Published in 2005.
Recently our nation was currently caught up in the seasonal madness otherwise known as elections. Claims and counter-claims, lies and more lies, (and then more lies for good measure) - the net effect is to sow more confusion and unrest in an already bewildered society. Hundreds of millions are spent in pathetic attempts to bamboozle the gullible; video images are superimposed and otherwise manipulated; tapes are spliced and the splices then rejoined. And all this to present us with the truth!
There are those who consider the system of government in our country to be a great achievement. I beg to differ.Let us go back in time for a moment in order to examine the origins of the system of government that has emerged in the Western world over the course of the last few centuries.
Beginning with the Renaissance, increasing numbers of individuals in the various European societies of the time, began to feel the need to free themselves of the yoke of the two masters who together ruled their existence: the Catholic church on the one hand, and the landed gentry on the other. The Church, or to be more precise, the Pope, wielded much control over the affairs of individual states by demanding the obedience of those states' leaders to his, the Pope's, wishes, in the name of obedience to God's Will. It goes without saying, of course, that G-d's Will was the last thing that the Church had in mind - its only true motive was power politics, pure and simple. As for the land-owners, they had always done their utmost to ensure that the rest of the populace had no choice but to work for them as serfs or tenant-farmers. Furthermore, they maintained, (logically from their point of view), that only those who owned land should have a say in the political process.
The system that developed over the course of a few centuries was based on two central principles. Firstly, the separation of Church and State (thus freeing the country of outside influences), and secondly, the equality and participation of all members of the society in its governing (thus limiting greatly the power of the landowners over the rest of the populace). The overall aim was to facilitate the greatest possible freedom for every individual.
This system, which became known as democracy, has been found over time to be relatively effective in establishing societies in which individuals are free to live their lives more or less as they choose. It follows, therefore, that such a system is predicated on the assumption that the State per se, or Nation, does not subscribe to a particular philosophical or religious point of view. The State, in other words, is merely a means by which the citizenry maintain and guarantee their individual freedoms and rights.
"From the point of view of democracy, the highest value, the ultimate for politics, is the liberation of and respect for individual personality...government is a mundane affair, primarily concerned with a framework of order which will serve the concrete needs and interests of an earth-bound humanity...If all other values are subordinate to the claims of individual personality, then it is the superior value, the highest of the democratic ideals. But why should it be the ultimate? Should not our highest aim be to do the will of God, or to serve Truth and Goodness? The ideals of democratic government, that is, government controlled by the people for their purposes, must be widely accepted and believed by the people or those ideals cannot, by definition, be democratic. Respect for individual personality is the maximum on which it has been possible to get widespread agreement. If we say our highest ideal is to do the will of God, that raises the question of what God's will is. If we say our highest ideal is to serve Truth and make it prevail, that raises the question of what Truth is. Answers to these questions will turn on religious or philosophical views about the nature of the universe and man's place in it. And when we ask what is the final scheme of things and man's place in it, we meet divergent answers and hot dispute. We are in the midst of the controversies of the ages, and beyond the area in which general agreement is possible in our present state of knowledge" (Elements of Democratic Government, Corry & Abraham, Oxford University Press, 1958).
The above statement, quoted from a basic textbook of political science, is entirely true and factual - as long as it refers to the non-Jewish world. The French or the Swedes truly do not know the Truth - they exist, and live their lives, like the rest of the Gentile world, in a state of utter confusion. Is there are a purpose to Life ? If so, what is it? Is there a Creator behind all this? If so, what does He want? What is Truth? Who is to define Right and Wrong? Given such a state of affairs, there will always be competing ideologies and outlooks on life. The simplest way to deal with this situation is to resolve that such issues are unknowable, and that therefore the State will not become involved in such debates, and should rather limit its activities to the physical prosperity, security and freedom of its individual citizens, leaving such discussions to the conscience of the individual. It was only natural, therefore, that diverse political parties should arise in such countries; like-minded individuals would join forces to disseminate certain ideas or to further the political interests of their socio-economic group. It should be noted that even when the Church reigned supreme, it did not propagate a particular form of regime as being the correct model in the eyes of Christianity. This is due to the fact that Christianity at no time prescribed its own idea of the ideal state. Christianity has always been a religion which deals with the individual, and is totally divorced from the concept of nationhood.
