“Pray for the welfare of the government, for were it not for the fear it inspires, we would swallow one another alive!” (Pirkei Avot 3:2)
Since medieval times, a prayer for the welfare of the government has been included in our liturgy. In every country in which we have dwelled, we have asked for God’s blessings on our leaders that they might rule with justice, wisdom, and compassion.
Most of us have probably already voted in this most consequential election. (If you haven’t, it’s not too late yet—polls are open today until 8 p.m.) Whatever the results (and whenever we might know them), let us resolve first and foremost not to “swallow one another alive.” This seems like a rather low bar but given how contentious this year’s contest has been, perhaps not. It is certain that each of us will be disappointed with at least some of the outcomes of this year’s elections. As Americans committed to the peaceful transition of power and committed to the welfare of our nation, we reflect on President Abraham Lincoln’s final line of his second inaugural address. Delivered in March of 1865, still months before the end of a Civil War that had claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans, Lincoln anticipated a time when the nation would come together once again.
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
This is my prayer on this Election Day: In time, may we come together again as a nation, a United States of America, whole, at peace “among ourselves and with all nations.”
— Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback