Inauguration Day
2017: The Opposite of Slavery
Shabbat Sh’mot
By Rabbi Boaz D.
Heilman
Today was an historical day.
This day saw the inauguration of the 45th President of the
United States. This is an impressive
record, a testament to the strength of this nation. The idea of a freely elected, democratic
government “of the people, by the people, for the people,” is a relatively
modern concept. It certainly isn’t the
model that many other other peoples and nations enjoy. But in the United States, our democracy has
proven both strong and lasting. Despite
those few momentous and tragic events when a President of the United States was
assassinated while in office, overall, for the past two centuries and more, we
have been fortunate to have a peaceful transition of administrations.
The people of the United States have benefitted greatly from
this system of governance. On the whole, we have seen steady—if
gradual—economic, medical and social progress.
We have benefitted from ever-greater freedoms of expression, religion,
gender and life-style choices.
But whereas transitions
were peaceful, elections have rarely been that. While some may view the 2016
Presidential election as a landmark of incivility (and perhaps it was),
elections are often set against a background of change and upheaval, and
sometimes even war—among ourselves or with other countries.
The United States has never been a homogeneous people. While we have gained much from the influx of
a great number and variety of nations, religions and races, integrating the
many into one whole has never been a simple task. Tensions and even hatred between groups have
always existed, occasionally erupting into violence. We are constantly seeking to define
ourselves, to determine what makes us Americans, to find that common
denominator that makes us one people, one nation.
Today, however, is not a time to explore our
differences. Rather, today we must
celebrate our unity.
We live in dangerous times, and rather than bickering or fighting
we need to face the many challenges that are before us. Social and cultural
changes brought about by high tech and the Internet have stirred up a hornet’s
nest of instability and uncertainty. The
world is going through climate changes that cause massive flooding on the one
hand, and terrible droughts on the other.
Health crises brought about by new or rapidly evolving viruses are
wreaking havoc, while the cost of cures and treatments continues to rise
exponentially.
More than ever before, war and terrorism are endangering the
entire civilized world, threatening to set back human progress a thousand years
or more.
Wider-than-ever disparity between the super-rich on the one
hand, and the poor and dispossessed on the other is threatening nations and societies
from within, endangering social stability and raising tensions to unprecedented
levels.
For us Jews, too, new dangers loom. Less than ¾ of a century since the Holocaust,
anti-Semitism is once again on its vile march.
The ancient hatred has erupted into violence throughout Europe, while
here, in the US, the ugly rhetoric and familiar signs are appearing everywhere,
causing fear and alarm among many who thought they have left those behind, as
well as among those of us who have never known fear before. The so-called “Alt Right” is vying with the
“New Left” in marginalizing and bullying Jews, while the BDS movement,
originally meant as a statement directed specifically at the State of Israel,
has proven closely allied with virulently anti-Jewish groups and sentiments.
Yet, today the American Jewish community is largely divided
among itself, mostly along political lines, but also along religious
differences. You’d think we would have
learned our lesson by now, but it doesn’t seem so. We blame ourselves. Some of us accuse Israel for the rising
hatred, while others turn against one group or another in scorn and
deprecation. All the while, however, we ignore the fact that these existential
threats, repeated daily by Iran and its collaborators, as well as by anti-Semites
along the entire political and social spectrum, are directed against all
Jews, regardless of national, religious or political affiliation.
So today, on this Inauguration Day, as Americans, even
though we find ourselves deeply divided along socio-political lines, more than
ever we need to stand together, as one people. We may be Jews, Christians,
Muslims or of any other religion—or even of no religion at all. We may call ourselves Democrats, Republicans,
or Independents. But the differences do not matter. What matters is that we all face the same future,
the same problems and the same dangers.
In the aftermath of the Holocaust, we Jews took a vow:
“Never again!” What we meant by that is that we would never again be placed in
the position of victims. For some of us,
we have used our newfound courage and strength in defense of our national
homeland, Israel. Others have turned
their attention to other genocides—in Bosnia, Darfur, and the killing fields of
Southeast Asia. Some of us raised our
fist and fought against hatred itself, wherever we saw it: hatred of
African-Americans, of Muslims, Latinos, the GLBTQ community. We fought against discrimination, prejudice
and hatred. We engaged in Tikkun Olam, the ongoing sacred task of
Creation. We saw redemption possible
through advances we made in social justice, education, medicine, technology and
the caretaking of the environment.
So while it is true that the 2016 Presidential election was
divisive, ugly and demoralizing; and while it is true that many of us are
looking with dismay at the possibility that the Great Society we had worked so
hard to build over the last 50 years might face dismantling, we must not hide
or run away from what still needs to be done.
Rather, we must unite our efforts.
Rather than turn against ourselves or one another, we must face the
challenges by working together, from within.
Where we see that changes must be made, let us be courageous enough to
make them. Where we need to build up
what we see falling apart around us, we must work from within our system to
shore up—not through anger, not through violence, but rather by using the
powers that the Founding Fathers built into our system. We may be a nation of many colors and many
faiths, but we are, after all, “one nation, indivisible;” and our goals are the
same today as they were when they were first formulated: “With liberty and justice for all.”
These are high goals, sometimes difficult to achieve; but
the methods we have at hand today have proven true throughout the past. Imperfect though it is, our government is a representative
democracy. It isn’t our genes or lineage
that determine who will lead us—it’s our vision and courage. What our Founding Fathers have given us is the
right to change things. We can vote a person in; we can vote them out. We can run for office ourselves. Or we can contact our representatives and let
them know what we know, what we need, what we believe. As individuals, each of us can make a
difference in our own life. Together,
however, we can do so much more. We can affect history itself.
Our courage stems from our faith and our ideals. Our strength lies in our purpose and in our unity.
May God bless America, home of the free.
May God grant God’s people strength; may God bless us all with
peace.
Amen.
