Compassion after Contention: A Rabbi’s Letter to the Congregation after the 2016 Election
To my dear friends at Burbank Temple Emanu El,
Throughout the day today I have spent time with people in our community who were upset with the outcome of yesterday’s presidential election — members, preschool parents, teachers, and staff. I have also encountered people who were pleased with the outcome. Ours is a diverse community united by common bonds of peoplehood, care for our children, belief in our mission as an organization, but not necessarily shared political philosophies or uniform experiences of life in America today.
I often relate a jest from a teacher of mine: The only thing all Jews agree on is that there is, at most, one God. Nevertheless, we are one community, diverse in background and aspiration, yet united by particular interests and certain shared values, and we do our best to help our community thrive and move forward as one.
I believe that America, at its best, is the same: approximately 325 million people, from diverse backgrounds, with diverse goals, yet with enough in common that we can coexist and prosper together, our differences — physical, economic, political, and spiritual — notwithstanding.
Tonight, I’m writing to you with a request, with reassurance, and with some wisdom from our tradition that provides us with a cautious way forward for our community.
My request would be the same regardless of the outcome: If your candidate won, congratulations! I invite you to celebrate a hard-won victory, in a campaign season that may have strained relationships among good people who disagreed with you. I also ask that you show compassion toward people, within our community and without, who have experienced real suffering and real fear throughout the campaign, suffering and fear which have intensified over the last 24 hours or so as they have processed the outcome of the election. Please show compassion whether or not you think their suffering is warranted or just.
If your candidate lost, I’m sorry. I invite you to lean on your friends at BTEE who are present for you regardless of party affiliation. I also ask you to restrain any inclination to vilify those who voted otherwise. Everyone who cast a ballot yesterday was a human being, created in the image of God and endowed as an American with the privilege of electing to office those who they believe represent their highest hopes for the world they want to live in and the legacy they want to leave for posterity.
If you are fearful for the future, recall that in the last 240 years, America has defeated foreign rule, ended slavery, liberated Europe, supported the development of the State of Israel, and become perhaps the safest country in the history of the world for Jews to practice our religion in peace while fully participating in civic life. And so far, our Republic has outlasted every single president who has catered to foreign influence, defended racist institutions, appeased dictators in Europe, and tolerated public antisemitism, even though these presidents were elected by a majority of enfranchised Americans in their day.
For further reassurance, addressing real fears expressed to me in private and in public, based on the highest values of who we are as a community:
If you are Jewish or a friend of the Jewish people, you are safe and welcome at BTEE, regardless of your political affiliation.
If you are a person of color, you are safe and welcome at BTEE.
If you are LGBTQ, you are safe and welcome at BTEE.
If you are an immigrant to America seeking a better life or a refugee simply seeking life, you are safe and welcome at BTEE, and knowing our members, you are in good company.
If you are Muslim, Christian, any other faith, or no faith at all, while I may recommend other institutions to meet your spiritual needs, you are safe and welcome at BTEE.
If you have a physical or developmental disability, you are safe and welcome at BTEE.
In all cases, any threats or mockery directed at you for belonging to one or more of these categories will not be tolerated at BTEE for as long as I am your Rabbi.
So how to we move forward as a diverse community, within what feels today like a divided country? A story from the Talmud (Bava Metzia 59a-b):
There was once an oven, called the oven of Akhnai, with a peculiar design, and the Rabbis debated whether it could be made kosher. Rabbi Eliezer brought forward every imaginable argument that the oven could be kosher, but no one else agreed him.
Rabbi Eliezer said to them, “If the law agrees with me, let this carob tree prove it!”
Thereupon the carob tree uprooted itself, walked a hundred cubits, and replanted itself in the ground. The other Rabbis retorted, “No proof can be brought from a carob-tree.”
Again he said to them, “If the law agrees with me, let the stream of water prove it!”
The stream of water began to flow backwards. They rejoined, “No proof can be brought from a stream of water.”
Finally he said to them, “If the law agrees with me, let it be proved from Heaven!”
Whereupon a Heavenly Voice cried out, “Why do you dispute with Rabbi Eliezer, seeing that in all matters the law agrees with him!”
