January 22, 2025|כ"ב טבת ה' אלפים תשפ"ה Inauguration and Extortion, Pageantry and Pain By Rabbi Efrem Goldberg

Why are we so captivated by a presidential inauguration?

 

In 1797, after John Adams was inaugurated as second president of the United States, succeeding George Washington, he wrote to his wife Abigail, "When the Ceremony was over, [Washington] came and made me a visit and cordially congratulated me and wished my Administration might be happy, successful and honourable."  Four years later, in 1801, the transfer of power from Adams to Jefferson was significant as it was the first transfer between political opponents.  It was uncomfortable, but it was successful. 

 

With the inauguration of a new American president, we have come to expect a peaceful transfer of power, a hallmark of American democracy.  Whether you are excited or disappointed in the outcome of this election and no matter your opinion on who rose his hand to be sworn in, we should all be grateful and proud that this week we experienced a peaceful transfer of power. Perhaps what is so captivating is the celebration of the democratic process itself and the comfort we take in it.

 

As all of America inaugurated and many celebrated a new president, we may have felt like this exercise in American democracy is a given in our lives, since it is all we have ever known.  But the truth is America is relatively young.  This was only the 60^th inauguration.  Just two hundred and fifty years ago, there was no democracy called the United States of America. 

 

In contrast to America’s relative youth, God promised the land of Israel to Avraham Avinu almost 4,000 years ago.  He made good on that promise when the Jewish people marched into the land with Yehoshua 3,430 years ago.  Almost 2,500 years ago, we returned to Israel with Ezra and Nechemia.  After a long and bitter loss of sovereignty in our homeland, just over seventy-five years ago, we returned to govern and defend ourselves in the modern State of Israel.

 

The Jewish connection to Israel is sixteen times longer than America has existed, and nevertheless, while America celebrated its 60th inauguration, Israel is still fighting for its very right to exist.  Over the last year and a half, our brothers and sisters in Israel have been facing enemies on seven fronts, all bent on Israel’s demise, all denying the Jewish right to the Land of Israel.  As President Trump addressed his inaugural parade, families of Israelis being held hostage for 472 unimaginable days stood behind him holding posters of their loved ones and draped in symbolic yellow scarves as the arena chanted, “BRING THEM HOME!”

While America’s leadership was attending ceremonies with pomp and circumstance and changing outfits between inaugural balls, Israel’s leaders were making impossible decisions and concessions and fighting to keep its coalition alive. 

 

The Jewish world couldn’t be more grateful or joyous to welcome Emily Damari, Romi Gonen, and Doron Steinbrecher home from captivity, but that joy is severely tempered by the cost of their release and by how many remain behind. 

 

As Alan Dershowitz neatly put it:

 

The decision by the Israeli government to make significant concessions to the Hamas kidnappers should never be called a “deal.” It was an extortion. Would you call it a deal if somebody kidnapped your child and you “agreed” to pay ransom to get her back? Of course not. The kidnapping was a crime. And the extortionate demand was an additional crime.

 

So the proper description of what occurred is that Israel, pressured by the United States, capitulated to the unlawful and extortionate demands of Hamas as the only way of saving the lives of kidnapped babies, mothers and other innocent, mostly civilian, hostages.

 

This was not the result of a negotiation between equals. If an armed robber puts a gun to your head and says, “your money or your life,” your decision to give him your money would not be described as a deal. Nor should the extorted arrangement agreed to by Israel be considered a deal. So let’s stop using that term.

 

Agreeing to be extorted may be the right decision but it is a deeply tragic one.  It is painful for the entire Jewish people and should be for decent people everywhere.  But it is also painful for God Himself.  When wickedness exists in the world, when it triumphs it is a chillul Hashem, a desecration of God and His name.

 

In Tachanun on Mondays and Thursdays, we ask, “עד מתי עוזך בשבי ותפארתך ביד צר?, Hashem, how long will You allow Your strength be held hostage?  How long will You let Your glory be in the hand of the enemy?”  Is there a greater galus, a darker exile, than God Himself seeming to be in captivity?

 

When I think about the majesty and excitement of a presidential inauguration, it makes me think about what we are really davening for when we ask Hashem to redeem us from this galus.  On the one hand, America’s continuous government for almost 250 years strikes as captivating, impressive, and in a way more remarkable than Israel’s 76-year history.  However, when you consider the miracle of two thousand years of dispersion, persecution and attempts at systematic extermination, the return of the Jewish people to our homeland and the revival of sovereignty and self-autonomy in our country, with all of the challenges and problems, it is hard to think of a greater miracle.

 

In the introduction to his siddur, Rav Yaakov Emden (1697-1776) describes that our very survival through galus, our mere existence, is the greatest miracle,  greater than the miracles we read about in the Torah and Tanach.  He wrote: “By the life of my soul! When I contemplated these wonders, they appeared greater to me than all the miracles and wonders that HaShem Yisbarach performed for our forefathers in Egypt, and the wilderness, and the Land of Israel.” 

 

The Talmud (Berachos 19b) quotes R’ Elazar bar Tzadok who said, “I and my fellow Kohanim would jump over coffins of the deceased in order to hurry towards kings of Israel to greet them.” And they did not say this only towards kings of Israel, but they said this even towards kings of the nations of the world, so that if one will be privileged to witness the redemption of Israel, he will distinguish between kings of Israel and kings of the nations of the world.

 

As we watch the 60^th American inauguration, and pay homage to its pomp, circumstance and pageantry, we do so knowing that one day, the people being extorted and fighting for its very existence will welcome the King Moshiach and that day will put to shame the pomp and circumstance of today.