There are few times in this blog’s history when I have felt that Rabbi Grossman was one hundred percent correct in her criticisms of my ideas. However, a few weeks ago she called me out for citing a few crack websites on Barak Obama’s advisors. She was right. I never should have cited those websites--they were wrong and I apologize to my readers for my misstep.
As I intimated in my first post the notion that Obama is somehow bad for the Jews is absurd based on what we know and what we have seen. All we as a community should be focused on is what the person has said and what he has done. While I am still unsure about a few issues and disagree with him on a few others, the more the campaign continues, the more I like what I hear and see from Obama. Many have already praised his talk on race as being indicative of the type of nuanced and complex yet straight and simple kind of thinking that this country needs, I would like add just a few points that have not been addressed.
Obama did the right thing when he denounced Jeremiah Wright's statements yet did not thrown his longtime pastor overboard. I was among the many Jews who called on Obama to make such a statement and felt that those in his campaign who kept dismissing the issue were terribly mistaken. His remarks on Wright should satisfy any Jew who has gone to synagogue and heard a rabbi--who has married, or bar mitzvahed his kids, or counseled him and his family in rough times--say things they disagrees with or find disturbing. Clerics talk a lot--probably more than any other public official--and they say a number of different things that sometimes can sound awfully silly. This should never excuse calls for violence or hate speech, but we should always remember the context and history of the people making those comments.
(Just a few weeks ago a leading rabbi from Yeshiva University called for the assassination of the Prime Minister of Israel if he were to ever give back Jerusalem--and all he was asked to do by the university was to apologize. He should have been fired or at the very least have been demoted).
I understand those such as Hillary Clinton and my friend and wise op-ed columnist Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe who felt Obama’s comments came up short, arguing, in Jacoby’s case, that if there rabbi or minister ever made such a comment they would call for his dismissal. There are many cases where I would have no problem taking such a position. To be sure, if my rabbi had ever said "God damn America," I would be shocked and horrified and perhaps even call for his dismissal.
But my rabbi did not experience America as a segregated country that undermined my very existence and my rabbi was never a U.S. Marine.
Obama not only did the right thing by not dumping Wright, he taught America a lesson. Just because we don’t agree with everything everybody says that does not mean that we ought to reject them fully as human beings or as leaders. Obama’s approach to dealing with the situation broke with typical political thinking that paints people as either being black or white.
Likewise, in Jewish life there is way too much black and white thinking among those in various denominations. We either “legitimize” or don’t “legitimize” other Jews as if their entire being and religious lives were based on one or two issues that we might disagree with them on. Such thinking destroys the complexity and beauty of life and humanity. By making every argument into a matter of legitimacy or illegitimacy it becomes impossible to ever have real conversations that recognize that there is no one group or person that has all the answers.
People are not one 15-second sound bite, position, or idea. They are complex creatures with myriad and often conflicting opinions. Such complexity, however, should never prevent us from critiquing, judging, or challenging one another.
Because we make things into black and white we loose our ability to openly criticize and challenge our own orthodoxies and opinions. Without our ability to criticize ourselves and others we risk living in a world destined to become its own inadequacies. Open and honest critique is the basis for redemption.
More than anything since writing this blog I think we all have realized that disagreeing with one another does not mean not legitimizing their role as a leader of their community and the Jewish people. Writing alongside Rabbis Grossman and Rabbi Waxman has always been an honor. Any arguments we have had have been, in my mind, a machloket le-shem shamyyim, an argument for the sake of heaven, and what could be a more lofty and honorable endeavor than that.
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Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of 
Obama is just now getting his feet wet when it comes to understanding some of the dirty politics that go on behind the scenes - he is just now facing the tactics of some of the most skilled influencers of our time. I did not agree with his calling his pastor's remarks stupid. I do think it was an opportunity to teach and to call America to its responsibility to examine its mind and heart on how it really views black people here in this country and around the world, and to call all races to the table to confront the evil that still exists in so many areas of our country and in the church. It is not too late for that.
As for holding Obama to a lower standard, that seems a strange comment -- what standards are the other candidates being held to? My problem with the attack against Obama is that he was judged on what his pastor had to say. in light of the fact that not once, in all my lifetime, has anyone else running for president been judged on the preachings of their pastors. Not once, has anyone delved into the background of the other presidential candidates or presidents to find out what they believed then held the presidential candidate/president responsible for what others had to say. When will America be honest enough to admit it has and will always have a double standard when it comes to people of color? Martin Luther King Jr. looked forward to the day when black people would be judged on the content of their character and not on the color of their skin - that day has yet to arrive.
I sat under a pastor for many years and I did not agree with everything he said, but I recognized many wonderful qualities that he possessed and the wisdom and knowledge that he shared was priceless and I grew spiritually. Just because I sat under his teachings did not make me just like him. I prayed for him that God would reveal to him that something he said was wrong. I would ask God to make him stand in the pulpit and correct it but the only thing God let me know to do was to continue to pray for him, not judge him, and stay with him until it was time for me to leave that congregation.
If we are obedient to God, many times our actions will not line up with man's expectations. When it is all said and done, we should look for honesty, integrity, and political qualifications. Everybody does not come from the same place and has not had the same struggles. We should weigh up all the facts and not take something out of context and run with it especially with our limited knowledge and other peoples' perspectives.
SENCE BECOMING A MEMBER OF "BELIEVENET" I HAVE SAVEED HUNDREDS OF ARTICALS. PROBLY 85% PLUS. I WILL TRUELY MISS "VIRTUAL TALMUD" IF IT MUST GO. I HAVE LEARNED OR RELEARNED MUCH ABOUT MY RELIGION AND IT'S TEACHINGS. PLEASE RECONSIDER! BUT IF IT MUST GO, IT WILL BE TRUELY MISSED. LES
I enjoy relating historial and daily life (Living Torah Lessons)to modern life because there is always something I/ we can learn from the TaNaK/ Bible for wisdom in my/ our daily life. Virtual Talmud brings modern insight to people today, bridging the gap between yesteryear and today.
Abbie
Actually, Rev. Wright grew up in a very nice Middle Class family in a nice Middle Class neighborhood. That doesn't mean that he didn't experience racism, but I don't think that excuses his beliefs.
The main reason that I am voting for Clinto, though, is that I like her policies on most issues better. That is the most important issue.
For those interested in the Torah Code, in Bamidbar (Numbers) 13:1--17:1, with a matrix of 201, HLRY-CLNTN (skip 401) is encrypted next to NSEE-44 [44th President](skip 402), DMCRaHT (skip 397) & USAMRCA (skip 201). Though it appears she is behind, something drastic and perhaps tragic is indicated in surrounding "finds" that may preclude Senator Obama from being the nomination. In Vayikra (Leviticus) it is encrypted that Bush would be NSEE-43, which we discovered before it happened. When the issue of the "chads" in Florida came up, we knew it wouldn't amount to anything based on the Code. Sunday, June 8th, Sivan 5th, 5768 (2008), is encrypted tightly compact to these "finds."