In 2022, e-Jewish Philanthropy (when it was still an independent Jewish start-up) published my call for sermons on American Democracy. For any rabbis still mulling their messages, or more likely, for those fighting writer’s block, I offer some help.
The themes of the season are intricately connected to the problems plaguing liberal democracy in America and worldwide. The liturgy, Torah Portions, symbolism and rituals of both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur lend themselves to address the underlying forces that support rising authoritarianism. Consider this an opportunity not only to preach to the individual Jew in the pew, elevating democracy as a personal issue, but a chance to set the congregational agenda.
After all, we all work in little democracies, and we all face the ways that America’s corroding political culture seeps into our board meetings, committee work, and our local systems of deliberation. Cleric burnout is a major problem for every faith tradition right now, and the Holy Day sermons are a chance to limit the toxicity that shortens our careers (and dries up the pipeline of new clergy).
So here’s a list of High Holy Day themes that can help strengthen your local political culture, nourish the civic space around your community, and slowly turn back the forces of authoritarianism rising in the country as a whole.
Rosh Hashanah
Creation: The idea that "hayom harat olam” offers a chance for us to consider what we are creating in our society today. This ties back to David Foster Wallace’s This is Water speech, about the world we live in without seeing.
Knowledge of Good and Evil: Especially for those that read Bereishit, and for everyone who address the topic of tshuvah, awareness of sin requires knowledge of truth. This is a chance to address the relativism and misinformation plaguing our culture, and reinforce the Jewish notion that we seek truth communally, even if God’s Truth will always be just out of reach.
Being Created in the Image of God: a chance to reflect on the principles of the Declaration of Independence in this 250th year. Btw, human dignity extends to our political opponents as well despite what you see online.
Akedah: My take on this enormously difficult story is that Abraham was stuck in an echo chamber where idolatry and child sacrifice weres the norm. So he went along with the most horrific command. Are our congregations becoming echo chambers?
Akedah (option 2): Abraham needed an angel to break his information bubble. This is a chance to wonder who our angels will be. Can our congregations be places that break our informaiotn bubbles?
Malchuyot: This is what I’m preaching on this year. As moderns we like to think of ourselves as little sovereigns, but the liturgy, especially the Great Aleinu, insist that God is Sovereign of Sovereign of Sovereigns. Shai Held, in Judaism is About Love (160-163), describes how this creates a covenantal relationship for each individual with God, one that demands certain godly behavior. Not a bad way to describe civic norms and the healthy citizen behavior upon which liberal democracy depends.
Shofarot: We clergy like the call to justice. One of our colleagues once told me that we all secretly “want to take a selfie with Abraham Joshua Heschel.” Right now, the most just things we can preach are not specific policy issues, but rather the underpinnings of democracy: free and fair elections, rule of law, respect for institutions, freedom of speech and so forth.
Yom Kippur
Kol Nidre: This is the sermon that started my democracy work in 2018, that we are not living up to the promises we make as Americans. I used the Pledge of Allegiance as the oath we broke, but there are so many options to describe our failures as citizens to protect liberal democracy.
Kol Nidre (option 2): Just as Kol Nidre evolved in a world where Jews were not free to keep their promises (or so the mythology tells us), or alternatively just as Kol Nidre was used as an excuse by anti-Jewish-citizenship advocates in the eighteenth century, we can celebrate how America has been different, a place built upon the principle of absolute religious diversity and inclusion. This is the anti-Christian Nationalism sermon!
Unetane Tokef: We are living through a period of disorientation. The events of the world feel completely overwhelming like the list of potential blessings and curses written in the Book of Life. How can teshuvah, tefilah, and tzedekah help us ground us and help us regain a sense of truth and morality amidst the flood of toxicity, disinformation, and conflict we experience every day?
Vidui: Cancel culture and High Conflict are based upon the assumption that every action is potential cause for defriending and cutting ties. Vidui is a public establishment of the opposite assumption, that in our Jewish communities we accept that people will err and work to prevent repetition of the mistake.
Jonah: This is the story of the ultimate cynic, the one who would rather see his enemies die than change. The story allows us to teach the concept of meta-perception, and share the ways we misunderstand our political opponents, a problem within our congregations, and in the surrounding community and world.
I am sure there are more themes available to help us preach democracy. The season of the Yamim Nora’im are here to remind us all that we can improve our character and create a better world. No authoritarian is above the Melech Malchei Ham’lachim, and none of us are blameless. Not a bad place to start when refounding our sense of citizenship and civic responsibility.