VAYEIRA - A HORRIBLY BITTER ELECTION

As the 2020 election counting process drags on with no clear winner in sight, and no one conceding defeat, Rabbi Dunner recalls another knife-edge presidential election - the contentious presidential contest of 1800. Thomas Jefferson called it the "Second American Revolution", and it resulted in profound changes to the nascent United States democracy project. And just like the 2020 election, in the period before and after the election feelings ran high, and at times threatened the country's future. Connecting these events with the parsha, Rabbi Dunner cites a pertinent Talmudic passage in Berachot about Abraham, based on a verse in Vayeira, in which the Talmud hints at a path to take us forward when everything around us seems to be collapsing.