A Vision of Power and Courage

Elections are simultaneously a time in which we may feel empowered and disempowered. We are empowered in that this is our opportunity to make our voice heard and cast a vote. We vote for the candidate we most believe can bring the change so desperately needed in the world. It is also a time that can feel deeply disempowering. We can only vote once and ultimately our one vote will not decide an election. No matter how much we want change, no matter how many texts or phone calls we’ve sent to turn out the vote, we may find ourselves feeling powerless both in the moment of waiting for the results and in the aftermath of a new leader announced. Even as we may devote so much of ourselves to the political process as a means to shape the world, we may also feel poignantly aware of the limits of this sort of power.

Poised at the moment in which we as a people elect someone to serve in one of the highest positions of power in our country, we turn to Jewish texts for a more expansive sense of power to ask: what is power?

As we turn to the language of prayer, aggadah, and poetry, we’ll seek to explore an alternative model of power that subverts expectations and to uncover a vision of power rooted in compassion, courage, and kindness.