On February 12, less than a month after Barack Obama takes the oath of office, we will celebrate the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. How fitting that the two events will occur so close in time — the bicentennial of the birth of the man from Illinois who emancipated the slaves and the inauguration of the man from Illinois who will become the first African-American president.
That’s why Obama’s decision to be sworn in using Lincoln’s Bible is so rich in symbolism. Yet Lincoln’s Bible is much more than a symbol. For Lincoln, the Bible was not only his most important literary well-spring, it was also a source of great comfort and inspiration.
Lincoln’s religiosity has been a subject of endless debate. Lincoln was arguably both our least and our most religious president. He was not a churchgoer and rejected dogma and ritual; as a young man he was probably an agnostic. His wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, said that he didn’t believe in Christian tenets such as the Trinity. As Richard Carwardine notes in his book “Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power,” she maintained that her husband was not a “technical Christian.”
Clearly, however, Lincoln lived his life with a deep religious sense. He may not have been a typical believer of the early- to mid-19th century, when religious fervor was a major part of the American landscape, but he was still a man who in his own way communed with God.
Naturally, as a rabbi, I often view Lincoln’s religiosity through a Jewish lens. I often tell my children that if they want to read a volume of Mussar — a book about ethical and proper behavior — read a biography of Lincoln. His was an exalted personality serving a profound ethical purpose, with his great moral crusade wedded to a strategic and political genius that enabled him to successfully prosecute a war, win reelection and preserve the Union, while never veering from deploring the evils of slavery.
As our prophets did, Lincoln recognized the power of words. He used words to challenge evil and to promote the good, to raise the spirits of a war-weary nation, and to ennoble Americans even as he made clear that an ennobled America could never again include slavery within its borders. His speeches, with their biblical cadence, called on the nation to live up to its highest ideals, to “the better angels of our nature.”
Lincoln’s magnificent Second Inaugural — “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right” — is a profoundly religious document. The Second Inaugural saw the terrible carnage of the Civil War as Divine retribution for the evils of slavery. “Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away,” he said. “Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said ‘the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.’”
The Gettysburg Address, in which he reaffirmed the Declaration of Independence’s charge that “all men are created equal,” reflects the Jewish concept that humanity is created B’tzelem Elokim, in the image of God. It was this notion, in Lincoln’s thinking, that is “the father of all moral principle.”
Lincoln was recognized in his time as a man devoid of prejudice, a remarkable sentiment in an era when even many of those who opposed slavery saw the Negro as a subhuman, and many of those who supported emancipation were horrified at the thought of social equality for blacks. His abhorrence of discrimination extended, of course, to Jews as well. After General Ulyssees S. Grant issued his infamous General Order Number 11 banning Jewish merchants from the Tennessee military district, a delegation went to “Father Abraham,” who immediately revoked the bigoted decree.
The idea of equality for Lincoln though was no abstraction; it was a deeply felt religious impulse. As Lincoln wrote to two women from Tennessee petitioning for the release in 1864 of their Confederate husbands from prison, “You say that your husband is a religious man; tell him when you meet him, that I say that I am not much of a judge of religion, but that, in my opinion, the religion that sets men to rebel and fight against their government, because as they think that government does not sufficiently help some men to eat their bread on the sweat of other men’s faces, is not the sort of religion upon which people can get to heaven.”
Lincoln’s political genius was rooted in his morality and empathy. His notion of God and what he saw as the Divine teleology in history were sources of courage and balance for him in the darkest days. His sense of God fostered in him a great degree of humility, a belief that he did not control events but rather that events controlled him; that he was not the captain of the ship, but rather a sailor, dealing with whatever storms and waves were sent his way.
Like Lincoln, Barack Obama takes office in a time of almost unprecedented challenges for America. As Obama places his hand upon Lincoln’s Bible, let him be inspired by the spirit of Lincoln — his decency and his wisdom, his eloquence and his humility. May our next president, following Lincoln’s example, always be true to the high standards that he has set for his administration and the nation. “I desire to conduct the affairs of this administration,” Lincoln said, “that if in the end, when I lay down the reins of power, I have lost every friend on earth, I shall have at least one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside me.”
