Journey to the Voting Booth

Rabbi Joel Fleekop

Friday, November 3, 2006

This week’s Torah portion, Lech Lecha tells of the first great journey of the Jewish people. Abraham, still known as Abram, is instructed by God, Lech L’cha M’artzecha U’Mimoladetcha U’mbeit Avicha. “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” Abraham does as he is told and in exchange for his obedience is rewarded with promises of a great future for himself and his family.

Abraham’s journey to Canaan was not his last journey and certainly not the last for the Jewish people. The Torah describes trips to Aram, where Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah lived, trips to Egypt where, before the Israelites knew slavery, they repeatedly found food in times of famine, and of course the journey through the desert where Moses and the Israelites found the most precious gift, the gift of Torah.

The Torah concludes with the Israelites preparing to re-enter the land God promised Abraham. But as we know from history, their stay in the land of Israel was to be a brief one.

For most of the past three thousand years Jews have been journeying from one place to another. Along the way there have been, to put it lightly, some difficult times. But things weren’t always bad and almost never were they all bad.

Journeying from one land to another, from literally one side of the globe to the other, Jews developed rich musical, culinary, and literary traditions. Jews succeeded in commerce, the sciences, and medicine. And of course along their many journeys, Jews sustained the religion of their ancestors, adding with each generation and each new land additional layers of holiness and meaning.

The Talmud we study, the foods we eat, and the music to which we both dance and read Torah all bear witness to the Jews experience and success as a diasporic people.

But why is it that the Jews have been able to succeed and thrive in the Diaspora while for other peoples, both ancient and modern, there was no future beyond the borders of their ancestral homeland?

I believe at least part of the answer lies in the words of the ancient prophet Jeremiah. In 586 B.C.E King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem, bringing the Davidic dynasty and the First Jewish Commonwealth to an end. Exiled to Babylonia, separated from the land of Israel for the fist time in more than 500 years, the people sought guidance for living life in the Diaspora.

Conveying the words of God, Jeremiah instructed them “build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there, do not decrease. And seek the peace of the city to which I have exiled you and pray to the Eternal on its behalf; for in its prosperity you shall prosper.”

Jeremiah’s encouragement for the Jews to go on living their lives and building a future, wherever that may be, served the Jews in Babylonia, as well as those living in the wake of other tragedies, very well. Because they refused to surrender hope to misfortune, the Rabbis left behind the embers of the second Temple to create the academy at Yavneh, Jews expelled from Spain established new communities in North Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Americas, and those who survived the Holocaust helped build the State of Israel and equally important, rebuilt their lives, finding love, as did my wive’s grandparents, in displaced persons camps and giving birth to children in strange, new lands.

That Jews have refused to give into hardship is no doubt an important part of their success as a diasporic people, but the end of Jeremiah’s instructions is also important. Jeremiah urges the people to recognize that their future, their prosperity will be linked to that of their new neighbors and so they must concern themselves with the well being of the land in which they dwell, to even pray on its behalf.

There are examples from history of Jews making manifest Jeremiah’s words. Shmuel ibn Naghrela was a military commander and trusted adviser in Muslim Spain.

The great rabbi Moshe Ben Maimon, known to many of us Maimonides or the Rambam, served as court physician in Cairo.

And during the Middle Ages, European Jews provided, at the local leader’s request, the capital necessary for commerce to prosper.

Sadly anti-Semitism and other forces made these examples few and far between. Many of the prayers our ancestors offered on behalf of their ruling governments resembled that offered by Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, “May the Lord Bless and Keep the Tzar, far away from us.”

But that changed when Jews came to America. No longer just tolerated foreigners, in America Jews are citizens, citizens who like our neighbor of every creed, have a role to play in strengthening our country.

On the occasion of his inauguration, President Washington received letters from Jewish communities around the country offering him and the new country their support. Jews have kept this promise, playing an important role in building the institutions, colleges, hospitals, and industry that make America what it is today. Jews are active volunteers in community service organizations and leaders in social activism.

One of the most important areas where Jews have contributed is through their political involvement. Jews play a critical role in the running of both major parties and, as our Senators from California illustrate, often hold political office. But arguably the most significant contribution Jews make to American politics is as voters.

Jewish voter turnout is traditionally amongst the highest of all ethnic and religious groups. As Dr. Steven Windmueller explains, “American Jews . . . have developed a type of civic culture that suggests that a citizen of the society has an obligation to be engaged in its political process.”

And according to some modern rabbis, they do. Drawing from Jeremiah’s instructions to, “v’dirshu et sh’lom ha’ir asher higleti etchem shama, and you shall seek the peace of the city where I exile you,” many rabbis contend that as Jews we are commanded to vote because by voting we can help bring peace and well being to the cities, states, and nation in which we dwell.

Beginning with Abraham’s journey to Canaan, Jews have traveled to and settled in thousands of places, in every corner of the world. Few if any of the communities established by our ancestors have been as successful as the Jewish community here in the United States, a community that enthusiastically works to build up the land in which it lives and a community which, as I trust we will all do on Tuesday, actively participates in the selection of its leaders.