The traditional definition of a Jewish telegram (which might now be a textual content message): “Begin worrying. Particulars to comply with.”
My up to date model of this: “The main points are right here. You don’t have to fret a lot.”
In latest weeks and months, I, together with many liberal Jews, was very frightened in regards to the elections. For excellent causes.
Sure, Election Day produced its share of disappointments, even crushing disappointments. The victory of JD Vance in Ohio is distressing, particularly due to his connections to, and endorsements from, the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene. The victory of DeSantis and Rubio in my state of Florida, whereas predictable, ought to concern anybody who cares in regards to the bodily autonomy of girls, LGBTQ sensitivities, and plenty of different issues.
However, there may be excellent news as effectively. The excellent news for Jews is that Jewish values did fairly effectively.
A couple of key takeaways.
A dedicated Jew, Josh Shapiro, beat Doug Mastriano, an authorized Christian nationalist antisemite within the Pennsylvania gubernatorial race. Mastriano had partially constructed his marketing campaign on criticisms of Shapiro (and his kids)for attending a “privileged” faculty. That occurs to be a Jewish day faculty. Matriano’s spouse, Rebecca, claimed that she and her husband care extra about Israel than many Jews do. (I like it when Jew haters inform Jews how they need to categorical their commitments to Jewish peoplehood, don’t you?) He ended his marketing campaign with a weird “Fiddler on the Roof” parody, led by a Messianic Jew.
It isn’t solely that Mastriano misplaced. His antisemitism misplaced.
Josh Shapiro is a Shabbat dinner consuming, Jewish day faculty mum or dad. Get your thoughts round that.
Within the Ahead:
“My religion is what has guided me into a lifetime of service,” … crediting his youthful work within the motion to free Soviet Jews. He retains kosher, proposed to his spouse, Lori, in Jerusalem, and featured challahs she baked in his marketing campaign launch video. All through the race, he tried to be dwelling for Friday night time dinner along with his household, which he described as “splendidly chaotic, as most Shabbat dinner tables are.”
In JTA, Shapiro mentioned: “Whether or not my day begins right here in Bloomsburg, Uniontown, or anyplace in Pennsylvania, I make it dwelling Friday night time for Sabbath dinner as a result of household and religion floor me,”
The final time we had a nationwide political determine who’s as “Jewish” as Shapiro was Senator Joseph P. Lieberman, who ran for vice-president with Al Gore and who was Shabbat-observant. Actually, some say that Shapiro might be a doable future presidential candidate.
Sure, there may be deep antisemitism on this nation.
However, right here’s the factor. In Pennsylvania, antisemitism misplaced. So did Christian nationalism.
Greater than this: a conventional Jew received.
One other dedicated Jew, Republican Lee Zeldin, misplaced to Kathy Hochul within the gubernatorial race in New York. Zeldin misplaced, regardless of huge assist from Orthodox leaders and $11 million from Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress.
With the sheer variety of Jewish voters in New York, this election may conceivably have gone to the Jewish candidate. It didn’t.
Why is that this loss, paradoxically, good for the Jews? Zeldin’s loss is important as a result of it’s clear that, in maybe probably the most “Jewish” state in america, Jews voted their values, and never their ethnic loyalty.
John Fetterman beat Dr. Mehmet Oz within the Pennsylvania Senate race. On the floor, this has nothing to do with both the Jews or Judaism.
Besides, this. The assaults on Fetterman’s efficiency and his verbal dexterity throughout the debate appalled me. As everybody is aware of, Fetterman is recovering from a stroke. I discovered the assaults to be politically primarily based (in fact), and merciless. Jewish ethics requires rachmanut, compassion, in the direction of those that have suffered such a devastating life state of affairs, and admiration for individuals who are working to beat it.
By electing Fetterman, Pennsylvania voters — whether or not they knew it or not — had been resisting the politics of callousness.
Wherever doable, reproductive freedom received. This can be a sizzling subject for Jews, and for others. In a number of states, abortion rights had been on the poll. Within the majority of states, voters selected selection. Many people consider that the curbing ladies’s rights to well being care is a sign subject relating to the political and cultural way forward for this nation. What we now see is that there’s critical opposition to curbing these rights. Strike one other blow in opposition to Christian nationalism.
How good was this election for the Jews? Sure, in fact, many Jewish candidates received: Senator Michael Bennet in Colorado; Governor Jared Polis, Colorado’s first Jewish and first brazenly homosexual governor; Greg Landsman, a Wexner Heritage Program alum, in Ohio; Senator Chuck Schumer in New York; Dan Goldman for a seat in Congress from New York.
So, that’s what occurred on Tuesday.
Let me go one step additional.
There’s a great passage in Mishnah Avot that recounts the glory of the traditional Temple in Jerusalem.
Ten miracles had been carried out for our ancestors within the Temple: (1) A girl by no means miscarried due to the aroma of the sacrificial meat. (2) Sacrificial meat by no means turned spoiled. (3) A fly was by no means seen within the slaughter home. (4) The Excessive Priest by no means had a seminal emission on Yom Kippur. (5) Rain by no means extinguished the fireplace of the organized wooden on the Altar. (6) Wind by no means prevailed over the pillar of smoke that rose from the Altar. (7) The Omer providing, the 2 loaves, and the show-bread {from the grain providing] had been by no means discovered to be invalid. (8) [The supplicants at the Temple would stand crowded together but would bow with ample space. (9) A snake or scorpion never did harm in Jerusalem. (10) A person never said to his fellow, ‘It is too crowded for me to lodge overnight in Jerusalem.’
The sages were really good at noticing what people notice.
Most of the things that we tend to notice in this world — are things that happen.
In that passage, most of the miracles that occurred — were things that did not happen. That is what the sages noticed.
So, let’s talk about what did not happen on Tuesday.
Basically, all of my worst fears did not happen.
There were no hateful rallies. There was no violence at polling places. The expected election deniers have, thus far, been silent.
What did happen?
In the synagogue over the last few weeks, Jews have been reading the story of Abraham, the first Jew. The ancient sages taught that Abraham endured ten trials — ten tests of his faith — and emerged, unscathed, from each of them.
What happened on Election Day?
Like Abraham, America was tested. America passed the test. American democracy passed the test. It worked — far better than the prophets of democracy doom (I include myself) had predicted.
America proved its resilience.
That is why Jewish liturgy contains a prayer for the government.
Jews have historically shown great respect for the temporal power of government. In fact, one of the great paradoxes of Jewish history is that Jews preferred strong, centralized governments – even if they were tyrannical – to weaker governments that would give free reign to elements that would be dangerous for Jewish survival. From the very opening moments of creation, the Jewish narrative has always preferred order to chaos – both in the cosmic and political realms.
Centuries before the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, who taught that “each man is the other one’s wolf,” Jewish sages counseled: “Pray for the peace of the government, for without it, people would devour each other alive.” (Mishnah, Avot 3:2).
So, yes: America was tested, and America passed the test. Am I happy with all of the election results? A big, fat “hardly.” Do we have a lot of work to do, still, in this country? Absolutely.
Is there hope that this country will not plunge itself into a dark abyss of totalitarianism?
You bet.
I am betting on America.
I urge you to do the same.
