Home > Blog > Clergy > Reaching Out to Our Community on Election Day
To our WHC family,
We know that many of us are feeling quite anxious during this pandemic time, and particularly so on this Election Day. There are so many unknowns and uncertainties as to what this day and those that follow may bring.
Yesterday evening – “Erev Election” – we joined together over Zoom as a community. With prayers, poetry, and songs, we expressed and acknowledged the gratitude we feel for our right to vote freely and safely.
We pray that is true for all Americans on this day.
We pray that tomorrow we will begin to come together as one America.
While none of us can control the outcome of this day, we each have the ability to care for ourselves and others.
Please know that your Washington Hebrew clergy are here for you, and that Washington Hebrew Congregation will continue to be a place of healing, hope, humility, and humanity.
We stand together, regardless of political views, and are ever steadfast of our commitment to be a progressive, inclusive, caring, and compassionate community of the heart.
In times of uncertainty, Judaism has always given us words of prayer. We hope that these words by our colleague Rabbi Rachel Gartner bring you peace, comfort, and strength.
Adonai, Mekor HaNeshamah, Mekor HaChayim, God, Source of our Breath, Source of our Lives, just as you breathed life into us in the very beginning, so you breathe new life into us with every new breath we are given. Today, as we approach the final day to vote in this election and the uncertain aftermath of that day, help us to breathe. Deeply. Help us to experience renewal with every breath. Help us to center and ground in You through every breath. Help us to draw strength from every breath. In the days ahead, with every moment that passes, renew our humanity and our faith in humanity. As we wait and anticipate, help us to remain kind and courageous, steadfast in our commitments to one another and to the democratic process. God, for the good of all your people, in the days to come, help us make every vote count and help us to address controversies fairly and to resolve them justly. Adonai, Mekor HaNeshamah, Mekor HaChayim, pour forth into the days ahead a cascade of justice and peace, and through it, breathe renewed life into us and into our nation.
May God spread a shelter of peace over our nation, and may all who dwell in this land enjoy the blessing of freedom. May we work together to heal our country and find a path to unity.
Rabbi M. Bruce Lustig Rabbi Susan N. Shankman Rabbi Aaron Miller Rabbi Eliana Fischel Cantor Susan R.A. Bortnick
