The shocking displays of political power running amok in the past weeks bring to the forefront a question facing clergy everywhere – how far can we go in our sermons and our statements before we cross an invisible line? After all, our congregants are not uniform in their views or their personal political allegiances. We do run the risk of creating divisions within or having members simply walking out or asking for our heads on a platter, or of going offside of what our congregation leaders might prefer.

The easy path is to write about nice things or a word or a phrase of Torah and to ignore the elephants running rampant through our world. But then again, as clergy, aren’t we tasked to be spiritual leaders? Don’t we have a moral obligation to speak moral truths to power? After all, if it doesn’t come from us, where will it come from?

How can we NOT speak out when we see political policies that go against EVERYTHING we stand for as a Jewish people, our core Jewish values? I have done this before, and I will do so now.

In a recent edition of Forward, Rabbi Joshua Davidson spoke up about the “xenophobic, transphobic and nativist rhetoric” employed by Trump’s campaign. He too sets aside urgings to stay silent on the pulpit because it might be “divisive” and that “church and synagogue are spaces too sacred for the messiness of politics.”  How can we NOT express our most deeply held beliefs, drawn from our religious teachings, and stay silent?

I fully endorse his comment that when our politicians openly challenge many of the values that I/we hold dear – including by terrifying minority communities and dividing Jews: “It is clear to me that to speak those values from the pulpit remains a Jewish mandate. Judaism demands action and deplores indifference. No honest measure of Torah’s teachings endorses the distancing of Jewish interests from societal concerns.”

I do plan to speak up because it is what I do. And I hope that you too find the strength and courage to be you, to bring light into darkness always, for that is and always has been our way.

Shabbat shalom,

Rabbi Allan