Should the Rebbes Have Recited the Bracha With Shaim uMalchus?

New York (VINNEWS/Rabbi Yair Hoffman)  Earlier today, a delegation of Chassidic Rebbes — including the two Satmar Rebbes, the Bobover Rebbe, the Vizhnitzer Rebbe of Monsey, a representative of the Skverer Rebbe — together with Rav Aryeh Malkiel Kotler, Rosh Yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, was received by President Trump in the Oval Office ahead of Rosh Hashanah. The question naturally arises: Does one recite a blessing upon seeing the President of the United States? Is the bracha reserved for kings alone, who hold life and death in their hands, or does it extend to an elected American president as well? And if it does apply, is it recited with Shaim uMalchus — with the full mention of Hashem’s Name and Kingship — or without it?

It is this author’s opinion that those who met with the President today should have recited the bracha with Shaim uMalchus. Here is why.

THE BASIC HALACHA

The Shulchan Aruch (OC 224:8) rules that upon seeing a Jewish king one recites, “Boruch atta Hashem, Elokainu Melech ha’olam, shechalak mikvodo lirei’av.” Upon seeing a king of the nations of the world one recites, “Boruch… shenasan mikvodo l’basar vadam.” The source is the Gemorah in Brachos (58a). The bracha, as codified, is recited with Shaim uMalchus.

HOW OFTEN

The bracha is recited only once in thirty days, according to the Raavad as cited in the Orchos Chaim. The Sefer Chassidim (#950) adds a limitation: one who has never seen the king should make an effort to see him; one who has already seen him should not be mevatel from his Torah study in order to see him again. Several of the Rebbes who met the President today have met him in previous years, but those meetings were well beyond thirty days ago, so the thirty-day limitation would not have prevented a bracha today.

IN PERSON, NOT ON A SCREEN

The Debreciner Rav (Be’er Moshe Vol. II #9) rules that one who sees the president on television does not recite the bracha at all — not even without Shaim uMalchus. That concern is irrelevant here. The delegation stood before the President in the Oval Office, face to face. Rav Dovid Yosef (Halacha Berurah Vol. XI p. 308) writes that one need not even see the leader himself; sensing his presence through his entourage suffices, which is why even a blind person may recite the bracha when he feels that the president is present. A fortiori, those who actually shook the President’s hand certainly fulfilled the requirement of “seeing.”

ARE PRESIDENTS LIKE KINGS?

This is the crux of the matter. Rav Ovadia Yosef zt”l (Yechave Daas 2:28) ruled that the bracha is recited on any ruler who holds the power to execute or to pardon from execution. He cites the Radvaz (Vol. I #296) and the Orchos Chaim (Hilchos Brachos #49) to this effect. The defining feature of malchus, in this view, is not a crown or a throne but authority over life and death.

Rav Dovid Yosef Shlita (Halacha Berurah Vol. XI p. 306) applies this directly to modern governments: one recites the bracha with Shaim uMalchus even on a democratically elected leader serving a limited term — provided that his power of pardon cannot be overruled.  

The President of the United States fits this criterion precisely. Under Article II of the Constitution, the President’s power to grant reprieves and pardons for federal offenses — including commutation of federal death sentences — is plenary. It cannot be overruled by Congress, by the courts, or by anyone else. If a ruler who can pardon from execution is a “king” for purposes of this bracha, the American president is a paradigm case.

Rav Shmuel Wosner zt”l (Shevet HaLevi Vol. I #35) likewise rules that Shaim uMalchus is recited upon seeing the president.

THE DISSENTING VIEWS

Honesty requires noting the other side. The Debreciner Rav (Be’er Moshe Vol. II #9) ruled that Shaim uMalchus is not recited on a president. Rav Moshe Shternbuch Shlita (Teshuvos V’Hanhagos Vol. II #139) holds that the temporary, term-limited nature of the presidency is what disqualifies it from the Shaim uMalchus aspect of the bracha.

