by Ron Fox
What do we mean
when we talk about the moral and ethical principles, values and laws
found in Jewish teachings and writings. Some, like Rabbi Joseph
Telushkin refer to them as the essence of Judaism and some view them
as the basis for the belief that Judaism is a “beacon unto the
nations”
Here are some that
we have compiled from various sources
From JEWISH
WISDOM – RABBI JOSEPH TELUSHKIN
CHAPTER 1 – DOES JUDAISM HAVE
AN ESSENCE
This chapter provides the foundation for the
theme of our efforts best expressed by the words of the prophet
Isaiah summarizing the 613 commandments of the Torah in two
principles “Do justice and carry out acts of righteousness.” Isaiah
56:1
“He has told you,
O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of
you:
Only to do
justice,
To love
goodness,
And to walk
modestly with your God.”
Micah
6:8
“ ‘Love your
neighbor as yourself’ (Leviticus 19:18 - this is the major principle
of the Torah.” Rabbi Akiva
“The Jewish nation is distinguished by three
characteristics; they are merciful, they are modest, and they
perform acts of loving-kindness.” Babylonian Talmud, Yevamot
79a
“The world endures because of three
activities: Torah study, worship of God, and deeds of
loving-kindness.”
Ethics of the fathers
1:2
Moses Maimonides,
Mishneh Torah, Laws of the Sabbath 2:3 “The purpose of the laws of
the Torah … is to bring mercy, loving-kindness and peace upon the
world.”
From the Torah
Exodus 22:20-21 -
You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were
strangers in the land of
Egypt.”
From Hillel
Hillel - “If I am
not for myself, who will be for me, and if I am only for myself,
what am I? And if not now, when?
Hillel – The
definition of Judaism “What is hateful unto you, do not do unto your
neighbor”
From Albert Vorspan
Perhaps now we can
resume our historic role as the social justice conscience of the
nation, by paying more attention to tikkun olam, to civil rights,
ecology, economic decency, and social compassion across the
board.”
From the National Jewish Community Relations
Council
“The fundamental
premise of the field of Jewish community relations is to foster
conditions conducive to Jewish security and creative Jewish living
in a free society. Such conditions require a society committed to
equal rights, justice and opportunity.
From the Torah Deuteronomy XVI,
18:20
“Justice, Justice
shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which
the Lord thy God giveth thee.” And
From the footnotes to Deutoronomy XVI, 18:20 in the Hertz
edition
The duplication of
the word “justice” brings out with the greatest possible emphasis
the supreme duty of even-handed justice to all. “Justice, whether to
your profit or loss, whether in word or in action, whether to Jew or
non-Jew” (Bachya ben Asher).
“Justice, justice
shalt thou follow.”
These passionate words may be taken as the keynote of humane
legislation of the Torah, and of the demand for social righteousness
by Israel’s Prophets,
Psalmists and Sages. “Let justice roll down as waters, and
righteousness as a mighty stream,” is the cry of Amos. Justice is not the only
ethical quality in God or man, nor is it the highest quality; but it
is the basis for all the others. …. To understand the idea of
justice in Israel we must bear in mind the Biblical teaching that
man is created in the image of God; that in every human being there
is a Divine spark; and that each human life is sacred, and of
infinite worth. In
…every human being is the possessor of the right to life, honour,
and the fruits of his labour.
Justice is the awe-inspired respect for the personality of
others and their inalienable rights; even as injustice is the most
flagrant manifestation of disrespect for the personality of others.
Judaism requires that human personality be respected in every human
being – in the female heathen prisoner of war, in the delinquent,
even in the criminal condemned to death. ….
In brief, where
there is no justice, no proper and practical appreciation of the
human rights of every human being as sons of the one and only God of
righteousness – there we have a negation of religion. The oppressor, the man who
tramples on others, and especially on those like the orphan and the
stranger who are too weak to defend themselves, is throughout
Scripture held forth as the enemy of God and man. The final disappearance of
injustice and oppression is represented in the New Year Amidah as
the goal of human history, and as synonymous with the realization of
God’s Kingdom on earth.
However, justice
is more than mere abstention from injuring our fellow-men. “the work
of justice is peace; and the effect thereof quietness and confidence
forever (Isaiah XXXII, 17). It is a positive conception and includes
charity, philanthropy, and every endeavor to bring out what is
highest and best in others..
Just as “truth” is usually preceded in Scripture by
“loving-kindness”, to remind us that the truth must be spoken in
love; even so is justice often accompanied by some synonym of
“loving-kindness” to teach that strict justice must in its
execution, be mitigated by pity and humanity. “To do justly and to
love mercy” is the Prophet’s summing up of human duty towards our
fellow-men. The world
could not exist if it were governed by strict justice alone – say
the Rabbis; therefore, God judges His human children by justice
tempered with mercy.
Such being the Jewish understanding of justice, it is but
natural that in later Hebrew that same word came to denote charity
exclusively.
Nor is justice
limited to relation between individuals. It extends to the relation
between group and group, and it asserts the claim of the poor upon
the rich, of the helpless upon them who possess the means to
help. And even as there
is social justice, prescribing the duties of class to class, so there is international
justice, which demands respect for the personality of every national
group, and proclaims that no people can of right be robbed of its
national life or territory, its language or spiritual heritage. It
is this wider recognition of justice that has called into existence
the League of Nations. “I do not
know whether you are aware that the League of Nations was first of
all the vision of a great Jew almost 3000 years ago – the prophet
Isaiah” (J.C. Smuts); see Isaiah II, 1-4.
“The world owes
its conception of justice to the Jew,” says an American jurist. “God
gave him to see, through the things that are ever changing, the
things that never change.
Compared with the meaning and majesty of this achievement,
every other triumph of every other people sinks into
insignificance.
The pure
administration of justice is thus one of the conditions of
Israel’s existence as a
nation. Our teachers, from the first of them to the last, brand the
perversion of the course of justice as the most alarming sign of
national decay.
©CJA 2006
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