Guard your tongue from evil…

The American elections are finally over. The results of the elections have left many jubilant and quite a few of us crestfallen.

I hope with all my heart the winning side will bring about peace around the world and prosperity at home. I hope our nation will be healed and brought together in a spirit of shared destiny; that America’s promise of liberty and justice for all will be advanced, even ever-so-slightly.

In spite of fears and trepidations leading to November 5^th, these were free and fair elections and the results cannot be contested. A majority of the American voting public elected Donald Trump as President, including  significant numbers from across America’s ethnic, religious, gender, and racial divides; young and old.

There was also a sizable, and vocal, Jewish vote for President Trump and as an Israeli-born American Jew, deeply concerned with Israel’s security and well-being, I would like to address this group.

Many Jewish voters who voted for Trump said they did so because they believe he is good for Israel and, therefore, “good for the Jews.” While I totally disagree with them on this matter, I want to be very clear that I am not calling into question the right of any citizen, as a citizen, to hold and express diverse ideas and to vote for whomever they choose. That, after all, is the essence of democracy.

I would like to illuminate what Jewish tradition has to say about the specific, relevant behavior of Trump and address the issue of invoking one’s Judaism and Jewishness as the reason for voting for him.

If you are an observant Jew you should be familiar with the text I will be quoting. While the Torah and the Talmud can sometimes be opaque and require careful and lengthy study, this is not the case with my citations below: they are as clear and unambiguous as it gets.

I want to first focus on two Biblical and Halachic (Jewish Rabbinic law) prohibitions: slander and ‘Lashon Harah,’ – evil speech – because they concern the most prominent of Donald Trump’s behavior patterns that should have constrained any observant Jew from supporting Trump in any way while invoking Israel and their Jewish identity as a reason for supporting him.

“Do not go about spreading slander among your people.” Leviticus 19: 16.

The Bible intimates that using ‘Lashon Harah’ is why Miriam was afflicted with leprosy when speaking ill of her brother, Moses. Miriam said nothing remotely as inflammatory as what Trump has repeatedly said about Vice President Harris, President Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Haitian immigrants, Mexican immigrants, and a host of other ‘enemies from within’ Trump has defamed.

The Talmud deals harshly with this matter. Concerning slander: “Our ancestors tested the Holy Blessed One ten different times, but they were punished only for the sin of slander…” Talmud, Avot D’Rabbi Natan 9:2.

In the matter of evil speech the Talmud states: “…Anyone who speaks Lashon Harah, said God – he and I cannot dwell in the same world.” Talmud, Arakhin 15b:13. The Talmud further sates: “…Anyone who speaks Lashon Harah increases their sin corresponding to the three, cardinal transgression: Idol worship, forbidden sexual relations, and bloodshed.” Talmud, Arakhin 15b:18

It cannot be disputed that Donald Trump has engaged repeatedly in the exact prohibited behaviors delineated above – it is a matter of record. When challenged, he doubles down on his defamatory speech and false claims, including stating that he’s “just reporting what I heard… what was reported.”

Many Ultra-Orthodox communities have publicly-posted signs cautioning Jews not to use ‘Lashon Harah.’ For an observant Jew to support perhaps the biggest contemporary transgressor of this prohibition is, in my opinion, an exquisitely elevated form of hypocrisy.

It should go without saying that even if you do not identify with any religious tradition, you should be deeply troubled and disturbed by the sheer volume of vulgar, belligerent speech and false claims that have flowed from the mouth of the President-Elect. One does not have to believe in God, nor accept the Mitzvoth in order to be appalled by the acrimony and the debasing of public speech.

The next issue, however, cuts to the very core of what it means to be a Jew in the world; what the Torah commands of us as a precondition for being a holy nation unto God.

“When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” Leviticus 19: 33-34.

The commandment to love the stranger who dwells among us appears thirty-six times in the Hebrew Bible – more than the other two ‘love commandments’ combined – “Love Adonai, your God” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

For Jews, who have spent over two-thousand years in exile, reviled and abused, tortured and killed for being strangers in other lands, it is inconceivable to ignore this commandment. Of all nations on earth, Jews are the nation charged, from its very foundation, with loving the stranger and pursuing justice and compassionate treatment of the stranger who dwells among us.

There is a real problem with undocumented migration into the United States. There should be policies put in place to deal with the problem. There should also be real law enforcement concerning this matter. These are real issues that must be dealt with, but they cannot be addressed through hatred and inflammatory language – the same language, by the way, that used to be leveled against all immigrants, be they Irish, Italian, Chinese and – yes, Jewish.

Trump’s main message has been excoriating, reviling, and persecuting the stranger. Jewishly that is unacceptable and should have disqualified Trump from ever having been a candidate for whom an observant Jew could vote, no matter how one might feel about Israel and the need to protect it.

I completely understand the anxiety about the rising antisemitism in America and around the world and the real fear for Israel’s security and the safety of the Jewish people. I share those feelings. I understand the anger with some liberal media sources and their anti-Israel bias – not to mention the United Nations and its obsession with Israeli transgressions while ignoring monstrous regimes around the world.

Fear and anxiety, however, can sometimes lead to very bad choices. Exodus, chapter 32 tells us of the Children of Israel, impatient and filled with anxiety about Moses, who had disappeared for forty days on top of Mount Sinai while communing with God. The Israelites demanded of Aaron to build them a Golden Calf, a new god that they may follow and celebrate.

Setting aside all Jewish prohibitions to follow a man such as Donald Trump – a man who sets himself up as an idol and who is regarded as one by multitudes – in order to alleviate anxiety and fear is, at the very least, condoning very bad behavior. Violating core Jewish values and commandments out of a desire to protect Israel as a Jewish state, strips Israel and its Jewish raison d’etre of its very meaning.

The Torah and the Talmud could not be clearer about this.

The above piece contains my personal opinions only and in no way represents any Jewish organization with which I am affiliated.