Tonight, Hillary Rodham Clinton will speak to the nation,
accepting the Democratic nomination for president of the United States.
I have at times been a reluctant supporter of Sec.
Clinton. In many ways, I would have
preferred a progressive with a stronger populist streak, more critical of Wall
Street and the Democratic party establishment.
But tonight I celebrate this nomination. This is an historic occasion, and I am eager
to see the election of America’s first female president. Tonight I celebrate the fact that my three
daughters might aspire to the highest levels of leadership just as much as my
son. And tonight I celebrate the promise
of hope over fear, of the Democrats’ vision of America as a land of expanding
possibility rather than Donald Trump and his party’s dark and narrow
dystopia. Thank you, Hillary Clinton,
for your leadership here.
And the timing is uncannily in sync with the Jewish
year. This Shabbat, we will read the
story of five brave women—Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah—the daughters
of Zelophehad, who came to Moses with a quiet but revolutionary request: let us
inherit land in Canaan, just like the men.
God responds by heartily approving their request, noting: “They speak
justly.” The great contemporary
commentator Avivah Zornberg adds: “Before a word has been spoken, the narrative
has set these sisters in a world that holds no obvious place for them. . . The
sisters’ fine timing is expressed in their speaking against the grain of common
prejudice. Here, then, to speak at the
right moment is to speak precisely at the wrong moment. It is to speak without the support of
conventional frameworks; to speak at the particular historical moment when
one’s speech will resound uncannily—when it may create change.”
May Hillary Rodham Clinton’s speech tonight, and her actions
in the coming weeks and months, echo that of these five biblical foremothers, courageously
paving the way for justice, for hope, for compassion, for change.
I’m with her.
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