Furthermore, it is right and proper that it be so in the non-Jewish world. The psychological and spiritual reality of the non-Jewish world is such that the nation, or the state, are in essence nothing more than convenient frameworks of reference for individuals of similar background, language and culture to further their aims and aspirations as individuals. As a rule, when gentile nations attempt to to go beyond such a definition of nationhood, the results are horrific; e.g. Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Soviet Union, and Mao Ze Dung's Communist China. This is the meaning of the Gemara that non-Jews are not authorised to conquer other people's territory - see Talmud Bavli Sanhedrin 59a. The Torah permits the conquering of foreign territory only in the case of the Jewish people, who do so in the name of the Truth as revealed in the Torah. No other nation can claim such a right for itself except for reasons of self-defence.
All this, however, stands in complete opposition to the reality of the Jewish people. Am Yisrael knows the Truth. We are familiar with the Will of Hashem - we, and only we, received the Torah, which is that part of Hashem's Will that He chose to reveal to us. We are not a loosely-connected conglomerate of individuals, each with his own aspirations and interests. We have been one Nation, united under and through the Torah ever since the time of Moshe Rabenu as we state every Shabbath in Minha "Goy Ehad Ba'ares"- "A unique Nation on Earth". Our fathers witnessed the Ten Plagues in Egypt and the splitting of the Red Sea; they actually heard Hashem speak to them at Mount Sinai. We know there is a Creator, and we are acquainted with His design for the world. We are particularly familiar with his will vis-a-vis the Jewish people: "And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a Holy Nation" (Shemoth 19:6). There is no mystery for us as to the type of regime that is considered proper and ideal by the Torah. It is to be a state that fosters and encourages the reality of Torah both in the individual, and in the national spheres of life. It is for this reason that the Rambam states: "And one who does not possess fear of Heaven may not be appointed to any public office in the Jewish nation" (Hilkoth Melakhim 1:8). Why? Because the Jewish State will be created in the image of those who create and maintain it - placing it in the hands of those to whom the Torah is foreign will result in the Jewish State becoming simply a state of Jews, a fact to which we are witness, unfortunately, today.
A Jewish State must foster and encourage a way of life rooted entirely in the Torah, in both the personal and national spheres. Having done so, it will go on to spread the word of Hashem throughout the world, to be a 'light unto the nations'. The true Jewish state has no need nor room for political parties, representing selfish sectorial interests. The Torah state is most profoundly concerned for the individual life and growth of each Jew, within the greater reality of Am Yisrael, Hashem's Nation on Earth. In such a state, the individual's rights and dignity are guaranteed by the Torah itself. The scope of action and the prerogatives of the government in the Torah state are clearly defined by the Halakha - all people, king or president included, are obligated to act in accordance with all principles and provisions found in the Halakha.
The western, liberal, democratic model is therefore not only irrelevant for the Jewish people; it is the most complete disaster that could ever befall us. It takes a ship-of- state, controlled by a competent captain who possesses a clear and well-defined concept of the ship's final destination, with the finest of maps and navigational equipment at his disposal, and transforms it into a rusty, old fishing vessel, captained by a drunkard bereft of compass and map, without the slightest idea of his course. Inevitably, the rusty, old trawler will end up drifting aimlessly at sea, rudderless and out of fuel.
The is precisely the situation in which we find ourselves today. Our ship, the state of Israel, has been drifting aimlessly on the ocean of our destiny for over 50 years. We our battered by one storm and then another, repeatedly attempting to fix the numerous leaks and breakdowns with makeshift and artificial solutions. None of the captains who offer us their services every four years have any real notion as to how to get us back on course.
Hashem is trying to tell us something: "The problems you face are unique and shall remain truly insoluble as long and as you insist on not doing things My Way. I warned you of this many years ago: 'But if you will not hearken to Me, and will not do all these commandments. And if you shall despise My statutes, and if your soul shall abhor My judgments so that you will not do all My commandments, and shall rather break My covenant. I also will do this to you: I will appoint over you terror...'" (Wayiqra 26:14-16).
|
Articles 
