Make Jan. 6 A Day Of National Soul-Searching

Jewish tradition models a path for communal reflection and penance.

A somber anniversary: How can we incorporate lessons learned and ensure an end to threats against our democratic way of life?

Jan. 6 marks the first anniversary of the most violent and dramatic attack on the U.S. Capitol – and American democracy – since the 1814 war with the British. The president and vice-president and other national leaders in Washington will mark the somber occasion by addressing the nation.

They will, no doubt, denounce the actions of the gathering one year ago that became a mob, a rally that turned into a bloody insurrection. Our leaders will call for unity and an end to violence. Such rhetoric is comforting and necessary because over the last five years, we have witnessed the slow drip-drip of declining democracy in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

We have reached the point where talk of the possibility of another civil war – this one not waged on bloody battlefields but via social media and the false narratives that emanated from the Trump White House – is being discussed by respected political scientists and historians as a real possibility.

In her new book, “How Civil Wars Start And How To Stop Them,” Barbara Walter, a scholar on civil wars around the world, brings a range of data leading her to conclude that the U.S. today is in “a danger zone.”

One of the few things that a great majority of Americans share at this moment is a sense that our country is in trouble, and spiraling downward. Most troubling is that they blame this on the beliefs and actions of their political adversaries. But the level of enmity has surpassed Red vs. Blue; it’s now perceived as a battle between good and evil. And a growing number of Americans say violence against the government can be acceptable at times.

Can anything be done to reverse our society’s road to ruin?

There’s a lesson in how Jewish history and tradition have dealt with times of great societal stress, going back to biblical times. Fasting was one of the Torah’s key rituals of Yom Kippur as a day of communal penance. Later it was utilized by the sages as a primary means of both personal and communal “cheshbon hanefesh” – internal soul-searching and seeking forgiveness from God.

In the Purim story, on learning of the plan to annihilate the Jews of Persia, Queen Esther urges Mordechai to have all the Jews of Shushan fast along with her for three days before she approaches the king to intervene. We still celebrate the story’s happy ending each year .

It is not only Jews, though, who were saved in ancient times through fasting.

In the Book of Jonah, the people of Nineveh, on hearing from the prophet of God’s decision to destroy them for their wicked ways, are able to reverse the decree by fasting as a sign of their sincere repentance.

Centuries later, fasting is still a part of Jewish tradition, whether it is an individual marking the yahrtzeit of a loved one, or a community called upon to ward off an imminent danger or recall a sad event.

In the Jewish calendar, we observe five fast days in addition to Yom Kippur, each commemorating a tragedy or near-tragedy.

The Fast of Esther led to the Jewish people being saved from mass destruction.The Fast of Gedaliah marked the assassination, by a fellow Jew, of the man who was the head of the community after the destruction of the First Temple. It led to the end of Jewish autonomy in the land … until 1948.

The other three fasts – the Tenth of Tevet, The 17th of Tammuz and Tisha B’Av (the 9th of Av) – are related to the destruction of the First and Second Temples. They are identified simply – and powerfully – by a date on the calendar, just as we now refer to 9-11 and, for many, today, 1-6.

How remarkable it would be if in his remarks, President Biden would call on the American people to set aside 1-6 each year as a day of renewed national commitment and personal reflection. An element of fasting, however symbolic, would encourage the kind of soul-searching that stirs us to better ourselves, as individuals and as citizens.

It would be a day in which each of us commits to the tenets of our democratic society, pledging that “We the People,” as our Founding Fathers wrote, help make America “a more perfect union” and “secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.” 

In other words, a call for a civil society, not a civil war.

How sad that we need to be reminded of our humanity, one for the other. How noble it would be if we held it dear.