I’ve been following the American presidential election campaign closely. I watched a good deal of the Democratic National Convention last week, showing my kids the Obamas’ speeches and swooning over Kamala Harris’s closing speech. Honestly, I connected not only with their vision for the future of America, but also with their anger at the other candidate.
I listen to various pundits sharing their thoughts on which way the probabilities are moving. The focus is so much on the “swing states,” the ones that sometimes go for Democrats and sometimes go for Republicans. More than that, the focus is on individual, undecided voters who are trying to make up their minds between the two main candidates. Who will they choose?
As a lifelong Democrat, whose parents and grandparents were lifelong Democrats, I’ve never been undecided. Some years, in which the presidential candidates held more similar beliefs, I could more easily understand being undecided. This year, however, the candidates are so different, it’s hard for me to relate to undecided voters.
At the same time, I don’t discount the decision process they are going through. They are carefully weighing the question: What should we be looking at when deciding whether to believe someone and whether to follow them? We should always ask ourselves this question, even if we have a usual party or outlook we vote for.
We can look to this week’s Torah portion, Re’eh, for some inspiration. Deuteronomy 13:2-6 describes the situation of a false prophet. You would think that witnesses to God’s immediate miracles wouldn’t be at risk of going astray. However, the false prophet described in these verses seems very true. He presents signs and wonders. He doesn’t say to give up entirely on God, but rather that God told him they should all go worship other gods in addition. (The JPS Torah Commentary explains that the Hebrew description of the prophet as “dibber sarah,” although often translated into English as “urged disloyalty,” is more accurately translated as “spoke falsehood” – meaning, the major issue with this false prophet is that he claims falsely that God said x or y.) These verses come to warn us about the convincing case, the tempting speaker who tells us powerful ideas. How do we decide who to follow, when both the true and the false prophet seem legitimate?
At first, it seems Deuteronomy 13:2-6 comes to tell us the punishment for a false prophet. However, in this verse I also find some instruction about how to tell the difference.
“As for that prophet or dream-diviner, he shall be put to death; for he spoke falsehood about the Lord your God–who freed you from the land of Egypt and who redeemed you from the house of bondage–to make you stray from the path that the Lord your God commanded you to follow.” (Deuteronomy 13:6)
I look to a phrase in this last verse: “…to make you stray from the path that the Lord your God commanded you to follow.” It details the purpose the false prophet was pursuing all along. We, too, must consider: What would be the outcome of following this potential leader? Is it a path of righteousness? Is it taking care of the widow and the orphan? Is it protecting the vulnerable from the powerful? Is it feeding the hungry? Is it creating fair systems of justice? Or is it privileging the few above the many, removing care structures, increasing inequality? “The path that the Lord your God commanded” here, to me, is not only talking about monotheism and loyalty to God, which surely it is in the Torah context. It is also about all those other central laws given to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai, so many of which focus on creating a caring and fair society.
To decide who to believe and who to follow, we should look not only to soaring rhetoric or whether someone shares the target of our anger. We should extrapolate: What would be the societal outcomes of these proposed policies and commitments? And we should measure them against our understanding of what our tradition might teach us are the components of an ideal and holy society. A leader, a prophet, or a candidate must be judged not only on their magical performances in front of crowds, but by the purpose and outcomes they pursue.
Rabbi Julia Appel is Clal’s Senior Director of Innovation, helping Jewish professionals and lay leaders revitalize their communities by serving their people better. She is passionate about creating Jewish community that meets the challenges of the 21st century – in which Jewish identity is a choice, not an obligation. Her writing has been featured in such publications as The Forward, The Globe and Mail, and The Canadian Jewish News, among others.