Share Sukkot: Green and Grow the Vote
On October 22nd, The Shalom Center is hosting a Hoshanah Rabbah actifest in Philadelphia and online called The Great "Save-In." It is part of a broader GOTV-PA effort we are undertaking. Why connect Sukkot with voting?
First, Hoshanah Rabbah means “The Great Saving.” We must start by doing all we can to save ourselves. Just as YHWH would not split the Red Sea until Nachshon leaped in and almost drowned, offering his own effort to save the people he was part of. This aspect of Hoshanah Rabbah will be a creative experiment in collective saving. Over the next few weeks, we will be sharing deeper dives into the three levels of saving that we will explore at the actifest. The first level: We try to save ourselves by voting.
But why by voting? A profound reason, though rarely discussed. Why, every other year, does a very broad US election so closely follow Sukkot? Remember, Sukkot is the fall harvest festival. And the agricultural US, more than century ago, set Election Day in early November because the harvest would be complete. Remember, why most of us were farmers. First make sure the People had what to eat. Then gather the harvest of their hopes and plans. Make sure they could save themselves from demagogues, charlatans, authoritarians for whom the Election was a trick or a hoax, not a sacred practice for the People to save themselves. Like Sukkot. Spread over all of us the Sukkot of Shalom!
Forget waiting for something or someone else to save us, we know that sometimes we need to take our saving into our own hands. We are not free to desist. One way to embody this, especially this year, is to focus on getting out the vote! See below for various ways to uplift voting between now and November 5th.
Our Share Sukkot: Green and Grow the Vote actifest campaign is focused on getting people of conscience to vote with economic, racial, and planetary justice in mind on November 5, 2024.
While The Shalom Center is a non-partisan organization, we advocate with elected leaders for the needs of all people, and we encourage community members to assure the common good by voting.
There are four major parts to this message:
1. On the 7th evening of Sukkot, Tuesday October 22, from 6:30 to 9:30, there will be an in-person (in Philadelphia) and online national celebration with Gloria Steinem and Rabbi Arthur Waskow (his 91st birthday). Attendance is FREE, registration is required. For more details and in order to register, click here: https://theshalomcenter.org/save-in
2. We are working with the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism to GOTV – Get Out the Vote – in Pennsylvania. GOTV callers welcome from all over. To join in this effort, click to https://theshalomcenter.org/votingbooths
3. Ushpizin/Ushpizot Posters are portraits of sacred guests to hang in your sukkah, traditionally including Abraham, Ruth, etc.
The Shalom Center has created renewed downloadable ushpizin/ot posters heralding heroes who dedicated their lives to making voting universal. See below for details of how you can download eight portrait-posters of voting rights heroes to hang in your sukkah.
4. A Sukkot Seder complete with blessings, rituals, songs and a special Green and Grow the Vote section with text and teachings for reflection and discussion, HERE. For a special slide presentation created especially for virtual Sukkot celebrations including a video welcome by Rabbi Arthur Waskow and performances of music by Rabbi Randy Fleisher, click HERE.
Elections this November will make a strong impact —
On the very health, income, and bodily integrity and autonomy of practically all Americans;
On the future of American democracy, or whether we become a plutocracy, ruled by those with hyper-wealth, with a flavor of rancid racism poisoning the stew;
and
On whether we can renew the life-forms of our Mother Earth or we all suffer from fire, flood, and famine.
Downloadable Ushpizin/ot Posters
These ushpizin/ot posters have been brilliantly designed and written by Arlene Goldbard, President Emerita of The Shalom Center.
When you click to see them, you can download them, print on your own poster-paper, and, if you like, laminate them to hang up in your sukkah.
They include:
James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner
Heather Booth
Charles McDew, Fannie Lou Hamer, Bob Moses
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Roy Wilkins, A. Philip Randolph, Arnold Aronson
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Ida B. Wells, Rosika Schwimmer
John Lewis
Sukkah Values Essays
Plan now - Share Sukkot: Grow the Vote by Rabbi Arthur Waskow
Spread over All a Sukkah of Shalom by Rabbi Arthur Waskow
Sukkot Values: Shalom, Iran, Nuclear Weapons, and Sukkot by Rabbi Arthur Waskow
The Ancient Refugees who got to Share Sukkot by Rabbi Arthur Waskow
Sukkot: Our Connection to the Earth by Rabbi Arthur Waskow
Sukkot Cultural Tools
Sukkah of Shalom songsheet
We ask you to consider contributing to The Shalom Center to cover costs of these items. We suggest contributing $18 if you will be using one of the Ushpizin/ot posters or the Sukkot Seder in your sukkah, or $72 if you expect to use all of them. You can contribute by clicking here: https://theshalomcenter.org/donate