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Floor Speech

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Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I would like to rise and join some of my colleagues in speaking about Ben Cardin, but I perhaps want to take a little bit more of a personal approach to sharing my thoughts about my departing colleague.

I don't know if he remembers this, but I was elected in a special election, and I came here plopping down, sworn in on the auspicious day of Halloween. And I knew I had to meet my colleagues, so I started the process of going to their offices. They took me to meet everybody from John McCain sitting in his office, obviously, to Harry Reid who was here then.

But my journey to go see Ben Cardin was different than any of my other meetings because we sat down, and he asked me about myself, and before I knew it, we were talking about Judaism.

Now, it was an amazing conversation to me because I did not realize how deep his faith was, how knowledgeable he was of the Torah, something I have been studying for decades as a non-Jew, and I found this incredible connection to him around the principles that he spoke about at the top of his speech, principles of hesed, principles of tzedakah, this idea of living a good and moral life. But what was amazing to me over these last 11 years that I have been at the Senate is that maybe some joking from time to time about Judaism, but we really haven't had much of a Torah discussion as we did on that very first day. He has never invited me to a minyan; he and I have never prayed together. He never talked to me about his religion. I have traveled around the whole world, but that first conversation was the most we ever talked about his religion and his faithfulness.

But what is amazing to me is even though we haven't spoken about it, as someone who knows and loves the religion, I will say I have seen it in him every single day. In my faith, there is a theologian that says: Everywhere you go, preach the gospel, but only sometimes use words.

I am a big believer that before you tell me about your religion, first show it to me in how you treat other people; before you preach to me how much you love your God, show it to me in how you love all of God's children; before you tell me about your passion for your faith, show it to me in your compassion for other people.

This has been the beauty of serving with my colleague Ben Cardin because I have seen through the work and the dedication and the labors and the attention to detail and the leadership how deep his integrity is and his alignment between his beliefs and how he conducts himself in the world.

And so in honor of that, Ben, I am going to try to do something that I am sure has never been done in the history of the Senate is I am going to say good-bye to you in a d'var Torah. Now, maybe there has been a d'var Torah on the Senate floor, but I am confident in the history of America there has never been on the Senate floor a d'var Torah given by a big Black goy.

And so here it is. There is a moment in the Torah where Moses, a great leader, has been given the 10 Commandments, but the Jewish people are worshipping a golden calf. We all know the story of him crumbling, smashing the tablets, but what I didn't know until I started studying Judaism and doing Torah studies on Fridays, I didn't know there was a moment where God said: OK. I will destroy these people and give you new people to lead.

And what was amazing to me, astonishing to me, about this story from the Torah is you would think that devotion, this fealty to God, that whatever God says goes, but Judaism struck me when I started studying the Torah as a strange faith that all of these major figures get into fights with God, whether it was the incredible story of Abraham arguing with angels about defending a city, Sodom and Gomorrah. But in this moment, what Moses said to God was:

(English translation of statement made in Hebrew is as follows:)

If you destroy these people, then erase me from your book. I want no part of you, God.

I have watched you for 11 years. And like that ideal of Moses, despite all of the imperfections of humanity, despite our faults and our foibles, despite the tragedies we have wrought unto ourselves, you have shown that leadership of Moses, not accepting the world's happenings as God's will but standing up and standing in the breach.

You have, through your work, both here in America and across the globe, you have been one of those people who has defended the weak, who has protected the vulnerable, and who has championed the best of humanity.

Yes, you have preached the gospel, my friend, but you have more profoundly dedicated your life to its work. There is an ideal in Judaism that we should all be dedicated toward tikkun olam, to healing this world.

I believe there is a God in Heaven. I share your sense of faith, and I believe at the end of this chapter of your life, God is saying: Well done, my good and faithful servant. And I know God is not done with you yet, so as you go on into the world, I simply say, as your brother, yasher koach.

Thank you.

(Applause.)

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