“I want to know what my rabbi thinks of Jacob and Rachel, not of Pence and Pelosi”

I know outstanding rabbis on the left of the political spectrum and others on the right. You can love Torah and vote for Trump. You can love Torah and think Trump is a blot on the American system. What you may not do, if you are intellectually honest, is say that the Torah points in only one political direction.

So, cut your rabbi some slack. Even better, learn to love people who differ with you on crucial matters. I won’t take refuge in the dodge that each of you may be partly right. Perhaps, but maybe one of you is flat out wrong.

So, you’ve never been wrong before? You’ve never changed your mind about something important? Must everyone you love, esteem or befriend agree with your opinions as they are held today?

All we hear all day long is politics. Can we not come to shul for something different, something deeper? I want to know what my rabbi thinks of Jacob and Rachel, not of Pence and Pelosi.

Don’t tie your Torah to this week’s headlines. We are better, bigger and deeper than that.

Rabbi David Wolpe, “Why I Keep Politics Off The Pulpit”, Jewish Journal (9-15 June 2017), 39.