Seven Blessings Celebrating the First Year in Office of President Barack Obama.
By Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniels
1) We are in awe and in wonder before and within the Unity of All and we express our appreciation for being Jews embraced by the bountiful freedoms that are "America."
2) We are in awe and in wonder before and within the Unity of All, realizing that our presence in this nation is a gift, as it is for all our fellow citizens.
3) We are in awe and in wonder before and within the Unity of All, recognizing that we live in an extraordinary time of a wonderful accomplishment - the election of this country's first African-American president. One year after the election of President Barack Obama, we still find ourselves uplifted and buoyed by the realization of this dream that represents and means so much.
4) We are in awe and in wonder before and within the Unity of All, acknowledging that our hopes for President Obama are fueled by the many disappointments already experienced and the obstacles that still stand in the way of achieving some of our most fundamental goals: equality for all races, ethnic backgrounds and nationalities, gender equality, full rights and dignity for the LGBT community, living wages, decent housing, ample educational opportunities and quality health care for all, and safety and security for ourselves and our loved ones. In the first year of his presidency, Mr. Obama has taken steps to address all of these issues and for that he has our great gratitude and admiration. As Jewish-Americans we are inspired to work toward the accomplishments of all these objectives as well, and we have one more - peace for Israel alongside a sovereign Palestine.
5) We are in awe and in wonder before and within the Unity of All, understanding that the "All" and the "Unity" must include both Israelis and Palestinians, knowing that we must share in the creation of symbiotic and cooperative destinies and we pledge to take responsibility for the welfare of each other's children as well as our own.
6) We are in awe and in wonder before and within the Unity of All, remembering that President Barack Obama's first set of phone calls from the Oval Office were to key leaders in the Middle East, beginning with Palestinian President Mahmood Abbas and shortly thereafter Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Many of us have prayed for such a demonstration of a U.S. commitment to peace and our prayer now is that these initial steps are nurtured so that they soon bear fruit.
7) We are in awe and in wonder before and within the Unity of All and we call forth an abundant commitment from ourselves and from President Barack Obama to continue to work for the day when the sounds of warfare, violence hatred and retribution, in Jerusalem and throughout the world, will be replaced by the sounds of singing, joy, familial love, sovereignty and safety. May this first year of hope for President Obama become a day of hope realized for Israel and Palestine.
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8/23 
beautiful prayer . . . O, let it be so . . .
A moving and beautiful prayer for us all.
I'll take terrorism over totalitarianism
Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniels:
Tevareh le tovat aam Israel ve a holam coulo.
Tevareh le ma che tov, lo le tovat raa,
Al teleh le iboud
AM ISRAEL HAI
Obama the Divider
Posted: 04/7/10Filed Under:Barack Obama, Health Care, Obama Administration 402 Comments + Join the discussion »TEXT SIZE:AAAPRINT SHARE
One of the core claims made by Barack Obama during his presidential campaign -- a commitment absolutely central to his run for the presidency -- is that he would change the political culture of Washington.
He would, by the force and power of his personality, uproot old habits.
He would elevate the national debate, usher in an unprecedented period of transparency, eschew "spin" and the "50 plus one" style of governing, and "turn the page" on the "old politics" of division and anger.
The political culture has changed, but arguably for the worse.
Obama has already established himself as the most polarizing first-year president in modern times.
Our politics is tumultuous and often dyspeptic; there is anger all around.
Those conducting focus groups report that citizens are turning against one another in a way that is disquieting.
The political divisions within our society appear to be deepening rather than healing.
From the Obama perspective, the reasons for all this have to do not with him but with his critics.
Many of them are, according to some of Obama's chief defenders, people who are racist and bigoted, Klansmen without the robes and hoods, individuals who have not made inner peace with a president who is African-American.
Obama's critics are attempting to incite, or about to employ, political violence. Sarah Palin, in particular, uses phrases that act like a dog whistle.
Other Americans, we are told, are simply fearful because of the difficult economic times we face.
This is a moment of great discontent.
Obama, it is said, is an enlightened (!!!!) agent of change, helping to bring a sometimes reluctant and benighted citizenry from where it is to where it needs to be.
This journey, while necessary, can be unsettling.
And of course the locus of our divisions can be found in talk radio, the bane of our human existence, and Fox News.
These are the pillars of the vast right-wing conspiracy. And vast it is.
Barack Obama may have the presidency, Democrats may control the House and the Senate, and most members of the press may have voted, in overwhelming numbers, for Obama -- but the right wing is still winning the messaging war.
It is both malignant and in possession of almost mythical communication powers.
That, at least, is one narrative. There is another. It goes like this.
President Obama took office with tremendous good will being shown to him.
His approval numbers a year ago were in the high 60s.
He was an admired figure in many quarters, and the fact that America had elected an African-American was a source of great pride, given that slavery was our country's original sin.
Obama also had huge majorities in the House and Senate to work with.
Few presidents, upon taking office, had as much working in their favor as did Barack Obama.
But almost from the outset, Obama began pushing an ambitious liberal agenda in a nation that is center-right.
Facing an unprecedented fiscal crisis, Obama unveiled initiatives and budgets that made things far worse.
In addition, after a yearlong debate on Obamacare, the president is pushing his agenda over the strong objections of most Americans, who are saying, in every way they know how, "Stop."
But Obama is indifferent to their wishes.
He knows better.
Add to this the fact that a considerable number of Americans believe that the means that Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have used to pass health care reform are at best questionable and at worst an abuse of power, and you have the ingredients for a popular uprising against Obamaism, which is exactly what is unfolding.
It doesn't help, of course, that the White House and its allies attack their critics in a manner that ranges from mocking to vicious.
The combination of an unpopular agenda being advanced through ugly and indefensible back-room deals, without any of the transparency that Obama promised, has created a sense among a growing number of Americans of what the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche called "ressentiment," by which he meant not only opposition but something more: a sense of injury caused by a perceived injustice (James Davison Hunter discusses Nietzsche's views in his new book "To Change The World: The Irony, Tragedy, & Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World").
Just how troublesome or unusual all of this is remains a debatable matter.
My own view is that our debates should be less ad hominem and more spirited, less trivial and more serious.
Some trends we are seeing, in terms of the tone and civility in politics, are disturbing.
Still, as a general matter, I accept that divisions, partisanship, and polarization are part of the warp and woof of American politics.
Within reasonable limits, they are not terribly problematic.
And they can even serve a useful function when it comes to clarifying differences.
But that is not the platform on which Mr. Obama ran and won.
He raised, to great effect, expectations beyond anything we had ever seen.
He is the person who portrayed himself as the healing balm for American politics.
He would reach across the aisle. He would inspire comity and common purpose.
We have seen none of this.
And while blame can be shared all around, Barack Obama and his style of governing are primarily responsible for the roiled state of American politics today.
The president is violating, on a routine basis, his core campaign commitment.
He deserves to be, and he and his party will be, held accountable for the seeds they have sown, for the fissures they have created, and for the disharmony they have caused.
"Hope and change" seem like a lifetime ago.
Thank goodness for people willing to be who they are at a personal cost to their own comfort levels so others can do it more easily.
Obama has come a long way even since the year after his inauguration. Great post.