Beth Shalom
Oceanside Jewish Center

Dear Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry:
A Torah Message for our Candidates
Parshat Shoftim - 5764

August 21, 2004 - 7 Elul, 5764

You know, this is a tough time for a Rabbi to deliver a fair minded sermon. Not that there aren’t plenty of topics to talk about, and not that each Rabbi doesn’t have his own point of view. It’s just that with presidential elections around the corner, it’s hard to give a sermon on the events of the day with out sounding partisan, one way or the other.

We Jews tend to focus heavily on the security of the State of Israel. That’s understandable. We need to be advocates for the state of Israel no matter who is elected. But I’m not certain that that’s enough or that this should be our sole concern as American Jews when choosing our candidate. In fact I suspect at the end of the day the character of the president, whoever he happens to be, is just as important as the policies he espouses. That’s why we have a system of checks and balances in our government that makes sure that one person does not have undue influence over the entire political system. In choosing a leader we must look at the broader picture and consider who is good for our country and our world.

But I’m not here today to tell you for whom to vote. There are certain things which a Rabbi should keep to himself, and ‘who should be president’ is one of them. It’s our job to offer a prayer for whomever the president and vice president of the United States turns out to be. In the words of Pirke Avot we have an obligation to “Pray for the welfare of our country.”

With this in mind it occurred to me that I should write a letter to both candidates. They don’t need my advice on politics or policy but there is a thing or two that I could tell them about leadership and ethics. This week’s Torah Portion, Parshat Shoftim, has a great deal to teach us about how to be a good leader, or at least how to avoid being a bad one. As we enter this political season, then, it would do our candidates well if they opened the Gideon’s Bible in whatever hotel they find themselves and turned to the book of Deuteronomy. So here it goes: a message to our candidates.

Dear Mr. Bush and Kerry,

I’m writing to both of you at this time to wish you well in the upcoming political season. May the best man win whoever he may be. I have no doubt that whoever is elected president will serve our country faithfully and wholeheartedly. I hope you will remember this in the up-coming months as you campaign for office and share your vision with the people of our country. Please remember that whatever you have to say, both of you are patriots and men deeply committed to our nation. If you weren’t you would not have been chosen by your party to pursue this important office. Please show each other respect and treat each other with the dignity due a presidential candidate.

I know that there is not much that I can tell either of you about being president, or filling the awesome responsibility of leading the most powerful country in the world. There is one thing I would like to share with you. It is Deuteronomy, Chapter 17. Please take the time to read it. This chapter does not tell you what to believe or what policies are correct but how to act as the leader of a great nation.

Chapter 17 of Deuteronomy deals with the laws of a king. Of course, I know that you are only running for the presidency, not to be king of our country. But the laws found in Deuteronomy are just as relevant to a president as they are to a king. In fact, these laws have served as the basis for a constitutional monarchy. These laws do not tell us what a leader should do or believe but what he should avoid.

Basically Chapter 17 contains four laws. It instructs the king: to avoid having too many wives, amassing too much silver and gold, and it warns him not to have too many horses. Finally the king is commanded to write his own copy of the book of Deuteronomy and to keep it with him at all times.

Why does the Torah offer these warnings? The first two are obvious. There is nothing new about politicians using their authority to amass wealth or to feed their often oversized libido. Someone once said that power is the worst of aphrodisiacs – and we have seen that far too many times in recent years. Elsewhere in Deuteronomy we’re told that bribes “blind the eyes of the discerning and upset the plea of the just.” And while this passage is speaking specifically about judges, it applies equally to anyone who holds the public trust.

The third warning in Deuteronomy is a little harder to understand. What’s the fuss over owning horses? The Torah says that the king “Shall not keep many horses or send the people back to Egypt to add to his horses since the Lord has warned you, ‘You must not go back that way again.’”

So what’s this law talking about? Is the concern here that the king may be tempted to stockpile too many weapons at the expense of the people’s freedoms? Or is the Torah concerned about the king collecting horses for horse racing and other frivolous practices as one rabbi suggests?

Notice that the verse says, don’t “send the people back to Egypt” – that is, the entire nation. The Torah seems to be concerned about Israel imitating the very nation from which they only recently escaped. In other words it says: Don’t endanger your nation’s way of life by imitating the very nations against which you have rebelled.

It is possible that the Torah was concerned with Israel becoming dependent upon Egypt or any other nation. Horses may have been a little like our dependence upon oil or other resources today. The Torah warns the king not to compromise the independence of the nation.

Finally the Torah commands the king to create his own personal copy of the Torah and to keep it with him at all times. Actually one commentary suggests that the king should have two copies of the Torah – one to keep at home and one to carry with him. The Torah which the king carried was a reminder that he was bound by the very same laws as the other people, that no one is above the law of the land. It is so easy for a leader to act in a way that ignores the law of the land. And the copy that was kept at home was a reminder that the laws applied both in his personal life as well as his public life. Deuteronomy teaches us that no one has a right to act in a way which disregards the law of the land – even when he thinks he is doing so out of interest in the people.

There is much more to learn from these laws, gentlemen, but I will leave it to you to ponder the significance of Deuteronomy Chapter 17. For that matter you might want to read the rest of Deuteronomy from, “Justice, justice shall you pursue” to showing kindness to the stranger to helping those who are needy.

If you are elected, I know you will do your best but I hope you’ll also remember that this election is not about you. It’s about all of us. It is about making America a stronger nation. And it’s about being the kind of people who can take pride in themselves.

So, good luck to both of you. And if either of you need any advice don’t hesitate to call me!

Sincerely,

Rabbi Mark Greenspan