Let the light of freedom shine brightly

I want to share with you a story about the Chazon Ish, a Belarusian then Israeli Haredi Rabbi, followed by a responsum—a Jewish legal response—from Rabbi Moshe Feinstein z’l, one of the greatest Jewish legal authorities of the 20^th century. 

On Election Day, the Chazon Ish met a Jew he knew on the street and asked, “Did you vote yet?” “No.” “Well, why not?” The answer? “I don’t have the three Israeli pounds to pay the poll tax.” This was before the New Israeli Shekel. The Chazon Ish did not give up. “Do you own a pair of tefillin? (the black leather straps and boxes with sacred text inside that Jews traditionally wear during weekday prayer).” “Of course!” answered the Jew. “Well, go and sell your t’fillin and use the funds to pay the poll tax so you can go and vote,” the Chazon Ish said. He would  later explain to a colleague that wearing t’fillin may be a mitzvah, but so is voting in an election. He said, “I’m not worried that this Jew will not be putting on t’fillin. If need be, he’ll borrow a pair. I’m afraid that he won’t perform this other mitzvah of voting in the election.”

And while one can say, well, that’s Israel, the holy land, of course it’s a mitzvah, we turn to Rabbi Feinstein, who wrote in 1984,

On reaching the shores of the United States; Jews found a safe haven. The rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights have allowed us the freedom to practice our religion without interference and to live in this republic in safety.

A fundamental principle of Judaism is hakaras hatov — recognizing benefits afforded us and giving expression to our appreciation. Therefore, it is incumbent upon each Jewish citizen to participate in the democratic system which safeguards the freedoms we enjoy. The most fundamental responsibility incumbent on each individual is to register and to vote.

Therefore, I urge all members of the Jewish community to fulfill their obligations by registering as soon as possible and by voting. By this, we can express our appreciation and contribute to the continued security of our community.

We Jewish Americans, we value good government. We hold sacred the basis for this nation, a nation that protects and cares for its citizens, a stable government where justice reigns supreme, where we make heard the voice of every citizen, through petition, through expression, and through voting. We hold that all people are created equal, b’tzelem elohim, in the image of God, and we work so that each of us can pursue life, liberty, and happiness, where we may sit under our vines and fig trees, with none afraid. These values, values at the foundation of this nation, codified in the Constitution to which our leaders have taken an oath, are Jewish values as well. They are sacred, and they paint an ideal for a society envisioned by our prophets. One of the values that is most essential, so that the rest can happen, is democracy. 

This Wednesday, I like so many of you, was glued to the news in shock, horror, and disbelief as I witnessed a complete desecration of this most sacred institution of democracy. I was stunned by one of the largest efforts in our civil history at tearing down our very system of government. So many with a complete disregard for this nation’s legal backbone and its law-makers, so many exhibiting the behavior and dress of racism and anti-semitism.

This week, we in America and all throughout the world witnessed insurrection and sedition.

And to be clear, what we did not witness was a protest at a violation of civil or human rights. What we witnessed was a violent mob interrupting congressional leaders working to certify the results of the Electoral College and an attempt to bring down efforts to complete a fair electoral process that would result in a peaceful transfer of power, as we have been doing since that first transition of power after George Washington’s tenure. This was nothing short of a full on desecration of the American endeavor.

As Jewish Americans, we stand with the Democratic and Republican leaders, who engaged in their oath-bound duties to support the will of the American people, and who were forced to flee for their safety, hiding under their desks next to armed guards with guns drawn and who then worked through the night to ensure that the democratic process would prevail. We stand with those who understand that part of this democratic process is in fact disagreement, as long as we are disagreeing for the sake of something bigger than us. We stand with those who understand that there are laws and they must be followed, or amended by agreed upon processes, that our leaders serve their whole people, not democrat or republican, rich or poor, Jewish or Christian or Muslim, of color or white, but all, and that their job is to ensure that we can all live in safety and freedom. We stand with those who look to build and uphold the sacred, and we stand in full opposition to those who will desecrate, who hate, who hurt, who seek to destroy.

