Ecclesiastes wrote, “A season is set for everything, a time for every experience under heaven…a time for silence and a time for speaking” (3:1,7). In this instance, all the speaking about Israel and the New York City mayoral race, among other races in other states, is done for now. We’ve heard sermons and podcasts, we’ve read blogs and social media posts, and we’ve heard each other. The votes were cast. Now the results are in and all the speaking is done.

Just as candidates campaign one way and might govern another, so do we, the constituent base and prospective voters, prepare for an election and then adjust to the outcome. In a democratic system, we honor the election outcome and work with those who won their race. Now it’s time to listen.

We’re listening to the candidates because our duty as citizens and voters is to hold our elected officials accountable. They made promises and aimed to hear their communities’ voices. Their success rides on their ability to shape the future according to these democratic processes or risk the next election when we vote again.

We’re also listening to each other, or at least we should be. The discordant voices heard during the election aren’t just neighbors on the other side of the city. They’re also our family members and friends, if they’re still in our circle of friendship. They’re also fellow Jews without whom our community’s fractures will create vulnerabilities for all of us. To heal the fractures that are evident to many of us, it’s time to listen more closely to each other.

Listening isn’t about talking at someone. Listening isn’t about millennials or Gen X talking at boomers or vice versa. It’s about civil, intelligent, and hopeful conversations that honor the roles that we all play in building the future we will share. Listening requires creating intentional spaces that observe guidelines for time to speak and time to be silent. Listening also requires guidelines for civil conversation that enable us to hear without shouting and to acknowledge one another without judgment. Listening works when we leave the conversation and feel closer to those with whom we thought we had nothing in common.

In the very near future, Congregation Beth Israel will follow up on words that I spoke on Erev Rosh Hashanah in my sermon, “When Family Gathers, Our Jewish Inheritance is at Stake”. My proposal is to gather parents and grandparents with young adults and young professionals to exchange wisdom across the generations on subjects that we all care about, beginning with Jewish identity, belonging, destiny, and Israel. It’s vital that we hear from each other. Grandparents and parents who have lived through, fought in, and experienced the transformation of a world that endured the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall have something to share about their fears about democratic socialism and Israel’s future. And young adults and young professionals have much to say about the world they inherited from their elders and want to build in their image and with their know-how at home and in Israel.

We will meet to engage more than once and then emerge with greater understanding. Ecclesiastes was right. There is “a time for silence and a time for speaking.” He also taught that there is “a time for war and a time for peace.” The time has come. Please look for an invitation to engage in table-talk across the generations as we work together, hand-in-hand and heart-to-heart for our future, together.

L’Shalom,