Q:
The second bracha on Shemoneh Esrei starts off with the praise of Hashem that אתה גיבור לעולם – You are the Strong One forever. You explained before what Gibor means but what is the extra word לעולם – forever?
A:
‘You are forever the one who is Mighty’ means that You are unlike the mighty ones of this world whose mightiness is only for a moment.
And sometimes even overnight they become unseated. The mighty Elizabeth Holtzman who had a firm seat in Congress and a big following and now she tried out for a seat in the Senate. And was sure that she would remain a gibor in power. After all she was running against a conservative Italian. So the gays wouldn’t vote for an Italian. The feminists surely wouldn’t vote for a Conservative Italian. So she had it all sewn up.
And then suddenly she discovered that she was defeated. She was shocked to discover that she lost the race to a dark horse who wasn’t expected to win anything. So she already gave up her seat in the House of Representatives – somebody else has it now – and now she’s not a Senator either. And so she’s retired together with all the old hags like Bella Abzug and Betty Friedan and all the rest of the retired moshav zekeinimniks. For four years she’s on ice, now. No power.
And it happens suddenly! All of a sudden, Carter is crying. Why was Carter in tears? He didn’t imagine he could lose. This upstart Reagan – OK, he has right-to-lifeniks and he has Conservatives, but they’re all cranks. The whole America is ridiculing them. America is with me, Carter thought, for handing out government money to everybody, for being liberal to all causes: rights for the gays, ERA. Any cause, you name it, I’m for it. More and more abortions! And government money to pay for it.
So Carter was sure he was going to win. He was a gibor! He was sitting on top of the world.
And now, all of a sudden the rug was pulled from underneath him. A landslide! For Reagan! Not for him!
And so ‘only You Hashem are the Gibor le’olam.’ We have to learn from these stories that giborim in this world are not for a long time; they are not le’olam. And even if they live successfully all their lives, sooner or later, someday, there will come a tall dark man and tap them on the shoulder and say, “Come with me.” It’s the Malach Hamavess. “Come with me!” And so nobody is le’olam in this world.
TAPE #337 (November 1980)
