Torah Lessons for the Republicans

The Torah is equally helpful in victory and defeat

Last week, I published in these pages a consideration of three lessons that the Democrats – following the 2024 election – can learn from the Torah. My great friend Rabbi David Wolpe, whose sermons (available on the Temple Sinai website) have taught me so much Torah, emailed with appreciation for the article and a challenge: What are three lessons that the Republicans can learn from the Torah?

The impetus behind Rabbi Wolpe’s question is – as ever – exactly right. The Torah is equally helpful in victory and defeat.

The Torah, whenever consulted, reveals itself to be ready to provide highly practical and timely counsel. Indeed, it does for the Republicans in 2024 – in at least three prominent places.

Lesson #1: Be Magnanimous in Victory and Reject Lawfare

The previous four years were an exhibition in lawfare against Donald Trump – to an extent and with an audacity that would have otherwise been inconceivable. The New York State Attorney General, Letitia James, campaigned in 2018 on investigating President Trump. This should have been concerning at the time, as the role of the prosecutor is to first identify the crime and then to find and charge the criminal. She filed, and won a civil suit against him before a partisan court. There were no complainants; the supposed “victims” testified in his favor, and indicated that they were happy with the business they did with him.

The New York City District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, filed a charge against him that is so complicated and convoluted that I, as a Yale Law School graduate (albeit one who failed the Bar), cannot understand it – defeating the principle that crimes should be clear and their consequences predictable. There is another case in Georgia brought by a Democratic prosecutor, seemingly derailed or stalled by her romantic and (state-financed) financial entanglements with a lawyer she brought onto the case. The Biden DOJ empowered an independent prosecutor against him, who filed so many different charges that few people can keep them straight.

Republicans might be tempted to go measure for measure, and employ the same tactics against Democrats. Indeed, some Republican office holders and appointees have indicated a desire to do that. It would not be hard to do; as Warren Buffet said, if you follow someone for 500 miles you’ll be able to write a few tickets. They might believe that it is a matter of justice, which could be defined as each action having an equivalent response. They might consider it a measure of fairness, defined simply as treating equals alike.

But, before doing so, they should consider the Biblical Joseph.

In Genesis 37, Joseph’s brothers throw him into a pit – debating only whether to kill him or to sell him into slavery. They settle on selling him, and Joseph descends to Egypt for a grueling ordeal – first as a slave and then as a prisoner. Fast forward almost 20 years. The brothers, looking for sustenance during a global famine, travel to Egypt to get food. They discover, through a page-turning sequence, that Joseph is neither dead or enslaved but is the Viceroy of Egypt, empowered to run the country and save the world from starvation.

The brothers are fearful, as Joseph has the motive and the power to punish them as severely as he wants. Yet, he does something else. He forgives them, explaining: “It is for this that God sent me ahead of you.” And he sets them up to live a fine life in Goshen, an Egyptian suburb. The cycle of recrimination stopped before it really started. The brothers have many offspring, who form the basis of the Jewish people and nation – integrated with the children of Joseph, whom they had once persecuted.

The Republicans, as concerns lawfare, should follow the model of the Biblical Joseph. President Trump, the victim of lawfare, won the election. He, and others in the Republican Party, are (like Joseph in Genesis) in power. The Republicans should realize that the lawfare was an important contributor to why President Trump and so many GOP Senators won. It is quite possible that not a single swing voter turned to Vice President Harris when a Democrat called President Trump “a convicted felon.” It is certainly true that many swing voters expressed their disgust with lawfare by voting for President Trump.

An earlier draft of this article included a recommendation that President Trump pardon Hunter Biden – but President Biden subsequently did so. The prosecution of Hunter Biden was not lawfare; it was brought by his father’s DOJ after they tried to let him off easy (and were rebuffed by a judge). Still, Republican support for the pardon could be a decisive and convincing strike against lawfare. The message that lawfare is antithetical to democracy could be combined with criticism of President Biden for deceiving voters, since he said several times in the election season that he would not pardon Hunter only to do so after the election. It could be augmented with a demand that President Biden also pardon President Trump for anything federal, and call upon Democratic governors and other authorities to do the same on a state level.

The Republicans could emphasize that pardoning Hunter alone is an act of power, not principle. Lawfare has no place in a democracy regardless of who starts it or engages in it. Republicans would be right to emphasize through word and deed that politics should be conducted by politicians and voters, not prosecutors and judges … and suggest that the Democrats do the same.

Lesson #2: Emphasize Education

Whatever one thinks of the Trump and Biden administrations, one thing is clear: Neither President emphasized education. Aside from where it intersects with cultural and political issues (so-called book bans, transgender athletes, support for terrorism amongst college students), voters do not rate it highly either. It is hard to say whether relative voter disinterest drives presidential priorities or vice versa, but it doesn’t matter.

