Rebbe’s Take On ‘Not My President’

Archive Gems presents a series on the involvement of the Rebbe with political and communal figures the world over.

ln keeping with his concern not only for Jews but for all mankind, the Rebbe consistently kept his finger on the pulse of communal and political affairs.

Rabbi Nissan Mindel was chosen by the Frerdiker Rebbe and the Rebbe as their emissary for various missions national and international. The archives of Nissan Mindel can testify to this – with its rich content of manuscripts, letters, and photographs. Rabbi Schapiro, responsible for the Archives of Rabbi Mindel, will be presenting some of this material starting from the early years of Chabad in America and on.

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The paper we are presenting this week is the notes of Rabbi Mindel based on a talk of the Rebbe on Yud Alef Nissan 5741, in which he addresses the shocking assassination attempt on then-president Reagan. How can we explain such violence?! asks the Rebbe. How can we explain the antagonism against a duly elected president in our free and democratic country – where the choice of the majority which elected him should be accepted and respected?!

The dramatic political events of the day (1981) – non acceptance of and violence against a President of the U.S.A., President Reagan – are, sadly, being dramatically replayed in our day against President Trump. The violence we are experiencing today – including shootings in our schools – is a problem which the Rebbe addressed in his 1981 talk and which unfortunately remains a problem today.

From where does this violence stem? The popular explanation which has been in vogue for decades, says the Rebbe, is to associate violence and crime with poverty. This simple explanation seems to make sense – economic disadvantage surely fosters a feeling of frustration which in turn breeds violence. But, explains the Rebbe, the facts do not bear out this popular myth.

A time of such traumatic events, says the Rebbe, is a time of national soul-searching – we cannot stand idly by. Our nation’s conscience should be stirred sufficiently to make long overdue changes in our public school education – where education needs to include not only the academics but also character training and moral behavior of a child. This is where the solution can be found.

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11th Nissan, 5743/1983

(from the Nissan Mindel archives – notes of the Rebbe’s talks).

In keeping with the Torah and Tradition, we begin with an expression of thanksgiving for all the blessings G-d has bestowed upon us.

In inter-human relations, when one person does a favor to another person, it calls for a reciprocal act of kindness and it can be reciprocated in kind. But when G-d grants us special favor, there is only one way in which we can “reciprocate,” namely – to quote our Sages of the Talmud – “Being good to Heaven and good to humankind.” Not that these are two separate things; one cannot be “good to Heaven” without being “good to humankind,” just as one cannot be “good to humankind” without also being “good to Heaven.” In simple words: Every G-d-given blessing calls for redoubling one’s efforts to improve oneself morally and spiritually and to spread goodness and benevolence all around. Needless to say, in both these areas there is always room for improvement.

The Torah teaches us that appreciation and gratitude are very important qualities in human relations and these must not remain in the realm of thought and feeling, but must be expressed in concrete terms. Hence there is no more appropriate time and place than here and now to express publicly our grateful appreciation of the kind message of greeting and felicitation received from the president of the United States on this occasion.

While all of us are still under the impact of the recent trying days for the President and for the Nation and the President is recuperating from his physical injury, it is both remarkable and most gratifying that he was able to give personal attention also to matters which, under the circumstances, might have justifiably been postponed, or overlooked. We are grateful to G-d for having spared him to continue to guide this Nation’s destinies along peaceful waters; and together with all good citizens of this country we continue to pray for his rapid and complete recovery and for his continues good health, so that he can carry out the awesome responsibilities of the President of this great and leading nation in the world.
President Reagan speaks for the entire Nation, which elected him to the highest office of the land by a sweeping majority. There can be no unanimity in a free thinking society, since individuals differ in their outlooks no less than in their looks – to paraphrase a well known Talmudic saying. In a democracy, such as in this country, every individual can freely express his/her opinion, openly vote against a Presidential candidate in favor of another, freely express disappointment at the outcome of the election. But once elected, the President is of course, President of all the nation, the majority as well as the minority. The minority may still disapprove of the newly-elected President, criticize him and express his/her feeling and disappointments in many ways, provide they are peaceful and consistent with the democratic order.

In light of the above, there should be no place in such a society for the traumatic event that stunned the nation, the attempt on the President’s life, (Heaven forefend!)

There is the well known teaching of the founder of Chassidus to the effect that everything one sees or hears contains a moral lesson to help one improve one’s personal life and conduct, as well as to improve the environment. Certainly such a traumatic happening as just mentioned must not be allowed to pass into oblivion without serious spiritual stocktaking.

What makes a young American, born and bred in a free democratic society, go out and buy a deadly weapon in order to shoot the President of the United States? Or, for that matter, to shoot any peaceful man who, not by any stretch of the imagination, can be accused of tyranny or violence?