True are the words of the prophet Jeremiah, who speaking to us at the start of our exile in Babylon, said, “Seek the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you and pray to God on its behalf, for in its prosperity you shall prosper” (Jer 29:5-7). In the success of this place in which we find ourselves, we will thrive, and in its failure, well, we know exactly what we’ll encounter.

How fitting is it that this week we find ourselves in Parashat Sh’mot, at the beginning of Exodus. A new Pharaoh arose in Egypt who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, look, the Israelite people are too numerous. Let us deal shrewdly with this people, this fifth column, these people who are not us, lest they turn against us and rise up. Lest they replace us. And so, not just Pharoah, but as the text says, “they,” the Egyptians set taskmasters over them. And they ruthlessly oppressed.

We remember Egypt. We remember a society that worshipped power, that treated certain human beings like gods and the rest like property. We remember subjugation and degradation and treading on the weak. We are commanded to remember, so that we’ll know where we’ve come from, and to where we must be headed. And we must be headed to Sinai, where we receive Torah, where we receive liberation and a paradigm shift, recognizing that redemption only comes in each and every human being, like those of us at Sinai, being raised up, as human beings made in the image of God. 

Rabbi Yitz Greenberg writes in commentary this week,

The book of Exodus starts by having us taste the bitterness of servitude, genocide, and despair. Week by week, the Torah portion takes us through the process of breaking the slave masters’ power and undermining the fixity and authority of their moral-cultural regime. Thus the Torah brings the past into the present to guide our behavior. The Exodus account orients us away from absolutizing the local norms, but instead  upgrading our behaviors to meet the standards of the ultimate Exodus and the Messianic norms of the future.

To be Jewish, to accept the freedom to which God took us from slavery, is to engage the world around us in order to carry the multitudes with us out of Egypt, to that promised land. It is to bring our best selves forward, and to listen to and support each other in this work. 

This means that being Jewish means engaging as best as we can in, and working for the ideals of this nation and its democratic process. 

All those who engage in behavior as we witnessed this week, whether through direct action or incitement, whether in the highest office or a regular citizen, they are the embodiment of Egypt and Pharaoh. Their behavior—their desecration—is anathema to what we stand for as Americans and Jews. 

But those who work tirelessly on behalf of others, to raise the voices of all they are sworn to represent, those who work for a higher purpose, these are the people following the path set out for us in Exodus, these are those who honor this nation and its task of being that shining beacon on the hill. 

I call to mind the words of President George Washington to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport: 

….the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants, while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig-tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.

May the Father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and, in his own due time and way, everlastingly happy.

It is this vision of America to which I hold fast. It is this vision of America to which I took an oath of citizenship, to which all our ancestors, at some generation or another, took an oath. This is the vision of America for which we must labor and engage, even if it means selling that t’fillin. 

We were redeemed so that we might bring redemption to all. Here in America, that means supporting the great American endeavor, to bring good life to those living within its borders, while guiding the nations of the world to do the same. We were redeemed so that we could continue to uphold, protect, and build up any place that we call home. Anything less is a relinquishing of our sacred responsibility. Anything less is desecration. 

May we work to make sure that nothing like this week ever happens again, but rather, that we and our leaders, honor and fulfill our legal obligations, engage in constructive and respectful discourse, and work for a shared destiny and the common good.

Let us pray these words of poet Alden Solovy

Source and Shelter,

Grant safety and security

To the people and democracy of the United States of America.

Protect us from violence, rebellion, intimidation,

And attempts to seize our government.

Save us from domestic terror.

Save us from leaders who cannot say no to attacks

On our legacy and our future.

God of nations and history,

Let truth and justice resound

To the four corners of the earth.

Let the light of freedom

Shine brightly in the halls of power,

As a beacon of hope

For every land and every people.