Moses would not have been happy.

It is Exodus 13. The Pharaoh had just, following the conclusion of the 10th Plague, agreed to let the Jews go free. It sounds good, but there is a catch. The Pharaoh had previously committed to letting the Jews go, only to relent when the pressure of the plague had been alleviated. Would the Pharaoh renege this time?

The odds were that he would. How quickly, then, should Moses lead the Jews out of Egypt? Obviously, as fast as he could. Yet, he stops the people to give a speech — about how the Jews should teach their children about the Exodus.

Why didn’t Moses wait to give his speech on educational philosophy until the Jews made it into the safety of the desert? It was an instruction for us. He wanted to teach us that there is no point in freedom unless a society first commits itself to, as a foundation, educating its youth.

He would continue this theme throughout his life. In Deuteronomy 6, Moses commands the people: “You shall repeatedly teach them to your children and speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk around the road, when you lie down and when you rise up … write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

This last statement — write them on your doorposts — presumed that everyone would know how to read and write. This is an astonishing assumption, given that no society wanted (let alone had) universal literacy. But Moses insisted on it, as a core component of “repeatedly teach.”

The ancient Jewish communities complied, instituting universal education for children starting at age six or seven. And it worked; the great historian Josephus (who died in 100 C.E.) wrote, “Should anyone of our nation be asked about our laws, he will repeat them as readily as his own name. The result of our thorough education in our laws from the very dawn of intelligence is that they are, as it were, engraved on our souls.”

How could the Republican administration act, with regards to education, as Moses would have suggested? The Torah does not just pronounce the fundamental importance of education, but suggests a number of techniques of contemporary relevance — which are discussed in my forthcoming book, “God Was Right: How Modern Social Science Proves the Torah is True.”

But there is one point in the Torah that is especially relevant for Republicans as they prepare an educational governing agenda. Every discussion of education in the Torah begins with something like: “You shall teach it to your children…” Education, the Torah is clear, is fundamentally a parental responsibility.

Many of the education debates in recent years have focused on the role of parents in their children’s education. Nikole Hannah-Jones, the author of The New York Times “1619 Project,” told “Meet the Press”: “I don’t understand this idea that parents should decide what’s being taught. I’m not a professional educator.”

The Republicans, following Moses, could operationalize the opposite philosophy — through a variety of initiatives, starting with parental school choice. Doing so would enable parents to identify the right school for their children. This would, as data shows it has, improve the entire system for pretty much the same reason that King Solomon identified: “I have seen that every labor and every skill which is done is the result of a competition between a man and his neighbor.”

And it would be very good politics. President Trump won the election by constructing a multiethnic working-class coalition. If the Republicans can strengthen and enlarge this coalition, they will be able to govern for a long time. And an emphasis on school choice is the way to do so — as studies show that between 75-80% of black and Hispanic voters favor it.

Lesson #3: Immigration

When people quote the Bible regarding immigration, they often turn to Leviticus 19:33: “The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love them as yourself, for you were strangers in Egypt.”

That magnificent and important verse must be understood in the context of the Torah. In Deuteronomy 33:25, Moses provides a very clear principle regarding border security. Your borders, he wrote, should be “sealed with iron and brass.” The Talmud specifies that we even work on the Sabbath if that is what it takes to secure a national border.

So: A Torah-based immigration policy would start with strict border security — something that now, pretty much every Republican agrees with. But it would not end there.

The most talented person in the Bible — the man who brought more to a country than anyone else in the text (or perhaps in history) — is Joseph, a Jewish immigrant to Egypt. He seems to have understood the importance of bringing very talented people into a country. He convinces the Pharaoh to welcome his brothers on the grounds that they are expert shepherds — an occupation that Egypt was in need of.

And that’s not all. The aforementioned passage in Leviticus refers to the ger toshav — the resident alien. Jewish law specifies that the passage only applies to resident aliens who accept the seven Noahide Commandments — the universal moral laws. Those who reject them must not be welcomed.

Consequently, the Republicans have a clear Torah roadmap upon which to construct a comprehensive immigration policy. Enforce border security with maximum vigilance. Welcome highly talented immigrants — provided that they will enthusiastically accept and abide by the moral and cultural norms of American expectation. For instance: A family that practices (or even won’t renounce) female genital mutilation should be unwelcome, regardless of how talented the parents are. A family with a strong dedication to mastering English, a set of essential skills, a commitment to education, and embodying what the American Legion defines as “100% Americanism,” should be embraced.

There are many more lessons that both the Democrats and Republicans can abstract from the Torah. Perhaps the most important lesson is that the Torah is always there as our eternal guidebook, ready to provide concrete and practical counsel to all who seek it.

This piece appeared recently in the Jewish Journal.