Since everyone has been writing to me about how wonderful the inauguration was, and some even praised all the Jewish elements in it, I have to put in my two cents  Let me begin with Leonard Cohen’s Halleluja.  Recently Rolling Stone Magazine published an article about the text and how Cohen was including holiness into every aspect of life.  It was a good analysis and may even have shown how someone introduced an element into the ceremony that way beyond the intention.  First off, that art isn’t all that mysterious – but just a measure of putting the right things together.  Secondly, that being a king puts a human being in danger of being greedy and hurting his people.  Third, that only when you’ve been betrayed by a woman and are totally demeaned do you say Halleluja. And fourth, that everything is worthy of rejoicing, whether the divine exists or not.  So even though the phrase Halleluja in Hebrew means “Praise the Lord,” it doesn’t matter what you’re praising.  It’s like what my Rebbe told me when I asked him in the middle of a lession if we’re doing all this work and there’s no God, he thought a while and then said, “Whether there is a God or not, a Jew has to study Torah.”