Rabbi Charles P. Sherman
February 14, 2003
God Bless Abraham Lincoln
Of all the presidents America has had, Abraham Lincoln is surely one of the most beloved among Jews. There are a number of reasons why we Jews have loved Lincoln. It is more than just his first name or his patriarchal appearance. I think it was, first of all, because Lincoln freed the slaves; and, second, because he had such enormous respect for the law. Since Judaism is a faith based on the Torah, which is our Constitution, we can identify with this extraordinary man whose central attachment was to the U. S. Constitution.
Lastly, we love Lincoln because of his very special kind of faith. His was not the ordinary kind of faith many politicians have. He was not a member of any church, and he did not attend services as frequently as some politicians do. But Abraham Lincoln had a deep and serious faith in God. He searched for God’s guidance and instruction all his life.
Lincoln’s second inaugural address was probably the most religious speech ever given by any American President. The Civil War was drawing to its close; a lesser man would have used the occasion for boasting and for self-congratulation or for praise of the Army and the people for their achievements. That is what politicians usually do. But Lincoln made his second inaugural address into a profound meditation on God’s judgement over the sins of human beings, and he included the sins of the North as well as of the South. In that address Lincoln points out that we human beings are not privy to the mind of God and that we cannot glibly claim that we know God’s will – something that politicians and even some preachers often tend to forget.
I regret that Lincoln’s birthday has fallen on hard times in recent years. First it got merged with Washington’s into something called “Presidents Day”, and then it got moved to whichever Monday came out between the two, since Monday seems to be a convenient time on which to hold national holidays. So now it is more of a day for thinking about car sales than for meditating on Lincoln’s legacy. And that is too bad because we need Lincoln’s wisdom more than ever in this bewildering time in which we live.
Therefore, this evening I want to tell you two of my favorite Lincoln stories. One expresses his humility and his understanding of the chasm between God and human beings; the other expresses his capacity to emulate the way of God by practicing forgiveness.
The first story is about a group of ministers who came from Chicago to visit Lincoln during the very darkest days of the Civil War. They said to him: “Mr. President, we’ve come to tell you that God is on your side.”
Lincoln said: “Thank you very much. But I must tell you that what worries me the most, what keeps me awake at night, is not whether God is on my side or not. What worries me the most and keeps me awake at night, what gives me no rest, is the question of whether I am on God’s side or not.”
Then Lincoln sighed and said one thing more. “Is it not strange that if God has a message for me, and that if I so much want to know what it is, that God should send it to me by way of Chicago?”
I cherish that story because it makes clear the difference between true faith and glib faith, between a person who wrestled hard to find God’s guidance and a group that was so pompous and so sure that God wanted what they wanted.
Samuel Johnson once said: “Patriotism may be the last refuge of scoundrels.” But so may be religion. This story stands as a judgement on those who would identify what they want with what God wants, and we need to hear this story now as much as ever before.
The second Lincoln story is also important. Carl Sandburg once described Lincoln as a remarkable combination of steel and velvet. He wrote: “Not often in the story of mankind does a man arrive on earth who is both steel and velvet, who is as hard as rock and as soft as drifting fog, who holds in his heart and mind the paradox of terrible storm and peace unspeakable and perfect all at the same time.”
“Steel and velvet” – how many people do you know who have at one and the same time a will of iron and a heart of tenderness? Abraham Lincoln did. No President was ever as mocked, as maligned, as made fun of as Lincoln was. Yet he maintained a steady equilibrium and never yielded to the temptation to be angry or vengeful toward those who made fun of him. No President was ever given as many instructions as to what to do, and yet he steered a steady course guided by what he believed was right.
A President who lacks steel is pathetic; he is blown from side to side by the winds, more influenced by what the public opinion polls say than by what he thinks is right. A President who lacks velvet is dangerous. A human being who possesses so much capacity to destroy has to have within himself a full measure of compassion or the world itself is in peril. How does one combine such opposite characteristics as determination and compassion, stubbornness and forgiveness? Abraham Lincoln was somehow able to do it. He kept both these contradictory qualities in balance all through the war.
Let me give you just one example of Abraham Lincoln’s capacity to combine steel and velvet. Do you remember what Lincoln did on the day that General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army? Can you imagine what a painful day that must have been for Lee? Can you imagine the glee that must have been felt in the North that day? I am sure there were plenty of people who wanted to wreak retribution on the South, who wanted revenge for all their losses during the war, who wanted to crush Lee and the South forever. There must have been others in the North who wanted to celebrate, who wanted to shame Lee and his soldiers, to punish them in any way they could.
Lincoln ignored those feelings which must have welled up – not only in his countrymen, but perhaps in his own heart as well. Instead he sent an unexpected message to the enemy commander. “General Lee,” he wrote, “Tell your men that they may keep their horses; they will need them for plowing. And tell your men that they may keep their rifles as well; they will need them for hunting.”
When Lee read these words, it is reported that he wept.
Look what Lincoln accomplished with those two sentences. First, he saved the dignity of Lee and his soldiers. If he had not, he would have implanted the seeds of hatred and desire for retaliation within them, and those feelings would have endured for years to come. Second, he changed the focus of the country in one brief message by talking about plowing and about hunting. He moved the focus of the country from war to peace, from the past to the future, from hatred to rebuilding.
Carl Sandburg was right. Lincoln was a man who knew how to be steel when the time required strength and determination and how to be velvet when the time required reconciliation and forgiveness.
A hundred and some years later, another leader expressed and demonstrated the same truth. Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. also could be steel itself when courage was required. But he could be velvet personified when non-violence was the right way. King once expressed the same truth that Carl Sandburg did in his own way. He said: “If we are to achieve our goals, we need to somehow have tough minds and soft hearts at the same time.” I am afraid that many of us have it the other way around – we have soft heads and tough hearts, and that does no one any good.
So let these be the two lessons we learn from Abraham Lincoln this year. First to go forward with malice towards none, with charity towards all, and to do the right as God gives us to see the right. What a powerful reminder and precondition Lincoln sets for us in that sentence. What we think is right may not necessarily be what God thinks is right. That sentence is a warning against the kind of fakery and the glibness which lets us claim that what we want is what God wants, that truth and justice are only on our side. We live in a time when politicians invoke God’s name frequently, without qualification and without limit. So let’s hold on to Lincoln’s warning that we are not God and that we dare not use God’s name lightly, casually and callously for, if we do, God’s judgement will be upon us.
And it is good to remember the second lesson – that all of us, not just our leaders, but all of us should strive to be both steel and velvet. Let us be tough, determined and stubborn, let us have stamina and overcome the obstacles that we meet on life’s path. At the same time, let our hearts be soft and let our compassion and love and ability to forgive be strong, too. Our toughness will enable us to reach our goals, but our compassion and our ability to forgive will make the journey worthwhile.
Abraham Lincoln was a great and good man, and we have much for which to be thankful to him. Had a weaker man been President in his time, who knows whether America would have survived. And, had a crueler man been President in his time, who knows whether America would have been worth surviving.
I thank God for Abraham Lincoln. Let us strive to learn from him and to be like him. Amen
This message is based on the writings of Rabbi Jack Riemer, who shares my love of Lincoln.
