Our Brother's Keeper?

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The following two excerpts were taken from the NY Times February 12th report of the speeches of the frontrunning candidates for the American presidency.

Please refer to Genesis 4:1-17 when reading the first of said speeches. Then compare how the "brother's keeper" metaphor sizes up with the speech of his counterpart on the same day; a counterpart who just happens to contain the name of the author of that statement within his name!

I.e. could the upcoming McCAIN-Obama duel be somehow a replay, or perhaps correction, of mankind's original social conflict? Obama does, after all, portray himself as supremely ABLE to atone for America's sins (as per Abel being the first human to offer a successful sacrifice)!!

G-d Willing, I'll offer more inside-Torah perspective in a coming post. In the meantime, bear in mind while you peruse these speeches the saying of the Talmudic Sages:

"If someone says to you there's wisdom among the gentiles -- believe.

Torah among the gentiles -- don't believe!"

(Midrash Eicha Rabba 2).

I.e. when a major gentile politician quotes Torah, every believing Jew should begin to question. And certainly the UNbelieving Jew...

(bolds and three-dots are mine)

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Obama

"That is our calling in this campaign: To reaffirm that fundamental belief – I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper – that makes us one people, and one nation. It's time to stand up and reach for what's possible, because together, people who love their country can change it.

"Now when I start talking like this, some folks tell me that I've got my head in the clouds. That I need a reality check. That we're still offering false hope. But my own story tells me that in the United States of America, there has never been anything false about hope.

"I should not be here today. I was not born into money or status. I was born to a teenage mom in Hawaii, and my dad left us when I was two. But my family gave me love, they gave me education, and most of all they gave me hope – hope that in America, no dream is beyond our grasp if we reach for it, and fight for it, and work for it.

"Because hope is not blind optimism. I know how hard it will be to make these changes. I know this because I fought on the streets of Chicago as a community organizer to bring jobs to the jobless in the shadow of a shuttered steel plant. I've fought in the courts as a civil rights lawyer to make sure people weren't denied their rights because of what they looked like or where they came from. I've fought in the legislature to take power away from lobbyists. I've won some of those fights, but I've lost some of them too. I've seen good legislation die because good intentions weren't backed by a mandate for change.

"The politics of hope does not mean hoping things come easy. Because nothing worthwhile in this country has ever happened unless somebody, somewhere stood up when it was hard; stood up when they were told – no you can't, and said yes we can…

"Yes we can reclaim that dream.

"Yes we can heal this nation."

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McCAIN

"Hope, my friends, is a powerful thing. I can attest to that better than many, for I have seen men's hopes tested in hard and cruel ways that few will ever experience. And I stood astonished at the resilience of their hope in the darkest of hours because it did not reside in an exaggerated belief in their individual strength, but in the support of their comrades, and their faith in their country. My hope for our country resides in my faith in the American character, the character which proudly defends the right to think and do for ourselves...

"When I was a young man, I thought glory was the highest ambition, and that all glory was self-glory. My parents tried to teach me otherwise, as did the Naval Academy. But I didn't understand the lesson until later in life, when I confronted challenges I never expected to face.

"In that confrontation I discovered that I was dependent on others to a greater extent than I had ever realized, but that neither they nor the cause we served made any claims on my identity. On the contrary, I discovered that nothing is more liberating in life than to fight for a cause that encompasses you, but is not defined by your existence alone. And that has made all the difference, my friends, all the difference in the world.

"I do not seek the presidency on the presumption that I am blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save my country in its hour of need. I seek the presidency with the humility of a man who cannot forget that my country saved me. I am running to serve America, and to champion the ideas I believe will help us do what every American generation has managed to do: to make in our time, and from our challenges, a stronger country and a better world.

"I intend to do that by fighting for the principles and policies I believe best serve the interests of the American people: for a government that takes and spends less of your money and competently discharges its responsibilities; that shows a proper respect for our rights and values; that provides a strong and capable defense; that encourages the enterprise and ingenuity of individuals...

"As I have done my entire career, I will make my case to every American who will listen. I will not confine myself to the comfort of speaking only to those who agree with me…

"I will fight every moment of every day for what I believe is right for this country, and I will not yield.

"Thank you and God bless you."

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