Election Day
by Rabbi Nate DeGroot
Two weeks ago tonight we hosted The Great “Save-In,” our Hoshanah Rabbah actifest that marked Reb Arthur’s transition to Prophetic Envoy and mine to Director, as well as the world at a crossroads. And while there were a variety of crossroads we had in mind in planning that event, it was the national election that was most present in our thinking. Well, here we are. Two weeks later. Election day.
Are you feeling like you could use some Great Saving right about now?
On this day, when many of us are probably feeling anxious and overwhelmed, perhaps with some cautious optimism mixed in (or maybe not), present to the stakes of the decision before us and recognizing the existential import of what will unfold over the next 24 hours (or maybe many more), sensing our salvation might depend on the tabulations of a few swing states and a few thousand votes, we are reaching out with some “Torah of Saving,” gleaned from our engagement with Hoshanah Rabbah over the last year and offered to you today. Because even though Sukkot season is behind us, the saving we were hoping for then is the saving we’re hoping for now and it’s our sense that these three aspects of “saving” from that festival might be worth reengaging today:
We save ourselves
Regardless of whether we believe there is a God that intervenes in our lives or performs miracles for us, it’s upon us to do what we can to save ourselves. We take the spiritual upheaval and refinement of Yom Kippur and our first task, immediately after break-fast, is to start building our Sukkah. Plant at least a stake in the ground, we’re told. Do the work. We know we won’t finish it - that perhaps we will never fully reach the Promised Land - but neither are we free to desist from it (Pirkei Avot 2:21). Did you knock on doors? Did you phonebank? Or write postcards? Will you vote today if you haven’t already? Justice, justice we shall pursue (Deut 16:11). We must save ourselves, or at least try.
YHVH saves us
And yet, we know we can’t do it on our own. On Sukkot we shook our lulavim and danced in circles, and prayed to God to bring us salvation in the form of rain. We do our part but our tradition teaches that our salvation requires more than us. Our salvation depends on Divine intervention, whether by outstretched arm or ample rain. So in addition to whatever GOTV work we’ve done, however many friends we’ve texted today to remind to vote, however many rides we give to the polls, our salvation is inextricably tangled up in Divinity and we must engage the spiritual alongside the practical. If you’re the praying type, maybe you’ve said a prayer today. Or maybe you will. Or maybe you’ll figure out whatever other kind of communion with Great Spirit of Salvation feels right for you right now.
Saving?
And finally, we ask ourselves whether saving is even the most useful - or the most relevant - framework for us to engage. Is it even an operable paradigm? Or is the notion of saving itself a myth? Every Sukkot we read Kohlet, Ecclesiastes, who reminds us that we are hevel hevelim - ephemeral breath. Ancient and miraculous vibrations in space. Do we really think we can save ourselves? Is “saving” a cogent destination? When the wise one and the fool meet the very same end, Kohelet reasons, what is left to do but eat, drink, and be merry. Love on one another. Connect, vulnerably, and with heart. Dance like the stardust we are. Reach out. Touch hands. And release like the leaves falling ‘round us. Does the fate of the world depend on whether we called 283 people or 284? Whether every liturgical syllable was pronounced properly? Or we forgot which way the pitom goes on the etrog? What if infinity is both beyond and within our blue or black ink ballot bubbles and booths? What if even the results are a mystery?
There doesn’t have to be a hierarchy amongst these aspects. Or even a sequence. One of these doesn’t have to be “right” at the expense of the others. Rather, maybe they all can be.
And what if, in each of us, there’s a balance of these three aspects? Where might we resonate with each of these differently in different moments? Is there one I’m too invested in? Or one that I might give more attention to? Is there something I can learn in this moment, or subsequent moments, from each?
Of course we have no idea what will happen tonight. We never do. But what we can commit to is each other, love, and the Source of Life, interbreathing as One.
On this election day and each day ahead, may we experience a saving fit for history books and fables, and may we continue to show up for ourselves and one another in tender justice, fierce dignity, and sacred connection.
With blessings, solidarity, and presence,
-Nate
