Dear UU St. Pete and Friends,
This week we celebrate U.S. Constitution Day (9/17) and Rosh Hashanah as the beginning of the Jewish New Year and High Holy Days. Both ask us to consider the Book of Life and our named part in it.
As we remember, the Preamble to our Constitution says what We the People are here for – forming a more perfect union together (perhaps as a nation, perhaps as a world), with justice, tranquility (peace), common defense (safety), welfare, and the blessings (happiness) of liberty (the opportunities to that pursuit) for all, including posterity.
The rest of the Constitution defines our process – assigning to Congress the power to make and fund laws and programs; assigning to the Courts the power to clarify adherence to the law (preeminently to the Constitution); and assigning to the President the power of an executive to administer the programs and protections of government according to law.
What we can draw as our own from the Jewish High Holy Days is remembrance that the Law, humanely (or better, divinely) lived, keeps us safe and happy within the Book of Life. If you don’t agree that those laws optimize your safety and happiness, as a citizen you can work and vote to change them.
This week’s celebrations highlight our most important work right now, I think – to examine how we are living and to work for a new year of more perfect union.
May our efforts as individuals and as a society allow the Book of Life to say of us, Shofar, so good.