| Every day for the past few weeks, my mailbox has been filled with flyers: flyers from political candidates from all political parties urging me to vote for them and flyers from the OC Registrar of Voters urging me to vote by Tuesday, November 5th.
As we approach Election Day, my reflections turn inward. I am filled with gratitude for living here in North America where we have the freedom to make informed choices in many areas: who will be our next local, state, and federal government leaders; and deciding the key issues that should inform their decisions. We have a voice in how our leaders govern. Our governmental leaders do listen. As Reform Jews, it is our obligation to become informed about the issues affecting our country, state, county, and towns, to make decisions based on knowledge, and then to become involved in the political process by voting at the minimum. There are so many ways in which we can become politically involved.
Every time we have the opportunity to elect new government officials – no matter if it’s on the local, state or federal level - we are given an opportunity to openly and honestly discuss what is happening in our government. It is an opportunity for a new beginning – of sorts.
It is very appropriate that as we prepare for the upcoming November 5th elections, our time of secular new beginnings for some of our elected officials – that we begin reading the Torah all over again. This Shabbat we start at the very beginning, Breishit. “In the beginning....”
Beginnings are ripe with unlimited potential, new possibilities, exciting discoveries about ourselves and each other. There is one passage in Genesis 3, verse 6 that for me exemplifies the courage and conviction it takes to turn that potential, those possibilities and new discoveries into an exciting and gratifying reality. In our parshah, Eve comes face to face with the tree of knowledge – the tree whose fruit God forbade them to eat. Yet our text states: “When the woman saw that the tree was good for eating and a delight to the eyes and that the tree was desirable as a source of knowledge, she took of its fruit and she ate, she also gave some to her husband and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened.”
God’s command forbidding them to eat of the fruit was a challenge, an obstacle. Why was it forbidden to eat the fruit? Perhaps because God was not yet ready to deal with thinking, feeling human beings, with people who had the intellect and the ability to make their own choices. Eve’s courageous defiance of God’s command brought her and Adam to life – so to speak. Eve’s quest for knowledge, beauty, and sustenance raised humans to a new level of existence. It changed them from God’s “Barbie and Ken” dolls – beautiful to look at but brainless, into living, thinking human beings. Adam and Eve became fully cognizant human beings who could now truly become God’s partners in shaping and creating the world.
It seems to me that our Torah portion calls upon each of us to constantly strive to reach for that forbidden fruit. It asks us to have the courage and conviction to break from some long-held norms and conventions and strive for the best of the best. It calls upon each of us to advance our own knowledge, to become informed and to use that knowledge to better ourselves and to better our world around us.
The Reform Movement feels it is important to make informed choices, to advance our own knowledge and to become involved in the political process as well. We have a large presence in Washington, DC. In DC, we have our Reform Movement’s Religious Action Center – known by its acronym the “RAC”. It’s director emeritus, Rabbi David Saperstein has been a fixture in every White House administration and his counsel was sought by every sitting US president, for decades. It's current director, Rabbi Jonah Pesner, holds that same exalted position.
Through the RAC, we advocate with Congress and Senate for issues that are key to our Reform constituents. The RAC also holds seminars in Washington for adults, called “The Consultation on Conscience” and for teens, called “L’taken”. The Consultation on Conscience and L'taken are some of the most exciting Jewish social justice events in Washington. They feature high-level briefings with public policy decision makers and social action leaders, help those with a passion for tikkun olam, bring Jewish values to modern issues of civil rights, economic and environmental justice, religious persecution and more. Both of these phenomenal programs are part of the Reform Judaism's flagship social justice opportunities. I highly encourage you to participate in these programs if you have the opportunity – they will be the best conferences you will ever attend.
As we read Parshat Breishit and reflect on new beginnings, let us remember that we, too, have the power to shape our world through informed action. As stewards of justice and righteousness, it is our sacred obligation to stay informed, engage with the issues, and make our voices heard by voting in the upcoming election. Together, we can help create a world that reflects our highest values. |