Rabbi Menachem Genack is rabbinic administrator and CEO of O.U. Kosher.
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What typifies the Jewish integration into American society has been the adoption of the American heritage as the source of primary identity. The Jewish heritage is obviously secondary (for the more committed Jews), or even marginal (for the less committed). While viewing from afar this sad collapse of the historic Jewish primary identity, still I was hopeful that at least in the Orthodoxy, a primary Jewish identity was still vibrant - until I read this very surprising article. "Naturally, as a rabbi, I often view Lincoln’s religiosity through a Jewish lens", Rabbi Genack declares. What is his "Jewish lens"? He continues to explain: "I often tell my children that if they want to read a volume of Mussar — a book about ethical and proper behavior — read a biography of Lincoln". I had to read that amazing sentence three times to be sure that I understand. He actually seems to be saying that Jewishness should be seen in an American lens. Lincoln's biography has replaced "Sefer ha-Musar", and the Gettysburg Address is a reflection of "be-tzelem". The cultural point of reference has shifted from a Jewish world into another world, just as in the case of the assimilated. How surprising and depressing.
"I will say, then, that I AM NOT NOR HAVE EVER BEEN in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the black and white races---that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with White people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the White and black races which will ever FORBID the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together, there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I, as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the White race." — 4th Lincoln-Douglas debate, September 18th, 1858; COLLECTED WORKS Vol. 3, pp. 145-146 http://beyondbabylon.blogspot.com/2008/01/abraham-lincoln-was-white-supremacist.html
slavery had the sanction of law and religion both christian an jewish.the yankee invader stole,raped and burned without mercy. the united states invaded a nation the confederate states that wanted peaceful relations if obama is like lincoln look out canada,mexico.
The origin of the idea that all men are created equal is Stoic, not Jewish. The classical Jewish sources -- the Bible, Talmud, and Midrash -- rarely intimate that Jews and Gentiles are equal in the eyes of God, nor is the creation of all men in God's image reflected in the halakhah. The thrust of these sources is clearly in the direction of Jewish superiority, and this became the normative view in post-Talmudic Judaism.
Having an education only seven years greater than that of the Honorable Abraham Lincoln, I feel because of it, a closeness and true identity to the kind of character one should have regardless of circumstances or other hindrances to social development.His vision of greatness for this country was engendered by those scriptural principles which are, in scope and practice, an unfailing source of strenth .What most profoundly carried him to victory, even at all stages of his life,was that sense of justice and righteous indignation which, in this generation, are the rarest of gems. Recognizing G-d as a Higher Power, sustaining all things in accordance to His own will and purpose,was his true and guiding force that brought healing from the devastation and scourge of war. It was that nobler self, free of entanglements that would mar those spiritual verities necessary for the forgiveness of our national sins, that his character was most admired and revered. The Lincoln we so eloquently embrace was always the fit model that has made it possible for time and generations to come, to lift praise and reverence to his name!.
I've seen many people invoking debates to support white supremacy using the following from Lincoln: "I will say, then, that I AM NOT NOR HAVE EVER BEEN in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the black and white races" — 4th Lincoln-Douglas debate, September 18th, 1858; COLLECTED WORKS Vol. 3, pp. 145-146 http://beyondbabylon.blogspot.com/2008/01/abraham-lincoln-was-white-supremacist.html But they always fail to mention that Lincoln argued in the same debate, in a span of a few breaths, that even if it was believed that white and black races did not share equality, that blacks should have all rights afforded to men under the constitution. The essence of debate is to understand the people and what they believe, to argue from a position of weakness. For example, Lincoln said that he was not in favor of blacks becoming citizens, yet that he felt that it should be legal for States to make laws that allowed blacks to become citizens of the USA. This seemingly disparate opinion clearly demonstrates that despite opinions, the law should be superior, not our opinions. This is a view that was not held by the south, who believed that their opinions should be superior to the law, a view which led to the Civil War. The South was bought through legal purchase by George Washington, so could not become a different country because their opinion differed from the law of the United States, the people of the US agreed and so elected Lincoln to represent them.