This is too rich. The party of the donkey makes a donkey out of itself in the immediate days following the reading of the story of Bilaam’s talking donkey. In last week’s column (“The Pierced Ear”), I referred to Bilaam to depict how his disciples talk the same language as Avraham Avinu but whose meanings are totally opposite. Their talk of peace means our destruction. Their condemnation of racism means hatred of Whites and Jews. Their talk of liberty is suppression of all other thinking.
I might add to the list: democracy. The left has no real cogent argument against Trump and his policies. So, they get hysterical and fall back on their usual screaming about nonsense. Usually, they scream about what they themselves are guilty of. For example, they claim that Republicans are fighting against “reproductive rights.” How ironic is that? By “reproductive rights,” they mean the right of a woman to have an abortion. No matter what your view on abortion, it is the exact opposite of reproduction. It ends the life of a developing fetus. But the old approach of the “Big Lie” never fails.
The most heard claim against Donald Trump is that he is a major threat to democracy. Come again? Who just forced out their own president and presumptive (elected in the primary) nominee because they didn’t like the way the polls looked? You tell me who is a bigger threat to democracy. Mr. Biden himself would often carry on about Trump being a threat to democracy. What goes around comes around.
Now, the party must suddenly choose another candidate. A democratic electoral process to decide? No way. The current vice president checks off all the boxes that the left approves of: non-White and female. Never mind that she is a mouthpiece for whatever suits her for the moment. She was for Israel before she was against it. The border czar? How did that work out? The movers of the Party want her and so it shall be.
Biden would slam the Republicans for relying on “millionaires and billionaires,” not the small-time money. Yet the day after he resigned, his party is proud to announce that in one day they raised over $60 million. That’s a lot of little guys.
Incidentally, it looks like Trump and other notables read my articles. Last week, I was hoping that he would acknowledge that “but for the grace of G-d go I.” Indeed, he did at his acceptance speech.
I also mentioned that the pierced ear signifies that organ that heard G-d speak. Sure enough, someone happened to have sent me a clip of Elsa Kurt, who usually does terrific impersonations of Kamala Harris. In this clip, Kurt brings out her strong Christian faith to explain the significance of the wounding of Donald Trump’s ear: “It was the right ear that heard the voice of G-d.” Somehow, she knew Rashi’s explanation. I guess great minds think alike.
I have a challenge to the Democratic National Convention. The Republicans purposely avoided talk of abortion rights and of transgender issues. But the convention itself was almost like a full-throated, Likud rallying cry for Israel. So full of love for Israel and sympathy for the hostages, along with condemnation of Hamas – and the condemnation of the college campus protests and the university administrations’ clear anti-Semitism. (Remember the dynamic speech of Shabbos Kestenbaum.)
I am sure that abortion and all of LGBTQ will be front and center at the Democratic convention. Will they mention Israel at all? If they do, will it be tempered with, “but…we need to feel the suffering of the innocent Palestinians”?
Who knows what the donkey will say this time.
Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld is the Rabbi Emeritus of the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, President of the Coalition for Jewish Values, former President of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens, and the Rabbinic Consultant for the Queens Jewish Link.
