For many in eastern Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh might as well be a different state. Growing up in the Lehigh Valley, I never traveled to Pittsburgh or met peers from their Jewish community until I was in the working world.
Regardless of geographic distances, the tragedy at Tree of Life synagogue hit very close to home. Indeed, a central precept of Judaism first debated more than 1,500 years ago by rabbis living in the diverse Babylonian Empire translates to “all Israel is responsible for one another.” The anecdotes the world has read about the lives lost remind us that this was a community in every sense of the word, regardless of different backgrounds and beliefs.
Like all Americans, I have reflected on what faith and community mean in our country today. I have spent the last week, like many Jewish Americans, in emotional conversations with friends and family.
Regardless of political party or faith, all Americans can relate to Psalm 34, recited last Saturday in Las Vegas by Vice President Mike Pence: “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.”
In reflecting over the last week, I take greater solace in Psalm 133: “How good and how pleasant it is when brothers sit together in unity!”
Indeed, the Lehigh Valley and communities across the United States witnessed just this. Everyday Americans paused their daily evening routines to come together for interfaith vigils and memorial services. Many candidates joined these and paused their campaigning.
There is no word for “coincidence” in Biblical Hebrew. This end of this historic election cycle coincides with the conclusion of the shiva mourning period which follows every Jewish burial.
During the 2014 midterm elections, more than $3.8 billion was spent. By all accounts, when the dust settles after Tuesday, spending this year will shatter that record. The largest driver of any 2018 campaign budget is paid advertisements. Ads, many negative and many with varying levels of veracity, generally have tried to illuminate differences between the candidates and have assaulted opponents’ characters or records.
A fellow Pennsylvanian, John Dickinson, helped draft the Constitution, which both united a nation arguably as fractured as America is today and, for all purposes, created the Congress that we know today.
If the annual Forbes List existed in the 18th century, Dickinson would have been at the top. He used his wealth, to inspire.
Indeed, if iTunes existed in Colonial times, “The Liberty Song,” which he drafted and promoted, would have been on every play list from Savannah, Ga., to Boston and heard in pubs in Moravian Bethlehem or around the campfires in the wilderness around Fort Pitt.
As this divisive election season comes to a close, the song’s most famous line is worth repeating: “by uniting we stand, by dividing we fall.”
This January, the 116th Congress will be sworn in and our nation’s elected representatives from backgrounds more diverse than ever before in our history will continue a 230-year tradition. This peaceful transition every two years is without equal across the world.
Before multimillion-dollar congressional campaign budgets focused primarily on half-truths and character assaults, the architect of the Capitol engraved 23 marble relief portraits following World War II. These lawgivers stare down on our elected representatives and depict historical figures who devoted their lives to promoting the principles that underlie America.
Looking down on Congress each day, but certainly this January, will be Maimonides, the 12th-century Jewish doctor and philosopher who lived side by side with Catholic, Orthodox and Muslim neighbors. In his seminal work, “The Guide for the Perplexed,” he devotes Chapter 26 to what the essence of laws must be. He suggests that “the improvement of our social relations” is critical for all in a position of power.
After Election Day, our elected representatives should endeavor to remember the wisdom of Dickinson and Maimonides.
Indeed, in Judaism, after the shiva period, we say of the deceased, “May his memory be for a blessing.” More bipartisan unity and less division in Washington would be such a blessing.