I wonder and worry frequently whether Jewish literature and Jewish teachings have anything at all useful to say about the great issues facing our nation. The President and Congress are currently embroiled in, what for me anyhow, is a rather depressing negotiation on raising the national debt ceiling and working towards a more balanced federal budget.
The broad contours of the debate, as you all know, are how much and where to cut from the federal budget and how much and where to raise taxes. Republicans in Congress are adamantly opposed to any tax increases.
As I seek to think about this through a Jewish prism, I find myself asking to what extent does Judaism teach or advocate a self reliant society and to what extent does Judaism teach or advocate a society where we are all interrelated and interdependent?
Hillel in Pirke Avot/The Ethics of the Fathers asked, "If I am not for myself, who will be for me, if I am for myself alone, what am I?" Hillel clearly seeks to strike a balance between self, self reliance, and interdependence. This same text teaches, "He who says, what is mine is mine and what is yours is yours is a neutral character but some say this is the character of Sodom."
I cannot help but think about this last line. It haunts me--"this is the character of Sodom-"-- that city that had to be destroyed by God because of the evil within it. That city that was so far beyond redemption that it simply could not endure. In this reading, the evil was a city with no sense of responsibility of one for the other-- no sense of giving to the commonweal for the common good.
The very idea of living in a nation that takes care of its elderly, its disabled, its young, its orphans and widows inspires me. The very act of paying taxes in order to lift us all up is what makes us "one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all."
Our elected officials would need only read our nation's sacred texts through the prism of Jewish religious guidance in order to fashion a worthy public policy.
beautifully said.
ReplyDeleteWe are the most beneficient, generous nation in the world. "We the people" reach into our pockets and always give millions of dollars of our own money to many causes, including widows and orphans. The government doesn't demand that we do it. We do it because it is the right thing to do.
ReplyDeleteWho is generally the country that arrives first on the scene of major international disasters? Many of our aid organizations are non- profits.
If the government demands to take our money and decides for us to whom to give it then we would have no reason to be personally responsible. What might happen to our individual moral compasses?
You don't want the government to take the role of trying to create monetary solutions for all our nation's ills.
There is not enough money to do it even if you tax the wealthy at 100%. And, the programs will bear no fruit. Look at welfare and the generational devestation it caused.