Trump, Bar Kochba and Lag Ba’Omer

One of the main messages of Lag Ba’Omer, to me anyway, is the one that it is truly only in G-d we trust and believe is Perfect. This was true in the time of Rabbi Akiva and the story of Lag Ba’Omer, and is true today in all leaders, including President Trump.

Today is Lag Ba’Omer, a day of kabbalistic meaning owing to the anniversary of the death of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. In the background to the events of Lag Ba’Omer lies the surrounding environment of the Bar Kochba Revolt and one of its potential supporters, Rabbi Akiva.

There are debates about whether Bar Kochba proclaimed himself as or was considered to be a false messiah. Another question arises about the role of Rabbi Akiva, known for his extreme love of Torah, his love for his wife, his bravery in dealing with the Romans, and his great pronouncement that “Loving your neighbor as yourself is a great principle of the Torah.”

I am not a biblical expert, either academically or religiously, but I am a religious Jew of deep faith. I have been asking myself for days how someone like Rabbi Akiva, who was so clearly a truly wondrous individual, should merit that 24,000 of his students die in a plague because they lacked respect for one another.

Sure, there are lots of explanations, but ultimately it all comes back to one simple thing: No person, EVER, is perfect. We know this because the person we hold up as the closest to ever reach that level, Moshe, clearly wasn’t. We often are guilty of trying too hard to claim that people had no flaws – it simple is not true but it is not a contradiction to greatness – it is in fact a false belief because we are meant to believe that perfection is only in G-d.

G-d is G-d, and no human can ever get to that level.

There are probably a number of individuals who have done the most wondrous things in their lifetimes. I think of Lincoln, Churchill, Mother Teresa, Mandela, Herzl, Gandhi, and more. Yet, we know they had their flaws. More than that, some of them we knew to be deeply flawed, but many were acknowlged as heroes. We will all argue the list, and good examples for me are Nelson Mandela and Churchill. To me, they are both heroes for what they did in South Africa and WW2, but that doesn’t mean they were anywhere near perfect. We know full well they were not. That is the inherent nature of man.

And so too with the current debate surrounding President Trump. We all get whipped up into political hyperbole. I have lots to say about President Trump and always have and will. He has his very clear flaws, which I think people would be hard-pressed to deny 100%, and certainly for Israelis like me, he has done wondrous things which others will very hotly debate. It doesn’t actually matter to the point I am trying to make.

We must place our trust in G-d and not in the ups and downs of any one person. I am not a US citizen and I have no political vote. Had I had one, I would have without doubt cast it for Donald Trump simply because I felt he was the best hope of bringing the hostages home and supporting Israel in the fight against Iran and its proxies. I would have done so knowing there were things I didn’t like. I was, however, never naive that there would not be ups and downs and pitfalls. He is, after all, the US President with an agenda that is an American one (which I will leave for Americans to judge).

At the end of the day, my political voice doesn’t matter and is completely irrelevant. I am not here to judge any one person—Heaven knows I have more faults than most. On this day of Lag Ba’Omer, which carries with it the huge background of the period of the Jews in which Bar Kochba revolted and even today many children carry bows and arrows as a reminder of the revolt, let us remember that no one is perfect and putting all our eggs in one basket is a risk.

Politicians and lobbyists always have to toe the line, but that doesn’t mean that deep down they don’t know the flaws of each person. We should continue to live by the rules of the democratic world—one in which Churchill himself allegedly said:

“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.”

I am not trying to say for one minute that we should not support politicians or take sides. We should, and I personally believe that President Trump may – G-d willing – deliver an expanded Abraham Accords for the future, which will lead to great things. I also feel that he has played his role in bringing home more hostages than otherwise would have been done, and for that I praise him loudly and truly gratefully.

But…we should remember who the Boss is and use the power of the day to remember that.

G-d calls the shots and is the only One to whom we can say is Perfect. I pray for the best for Israel and its friends (by far the most important one being the US), but let’s not kid ourselves and let’s put more effort this Lag Ba’Omer into our faith in G-d.

We will always debate the perfection of people and that is how it should be. I can think Nelson Mandela was a hero but in some of his views I disagree, others can say the same about Churchill. It is not hypocritical—it is the way G-d created the world.

Those who don’t believe in G-d will of course never agree with me—but that is the point at which I say—this is my blog.