Rabbi Pruzansky's Blog

         Those who lament the rancor, pettiness, name-calling and puerility of the presidential debate (I am among them) should realize that this nastiness has existed for several decades and pervades election campaigns at all levels, and especially targets people nominated for a seat on the Supreme Court by Republican presidents. It is not ending anytime soon. Gone are the days when politicians bickered by day and drank together in the evening. President Trump doesn’t drink.

        It is inconceivable that the President should win re-election, and I write that as an unabashed supporter. Most indicators point towards his defeat, even if his policies have been a boon to the American economy and a boost to its spirit. President Trump certainly has a compelling case to make for his re-election but he is often not the person best equipped to make that case.

        Unfairly, he will be blamed for the pandemic’s havoc in American life and its high death toll. No one really knows what to do; there is no panacea. Israel is now locked down for two weeks, one month, two months – no one knows for how long or why anything should be different whenever society reopens. Joe Biden’s suggestions were all implemented, and the most effective ones President Trump introduced were the ones Joe Biden opposed. The United States, like Israel, has yet to decide whether it will live with the virus, come what may, or live for the virus, upend civil society, ruin children’s lives, and put life on hold until something that no one can truly anticipate happens.

       Nevertheless, the buck stops with the President, fair or unfair.

       Consequently, pandemic aside, Democrats will tendentiously point to the cold, hard statistics.  They will ignore the Trump boom, record low unemployment, a recovery of manufacturing and improved foreign trade conditions – all before the Coronavirus entered the American bloodstream – and simply advertise this: measuring from the day Trump took office until today, unemployment is way up, manufacturing is way down, the GDP has taken a major hit and the deficit has skyrocketed. Forget the reason and the fine print; those are the cold facts.

       It is inconceivable that President Trump can win re-election with those numbers. And, it should be added, Democrats are more skilled at election cheating than are Republicans (witness the Minnesota Senate race in 2008, four formerly Republican congressional seats in California in 2018, and continued shenanigans in the last year). Democrats will stop at nothing to defeat Donald Trump in 2020. One has to be naïve to believe that fake ballots filled in by the tens of thousands do not already exist in six key swing states, ready to be trotted out a day or two after Election Day, as needed by the Democrats, to be tallied and (oops) tossed out. That alone would make a Trump victory in 2020 even more shocking than in 2016.

      And yet, it is inconceivable that Joe Biden can be elected president of the United States. It seems patently clear that his mind is no longer sharp, and his verbal and intellectual stumbles are conspicuous. He has had a lackluster career – literally, a career politician – without any

significant or enduring accomplishment as a Senator (unless you consider his inauguration of the execrable custom of persecuting, in personally degrading terms, Supreme Court nominees of Republican presidents, which he did as Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman by the borking of Robert Bork and the high-tech lynching of Clarence Thomas).

      He has run away from major bills he supported (the crime bill and NAFTA of the 1990’s) and, as former Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrote, Biden has been on the wrong side of every major foreign policy decision for the last forty years. While Trump may overwhelm foreign leaders (and others) with his braggadocio, he intimidates them with his unpredictability and shocks them with his unconventionality. Conversely, it is hard to imagine any foreign leader taking Biden seriously, and he has long confused knowing a leader with having any influence or real dialogue with them.

      He is devoid of achievement, essentially winning social promotions every few years, except if you consider that Biden almost singlehandedly put the kibosh on the #Metoo movement as those activists were forced to ignore Biden’s predations. And while both men seem incapable of expressing complete thoughts in grammatically correct sentences, Trump’s mind seems to work too fast, Biden’s too slowly. Biden’s zingers are programmed, his policies an amorphous mush concocted by others and not fully digested by the candidate, and he communicates facts and fictions indiscriminately, and with equal gusto.

      If it is inconceivable that either man should win, what is a voter to do?

      Being a New Yorker myself (born and raised) I always sensed that the rest of the country would have trouble relating to the brashness of a typical New Yorker like Donald Trump. (An ABC executive infamously rejected Seinfeld claiming it was “too New York” and would never resonate elsewhere.) Somehow Trump pulled it off, and I am reminded every few days of Salena Zito’s insightful observation of several years ago that Trump’s enemies take him literally but not seriously, while his supporters take him seriously but not literally.

