Why I rejoice in a Trump victory…writes Rabbi Chaim Ingram
Somehow, we failed to see the signs…in the early days of the campaign when he was the leading Republican contender in all the polls and garnering all the attention, everyone said he isn’t a serious candidate and will falter.Then when he actually did the unthinkable and won the Republican vote, many in the party distanced themselves from him and many said he won’t get the official party nomination.
Rabbi Chaim Ingram
Then when he got the nomination many said he’s unsuitable, he won’t last the distance and will be forced to bow out.
Then when he did last the distance and came within sight of the finishing post and the gaffes and scandals started to get serious, he suffered at the polls and everyone said he has a snowball’s chance in hell of prevailing.
And then of course the polls proved to be up the pole and he won!
Why didn’t we see it coming? Is there a more obvious example in recent history of a prominent individual meeting the Talmudic criteria of a man she-hasha’a mesachet lo an individual on whom the hour smiles through thick and thin than Donald John Trump?
Therefore, bearing in mind the Talmudic quote with which I began, any reader who expects me to write negatively about this complex man is going to be sorely disappointed!
Actually, at the risk of blowing my own Trump-et (sorry!), I did already write pretty positively about him over a year ago. In a piece entitled “Who Holds The Trump Card?” (Sept 2015) I described him as a man as refreshingly politically-incorrect as they come, a man with evident human flaws yet one who has succeeded in connecting with a public thoroughly disillusioned with conventional politicians despite the best efforts of the politically-correct media to discredit him. The definition holds pretty firm now as he prepares to assume the most prestigious political office in the world.
I would add: the drive towards a greater, narrower and more and more doctrinaire political correctness since the 1980s has largely come from the left-leaning media. A world view that preaches social action, the rights of minorities, feminism, equality, the cult of victimhood and multiculturalism has become a media crusade. Brexit and now Trumpism has seen a modern manifestation of techiat ha-meitim – the raising from the dead of the resilient silent majority we knew was there all along! Will the media retreat from their self-appointed role as secular-evangelical moulder of societal attitudes? Will November 8th 2016 be marked as the day political correctness was hanged once and for all? Time alone will tell!
Meanwhile, I rejoice in a Trump victory. I rejoice because, unlike other politicians who are also flawed, Trump knows and accepts it. I rejoice because Trump who on the surface appeared as egocentric as a person can get showed consummate grace, humility and magnanimity when it mattered – in victory. I rejoice because Trump, unlike most public figures, is showing he is able to be flexible, change his mind on policy details and say “I was wrong”. I rejoice because he is transparent, his inside is like his outside, meeting Rabban Gamaliel’s criterion of tocho ke-varo. I rejoice because in a rudderless world he has genuine leadership qualities which, I believe, will be good for the Jews and good for humanity. I rejoice because in a world where most celebrities have fractured relationships, most relationship therapists are divorced and many peace activists are estranged from parents or siblings, the USA’s first man is bulwarked by a close, supportive family including an observant Jewish daughter and son-in-law and Jewish grandchildren. Am I premature in rejoicing? Again time will tell!
Much has been made of the startling discovery that the gematria (numerical value) of Donald Trump (דונלד טראמפ) is identical with “Messiah son of David (משיח בן דוד). While I would deem it highly unlikely, even in the extraordinary times in which we live, that Trump is the Mashiach of Am Yisrael, he is now singularly well-connected to play the role of shadchan! Of one thing I am certain – the next eight years of world history won’t contain many dull moments. No-one needs Home and Away any more!
Thank you Alan and Eion – your abusive comments aptly and amply illustrate why Donald Trump won the election. The only thing you forgot was to label me a deplorable.
Is it absolutely impossible for the so-called intellectual left to engage in reasoned and reasonable argument without resorting to personal invective?
Not only does Rabbi Ingram cherry pick research and information to support his theories on sexual orientation and climate change, he’s now using our Talmud to side of white supremacists and the KKK to follow his hard right agenda.
Well said Rabbi Ingram! Time will show, but if Trump fulfills even a quarter of his election promises it will be a great and welcome respite after the leftist idiots/criminals who delivered America to the edge of abyss.
Eleonora, I feel for you: Enduring all that fear and hate every day, it must be just awful for you.
Wow.What a highly disturbing salute. ”good for all humanity”? I think I fear the views of this Rabbi more than Donald Trump himself.G-d help us.
What fool knows and accepts his foolishness….. Not a Jewish custom that I’m aware of.
Rabbi Ingram’s extraordinary ignorance of the reality of Donald Trump is a prime example of why rabbis should stick to the interpretation of the Bible, and not comment in modern matters. The vapid and parochial explanation of his support of Trump ignores the President-elect’s ignorance, bias, racism, shallowness and lies. Trump’s appointments as his most senior staff are antisemitic, homophobic, racist, fanatically right-wing and uniformly without serious merit for the tasks they have been given.
Should Rabbi Ingram decide to read any commentary other than biblical, he’ll see that virtually every politician, commentator, diplomat, and knowledgeable observer has viewed Trump’s ascendancy with emotions which range between astonishment and horror.
Yet this Rabbi, who joins with the cheer squad of uneducated, uninformed white males, believes he knows more than the vast majority of the world in condemning the American electorate who voted for a dangerous ignoramus and given him control of the world’s future.
Another reason to sleep through a Rabbinic sermon
Alan. I suggest you read Issy lieblers piec in this current pulication of
Jwire. Then we will see who exactly is ignorant
Agreed! A beautiful piece.
Alan,
My sentiments exactly.
You put it brilliantly.
Many thanks.
Alan, your ignorance and bigotry are appalling. You speak about Trump from the prejudiced media without doing any research on what you are talking about. You sound no better than those who foam at the mouth at Israel with their propaganda! I assume that you are a Clinton supporter, a criminal who committed treason, a tax evader, who took bribes and lied blatantly to the public as well as being the cause of death and torture of so many millions of Muslims as well as minorities in the Middle East.
Trump’s has been accused of anti-Semitism yet one of his daughters converted and his son-in-laws and grandchildren are Jewish. Trump has been accused of racism yet during the 1990s he worked with Jesse Jackson and the rainbow-PUSH to get blacks and minorities into corporate America. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=3d2_1451242991 March 2016 Jobs Will Solve the Problems Black Americans Face http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/donald_trump_jobs_will_solve_black_americans_problems_20160324 Trump – Helping black people for over 30 years https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW9Xu35GUMY A black man tells us about Media Never Tells About The Good Deeds Of Donald Trump https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9FPbgeQFvY
I could spend hours proving how wrong and bigoted you are but I will save you your blushes and let you check out how wrong you are on the rest of your inaccurate comments.
An excellent rebuttal, Ms. Miller.
So, Gillian, you’re part of that brigade that claim to be the victims of lefty bigots who dare criticise you for being bigots.
Not for a long time have I read such mad rubbish proposed as a Talmudic based inspiration .