I think voting resembles prayer: I could be wrong

Yesterday, I voted in the Israeli national election. I cast my ballot for the party that I wanted to win. Some of the other parties represented positions close to that of my favored party. Others represent policies that I reject, or loathe, or fear. I feel like some advocates for those policies that I reject might have evil motives, or maybe they misinterpret the facts. When I think about it further, though, I realize that I can construct  rational arguments in favor of each of those policies. Even the policies that I most dislike have bases in reality. My own perception of reality, my own reasoning, and my own feelings, all can prove unreliable. Maybe other policies than the ones I espouse would lead to better results.

Even the parties that I reject most vehemently have sane reasons for their policies.

So I cast my vote, commanding the party that I like best to govern the nation. My vote has a miniscule impact on the aggregate votes of everyone else in the eligible electorate. A coalition eventually will form, governing in ways that I like and ways that I do not.

Even so, I do vote, as a kind of act of faith.

In a way, this process of voting resembles prayer. I refer to a central theme of prayer, making requests of God. Asking for what we want fits the word, “prayer,” which means making a formal plea as if in court. In Hebrew, “tefillah,” also means making a formal plea, as if arguing my case in court. In the classical Hebrew prayer book, I even formulate some of these pleas in the imperative. I instruct God to “heal us,” and to “restore our judges” and “give us dew and rain,” and so forth. Analyzed rationally, this theme seems so illogical that calling it “ridiculous” gives it too much dignity: It seems beyond silly to tell, or order, God to do what I want.

For this reason, I think, the classical prayer book consistently adds the word, “beRahamim,” = “lovingly,” meaning, I recognize the downside of potentially getting what I want; please lovingly ignore my requests when I request what would work out badly.

So I make my plea, as if commanding God to act as I want. My request may have miniscule impact on what happens in the world. What happens in the world I attribute to God, and I accept reality as it unfolds. I wisely do not expect my prayers to determine the future.

Even so, I do say the traditional prayers. Even those of us who do not say traditional prayers have our own ways of yearning for peace, security, the health of our children, and, yes, benevolent governance.

What people yearn for in their prayerful moments, and what they vote for in election booth, may not actually be what they need, and seem unlikely to determine the outcome, but we make the effort.