      Take his policies seriously – and their effect on the America that its citizens love. That is not the America that is incurably racist, born in original sin and hopelessly evil. That is not the America that plays the identity politics games that demand that Biden appoint a “woman of color” as his running mate, and another “woman of color” as a Supreme Court justice – as if people are to be ultimately defined by such external, minor characteristics. Rav Soloveitchik wrote very tellingly that, as opposed to other creatures like animals, “Man…is individually valued. Secularists, who reject man’s metaphysical pretensions, implicitly impair his claims of individual worthiness…If the individual is significant only by virtue of his being part of the collective, then man may be legitimately exploited and abused if it serves some presumed higher social good. This is statism, the total empowerment of the state at the cost of individual liberty.” He might not know or even intend it, but this is Joe Biden’s America.

        Trump’s America is not one that promotes the forced redistribution of wealth, rewards sloth, blackmail and violence and penalizes individual initiative and entrepreneurship. What is Trump’s America? A country that celebrates freedom, especially of speech and worship, rejects the cancel culture created by fascists and respects the value system and moral yearnings of the faith communities. Trump’s America liberates the creative, commercial energies of its citizens, encourages free enterprise, and has greatly expanded the black middle class. Isn’t it racist to consider blacks – as Biden does – permanent wards of the state incapable of self-help? And yet it is Trump who is routinely called a racist because he treats blacks as equals, not as special-needs cases, and has benefited their lives immensely through prison reform and economic opportunity zones. Nonetheless, it is the blacks, like the Jews, who will inexplicably vote for the Democrat whoever he might be and whatever she might say.

       It is unequivocal – beyond debate – that President Trump has been the best president for Jews ever. Ever. Whatever his personal baggage, Trump respects the moral commitment of Torah Jews, has welcomed them into his inner circle and has enacted numerous policies that aid Jews and all people of faith.

    And on Israel? There has been no stauncher ally and friend of Israel than President Trump. He is not just a relative friend, to be compared favorably to the hostility of Obama-Biden who rewarded Iran, effectively subsidized its global terror, and befriended other dictators like Castro. Trump did things that no other President did, most of whom realized that Jews were content with saccharine rhetoric and soothing promises even if they went unfulfilled. The Trump list is long and well known, and partially includes: recognizing Yerushalayim as the capital, moving the embassy, recognizing the Golan Heights and the legality of Israel’s settlements in the heartland of Judea and Samaria, preempting the Iran nuclear deal, backing Israel unequivocally in the United Nations, spearheading peace agreements with other Arab states, marginalizing the Palestine terror entities, defunding them and expelling them from the US and from being players in world and regional diplomacy, etc.

      One former Obama official wrote recently that Trump is really anti-Israel because he has done little to further the two state illusion. Well, if that defines one as anti-Israel, then most Israelis today are anti-Israel as well.

             What to do in an election between two candidates when it is inconceivable that either should win? Buckle up – and vote for the candidate who will strengthen America, its standing in the world, its virtues, its deepest aspirations, and its commitment to individual liberty.

     That the coming Yamim Noraim (Days of Awe) will be different than any we have previously experienced is a given. But does it not have the potential to be exceptional, perhaps even better than any other? It is saying a lot but let us explore how that is possible.

     The year of Corona has upended our lives in numerous ways. It became a mitzvah not to go to shul. The Talmud’s stark choice that extols the virtues of socializing – “either companionship or death” (Taanit 23a) – became a mockery of itself, when seeking companionship became a cause of death and isolation became the norm, a desideratum. Healthy people suddenly fell ill; communities suffered horrible losses. The world economy crashed. A robust economy in America and Israel became anemic, and many millions lost their jobs. Entire industries shut down, and some will not recover for years, if ever.

     Faith in government, already feeble, collapsed, and trust in the “rule of the experts,” a staple of liberal thinking since the Wilson administration, dissipated in the wake of contradictory and error-filled decisions. The same experts who were adamant about not wearing a mask became equally adamant about wearing one; ditto with the certainty (then lack of certainty) for surface transmission, for airborne transmission at 6 feet, 7 feet (or is it 27 feet?), for lockdowns versus herd immunity, for the efficacy of one drug over another.

       Indeed, “all the powerful men are like nothing before You… the wise men without knowledge, the scholars without intelligence.” Mankind, after a year like this one, should feel humbled, very small, vulnerable, and awestruck before the Creator whom we, evidently, do not control, and whose inscrutable will is beyond our ken. With all the obeisance paid to science – and all the fawning deference some want to show to “science,” however inconsistent and conflicting are its conclusions, and however limited its scope when measured against other vital global factors – it is abundantly clear that science does not have all the answers. It is risible to “follow the science,” when the science is confused, uncertain, too often wrong, and inconclusive. Here in Israel, the authorities are flailing about trying to find some way to halt or reverse the spread of Corona, this to the distress of many citizens who have little confidence that anything will change in three weeks after another lockdown – and that if it does change, that these Draconian lockdowns will have had anything to do with it.

