A Meditation on Voting
By Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
May it be Your will, at this season of our election, to guide us toward peace.
By voting, we commit to being full members of society, to accepting our individual responsibility for the good of the whole. May we place over ourselves officials in all our gates…who will judge the people with righteousness (Deuteronomy 16:18), and may we all merit to be counted among those who work faithfully for the public good.
Open our eyes to see the image of God in all candidates and elected officials, and may they see the image of God in all citizens of the earth.
Grant us the courage to fulfill the mitzvah of loving our neighbors as ourselves, and place in our hearts the wisdom to understand those who do not share our views.
As we pray on the High Holidays, “May we become a united society, fulfilling the divine purpose with a whole heart.”
And as the psalmist sang, “May there be shalom within your walls, peace in your strongholds. For the sake of my brothers and sisters and friends, I will speak peace to you” (Psalm 122:7-8).
Blessings for the Night Before the Election
By Trisha Arlin
May you contribute all that you can contribute and not punish yourself for what you couldn’t do.
May the good people win and the bad people lose.
May you not eat or drink too much crap while you wait for results.
If the good people lose and the bad people win, may you survive to fight another day.
May you have a good wifi connection so that you may be able to watch as many kitten and puppy videos as you need to so that you can stay calm.
May you have friends to celebrate and commiserate with.
May you get a good night’s sleep.
May the line to vote on Tuesday be long and filled with first-time voters.
And may we emerge from it all with hope.
And let us say, amen.
A Prayer for Voting
By David Seidenberg for My Jewish Learning
With my vote today I am prepared and intending to seek peace for this country, as it is written: “Seek out the peace of the city where I cause you to roam and pray for her sake to God, for in her peace you all will have peace.”
May it be Your will that votes will be counted faithfully, and may You account my vote as if I had fulfilled this verse with all my power.
May it be good in Your eyes to give a wise heart to whomever we elect today, and may You raise for us a government whose rule is for good and blessing to bring justice and peace to all the inhabitants of the world and to Jerusalem, for rulership is Yours!
Just as I participated in elections today, so may I merit to do good deeds and repair the world with all my actions, and with the act of [fill in your pledge], which I pledge to do today on behalf of all living creatures and in remembrance of the covenant of Noah’s waters to protect and to not destroy the earth and her plenitude.
May You give to all the peoples of this country the strength and will to pursue righteousness and to seek peace as unified force in order to cause to flourish, throughout the world, good life and peace, and may You fulfill for us the verse:
“May the pleasure of Adonai our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us; may the work of our hands endure.”
Reprinted with permission from Custom & Craft’s “Cheshvan Shabbat.”