Praying for Our Country: “Isn’t This A Wonderful Country?”

Rabbi Gary S. Creditor
December 1, 2000

 

We have all learned that Ponce de Leon discovered Florida. It is said that he was in search of the "fountain of youth." What we don't know is if he found "the secret of the butterfly ballot!" Who would have thought that on December 1, 2000 following November 7th, 2000, we still wouldn't know who will be the next president of the United States! While, frankly, I have lost track of the number and detail of the lawsuits and which ones have been filed in which Supreme Court, with the hope that by next Shabbat this will all be over – ha-ha – there are some thoughts which I share with you this evening. The title of these remarks on my pages that I have written is "Praying for Our Country." I have subtitled it "Isn't This A Wonderful Country?" which was coined by Ya'akov Smirnoff. But that is the first thought that I would like to share.

Here we are, nearly four weeks after a heatedly contested election and there is peace in the streets, even if the stock market has dipped! There are demonstrators outside the Florida and United States Supreme Court buildings. Newspapers and other media all vent their passions for one side or the other. Unchartered legal waters are being entered, perhaps for the first time since the formation of the Constitution. But the life of the citizenry of America is not threatened. We live in peace. Imagine if this had happened in so many other countries of the world!! Tanks do not rumble down the streets of Washington, D.C. The military does not rumble in its bases. Business continues. Education continues. Commerce continues. The courts continue. The country celebrated Thanksgiving, and is preparing to celebrate Kwanza, Hanukkah and Christmas. Shoppers flock to the malls and stores. Isn't This A Wonderful Country!

When I was in eighth grade our history course focused on American History. We had to read selections from The Federalist Papers, those documents that explain the thinking and attitudes that shaped the formulation of the Constitution. I still have my copy. It is also on the web. In paper #68, written by Alexander Hamilton, dated Friday, March 14 th, 1788, he writes about the election of the president: "I venture somewhat further, and hesitate not to affirm that if the manner of it be not perfect, it is at least excellent." The argument proposed by Hamilton and ultimately accepted to become the Electoral College is that the masses of people could not make the ultimate decision of who was most proper to be the president. A group of very special, most capable people were to be chosen by the masses. That group would elect the president. Now, the argument goes, the masses, we, the public, are much more informed and knowledgeable, so that we can make the decision by ourselves through direct election without the Electoral College. This concept, of the participation of every individual, is at heart, a Jewish concept. With the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E., and the elimination of the active kohens and levis, the average person was an equal participant. The lowest person was equal to the High Priest. Everyone prayed. Everyone studied. Everyone was equal. The quandary of this election year has reopened Hamilton's thesis about the masses and our abilities. The discussion so clearly echoes Judaic norms and ideas! Isn't This a Wonderful Country!

While this election campaign has been particularly rancorous, in the press, in the debates, in the television commercials, which we don't have to see for another four years, thank God, one particular element was absent. Its absence is and was a blessing. No matter what was hidden from view, overwhelmingly in America, that a Jew was nominated on a national ticket did not elicit a rise in anti-Semitism. Particularly now, in this great tension in Florida, with a Jew on the Democratic ticket, with so many Jews having moved to Florida, particularly in the contested counties, and with the large number of Cubans and other Hispanics in other counties, while the arguments are hot and heavy, they focus on the law, on fairness, on "who won?" and not "on the Jews" or "because of the Cubans." With all of the tension and passions, the fabric of America has not been torn. Even the anger has not pitted one segment of the people against the other. In the span of two decades a Catholic woman and a Jewish man have been nominated for Vice President. Who would have thought it? Isn't This A Wonderful Country!

I'm sure that you remember the line in Fiddler on the Roof: "Rabbi, is there a blessing for the Czar? Of course my son: May God bless and keep the Czar, far away from us!" Recently, Henry Koslow gave me a siddur, prayer book, from his late sister-in-law Florence, wife of our late member Morris. It is very special because it is published by the Hebrew Publishing Company in 1904 when it was still in Brooklyn, before it moved to the Manhattan. It contains a very special prayer recited on Shabbat after the Haftorah is chanted. It is a prayer for the country. This text is special because it asks God to bless the United States of America, the President and Vice President, the Governor and the lieutenant Governor of the State of New York, the Mayor and Common Council of the City, the City of New York, in long flowery language. I've never seen this text before.

Yet the mitzvah to bless the country of our residence is over 2,500 years old, based on Jeremiah's exhortation (29:7) "Seek the peace of the city to which I have exiled you and pray for it to God." In Pirkey Avot, Ethics of the Fathers, we read: "Rabbi Chanina, the Assistant High Priest said, 'Pray for the welfare of the government since without the fear of it, men would swallow one another alive.'" It is possible to trace the different texts composed to bless the governments of the countries where Jews have resided, even that of the Czar! That Rabbi Chanina authored this statement teaches us a great lesson, applicable especially today. He always remained the Assistant High Priest despite being the outstanding Kohen-High Priest of his time. He deserved the office because of his piety and seniority. Yet since he lived during the Roman times of the 1 st century C.E., the election to the office was really controlled by bribes. Despite the fact the Rabbi Chanina was deprived of that which was rightfully his, he authored the statement "Pray for the Government…" Perhaps Rabbi Chanina was acknowledging and teaching that nothing is perfect. In its imperfection, this was the best possible. There is no such thing as a perfect government; perfect elections; or even a perfect ballot. In the end we unite in praying for the welfare of this country because, while not perfect, it is the best form of government available. It is preferable to every alternative. Rabbi Chanina phrased in the positive what Thomas Jefferson said in the negative: "Democracy is the worst form of government except for all others that preceded it."

As this country blesses and protects us, we ask God to bless and protect it. Using a text from a siddur published in the early 1900's but whose language I feel is most appropriate in these days, I think it important that for us and for the country that has been the most beneficent for the Jewish people, that at this time we ask God to bless this country.

Would everyone please rise.

(Prayer for the Peace of the Government)

He who giveth salvation unto the kings and dominion unto the princes whose kingdom is a kingdom of all worlds, who delivered his servant David from the hurtful sword, who maketh in the sea a way and in the mighty waters, a path, may he bless, and guard, and protect, and help, and exalt, and magnify, and extol highly our land, the United States of America, and all the nations that dwell thereon, and the President who currently holds office, and the man who will succeed him, and all the Counsellors of the government and its Officers. The supreme King of kings in his mercy may preserve him in life and guard him; and from all trouble, and sorrow, and hurt may he deliver him, and may he subdue nations under his feet, and make his enemies fall before him, and in whatsoever he undertaketh may he prosper. The supreme King of kings in his mercy may he put into his heart and into the heart of all his counselors and his officers a spirit of wisdom and understanding, to uphold the peace of the kingdom and the welfare of his people, and to deal kindly and truly with all Israel. In his days and in our days may Judah be saved and Israel may dwell securely; and there may come unto Zion a redeemer, and may this he his will; and let us say,

Amen!