Jewish History.

Early in American Jewish history, we began praying for our rulers. According to Sarna, the language of Hanoten Teshua was first published in English in New York in 1760, praying for King George the Second as well as American ruler and officials. In 1782 after Independence, the prayer used in Philadelphia included prayers for the President and Congress. The one fascinates me the most is the prayer from the Richmond congregation in 1789 on the ratification of the Constitution. It is an acrostic that spells out Washington’s name. It is an example of beautiful calligraphy and says in part,
We beseech thee O Lord to have the President of the United State…and all US Senators and Representatives…grant them such a share of knowledge that will tend to the happiness of the people…that they may wisely and successfully execute the trust committed to their care, that knowledge, religion, and piety, arts and sciences, may increase, and that agriculture and manufactures, trade and commerce, may flourish.”

The Reform Movement wrote a translation of the prayer Sim Shalom, “Grant us peace” a favorite in our home as it was my mother’s Confirmation speech and what she read at my daughter’s Sarah’s Bat Mitzvah. It says, “Grant us peace, they most precious gift, O Thou Eternal Source of peace. Bless our country that it may ever be a stronghold of peace and its advocate in the council of nations. May contentment reign within its borders. Health and happiness within its homes. Strengthen the bonds of friendship and fellowship among all the inhabitants of our land. Plant virtue in every soul and may the love of Thy name hallow every home and heart.”

This is not that different from what Louis Ginzberg wrote in the first Conservative prayer book for festivals, that was used up until Siddur Sim Shalom and by the Reconstructionist movement as recently as 1994. The current Siddur Sim Shalom prays for country in a uniquely democratic way (small d). Listen to the language. It stands on the traditions outlined above, on the shoulders of Jeremiah praying for peace, on placement after the haftarah on Shabbat, on the very language itself:ht

“Our G-d and G-d of our ancestors: We ask Your blessings for our country, for tis government, for its leader and advisors, and for all who exercise just and rightful authority. Teach them insights of Your Torah, that they may administer all affairs of state fairly, peace and security, happiness and prosperity, justice and freedom may forever abide in our midst. Creator of all flesh, bless all the inhabitants of our country with Your spirit. May citizens of all races and creeds forge a common bond in true harmony to banish all hatred and bigotry and to safeguard the ideals and free institutions which our the pride and glory of our country. May this land under Your Providence be an influence for good throughout the world, uniting all people in peace and freedom and helping them to fulfill the vision of Your prophet: Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they experience war any more.” Regardless of Jewish stream or movement or political party, there is nothing in these prayers that we cannot agree on. That is important. After this election, it will be important to come together. We ultimately want all the same things. Peace, prosperity, and justice for all. These are American values. These are Jewish values. The devil (yes, Jews have a devil concept, Satan is a Hebrew word, but that is another blog post) is in the details. It is hard work to get to peace, prosperity and justice.

It is important to pray. It is also important to do. Evaluate the candidates carefully. Use your Jewish values to help you pick. Do not limit yourself to one issue. When I look at candidates, I look at a range of issues. I look at how we treat the widow, the orphan, the stranger—the marginalized among us. I look at women’s health issues (and we have heard much about that this year). I look at education—Jews are known as the people of the book. I look at science and technology. I look at being good stewards of this earth; we are commanded to be partners in G-d’s creation. I look at foreign policy. I look at separation of church and state. I look at Israel. I remember Hillel’s words, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?” The time is now. Go vote.

With any luck, by tomorrow the election will be over. We will know who the president is. Then we will need to do exactly what Mitt Romney said last night. Get back to work. Reach across the aisle and make peace. Reach out to the neighbor who has the opposing sign on their lawn. The country remains divided—Dixville Notch (yes, I stayed up to watch!) tells us that. Tomorrow there will be no more political ads, no more fact checking and heated rhetoric. We will need to focus on rebuilding and restoring civil discourse. In the meantime, participate in this great democracy. Not everyone in this world has this right.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow the director of the Shalom Center sent this prayer out this morning.

Let us pray:

You Who are the Interbreathing Spirit of the World,
Who intertwines the workers who build a road with the business-owners who depend upon it;
Who intertwines the youth despairing at being forever disemployed with the home-owner despoiled and wounded by his drugged and weaponed neighbor;
Who intertwines the followers of Abraham with all our fear and longing for each other;
Who intertwines the oil gushing from a broken well with pelicans and shrimp and fisher-folk who live upon the shore;
Who intertwines those who advertise a luxury oil-burning automobile with the overheated oceans on the edges of a major city;
Who intertwines the corn fields withering in Iowa with starving children in deepest Africa:
Who intertwines the teachers who can shape a child into a wise and worthy citizen, with the politicians who will seek her vote.
As we decide today upon our future,
upon the futures of our children and their children,
upon the future of all humanity,
upon the future of all life upon our glorious planet —
Breathe into us today the wisdom to shape our breath with tongues and lips into the words we humans share to hear and learn each other;
Breathe into us the wisdom to shape and share our words so that they aim toward even deeper wisdom;
Breathe into us the wisdom to hear not with our ears alone but with our hearts and wombs;
Breathe into us the wisdom to weave upon the edges of our selves the threads of connection that bind us to You and to all life;
Breathe into our minds and hearts and souls the wisdom to wisely use our hands in casting votes;
Breathe into us the truthfulness that our hands count what our eyes see.
Today of all days, as we wake up, help us awake beyond our waking.
For You are our Breath, our Wind, our Spirit, and we are Your breath, Your wind, Your spirit.
And let us say, Ahmeyn, Ahmin, Aymen.