The members of my family - locally and in a major city on the eastern seaboard - voted in person. It is our duty as American citizens.
It is, moreover, our responsibility as community members who care about the welfare of other community members, where community can mean our neighborhood, organizations (including religious congregations) to which we belong, our state, our nation and the entire human family.
I have served as a rabbi in six states. I have voted in all of them. I am still a student of the political scenes in every one of those states. I have had the opportunity to meet and, in some cases, to get to know congressional representatives, senators, governors and presidential candidates from both major political parties. Whether we agreed or not, those ties created connections that I valued.
I served on the Kansas State Holocaust Commission for 19 years (most of those years as Commission chair). Leaders of both major political parties shared a concern about educating people of all ages about the tragic events of the Holocaust, so that such cruelty would not happen again. Some values should, in fact, transcend our differences.
One of the most impactful books I have read in recent years was written by Ariel Burger, who served as a teaching assistant at Boston University to Elie Wiesel, a renowned author, humanitarian, Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor. In his book, Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom, Burger offered readers an opportunity to enter into the presence of Wiesel as a moral guide and spiritual mentor.
In one of my favorite passages in the book, Wiesel explained to his students how we can approach each other with respect and empathy: “To be human is to share a common origin. And if we share a common origin, our destinies are entwined. What happens to me will eventually happen to you; what happened to my people is a foreshadowing of what will threaten the world....Therefore the most important biblical commandment is ‘Thou shall not stand idly by the shedding of the blood of thy fellow human being.’ ‘Fellow human being’ is universal. Anyone who is suffering, anyone who is threatened becomes your responsibility. If you can feel this and act with even a little bit more humanity, more sensitivity, as a result, that is the beginning. It is not the end—I do not know how to end hatred, I truly wish I did—but recognizing our shared humanity is a good beginning.”
Hatred, dehumanization, demonization, blaming, bullying, and abuse of power have not disappeared from the human family. The beliefs that one’s view is necessarily better than any other perspective, and that there is no room for other opinions, are still with us.
In contrast, the Talmud, the Jewish compendium of stories and legal discussions of rabbis who lived 1500-2000 years ago, preserved both majority and minority views expressed in their discussions and deliberations. The United States Supreme Court does the same with majority and minority opinions, so as not to lose the insights or wisdom coming from either side
I heard Ariel Burger speak about his book at a conference last December. One of his statements, based on Wiesel’s teachings, stuck with me: “Tragedy does not define us. Our response to tragedy defines us.”
We can properly respond to tragedy and other challenges when we come together based on empathy and a shared sense of responsibility.
That is a lesson for our time.
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