Hello, and welcome.  Thank you for joining us. Today, our prayer leader is @sp4rrowh4wk:  
The Talmud gives us the following:
O mankind! We made you into nations and tribes, so that you may come to know one another. 
Truly, the most honored of you in God’s sight is the greatest in piety. 
God is All-Knowing, All-Aware. - Talmud [49:13]
Previously in human existence, only small, tightly knit tribal/family groups could survive.
It was vital that these groups be bound to each other; bonds of blood or ritual defined us, kept us safe
Unwavering beliefs and allegiance to the tribe or family guaranteed survival of tribal elders.  
This ‘re-ligio’ (Latin: to bind together again)- is as necessary for survival as food, water, sleep, sex.
Deny a person physical togetherness, and classical symptoms of sensory deprivation will ensue.
The reassurance of tribal belonging at the base of the spirituality of religion is not optional
For the human animal, religion in some form or other, is a non-negotiable necessity.
it is not because we need a God, so much as each other, that we practice exclusion
Rituals and religions which bind a group also, of necessity, exclude others from it.
But we have outgrown this need for exclusion, while keeping and expanding the definition of ‘family’.
We participate in a bonding of words and shared beliefs here day and night. Why? How does it benefit us?
Are we enhancing our tribe? That is: are all of us on #IranElection Persians? Extremely doubtful.
Then, is this community our tribe? Only if we accept entirely new definitions of tribe and tribal.
We are carrying on a fight for people with whom we share nothing except desire for freedom and our humanity.
We have finally realized, collectively and without coercion, that we can't really have one without the other;
that until all of us are freed- none of us are truly free.
We have evolved past the need for small xenophobic groups. We choose our own groups.
We fight for survival of our own groups. We define our own groups. We exercise democracy in its purest form-
and yes, even trolls are participating. Adding their voices to a tribe which accepts them for what they are.
Are we not contributing to and legitimizing this process? Are we not celebrating world cliques, world families?
All of us are responsible for peace, not just those in government.
And each day we show our willingness to be responsible, and to share this responsibility.
Are we not like the body that is made up of different limbs and organs?
All mortal creatures exist depending upon one another.
Daily we demonstrate to the world, that the whole world is our family.
Daily others say our position is worthless – not realizing how much their efforts prove they are mistaken.
The bonds linking our true family are rarely those of blood, but of respect and joy in each other
Does this mean we choose our family?
Or are they in fact a gift from God, as we are gifts to each other, as you are to me?
In our family, do we have those who feel lonely, who feel sick, who feel worried?
These are difficult days for all of us. Yet are we not here? Here to receive them, as mother to child?
We support each other in our support of freedom from tyranny.
We give help to each other, even as we give help to those who are silent in their oppression.
We wish to defeat darkness by spreading light
When one of us feels as if their light has gone out is it not brought back to a flame by another human being?
Each of us rekindles this light in the world and in each other. Daily.
Daily- I give thanks for those who rekindle this light.
We choose to unite, and this makes for a higher realization of unity.
Why higher? Because we must overcome our obvious differences
Why else would the Infinite have divided us into separate nations
than for us to reach a point in our development when we would truly come to know one another
in spite of – perhaps even because of – our differences?
Mohandas Ghandi has said, "All humanity is one undivided and indivisible family,
and each one of us is responsible for the misdeeds of all the others.
I cannot detach myself from the wickedest soul."
By extension then, each of us is also responsible for all the glorious deeds of all the others-
We also cannot be separated from these most righteous deeds.  Please do not forget.