Voting Day Comfort & Guidance
The Tanakh teaches us, “You (God) will keep one in perfect peace whose mind is fixed upon you.” (Isa. 26:3) And Messiah taught us, “My (kind of) peace I give to you: not as the world gives, but My peace, I give to you.” (John 14:27)
On a Voting Day like this one today in America, and last week in Israel – from where does peace come to those who follow God? I find great peace and clarity in these two concepts:
Daniel 4:17 – “that the living may know
That the Most High is ruler over the realm of humankind, and bestows it on whom He wishes,
And sets over it (at times, even) the lowest among humanity.”
Richard Nixon was about as damaging a President, and the men in his team about as “low among humankind” as can be imagined: and yet, it was his political savvy that saved Israel from obliteration in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and saved the world from possible devastation by Soviet reaction if the USSR were subjected to open humiliation.
We cannot know what purposes God has for placing or allowing whom He places or allows to rise into political power. It is “above our pay grade.” But we can believe the truth of the above statement. “Not a sparrow falls to the ground apart from Your Heavenly Father.” (Matt. 10:29) We do not need to have control. We must, as humans, seek to the best of our ability to determine it, to “do justly .” (Malachi 6:8). What happens in the world by our efforts and those of others, is in God’s hands. There is peace in truly believing this.
Psalm 137:5-6
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
May my right hand forget her skill.
May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
If I do not remember you,
If I do not exalt Jerusalem
Above my chief joy.
As Jewish and God-following voters, we cannot put our interests above God’s. And - Jerusalem is the symbol of Jewish national existence, which God has stated shall continue as long as we humans are around to perceive the heavenly bodies being governed by the laws of physics. (Jer. 31:35-37) So — in an election, Jerusalem (Israel’s national survival interests) come before our local and personal joys. We must choose to PUT Jerusalem ABOVE them. Is the American economy important? Yes - but Jerusalem comes first. Will our vote endanger Jerusalem or protect her? This guideline is very helpful in coming to peace over choosing candidates with competing “local” or personal agendas.
May this and all be for shalom.
Rabbi Bruce L Cohen
New York & Jerusalem