This week, so many among us are deeply upset and concerned by the results of the national election. While some folks may be pleased by the outcome and celebrating, it is hard for many of us to understand how so many of our fellow Americans could not see what seems so obvious to us and seemingly voted against their own best interests. The post-election interviews of voters are astonishing and revealing. So many people when asked, it seems, were well-aware of all the bad things they knew about the president-elect, all of the criminal acts, the indictments, the impeachments, the outrageous lies and coarse and divisive language he had used throughout the campaign. They were prepared to discount all of that – it’s just talk - and to believe that all of their concerns, mainly with the economy, will be solved by a new administration. Good luck to them on that. Those who believed in the message of the Vice President and were filled with hope for her electoral victory, are now uncertain of the future and looking for words of hope.
In her concession speech on Wednesday, Vice President Harris concluded with words of hope for the future. She shared an adage which reminded her listeners that only when it’s dark enough can you see stars. “If it is,” she said, “let us fill the sky with the brilliant, brilliant billions of stars. The light of optimism, of faith, of truth and service.”
In a post this week on Parashat Hashavua, the weekly Torah reading, Lech L’cha, my well-known Reform colleague, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, senior rabbi at New York’s Central Synagogue, also spoke of stars. She reminds us of Abraham’s concerns for the future. He has obeyed God’s command to go forth from his homeland, his birthplace, and his father’s house to the land that God would show him. God had promised great things to him, a multitude of descendants, great blessings and yet, he and Sarah remain childless. More than twenty years have passed since they left their homeland to follow the Lord, and they have undergone trial after trial. Where are the blessings promised? What happened to that multitude of children numbering more than the grains of sand on the shore? Rabbi Buchdahl points out that God’s response to Abraham is simply to instruct him to go out and “Look toward heaven and count the stars.” Years later the Psalmist will put into words this majestic view: “When I behold Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and stars that You set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, that You have made him little less than divine?”
Rabbi Buchdahl suggests that God wants Abraham to feel inspiration and awe by going outside and looking heavenward. It is only then, she notes, that the Torah tells us that Abraham put his trust in the Lord. He was reassured and filled with hope. She reminds us that the initial charge to Abraham was not actually a blessing that God bestowed upon him. Rather he was instructed to “Be a blessing.” This has always been our charge. If you expect blessings, you need to go out and be the blessing yourself to the world around you. Blessings only come through action, commitment to do good in the world.
This is the challenge for us all as well. We were reminded of this charge, of our mission to the world, in a small, but important way, by the folks of New Hope Church who have been sharing our building over the past few months. They invited us to join them in a project with the local Food Bank, to provide groceries for people in the community at a drive-through in our parking lot. Some of us from both congregations went over to the Food Bank on Friday and helped fill over 120 boxes with grocery items and stack them on pallets in preparation for Sunday afternoon’s distribution. On Sunday, other volunteers from both communities came out in the rainy weather to load those same boxes and other, more perishable items into people’s cars. This was a simple act. It was what our tradition calls gemilut chasadim, an act of lovingkindness. It was not a tremendous deal. We don’t need accolades or medals, but it was a small step in the right direction encouraging us to do more.
In Pirke Avot, we are told that the world stands on three things, on Torah, on divine worship, and on acts of kindness. Joining with our friends at New Hope in this project was a reminder to us that study of sacred texts and offering of thoughts and prayers as meaningful as we may find them, is not sufficient. We need to go out and look to the stars and actually act on those teachings and prayers, those good intentions, “to live the words we pray.” Those of us who may be inclined to despair after a disappointing election, are challenged to go out and do the good we had hoped for, to look to the stars, to gain inspiration, and to act l’takein olam b’malchut Shaddai, as we say at the end of every service, we need to repair the world, our country, our community, under the sovereignty of the Almighty. Lifting a few boxes, delivering some groceries, will not bring about redemption, but it is a first step and one hopes we might find inspiration in the stars to take additional steps and to become a blessing in our community, through further acts of lovingkindness.
It is important, however, to recognize that such acts are not red or blue acts, they are not political statements. Those who celebrate the victory of their candidate should also be looking at the stars and discouraging the baser instincts expressed so crudely in the rhetoric we heard during the campaign. If they truly believe that that was just talk, then they need to work on elevating the conversation, on ending the attacks on those who may be different from them and truly uniting the country behind its traditional values, as “one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” As Robert Fulghum put it, it is just one more thing we need to know that we learned back in kindergarten..
In our tradition, there is a ritual that many of us may be unfamiliar with that some congregations practice, of going outside early each month after Shabbat ends, and looking to the heavens. It is called Kiddush Levanah, sanctifying the moon. Certain prayers are recited, a few dance steps are called for, and one turns to one’s neighbor and says, “Shalom Aleichem,””Peace be upon you.” The neighbor then responds, “Aleichem Shalom,” “And upon you may there be peace.” Let us all look to the stars, let us go out into the world and do good, and let us turn to our neighbors regardless of their politics and extend our hand and wish them peace.
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