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Commentary on prayers for our country and for the State of Israel, The prayers for our country, for the State of Israel and for a general state of peace seem to be more suitable for a patriotic celebration than for a prayer service. Even as part of a patriotic celebration, there is something troubling about invoking God's blessings upon states and upon political leaders. States are social constructs; they have been created by human beings and generally reflect many of our baser qualities such as greed and the lust for power. The set of institutions that have historically developed and which we call states bear faint resemblance, if any, to the kinds of social institutions we would build if we were guided by our highest principles and aspirations. While some states are certainly improvements over past tyrannies, states and state institutions are as much a monument to our historical failures in bringing peace or social and economic justice into the world as they are to our few successes at improving society. It is inappropriate to invoke God's blessings upon our country or upon the State of Israel -- or, indeed, upon any state. It is similarly inappropriate to invoke God's blessings upon state leaders simply because they wield power over us. What is appropriate is to pray for the peace and well-being of the people subjected to state authority and coercive violence. Nevertheless, such prayers have become customary. Specific versions of these prayers have been written -- usually with flowery language and plattitudes -- for recitation at particular times and places -- that is, within very specific political and social environments. General plattitudes are, at best, insufficient. They are often destructive because at times when it is important to reflect upon what peace really means and how God can be manifest in peace and what struggling for the glorification of God's name means in the practical work of struggling for peace and tiqun olam, general plattitudes only serve to weaken commitments to that ongoing struggle that gives meaning to our lives. We need to envision peace and talk about what peace means. We need to envision a society with institutions based upon our loftiest goals and ideals. We need to be explicit. We need to give substance to our values. This is especially true today when the Jewish community is deeply divided over the definition of peace as it applies to the State of Israel. On the one hand, the current leaders of the state envision a peace in which the Palestinians submit to a Jewish tyranny and cease struggling for any rights which the government is unwilling to grant them. We do not want to pray for such a peace and we do not want to invoke blessings upon those who work for such a peace. Plattitudes won't do. We need to specify our values and clearly state how we envision them being implemented. We need to envision peace and articulate our vision of the ideal future. Similarly, it is also true today when Americans are deeply divided over the kind of future they envision and over the proper role of government in ensuring such a future. On the one hand, there are those who want to reduce the role of government in all areas except for the legislation of morality and the building of large army and police institutions. These people envision a society in which the wealthy and powerful use their power to amass great wealth which can then trickle down upon the rest of us. Such a society will be characterized by increasing rates of profits for the powerful firms, increasng concentrations of wealth by the elite, a large pool of cheap labor, and stagnant or declining real wages for those who keep being trickled down upon. We do not want to pray for such a society and we do not want to invoke blessings upon those who are bringing it about. Plattitudes won't do. We need a message of hope to counter the politics of fear and anger. We need to articulate our vision of a socially and economically just society. We need prayers that speak to both our hearts and our heads and which thereby help our hearts and heads speak to power. I offer the reading below as more suitable than the readings typically found in our High Holiday prayer books. |
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We envision a peace based on social and economic justice for all people and peoples. We pray and commit ourselves to work and struggle for a world with plenty for all, where none go hungry, none take up arms against another and no one uses technology destructively. Peace is living together because we want to, not because we have to. Peace means going beyond tolerance because we aspire to love each other. Peace means we have mutual respect for each other. Peace means we are all democratically empowered -- individually and collectively. Peace means we decree liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. This is the peace we envision. This is the peace we pray for and commit ourselves to struggle for, Benjamin Mordecai Ben-Baruch |