Put Your Faith in God, not Politicians

In the summer of 2015, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was making its way through Congress. This was an agreement negotiated by the Obama administration, in conjunction with a number of other countries, to try and address Iran’s nuclear ambitions. While it was not a treaty in the formal sense of the word, Congress had, in a bipartisan effort, enacted a law to ensure that the president could not sign this deal without Congressional approval.

To the American Jewish community, the JCPOA looked like bad news because of the implications for Israel. Iran, under its current government, which has been in place since the 1979 revolution, has continuously called for the destruction of Israel, and the JCPOA looked like a sure way to give Iran the nuclear tools to be able to act on that threat. And so when a number of Jewish organizations in New York organized a rally to try and convince New York State senator, Chuck Schumer, to vote against the JCPOA, my family and I were there.

The JCPOA did, in the end, pass through Congress, though Schumer did ultimately vote against it. This was eleven years and twelve lifetimes ago, but the statement that Schumer released then has stood the test of time, particularly following the bitter disappointment of last week’s Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that the United States signed with Iran. At the time, Schumer wrote the following:

If one thinks Iran will moderate, that contact with the West and a decrease in economic and political isolation will soften Iran’s hardline positions, one should approve the agreement…But if one feels that Iranian leaders will not moderate and their unstated but very real goal is to get relief from the onerous sanctions, while still retaining their nuclear ambitions and their ability to increase belligerent activities in the Middle East and elsewhere, then one should conclude that it would be better not to approve this agreement.

Admittedly, no one can tell with certainty which way Iran will go. It is true that Iran has a large number of people who want their government to decrease its isolation from the world and focus on economic advancement at home. But it is also true that this desire has been evident in Iran for thirty-five years, yet the Iranian leaders have held a tight and undiminished grip on Iran, successfully maintaining their brutal, theocratic dictatorship with little threat. Who’s to say this dictatorship will not prevail for another ten, twenty, or thirty years?

It seems, with the MOU, that we are back where we were in 2015. (As of writing, negotiations for a final agreement have not yet begun.) Perhaps we are not quite at square one, because the two wars Israel successfully waged against the Iranian regime did real damage, but we are once again staring down the barrel of the sort of economic relief that would give Iran the funds to build its nuclear program.

And without faith, that is an utterly terrifying proposition.

In this week’s Torah portion, which is a double portion in the Diaspora, we are reminded of the fact that God is on our side in the long arc of history. In the first part of this week’s portion, we read of the Israelites’ conquering two separate Amorite kingdoms, one from the fearsome king Sihon and the other from the seemingly invincible king Og. These were unlikely battles for the Israelites to win, and, in fact, before heading out to fight Og, God reassured Moses, “Do not be afraid of him, for I have given him, his nation, and his land over to you” (Num.21:34). Moses was actually concerned that an old merit would stand in Og’s favor, but the same God who intervened in history to take the Jews out of Egypt would not let His nation be destroyed as they stood on the cusp of entering the land.

In the second part of this week’s portion, we read the story of Balaam, the gentile prophet who was hired to curse the Jewish people, yet who found himself unwittingly blessing them instead—once again, God intervening in history on behalf of his people. In fact, in one of his blessings, Balaam proclaimed, “They are a nation that dwells alone and they are not reckoned among the other nations” (23:9). Taking his statement together with the unlikely victories of the Israelites against the Amorites, there’s a clear message for today.

As the terms of the MOU were becoming clearer last week, Rabbi Efrem Goldberg of Boca Raton, Florida, wrote a short post on social media that said it best: “As Jews, we know that neither politicians nor governments ultimately direct history. God does. We have patience. For thousands of years, we have mastered playing the long game, especially when the short-term picture is frustrating and disappointing. Put your faith in the One Above. He has a plan.”

I don’t know what will be. None of us do. But my faith in the future does not rest on the whims of a fickle American politician, nor is it shaken by said politician’s flip-flopping. My faith rests in the same God Who took us out of Egypt, and as the line in an Israeli song goes, “We overcame Pharaoh, we shall overcome this too.”

When the United States deployed its B-2 bombers against Iran last June, God was on our side. When the United States air force flew side by side with Israel in sorties against Iran this spring, God was still on our side. And when the United States and Iran signed the MOU that looks to be a massive step backwards, God is, in fact, still on our side.

So I don’t know what will be. But God does. And in the end, that’s what really matters.