Yet the Radvaz’s definition — the power over life and death — makes no mention of tenure. A king who is deposed after a year was still a king while he reigned. The Gemorah’s concern is with the reality of the kavod that Hashem has granted to a human being at the moment one beholds him, and a president exercising an unreviewable pardon power possesses that kavod for the entire duration of his term.  

Believe it or not, former president Obama had someone killed during hsi presidency – an American citizen who also had been an Islamist terrorist.  He did so without trial and gave legal justification for it.  This makes the office of presidency as having power over life AND DEATH. This is one area, where president Trump would definitely agree with former president Obama. 

WHAT ABOUT ROYAL CLOTHING?

The Kaf HaChaim (224:33) cites numerous Poskim who hold that the bracha was enacted only when the physical trappings of royal kavod are present. On this basis, Rav Ovadia Yosef zt”l (Yabia Omer Vol. VIII, OC #22:25) writes that when President Richard Nixon visited Israel, the bracha was recited without Shaim uMalchus. Ashkenazic Poskim generally do not cite this caveat.

The Sefardic position, however, has itself evolved. Rav Dovid Yosef rules that since in Western countries kings and heads of state no longer wear royal garb, a leader who is dressed respectably and is surrounded by other significant personages is deemed to possess the requisite trappings of kavod, and the bracha is recited with Shaim uMalchus.

Consider the setting of today’s meeting: the Oval Office of the White House, the President in formal attire, surrounded by senior officials and aides, the Secret Service, the White House Jewish liaison, and the full apparatus of the American executive. The physical manifestation of kavod could hardly have been more pronounced. Even according to the more stringent Sefardic view, therefore, the conditions for Shaim uMalchus were met.

THE REASONS BEHIND THE BRACHA

The Gemorah explains that one should make an effort to see kings in order to be able to distinguish between Jewish and non-Jewish kings. Rashi explains that the reference is to Melech HaMoshiach: when he arrives, one who has seen earthly kings will better appreciate the difference, and the chessed that Hashem has done for us.

The Rambam suggests a different dimension. The Gemorah (Megillah 15b) relates that when Esther entered the outer hall of Achashveirosh, the Shechina departed from her, and she cried out, “Keili, Keili, lamah azavtani” (Tehillim 22). Among the possibilities she considered was that she had referred to Achashveirosh disparagingly, and she immediately corrected herself. The Rambam, in his commentary to Esther (5:1), explains that Hashem had given of His honor to flesh and blood, and it was therefore improper to speak of the king pejoratively. The bracha, then, is an acknowledgment of the honor that Hashem Himself has bestowed upon a human ruler.

Both reasons apply with full force to a delegation of Torah leaders standing in the Oval Office. The very fact that Gedolei Yisroel were received by the most powerful executive on earth — one who holds the constitutional power of life and death — is itself a moment to recognize the kavod that Hashem has apportioned, and to yearn for the day when that kavod will rest upon Melech HaMoshiach.

THE AMALEK CAVEAT — NOT APPLICABLE

When Kaiser Wilhelm came to Yerushalayim on Shabbos, the 13th of Cheshvan 5659, Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld zt”l declined to greet him, explaining that he had a tradition from the Vilna Gaon that the Germans are safaik Amalek, and that the bracha of “shenasan mikvodo l’basar vadam” may not be recited upon them. Whatever one makes of that tradition, it has no bearing on an American president, and no such concern arises here.

CONCLUSION

The delegation saw the President in person, in the seat of his power, surrounded by the trappings of his office, and he possesses the unreviewable authority to pardon from death. According to Rav Wosner, Rav Ovadia Yosef’s criterion as applied by Rav Dovid Yosef, and the plain reading of the Radvaz, every condition for the bracha with Shaim uMalchus was fulfilled. Those who follow the Debreciner Rav or Rav Shternbuch would recite it without Shaim uMalchus, and, as always, one should consult one’s own Rav or Posaik. But in this author’s view, the halacha follows those who hold that the Rebbes and the Rosh Yeshiva should have recited: “Boruch atta Hashem, Elokainu Melech ha’olam, shenasan mikvodo l’basar vadam.”

The author can be reached at [email protected]