Thoughts on the election…so far

Sitting on my couch and listening to NPR report election results (and cheering more than moaning – thank G-d) my hope for this country is increasing a tad. Maybe this will be real change. Maybe not.

What is Jewish about this post? What is Jewish about caring about elections?   Many things, in my opinion.

First, on voting – Jews have been prohibited from voting and participating in government in many of the countries in which we have lived. Voting is a privelege and, in America, Canada, Israel and other  countries it is a right.  I believe that voting is a right which all Americans (and etc) are obliged to take seriously.  This obligation is even heavier for Jews – for those who were never permitted to vote and for the principle of tikkun olam (the obligation to repair the world).

Tikkun olam appears throughout our texts – we must care about the world around us and we must  take part in making the world a better place.

Using the voices we have in the American government – voting, writing/talking to congressional personnel is our obligation and our right!

3 thoughts on “Thoughts on the election…so far

  1. Well, it’s funny I should come across this! I just came home from voting in a local election, not 15 mins ago! I too believe that it is a right for which people have fought and died for and it demands respect, and by that I mean that I believe people should absolutely feel compelled to vote. I myself *thoroughly* enjoy the process for some reason… just something about how official it all is and perhaps the feeling of potentially making an impact…. *shrug* Who knows. I just know I love to do it!

Leave a Reply to Gina Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.