From reports available on the state of mind of the would-be assassin, he does not appear to be a raving lunatic. On the other hand, it is safe to assume that a person of sound mind would not commit such an insane act. The conclusion is inevitable that we are dealing here with a warped and corrupt mind and we must ask ourselves what has warped and corrupted his mind?

It has been in vogue for some time, especially in recent decades, to associate violence and crime with poverty, at first glance it seems a plausible and logical explanation: Economic disadvantage surely fosters a feeling of frustration and a feeling of frustration breeds violence. It is a simple explanation and a popular one; it does not obligate anyone personally, since poverty is a social ill that is almost inevitable; it also has a convenient scapegoat – the capitalistic society!
What is wrong with this view is – everything. Not only is the premise itself wrong, for there is in reality no cause-and-effect correlation between poverty and crime; but it also offers a so-called self-fulfilling prophecy. It provides all juvenile delinquents and other anti-social characters that happen to come from poor neighborhoods with a convenient excuse and justification to go on committing violent crimes. “Look! The experts, the sociologists and the judges themselves declare it is not our fault; it’s the fault of poverty!”

Certainly, this is not the view of the Torah, nor is it consistent with time-honored human experience. The Torah teaches us: “Be especially considerate of the children of the poor, for from their ranks come the bearers of scholarship.” It is also logical to expect that economically disadvantaged children would try harder to excel in areas in which they are not disadvantaged: scholarship achievement and moral conduct. Human experience has amply borne this out.

Thus, the key to violent crime must be sought elsewhere; the blame must be laid at the door ofof a serious moral breakdown of society and this can be traced directly to the quality of education, or rather, the lack of it, in terms of morality and ethics. It is at the grassroots of elementary education that crime prevention begins.

At any rate, in the present case the criminal act cannot be associated with poverty, since the would-be assassin comes from a well-to-do family, a family moreover where the philosophy of permissiveness was a fact of life.
The problem with the educational system in the U.S., especially in recent decades, has been that it concerned itself primarily, if not exclusively, with the aspect of imparting knowledge and not sufficiently with character-building. There was a time when the acquisition of knowledge was indeed considered the primary function of formal education on all levels, since character building was well taken care of at home and in church, etc. But things have changed. Neither the home nor the church and certainly not the social environment, any longer exercise a strong moral and ethical influence on children. The contemporary American parent is him/herself a product of an educational system that is pervaded with a spirit of permissiveness (under the guise of “liberalism”) and is all too ready to abdicate parental responsibility in deference to the school. But the school has been seriously restricted in the exercise of moral influence by the enforcement ad absurdum of the principle of separation between church and state. If the name of G-d may not be mentioned in school even in a brief non-denominational prayer to start the day off; f the existence of a Supreme Being, a Creator, who might have created the world, is inadmissible in public school, even as just another hypothesis of the origin of the universe – is it any wonder that a child will conclude that there is no such thing as a Supreme Being? If so, there is only one authority to contend with, the cop on the beat; but he can surely be outsmarted and if the worst comes to worst and one is caught, the judge will blame it on “poverty,” and the kid- though old enough to commit violent crimes – is sent home in the custody of the parents who could surely be no less lenient than the judge. Is it any wonder that ever larger segments of juveniles become totally demoralized?

As we reflect on the recent attempt on the President’s life and on the moral lesson it conveys, we must come to the obvious conclusion that there was something radically wrong with the education of the would-be assassin, if he could so callously plan and perpetrate such an abhorrent criminal act. Nor can we honestly say that his education was atypical of the kind of education the vast majority of Americans receive. It is only because we have only one President at a time that the assassination attempt has so uniquely shocked the American people. But human life – the life of any peace loving person – is equally precious. Yet such violence has, unfortunately, become a common daily occurrence that no longer sees to shock the public..

Let us, then, remain shocked by the attempt on the President’s life for a long time to come, until the nation’s conscience is stirred sufficiently to embark upon long overdue radical changes in the public school system that would incorporate the moral deterrents and incentives that ate indispensible to character building and good citizenship.

As for the President, no one can be more convinced of the benevolent intervention to Divine Providence in having spared him so miraculously. Hence, it is safe to assume that he will dedicate himself more thatn ever to carrying out the tasks which Divine Providence has bestowed upon him, both as president of the United States and as head of the leading super power in the world.

In the latter role, we venture to express our confidence that the President will vigorously pursue his avowed aim to curb and eventually eradicate international terrorism, which should have no place in the international community as domestic terrorism (violent crime) has no place in any decent human society.
We should also like to see that the President ‘s efforts to arrest the expansionist policy of a world power that threatens to undermine the free world by force and intimidation, are pursued without compromising the principles of justice and truth.