Rabbi Joshua C. Lesser's 2021 Rosh Hashanah Message

This coming year we must advocate for voting rights protections.

A Prayer For Voting Rights

Source of Life, we give thanks to you, for breathing us to life and creating each one of us in Your divine image. It is from our moment of creation that every human being is endowed with the inherent dignity of coming from one Source. How we encounter one another is paramount in how we serve Your creation.

Our country’s democracy was envisioned to secure the liberty, equality, and free expression of all of its citizens. We pray that we become bearers of that vision as our democracy is being tested. Help us understand that our commitment to a just democracy stems from our desire to manifest the common good. Aid us in taking the actions that foster a nation that nourishes all of its citizens.

Once again, the soul of our democracy, the right to vote, is being challenged. We pray for safe, free, and fair elections for all. Grant us the wisdom and the solidarity to ensure that those who are most suppressed and vulnerable are able to cast their vote unobstructed. Remind us of our courage to resist, to persist and to insist on this basic right. May all of the actions that seek to corrupt the right to vote be averted so that we may uplift Your vision of freedom.

Today, as we honor the anniversary of the March on Washington, may the words of Martin Luther King Jr. and the message of Amos ring in our ears and guide us as we leave this place: “Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.“ We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

And let us say Amen!

Rabbi Joshua C. Lesser is rabbi emeritus at CBH, founder of SOJOURN, and spiritual director for The OnBeing Project Fellowship.