Saturday, November 1, 2008

God Says, "Vote!"

If you take up the burden of the Torah, the burdens of government and of worldly concerns are removed. If you lay down the burden of the Torah, you get back the burdens of government and of worldly concerns. Rabbi Nehunia ben Hakkanah Pirke Avot 3:5

Like many things in the Jewish world, the idea of government has had positives and negatives. On the one hand, as an oppressed minority during much of our history, Jews often saw the government as the source of that oppression. On the other hand, the government was also a limit to that oppression, or at least a societal check on individual attacks. In addition, Judaism has long recognized that governments are necessary to do the tasks that individuals cannot tackle alone. There is a portion in the Talmud, in tractate Sanhedrin, which talks about what is necessary for a city to be called a city – there must be enough people to have teachers and a school, various community charitable organizations, in addition to the number of people needed to make a minyan or a Rabbi or a judge. Government is both a necessary evil and an expression of our greatest desires and needs. How then to explain the quote above - about the burden of Torah vs. the burden of the government?

The Rabbis of the Talmud believed that study of Torah was to be desired above all else. Therefore, its reward had to be stressed as worth the trouble. An individual might worry how they could pay their bills, or even their taxes, if they engaged in such a pursuit as Torah study, which had so little material reward. To that end, there are many stories in which Rabbis, perhaps poor to start, are rewarded in sometimes miraculous ways. One of those rewards, according to Rabbi Nehunia ben Hakkanah, is that the government will stay off your back.

To the modern Reform Jew, not surprisingly, there is another way to read these words. Government is a burden only in when it does not work correctly or we do not understand its purpose. Not to dip my feet into the electoral process, I would however say that my understanding of Judaism says that paying taxes is patriotic; that one of the ways that we support our country and the work that we ask it to do is financial. The frustration comes when we believe that money is used inefficiently, misspent, or used for purposes to which we object. The advantage for us is that we live in a democracy – that we are given the opportunity, on a regular basis, to register our approval or disapproval of the political process through the ballot box.

That government is a burden is removed from us when the government is working in the way that we expect and need; the way that our Torah tells us we should relate to each other. When the government helps us to provide for the widow and orphan – the powerless; when it helps us to treat the stranger as the citizen; when it helps us to pursue justice; to respect the rights of even our enemies. In a democracy, we have no one to blame for what our government does in our name, except ourselves. As Reform Jews, we are expected to act in the prophetic tradition and make our world a better place.

It is not a joke to say that one of the most important rituals of Reform Judaism is exercised at the ballot box. Take this Jewish mitzvah seriously. Weigh your choices, but make them. And, if you wish, say a prayer based on Deuteronomy before you enter the booth – Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melekh ha-olam, shenatan lanu hachayyim v’hamavet, habracha v’haklalah vtzivanu livchor chayyim. Blessed are You, Adonai, our God, Ruler of the universe, who put before us life and death, blessing and curse and commanded us to choose life.

Choose. Vote.

Rabbi Abraham