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There are those who are elated with the results of the election and those who are not. No matter your affinity, there is something that did not change: what God expects of us. Being Jewish starts from the first commandment, that we acknowledge and accept that there is one God, the same God who took our ancestors out of Egypt. At Mt. Sinai, they uttered the immortal words Naaseh V’nishmah, we will do and we will obey.  These two words established an eternal covenant between us and God. Our part of that covenant demands that we observe the mitzvot and take them to heart. We have been doing so for 4,000 years, having managed to do so under all sorts of governments and rulers. Loving your neighbor as yourself predates the United States yet is simultaneously independent of any administration.  Caring for the widow, the orphan and the stranger are mandates that remain our constants. Observing Shabbat and not committing murder will outlive us all.

Micah the prophet lived from 740-670 BCE, and was a contemporary of Isaiah, Amos and Hosea.  An oft-quoted favorite of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. , Micah stated in 6:8:

“You have been told, O mortal, what is good and what God requires of you: Only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk modestly with your God.”

To do justice means to act in ways that are just, with the Torah as our guidebook. To love goodness means to seek out goodness, reject that which is not good, and encourage goodness in others. To walk modestly with our God might seem unreachable, yet it is not. Noah walked with God, as Noah was the most righteous person of his generation.  That doesn’t mean that Noah was perfect, but he was the best available.  To walk with God demands that we emulate God by acting in godly ways, so that the label of “walking with God” might be applied to any of us by others because of our actions. But it must be done humbly, not by seeking self-aggrandizement or celebrity, but through modesty. 

Micah’s formula might seem simple, yet it is not. There is much around us that tempts us to sin, as we learn from God’s words to Cain in Genesis 4:7: “Surely if you do right, there is uplift.  But if you do not do right sin couches at the door; its urge is toward you yet you can be its master.”

For those who might feel concerned for the future, I do offer one helpful suggestion. Come to synagogue this Shabbat. Join with a community of your peers who may share your feelings. Whenever the Jewish community has experienced stress, the solution has always been to gather as a community, to draw strength from each other. The Tree of Life congregation has certainly experienced much stress these past six years. Our resiliency is our strength in community.  Pirkei Avot 2:5 teaches: Hillel taught: Do not separate yourself from the community. I look forward to seeing you this coming Shabbat. Free hugs too.