Culture

Michael Beals, Delaware rabbi, blesses Biden before inauguration, compares him to Moses



A Delaware rabbi blessed President-elect Joseph R. Biden and his wife before they left the state Tuesday night by comparing him to Moses and President Trump to the “cruel Pharaoh.”

Rabbi Michael Beals explained at the farewell ceremony on the eve of Mr. Biden‘s inauguration the meaning of “bashert,” which he said is Yiddish for “meant to be.”

“It is indeed bashert that you, our dear president-elect, are being inaugurated on the very week when Jews all around the world are reading from the book of Exodus about Moses freeing us from 400 years of backbreaking, Egyptian slavery at the hands of an autocratic, cruel Pharaoh,” Rabbi Beals told the Bidens. 

“In many ways, dear Joe, you are our Moses and vice president-elect, Kamala Harris is our Aaron,” he continued. “Among your closer Jewish friends together, your administration will always affectionately be known as Momola and the Mensch.

“Stay safe our dear friend, defeat the plague of COVID-19, rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and kickstart our sluggish economy,” he added. “On the week we honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., rid us of the scourge of 400 years of institutional racism. Deal aggressively and boldly with the global climate change for the sake of our children’s future and find allies on both sides of the aisle to pass your legislation, helping us heal our rifts.”

Rabbi Beals has been described by Mr. Biden, a Catholic, as “my rabbi” in the past. The rabbi who served at Congregation Beth Shalom in Wilmington for the past two decades said in a recent interview that he first met Mr. Biden early in his tenure, but most recently in the wake of the George Floyd unrest.

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