Skip to main content

The Election through the Torah's lens.

If we see Judaism as central to our lives, we see everything through the lens of Torah , a Torah that also espouses certain universal values relevant to all Humankind.. Hence, in this election season we ought to think of the following:
These universal values are defined by a sophisticated understanding of the Noahide laws as per the Rama (Teshuvah 10) and the Lubavitcher Rebbe 's many talks on this issue:
The Noahide laws demand
1. Belief in G-d
2. Not to Blaspheme (To believe G-d is just)
3. Not to murder - and we know that insulting someone publicly is equivalent to murder
4. Not to steal or be dishonest in any way, avoid paying our obligations etc.
5. Not to engage in forbidden relationships
6. Not to eat a limb from a living animal, which is seen as including any unnecessary destruction of any flora or fauna (eating is fine) or annihilating a species or damaging the environment in ways not needed for human sustainment
7. To have courts of justice which means also: A just and equitable society, giving charity yourself and having society ensure a social safety net ,not lying, keeping your promises, respecting the dignity of other human beings, respecting the elderly and those who do good deeds for society etc.
As Jews we have an obligation to push for these values in any society we live in. We must seek leaders and functionaries who violate these values the least.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mid-Winter Musings

We now enter the depths of this winter, with a long stretch between the afterglow of the lights of Chanukah and the dawning of the joy of Adar and Purim. Furthermore, there is an extra month between them with this year being a Jewish leap year. During this winter we might feel particularly down. I refer, of course, not just to the lack of holidays, but to the continuing pain of Israel’s war with terrorists in Gaza and on other fronts. We are still processing the cataclysmic loss and pain of the murderous attacks of 10/7 as more and more details come to light. Every day, alas, we hear of more hostages murdered, and more and more of our best and brightest killed in the IDF’s war against our implacable enemies. Those we have lost are: Wonderful people still in their teens who had whole, brilliant, lives before them. We have lost those who are parents and grandparents, brothers and sisters. We have lost great scholars of Torah, artists and scientists, doctors and nurses, craftspeople and t
Post a Comment
Read more

Bnai Torah Rabbi's letter - mid-winter

Dear All, We now enter the depths of this winter, with a long stretch between the afterglow of the lights of Chanukah and the dawning of the joy of Adar and Purim. Furthermore, there is an extra month between them with this year being a Jewish leap year. During this winter we might feel particularly down. I refer, of course, not just to the lack of holidays, but to the continuing pain of Israel’s war with terrorists in Gaza and on other fronts. We are still processing the cataclysmic loss and pain of the murderous attacks of 10/7 as more and more details come to light.  Every day, alas, we hear of more hostages murdered, and more and more of our best and brightest killed in the IDF’s war against our implacable enemies. Those we have lost are: Wonderful people still in their teens who had whole, brilliant, lives before them. We have lost those who are parents and grandparents, brothers and sisters. We have lost great scholars of Torah, artists and scientists, doctors and nurses, craftsp
Post a Comment
Read more

A Wonderful Article on Gazaa by David Harris of the AJC

Hypocrisy! by David A. Harris Executive Director American Jewish Committee January 26, 2009 Dear Ms. Trine Lilleng, You were an unknown Norwegian diplomat till this month. No longer. As first secretary in the Norwegian Embassy in Saudi Arabia, you recently sent out an email on your office account in which you declared: "The grandchildren of Holocaust survivors from World War II are doing to the Palestinians exactly what was done to them by Nazi Germany." Accompanying your text were photos, with an emphasis on children, seeking to juxtapose the Holocaust with the recent Israeli military operation in Gaza. Clearly, you are miscast in your role as a diplomat, all the more so of a nation that has sought to play a mediating role in the Arab-Israeli conflict. In fact, you're desperately in need of some education. Let's begin with your current posting. You've been in Riyadh since 2007. If you're so anguished by human rights violations, perhaps you could have begun b
2 comments
Read more