A State of the Union address of Biblical proportions

By Brian Greenspun (contact)

Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016 | 2 a.m.

I know a little about politics and government and, yes, State of the Union addresses. It is hard not to know something after studying and being part of the process for as many years as I have spent trying to learn.

If I fall short somewhere, I suppose it is in my knowledge of all things Biblical. No one I know will argue with that.

However, President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address last Tuesday evening made me think, not just about politics and good government, but of the Bible and the religious lessons I have learned.

In three months Jewish people around the world will celebrate Passover. It is the holiday that commemorates the story of the Jews being saved from slavery in Egypt by Moses, who acted on behalf of the one and only God — the God of Abraham, Isaac and Joseph.

It is a long and, as I am certain everyone knows, compelling story about the power of faith and the frailty of humankind. It is also a story of the Jews being freed by the pharaoh of Egypt after he was convinced of the power of a God he could not see, hear or talk to.

And it is a story full of miracles, large and small.

Jewish families are compelled at each Passover Seder to tell the story of Passover to our children so they will know what happened and be able to retell the story to their own children. And they will know of the struggles of their ancestors and the hardships endured in order to be free.

The most significant part of the Seder evening is the Four Questions, which are asked by the youngest child at the dinner. It is in keeping with the obligation to teach each successive generation and starts with the question in Hebrew, “Ma Nishtana?” Why is this night different?

I thought about Passover as I listened to the president because he didn’t stick to the normal subject matter of a State of the Union speech. He spoke to the future of the United States and challenged us as Americans to decide what we wanted our country to be in the next five or 10 years — long after he leaves the White House.

To make his point, he asked four questions:

• How do we give everyone a fair shot at opportunity and security in this new economy?

• How do we make technology work for us, and not against us — especially when it comes to solving urgent challenges such as climate change?

• How do we keep America safe and lead the world without becoming its policeman?

• How can we make our politics reflect what’s best in us, and not what’s worst?

Perhaps it was just coincidence. Perhaps not. But what I took from his speech — a speech I thought was the best of his presidency — was the invoking of a Biblical responsibility to teach the next generation the story. In this case, the story of the United States of America.

Great 20th century author and statesman Andre Malreaux wrote, “In the realm of human destiny, the depth of man’s questionings is more important than his answers.”

In the United States in 2016 it is apparent to me that the kind and quality of our questions — about who we are as a people, as a nation and as a democracy destined to lead the world — will define us for generations as we struggle to understand and to decide the direction this great democracy must take.

At the Passover Seder we look back to the time of our ancestors to answer the four questions about who we are as a people and how we got here. But we do so only to inform the youngest among us so they can grow toward a future with a knowledge that only history can provide.

President Obama’s four questions challenged every American to not only look forward to determine the country we want to have, but to look back long enough to understand the country we had when we began this great experiment in democracy.

As Americans, our challenge is to strive to form a more perfect union, which means we have to constantly work toward a goal that is very hard to achieve: perfection.

Our state of the union is good, not perfect. We have work to do. We should start by answering the four questions.

Brian Greenspun is owner, publisher and editor of the Sun.