     On Rosh Hashana, as we hail the melech elyon, the Supreme King, we also underscore the fragility of the melech evyon, the impecunious king – man – whose ego is as boundless as his ultimate capacities are feeble. The authorities, the experts, mean well and I presume that most are sincere. Man’s talents were enlisted to combat this deadly disease and many devoted people are making a difference, bringing relief to the ailing. But no one really saw this coming, knew with any certainty how to deal with it once it arrived, and thus are still struggling to arrest and overcome. It is most humbling. And it should remain humbling, even if a cure or vaccine is found.

     Those who pay careful attention to the davening remember all the phrases from the moving liturgical poem “u’netaneh tokef” that took on new meaning this year, and not just “Who will live and who will die.” “Who by fire” – and the conflagrations that bedevil the entire west coast of the United States. “Who by water” – and the floods that ravage various parts of the world suddenly and without warning. “Who by earthquake” – and the horrible toll that takes on human life. But all that is ordinary, part of the natural order, and even sadly familiar to us.

     But is this? “Who by magefa, plague?” Who thought a year ago that a plague would sweep across the globe, transforming the lives of every nation? “And who by chanika, stragulation?” Too many people, healthy people, within just a few minutes, found themselves unable to breathe for reasons that were not immediately discernible. Certainly those phrases should resonate with us this year, as we contemplate the greatness of G-d and the frailties of man, the pinnacle of His creation. Afflictions that we thought were relics of a bygone era are now part of our daily lives. If that does not cause us to take stock and look to the heavens, then nothing will.

     If so, then we are blessed – if that is the right word – to be able to “cast our eyes to the heavens and perceive who created all of this” (Yeshayahu 40:26). Many Jews will be davening outdoors, under the skies, braving the heat in some places and weathering the chill in others. Being in nature is a different experience than sitting in an edifice constructed by human beings. Shuls evoke awe – the House of G-d – but nature evokes a sense of majesty, a universe created by His word and wisdom and according to His will. It is the classic feeling of “Yir’at Hashem” (the awe of G-d’s transcendence), when man reflects on the wonders of nature and “is immediately taken aback, stricken with awe, and realizes that he is a small, insignificant creature, dark, standing with a paucity of knowledge in the presence of One with perfect knowledge” (Rambam, Hilchot Yesodei Hatorah 2:2).

     That experience does not just fulfill the mitzvah of “Yir’at Hashem.” That experience is at the heart of Rosh Hashana, the coronation day of the King of Kings on which we sound the shofar to acknowledge and celebrate His kingship.

      This past year – año de la corona – was the year of the crown in one sense, and not just because of the virus that bears its name. It should have forced us to take the imaginary crowns off our heads and realize how exposed we are, and how flimsy can be our lives, our grandiose plans and our aspirations.

     May the New Year be another año de la Corona – a year of the true Crown – when we anoint G-d as King over the entire world and include ourselves as well (in R. Yisrael Salanter’s sardonic phrase), as among His servants. And may He hear our prayers, heal our wounds, end the scourges that distress His creatures, bless us  all with life, good health, prosperity, peace and redemption.

     Shana Tova to all!

