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Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon: …Seek the peace of the city where
I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray to the Lord for it; for
in its peace shall you have peace. Jeremiah 29
Rabbi Chanina, the deputy Kohen
Gadol, said: Pray for the welfare of the government, for without the fear [of
the government] a man would swallow fellow alive. Avos 3:2
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Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, in Horeb
(ch. 96), writes that from these verses in Jeremiah we learn that the Jewish people have
an obligation that “in whichever land Jews shall live as citizens, as
inhabitants, or enjoying special protection, they shall honor and love the princes
and Government as their own, contribute with every possible power to their
good, and fulfill all the duties towards prince and land which a subject owes
to his prince, an inhabitant to his land, and a citizen to his country.”
“It is… Israel’s religious duty, a duty imposed by God and no less holy than all the others, in whatever land they dwell in, not only to fulfill all the duties which the law of that land explicitly lay down, but, over and above that, to do with thought, word, and deed everything that can contribute to the weal of that nation.”
“[T]his duty is an unconditional duty and not dependent upon whether the State is kindly intentioned towards you or is harsh.”
Indeed, it should be noted that Jeremiah made these statements only a short time after the Babylonian empire had destroyed the Holy Temple and forcibly exiled the Jews from their land. Even so, Rav Breuer, in his commentary on Jeremiah, notes, “The exiles are bidden to perceive their welfare as so closely linked with that of their host nation that they will pray to God for a nation that has dealt them the most grievous wounds.”
Similarly, the commentators (Ruach Chaim, Hertz) note that Rabbi Chanina lived in the period immediately after the destruction of the Second Holy Temple, and was instructing his fellow Jews to nevertheless pray for the welfare of the Roman government.
If we are obligated to be loyal and patriotic citizens even in lands in which we are oppressed, then how much greater is our obligation towards a country which has always treated us with great kindness! Every day that we live in the United States our obligation of hakaras hatov – gratitude – increases to higher levels. In 1976, Rabbi Shimon Schwab wrote an essay regarding the American Bicentennial. In this essay he states, in part:
This Bicentennial year gives us a welcome opportunity to express our Jewish gratitude to this nation which has opened its gates to receive millions of us. Jews from all over the globe, who otherwise might have perished in the hell holes of the old world. Here we have found, during the last centuries, a haven of refuge free from pogroms, expulsions, crusaders, inquisitions, concentration camps and gas chambers. The only country where Jews were never burned at the stake or perched in ghettos and where they were not made to wear a badge of shame. Here in America, the Books of the Torah were never burned or censored, and the freedom to teach and practice the laws of G-d was never curtailed or questioned.
… This country has the immense zechus (merit) to be the host to hundreds of thousands of Torah Jews who enjoy the freedom the serve HaShem without restrictions. All this imposes upon us an ever mounting debt of gratitude which we repay by loyalty to and concern for this nation and by the strict adherence to the laws of the land.
Such gratitude is of course in reality directed to the Ruler over all nations who permitted us to find shelter and a haven of opportunity in these United States for the welfare of which we pray and whose peace we seek.
(Selected Writings Ch. 33)© Eliezer C. Abrahamson
