My Unfulfilled Dream as a Torah-Observant Jewish Israeli: Blessing Donald Trump

My Unfulfilled Dream as a Torah-Observant Jewish Israeli: Blessing Donald Trump

I am writing this before the final results of the presidential election are announced so I am praying that I will not have to write a retraction. I simply cannot wait. I have been deeply anxious for months, considering what might be in a world ruled by Kamala Harris (or whatever character in the shadows is running the Democratic Party). It was just announced that President Trump won Michigan and Pennsylvania with over 90% of the votes counted. Even the most optimistic Republican pundits did not predict such a glorious outcome.

I have lived in Israel for over 30 years and have no intention of returning to the US so I need to explain my burning interest in the election. 

To be honest, I did not expect Trump to win. When faced with the choice between good and evil, godliness or the abyss, Man has chosen the abyss far too often. I have been watching a large portion of the US population become increasingly fascinated with the expanding boundaries of evil. Abortion is not sufficient. Now, we have to murder actual babies. Accepting same-sex marriage is not enough. We are now being called upon to sacrifice our children on the altar of transsexuality. When Hamas murdered and raped Jews, morally confused university students chose the most explicit form of evil in human history, reviving Nazi calls to murder the Jewish people.

It is incredibly poignant that this election comes less than one year after the Palestinian massacre of Israelis on October 7. That day, that Jewish holiday, changed everything. As Hamas apologists love to say, it must be understood in context.  The multifront war that threatened (and still threatens) Israel and the seven million Jews who live here was the direct result of Obama’s nuclear deal with the Islamist regime in Iran. The regime was on the verge of collapse when Biden made the deal, revitalizing the Iranian economy and allowing the regime to pump billions of dollars into its proxies’ terrorist efforts to annihilate the Jewish state. Had Trump not won the election in 2016, Israel would undoubtedly have faced a nuclear threat soon after. Inexplicably, Biden returned to enriching Iran while giving a pass to attacks on Israel and hamstringing our efforts to attack the enemy.

I fully expect the Iranian regime and its proxies to close up shop before Trump enters office.

After Trump was elected in 2016, the Sanhedrin minted a coin depicting him alongside Cyrus, the Persian king who ended the exile and helped the Jews build the Second Temple. They called on Trump to continue Cyrus’ legacy and mission. The Sanhedrin did so knowing that Isaiah referred to Cyrus as “Moshiach,” God’s anointed. In Jewish tradition, anointing is done to designate a person or a Temple vessel to serve God, and I believe that the Sanhedrin understood that Trump, as a leader, was bringing people back to the path in many ways. His fluency extended far outside the borders of the US.

I fully acknowledge that Trump is a deeply flawed individual. I lived in Manhattan in the 1980s, when Trump was a young, freewheeling tycoon, married to Ivana but living a somewhat less-than-moral lifestyle. But in many cases in the Bible, God hides the greatest light in a person that the dark side overlooks because it appears an unlikely source. Moses was the product of the marriage between Amram and his aunt, a technically forbidden union. King David was descended from Ruth, a forbidden Moabite. Before he was elected president, no one could have imagined that Donald Trump would become the favorite and champion of Bible-believing Christians and Orthodox Jews alike.

This brings me to my unfulfilled fantasy. Many years ago, I learned that Jewish law mandates reciting a blessing upon seeing rulers and kings, whether they are Jewish or non-Jewish. This blessing is codified in the Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law) 224:4.  The Talmud (Brachos 58a) tells us that one should make an effort to see kings “and not only Jewish kings but even gentile kings.”

There is a question of whether this blessing should be recited upon seeing a president who is not a monarch. One test to determine this is whether the president has the authority to declare war. Indeed, it is precisely due to Trump’s wisdom in leading his country (as well as other countries) away from war that I so very much want to recite this blessing in his presence.

I was terrified that the Democratic party embodied Man’s trait of wanting to rule through violence and power. I was convinced it was the unspoken appeal of their candidate. I became convinced that this was true when Dick Cheney, a former Republican vice president and lifetime warmonger who made his fortune from war, crossed party lines to endorse Harris. Trump was bad for his business and evil is bipartisan.

For those who want to do so, the blessing is as follows: 

ברוך אתה ה’ אלוקינו מלך העולם שנתן מכבודו לבשר ודם

“Baruch Atah Adonai, Elohenu Melech HaOlam, Shenatan MiKvodo LeBasar Va’Dam

Blessed are you, my Lord, Our God and King of the universe, who has given from your glory to flesh and blood.

I would like to point out that this blessing emphasizes the essential nature of earthly kings: They act as intermediaries between God and the people. Without God, they are flesh and blood like the rest of us.

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