What wouldn’t we give to have civility in our political campaigns, mutual respect between competitors, and an end to the bitterness and polarization that afflicts our society (wherever it is)? Just like it was in the good old days.      
It doesn’t take much examination or research to reveal the terrible shortcomings and personal malice involved in politics and the shabby treatment of leaders.  But imagine having a president ridiculed for being “superficially read in the history of any age, nation or country” and who “could not write a sentence without misspelling some word.”  Erstwhile supporters wished him a “speedy death” and attacked him for “monopolizing the glories” of past successes.” He was excoriated for profiting from the presidency and even selling his soul to a foreign country for material gain and colluding with a foreign government to the detriment of the United States. He was accused of acting as if he considered himself the “Emperor from Rome.”Horrible.   
   Imagine having a president who is routinely lambasted by the media, lied about with wanton recklessness in the most personal ways, characterized as a “tyrant” and an “enemy of his country.” He, in turn, denounces them as “infamous scribblers” who did little but heap “abuse” upon him. These same relentless media attacks were instrumental in the president declining to seek re-election, seeking to avoid the “arrows of malevolence” they daily shot his way.  
Moreover, to maintain diplomatic discretion, this president refused to release documents to a Congressional investigation and dared Congress to impeach him. (Congress declined, perhaps because the presidential term was soon expiring.)    
  Cabinet members turned on him. One was accused of taking bribes to aid a foreign country, and he in turn threatened to expose the president’s dirty secrets  – a president, he claimed, who possessed a “small mind” that was filled with “prejudice.” The political class was so divided, angrily so, that the Vice-President foresaw that both sides would “bite like savages and tear like lions.” And when this Vice-President ascended to the presidency, his own Vice-President secretly urged a foreign country not to negotiate a treaty. He informed them that they would receive better terms when the incumbent was gone and he became president.      
Who would want to live through such exhausting, vitriolic times? We would all prefer the good old days, right?     
  Well, those were the good old days. The president referred to above was none other than George Washington. (All the quotes are drawn from Michael Beschloss’s “Presidential Courage.”) There was always animosity towards Washington but what precipitated this particularly venomous episode towards the end of his second term was the negotiation and ratification of “Jay’s Treaty” with Britain.Washington was accused of selling out his country – much like, the indictment ran, he had conspired with George III during the Revolutionary War. He was seen as easily manipulated and suffered through warring cabinet secretaries who soon devolved into the leaders of rival political parties that Washington abhorred.   
   The allegedly crooked cabinet secretary was Edmund Randolph, the Attorney-General and then Secretary of State, accused of asking a French minister for a bribe in exchange for which he would tilt US foreign policy towards France and away from Britain, France’s arch-rival. He resigned, the allegations were never proven – but Randolph did need the money.     His cabinet secretaries – especially Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton – clashed frequently, publicly and vehemently. Hamilton, popular today with Broadway theater goers, was reviled by his peers of all stripes as an immoral schemer, and worse. But he had Washington’s ear, long after he left his formal government position.    
  The most antagonistic media entity, the Aurora, was published by Benjamin Bache, grandson of Benjamin Franklin, who despised GW absolutely and, it would seem, irrationally. But his publication was not the only one. Washington decried the “malicious falsehoods” and “vitriolic abuse” that hastened his departure from public life (he declined to run for a third term) and, his wife Martha later asserted, led him to an early grave. As often happens, history treated Washington much better than did his contemporaries.     
GW’s Vice-President, John Adams, had both a grudging respect and a terminal case of resentment towards Washington, knowing that he, Adams, would never achieve a modicum of the acclaim that Washington had. But Adams did garner the same level of hostility from the press, and their relationship was amicable and good-natured compared to Adams’ relationship with his own Vice-President, Thomas Jefferson, who routinely plotted against Adams, conspired with France, and then defeated Adams for the presidency in 1800.  
These were rough times.  Hamilton loathed Adams (and others) and the feelings were mutual. Hamilton would vent his spleen anonymously in newspapers, and then draft letters to the editor under another pseudonym supporting his anti- Adams screeds. Adams, as President, was limited to fulminating against Hamilton to his wife and his diary.   
In one of the most bizarre incidents in this tumultuous era, Frederick Muhlenberg, a pastor and Congressman from Pennsylvania (a college in Allentown is named for him) surprised and enraged people by supporting Washington and endorsing Jay’s Treaty. He maintained his support even after his son’s fiancée’s father threatened to break off the shidduch. He voted for the treaty anyway; reacting a bit aggressively, his own brother-in-law stabbed him.     
And we complain?  
   “You shall surely place a king over you” (Devarim 17:15) that is, you should fear him, even dread his power and authority (Masechet Sanhedrin 19b). The king of Israel was revered, partly because he had absolute power and would not respond kindly to being disrespected but mostly because he was the embodiment on earth of G-d’s kingship. Human beings who do not possess that divine mandate (meaning, everyone else) are at the mercy of other people’s printing presses, social media accounts, ridicule, obloquy, agendas and poor character. The successful ones ignore it and focus less on personal popularity and more on getting the job done.  
    It is hard to say whether we should be encouraged or discouraged that today’s rancorous and crude electoral politics are rather tepid by historical American standards. But the next time someone laments the venomous modern campaigns and personalities, and longs for the good old days, just admonish them that they should be careful what they wish for. Even George Washington had his fair share of detractors, and still does. The good old days were not that good – and probably a lot worse. Politics tends to attract some unsavory characters. It always was and always will be – until the coming of the righteous Messiah when honor for the human king will reflect the honor of the true King.