He Had Them at "Shalom"

When Barack Obama appeared before the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) last week, his 31-minute speech was interrupted by applause 69 times. Obama was speaking to the same group that invited 1,000 rabbis to hear him on a “High Holy Day conference call” in 2009 to -- in the words of the URJ invitation -- “urge your congregants to contact their elected officials in support of health care reform this year.” 

Last week at the URJ, Obama could have ended his speech as soon as he started, because he had them at shalom:

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you so much.  Thank you, everybody.  Thank you.  Please, please have a seat.  You’re making me blush.  (Laughter.)  Thank you, [Rabbi] Eric [Yoffie], for that extraordinary introduction and for your many years of leadership in the Reform movement.  And even though it is a few hours early, I’d like to wish all of you Shabbat shalom.  (Applause.) 

When you get laughter and applause simply by asking everyone to sit down so you can wish them Shabbat Shalom, you know you’re speaking to the faithful. 

Back in 2009, Obama asked the rabbis to help pass his health care legislation; this year, he needs help because of that legislative effort. His re-election has been jeopardized by Obamacare -- hyper-partisan legislation adopted in a hyper-partisan manner, with disingenuous promises that everyone could keep their plans and that a massive new government entitlement would save money -- ignoring warnings that Obamacare could harm the entire medical care system.

At the URJ last week, Obama suggested Obamacare reflected the Torah portion. His speech was a classic sermon from what Norman Podhoretz has called the “Torah of Liberalism,” converting the Torah portion into support for his political agenda, arguing the issues were moral ones, when they are actually political disputes about how best to reduce the cost of health insurance and extend coverage.

There is a moral hazard associated with the Torah of Liberalism, reflected in the mini-sermon of the rabbi who issued a Biblical condemnation (described in this post) of the opponents of Obamacare. It can lead to the demonization of opponents, and to the elevation of a politician into sort-of-God. 

From the rapturous response Obama received from the URJ last week, it is obvious he has the URJ fired up and ready to go, just like last time. But why Jews continue to fall for this stuff is a bit of a mystery. It would take an extraordinary book to explain it.

Comments

[Yael]

Heh. Click on the photo of The Won at http://bokertov.typepad.com/btb/2011/12/in-those-days-at-this-time-part-2.html

[Mannie Sherberg]

Whenever I browse the comments sections on various blogs, i'm impressed by the huge (no exaggeration) number of writers posing the same question: Why do so many Jews vote Left -- and why are so many Jews ardent supporters of Obama? Most of these writers are gentiles, some are Jews; all express consternation, puzzlement, and exasperation because "So many Jews are their own worst enemies." To tell the truth, I felt the same consternation, bewilderment, and exasperation until I read Podhoretz's book -- which I suspect will become his magnum opus -- and realized that these were Jews who had adopted a whole different "Torah." I wonder how many of these Jewish subscribers to the Torah of Liberalism have ever pondered -- or are even aware -- of the fact that many, many serious Christians have avowed that the Torah -- the real one -- is the foundation of Western Civilization, and that those who reject it undermine the foundations of that civilization. Here's Thomas Carlyle back in the 19th century: "What built St. Paul's Cathedral? Look at the heart of the matter; it was that divine Hebrew book." And here's Emerson in the same century: "Our Jewish Bible has implanted itself in the table-talk and household of every man and woman in the European and American nations." And Robert Louis Stevenson: "Written in the East, these characters live for ever in the West; written in one province, they pervade the world; penned in rude times, they are prized more and more as civilization advances." The American historian John Fiske, also writing in the 19th century: "Great consequences have flowed from the fact that the first truly popular literature in England -- the first which stirred the hearts of all classes of people ... was the literature comprised within the Bible." And here's the early 20th-century historian Robert Travers Herford: "The Hebrew Scriptures have acted like salt to keep the Christian teaching from corruption ... and that salt has not lost its savor." Not a one of these writers -- and I could cite many, many more -- was Jewish, yet all of them clearly acknowledge what many present-day Jews don't even seem to know. What a pity for them; what a disaster for the rest of us; what a blow -- possibly lethal -- to Western Civilization. Thank you for another illuminating post. Regrettably, it illuminates something both tragic and ugly.

[Rick Richman]

Yael -- thank you and heh; here's the one I wanted to use to illustrate this post but my staff couldn't import it, much less link it: http://tinyurl.com/6umntsu

Mannie -- thank you for that extraordinary collection of quotations, most of which I hadn't seen before, and which have a remarkable cumulative impact from your putting them together.