Donald Trump is breaking all the scripts. What does the Talmud say about improvisational decision-making like his? |
Over the past year, decisions by the Trump administration have introduced a new level of instability into American life. New international tariffs disrupted the global trade market and raised constitutional questions at home. Aggressive immigration raids in Minneapolis, which ignored standard law enforcement procedures and led to heightened — and at times lethal — violence, have raised grave concerns domestically.
And now, the war with Iran and the widening conflict in the Middle East have ushered in a new era of international instability. Even without boots on the ground, the shocks of this conflict are being felt domestically, as the stock market spirals and gas prices skyrocket. For American Jews in particular, this new conflict feels close to home, as family and friends in Israel are sent dashing into shelters repeatedly every night.
With each emerging crisis, the scripts we have long relied on no longer seem adequate to guide us. From its actions in Minneapolis to the Middle East, the current administration is rewriting the norms that shape our society. The impact of these actions on our domestic life and foreign policy will be felt long after the events themselves are over.
President Donald Trump’s willingness to go off script can be risky, but also beneficial, a fact to which the Jewish community is particularly attuned. For decades, U.S.-Israel relations have been shaped by bipartisan norms that supported Israel while trying to constrain any escalation of conflict in the region. These norms offered a degree of stability, but as the events of October 7th made painfully clear, they neither resolved the Israeli-Palestinian conflict nor guaranteed Israel’s long-term security.
True to form, since coming to office, Trump has ignored those norms, in ways that changed the script and opened important doors. His willingness to improvise helped secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and his decision to strike Iran without congressional approval dealt........