But Rabbi Joshua arose and exclaimed, “Torah is not in heaven.” (Devarim 30:12)
What did he mean by this? The Torah had already been given at Mount Sinai; we pay no attention to a Heavenly Voice, because God wrote in the Torah at Mount Sinai, “One must incline after the majority.” (Shemot 23:2)
(That is: God gave us the Torah, then so trusted us to uphold its principles that majority vote by scholars outweighed a direct order from Heaven!)
One of the Rabbis later met Elijah the Prophet and asked him: What did the Holy Blessed One do upon witnessing this argument? Elijah reported: God laughed with joy, saying, “My children have defeated Me, My children have defeated Me.”
On that day all objects which Rabbi Eliezer had declared kosher were brought and burnt in fire. Then they took a vote and excommunicated him. Said they, “Who shall go and inform him?”
“I will go,” answered Rabbi Akiva, “lest an unsuitable person go and inform him, and thus destroy the whole world.” What did Rabbi Akiva do? He donned mourning garments and went ant sat with Rabbi Eliezer at a distance of four cubits (six feet).
“Akiva,” said Rabbi Eliezer to him, “what has particularly happened today?”
“Master,” he replied, “it appears to me that your companions hold aloof from you.”
Thereupon Rabbi Eliezer rent his garments, put off his shoes, and sat on the earth (traditional Jewish mourning practices) while tears streamed from his eyes. The world was then smitten: a third of the olive crop, a third of the wheat, and a third of the barley crop, and some say, the very dough in women’s hands spoiled.
As a Temple we strive to meet each other’s individual needs and safeguard each individual’s dignity while preserving the sanctity of our tradition and promoting the integrity of our institution. We should all be blessed with clarity in our convictions and strength to fight for them. There are times when all observable facts appear to prove our own point, and who acts with true conviction, unconvinced that God is on their side? And yet in each presidential election, it appears that half of us are destined for disappointment.
Nevertheless, one of the deepest convictions we hold as a Temple, as a people, and as a nation is the sanctity of a transparent democratic process and the rule of law. God gave us the Torah at Sinai as a guide to a good and decent life, and built into that guide is the permission and the process to discern the proper interpretation of that guide for each generation.
Likewise, America’s Founders gave us the Constitution as a guide to a just society, and built into that guide the permission and the process to elect leaders in each generation and to ensure a peaceful transition of power from one administration to the next.
Just as God rejoiced from Heaven in the Rabbis’ agency in interpreting God’s law, so to might our Founders rejoice from Heaven in our agency in slowly but surely enfranchising more and more of our citizens while preserving the ability for those who have felt silenced in expressing their will.
God trusted us with the Torah, despite foreknowledge that we would fail to keep it perfectly, because of God’s faith in our gradual perfectibility. The Founders trusted us — and we must continue to trust each other — with the integrity of the Republic, knowing that at times we would fail it and fail each other, but also knowing that as long as we are willing to lift each other up despite our differences, each stumble ultimately would lead to a step forward.
Finally, the conclusion of this story from the Talmud shows us how critical it is to follow such contention with kindness and compassion. The victorious scholars, not satisfied with merely winning an argument, salted the earth: They expelled their colleague from their community altogether and reversed all his prior legal decisions, literally burning his legacy in a fire.
Seeing this, Rabbi Akiva (a personal hero of mine) knew that the future of their world depended on how this news was shared with Rabbi Eliezer. He came as a friend to a shiva house: Not justifying, not criticizing, but being present, speaking gently, and sharing in his pain, his mourning for what had been lost. As it was this contention, followed by grandstanding, led to famine — the whole community suffered, not just the contenders. How much worse could it have been without Rabbi Akiva’s compassionate intervention? Akiva knew that how they conducted themselves in victory and defeat mattered — their legacy and whole way of life was at stake.
Thank you for your attention and for your ongoing commitment to our community. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments about this note or if you just want to talk about the election and our way forward together.
With blessings of wholeness and peace,
Rabbi John Carrier
Burbank Temple Emanu El
Burbank, California
PS…I teach this Torah with gratitude to my teacher Rabbi Brad Hirschfield of CLAL. Learning this passage of Talmud from him has been one of the greatest gifts I have ever received.
PSS…In the spirit of opening sorely needed lines of communication, I invite you to listen to the latest episode of my podcast, The Wisdom Community, and engage in conversation we’re opening there.
