So Donald Trump is president and half of America is mourning. And plenty are elated. My Facebook feed, mostly non-Orthodox Jews, is dominated by mourning. People lamenting the loss of normalcy, of values, of shattering the glass ceiling once and for all. People describing the emotions like losing a loved one. 

It’s times like this that I am so grateful for that fundamental faith I have that there’s a G-d Who runs the universe. I didn’t vote for Trump and I didn’t want him to win. I feel confused and adrift but I’m not afraid. Two things keep rattling around my head:

One is a song, a popular Hebrew song. The translation is this: “We are believers, children of believers, and we have no one to rely upon other than our Father in Heaven.” The song is sung jubilantly and often accompanied by dancing. This lack of anyone else to rely upon is not mourned, but the relief, the liberation of relying on capricious humans, is sung from the rooftops.

The second is a verse from Psalms that I often think of when members leave our congregation or donors lower or cancel their support. It goes like this: “Do not trust in noblemen, in humans who don’t provide salvation.” It is just such a relief to live an existence that remembers that humans are not the answer.

I’m all for the democratic process, for exercising our human influence in every legal and moral way. More than that is G-d’s department. And I for one am grateful for that.