Thread by @JoshuaCypess

1/ The signs were an act of leadership

In the pulpit it was crucial to be non-partisan (I was always political, b/c halakhah covers every topic). But even out of the pulpit, no signs; e.g. in 2012, despite my support of Obama, I didn't broadcast it.

2/ I never put up signs until I needed to repudiate Trump (ym'sh). As a rabbi & thus a moral leader I had to show my politically conservative community it's possible to be 'civil' & cordial while standing up publicly for what the Torah demanded: anti-racism, compassion, justice

3/ It took a lot of risk. It came with a cost to our social life.

I knew it would be costly, yet that's why bravery is the highest ideal. Courage is risking for a mitzvah. It's what being Jewish is supposed to entail. It's the 'true' in "Torah-true Jew"

4/ But one thing I've learned over the years about bravery: it's a force multiplier. When a leader is brave, followers will be too

You can stand up for them and it strengthens them. They're buoyed by your own sense of self & determination

5/ Without knowing the effect I would have, I used my empathy to reflect that in the same situation I would need leaders to show there's another way.

Moreover, my actions - helping the 20/30% who resisted Trump (ym'sh) - also condemned those who slavishly marched off to fascism

6/ This is one of the hard lessons I believe we need to learn from Lot in Sedom. He's a sullied character; the Torah is explicit about his moral failings. But without his contrast, the depravity of Sedom wouldn't be as clear. He resisted & they hated him for it.

7/ Being Jewish means standing out and saying "yes" to compassion, decency (aka modesty), benevolence but, by necessity & impulse, saying "no" to cruelty, arrogance, & injustice

Our Abrahamic nemesis is Sedom; Mosaic nemesis is Amalek; rabbinic nemesis is Rome. All the same tho

8/ My anti-Trump (ym'sh) stand is designed to provide support for those who need to resist, but also a silent & passive rebuke for those who donned the RedHat.

Based on the rules of 'tochecha' I determined direct rebuke would backfire.

9/ Much of the RedHat program is self-absorbed selfish egotism which keeps them in a cognitive-dissonant cage.

It's mislabeled a sense of 'honor' when it's actually a fragile sense of crushing lack of solid self-esteem. They venerate false prizes; and lies need a system of myth

10/ For any of the cult to do teshuva (repentance), they need to be shown the truth.

I expect them to slowly try to walk back to the right path when the truth is revealed. If they don't? Then they were never salvageable.

11/ To sum this up, I will repost an older thread via links. This may help with thread readers. This is from Elul 2019:

12/