This Shabbat, pray for the electorate

We pray for our elected leaders, but not the people who elect them. This must change.

It certainly makes sense that prayers for the state mention the officeholders empowered to run the state. What is universally absent, however, is any reference to the people who empower those officeholders in the first place: namely, the voters. This absence is particularly conspicuous given that the vast majority of the world’s Jewish adults have voting rights in their countries of residence. Why do we pray for our elected officials and not the people who elected them?

In a new article for My Jewish Learning, I make the argument that it’s high time to institute a prayer for the electorate—and I offer a text that you can read in your synagogue this Shabbat. Read it here.