28 Jan INAUGURATION AND EXTORTION, PAGEANTRY AND PAIN

Why are we so captivated by
a presidential inauguration?
In 1797, after John Adams
was inaugurated as second
president of the United
States, succeeding George
Washington, he wrote to his
wife Abigail, “When the Ceremony was over,
[Washington] came and made me a visit and
cordially congratulated me and wished my
Administration might be happy, successful
and honourable.” Four years later, in 1801, the
transfer of power from Adams to Jefferson was
significant as it was the first transfer between
political opponents. It was uncomfortable, but
it was successful.
With the inauguration of a new American
president, we have come to expect a peaceful
transfer of power, a hallmark of American
democracy. Whether you are excited or
disappointed in the outcome of this election
and no matter your opinion on who rose his
hand to be sworn in, we should all be grateful
and proud that this week we experienced a
peaceful transfer of power. Perhaps what is so
captivating is the celebration of the democratic
process itself and the comfort we take in it.
As all of America inaugurated and many

celebrated a new president, we may have felt
like this exercise in American democracy is a
given in our lives, since it is all we have ever
known. But the truth is America is relatively
young. This was only the 60th inauguration.
Just two hundred and fifty years ago, there
was no democracy called the United States of
America.
In contrast to America’s relative youth, God
promised the land of Israel to Avraham Avinu
almost 4,000 years ago. He made good on
that promise when the Jewish people marched
into the land with Yehoshua 3,430 years ago.
Almost 2,500 years ago, we returned to Israel
with Ezra and Nechemia. After a long and
bitter loss of sovereignty in our homeland,
just over seventy-five years ago, we returned
to govern and defend ourselves in the modern
State of Israel.
The Jewish connection to Israel is sixteen
times longer than America has existed, and
nevertheless, while America celebrated its 60th
inauguration, Israel is still fighting for its very
right to exist. Over the last year and a half, our
brothers and sisters in Israel have been facing
enemies on seven fronts, all bent on Israel’s
demise, all denying the Jewish right to the
Land of Israel. As President Trump addressed

his inaugural parade,
families of Israelis
being held hostage
for 472 unimaginable
days stood behind him
holding posters of their
loved ones and draped
in symbolic yellow
scarves as the arena
chanted, “BRING
THEM HOME!”
While America’s
leadership was attending
ceremonies with pomp
and circumstance and changing outfits
between inaugural balls, Israel’s leaders were
making impossible decisions and concessions
and fighting to keep its coalition alive.
The Jewish world couldn’t be more grateful
or joyous to welcome Emily Damari, Romi
Gonen, and Doron Steinbrecher home from
captivity, but that joy is severely tempered
by the cost of their release and by how many
remain behind.
As Alan Dershowitz neatly put it:
The decision by the Israeli government to
make significant concessions to the Hamas
kidnappers should never be called a “deal.”
It was an extortion. Would you call it a
deal if somebody kidnapped your child
and you “agreed” to pay ransom to get her
back? Of course not. The kidnapping was a
crime. And the extortionate demand was an
additional crime.
So the proper description of what occurred
is that Israel, pressured by the United States,
capitulated to the unlawful and extortionate
demands of Hamas as the only way of saving
the lives of kidnapped babies, mothers and
other innocent, mostly civilian, hostages.
This was not the result of a negotiation
between equals. If an armed robber puts a
gun to your head and says, “your money or
your life,” your decision to give him your
money would not be described as a deal.
Nor should the extorted arrangement agreed
to by Israel be considered a deal. So let’s
stop using that term.
Agreeing to be extorted may be the right
decision but it is a deeply tragic one. It is
painful for the entire Jewish people and
should be for decent people everywhere.
But it is also painful for God Himself.
When wickedness exists in the world,
when it triumphs it is a chillul Hashem, a
desecration of God and His name.
In Tachanun on Mondays and Thursdays,
,?עד מתי עוזך בשבי ותפארתך ביד צר” ,ask we
Hashem, how long will You allow Your
strength be held hostage? How long will You

let Your glory be in the hand of the enemy?” Is
there a greater galus, a darker exile, than God
Himself seeming to be in captivity?
When I think about the majesty and excitement
of a presidential inauguration, it makes me
think about what we are really davening for
when we ask Hashem to redeem us from this
galus. On the one hand, America’s continuous
government for almost 250 years strikes as
captivating, impressive, and in a way more
remarkable than Israel’s 76-year history.
However, when you consider the miracle of
two thousand years of dispersion, persecution
and attempts at systematic extermination, the
return of the Jewish people to our homeland

and the revival of sovereignty and self-
autonomy in our country, with all of the

challenges and problems, it is hard to think of
a greater miracle.
In the introduction to his siddur, Rav Yaakov
Emden (1697-1776) describes that our very
survival through galus, our mere existence, is
the greatest miracle, greater than the miracles
we read about in the Torah and Tanach. He
wrote: “By the life of my soul! When I
contemplated these wonders, they appeared
greater to me than all the miracles and wonders
that HaShem Yisbarach performed for our
forefathers in Egypt, and the wilderness, and
the Land of Israel.”
The Talmud (Berachos 19b) quotes R’ Elazar
bar Tzadok who said, “I and my fellow
Kohanim would jump over coffins of the
deceased in order to hurry towards kings of
Israel to greet them.” And they did not say
this only towards kings of Israel, but they
said this even towards kings of the nations
of the world, so that if one will be privileged
to witness the redemption of Israel, he will
distinguish between kings of Israel and kings
of the nations of the world.
As we watch the 60th American inauguration,
and pay homage to its pomp, circumstance and
pageantry, we do so knowing that one day, the
people being extorted and fighting for its very
existence will welcome the King Moshiach
and that day will put to shame the pomp and
circumstance of today.