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| Moses started the Exodus at age 80 with a 40 year walk and some walk that was; the sea parted for them. He died at age 120, kept from entering Canaan. |
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| Moses climbed a mountain and at the top received the 10 Commandments. By the time he had come down, his people had made themselves a Golden Calf to worship Something left over from Egyptian life. It took time for all this new stuff to sink in. It doesn't take long to get away from expectations. |
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| Zechariah, prophet b: c500 BCE, living in period of the return from Babylonian Exile, a priest (most likely bearing the J1 Cohen gene) prophesied about contemporary events and foretold about the in-gathering of the exiles who were held in Babylonia and their liberation from foreign yoke and the expansion of Jerusalem. He had visions. Zechariah was instrumental in the future rebuilding project of the Temple. |
Our prophets had urged men to be just. What they condemned was religion that was reduced to nothing more than worship and which lacked the essentials of justice and mercy, of kindness and righteousness.
An act of justice can be shown by this: You must take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted, and perverts the words of the righteous. Exod us 23:8.
In righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. Lev.19:15. This precept makes it incumbent upon each person to judge his fellow men in all interpersonal relations on the scales of merit and to give others the benefit of the doubt, especially where a person's record had previously been beyond reproach. Even if his guilt be proven beyond a doubt, one should look for mitigating circumstances.
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| THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON King Solomon was most wise concerning his people. His decisions were the wisest of anyone's. This problem was between 2 women fighting over the baby. Both claimed to be the mother. Solomon told his man to cut the baby in half and give to each mother, but the real mother spoke up saying not to, but to give it to the other woman. Solomon had found a clever way to reveal the true mother. That's wisdom and justice rolled up together.
Justice is better defined by what it is NOT. "bias, favor, favoritism, nonobjectivity, one-sidedness, partiality, partisanship, prejudice.
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An Important element of justice is the fact that an accused person is presumed innocent UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY. Sadly, I have been witnessing many people of late over the Kavanaugh Judgeship case that act the opposite way of people believing in Justice; Kavanaugh, a judge himself in a very high level court, was ACCUSED of sex offenses BUT THESE COULD NOT BE PROVEN. It made no difference. He and his family are receiving death threats, and have been the point of contention by those still holding these beliefs. I believe this is mob rule, hysteria and it exists just like it did in the Dark Ages.
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| Shabbat in Israel, praying as Cohens are first called up to read from the Torah. Notice the large prayer shawls, so different from the small ones used in the USA. Men truly raise them over their heads as tents and meditate and pray under them. |
Moses had presented them with 613 commandments with the 1st Ten being the most famous. The gist of the teachings was all about justice, something not found in their world. So much of it were ways of thinking that conditioned their minds to constantly be aware of justice, not just the defined commandment but other commandments that conditioned this type of thinking.
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| Temple built by King Solomon but high taxation for it caused a civil War and the 10 tribes ceded from the union leaving only the tribe of Judah who kept Jerusalem and the Temple along with Solomon's son, King Rehoboam (933-917 BCE). |
" The fundamental principle of the Hebraic Commonwealth was that there are great moral laws" observed Lyman Abbott in 1901. "Lyman J. Abbott was an American Congregationalist theologian, editor, and author. Morality is our issue, that's for sure. People have not been moral in dealing with us as the Holocaust proves, nor was it moral with its dealings over Israel and Palestine. How quickly promises were broken and Jews lost 80% of promised land only to find their 20% was also being divided and a chunk was offered by the British to the Arabs.
Lord Acton credited the Hebrew nation with having laid down the basis for "all freedom" through its doctrine of "higher law." John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, KCVO DL, was an English Catholic historian, politician, and writer. He was the only son of Sir Ferdinand Dalberg-Acton, 7th Baronet, and a grandson .
A century ago, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon wrote, The whole Bible is a hymn to justice---that is, in the Hebrew style, to charity, to kindness to the weak on the part of the strong, to voluntary renunciation of the privilege of power." Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was a French politician and the founder of mutualist philosophy. He was the first person to declare himself an anarchist using that term and is widely regarded as one of the ideology's most influential theorists. Proudhon is even considered by many to be the "father of anarchism. I think his theory is that of a dreamer. He must have thought there was pie in the sky. Anarchism. He gave too much credit to the human race as it exists today.
Rabbi Solomon Goldman wrote in 1927 that any Jew "who fails to understand the importance of law misses the very essence of his people's contribution to humanity." He was a leading American Conservative rabbi of the 20th century.
Today, most contemporary commentators, Jews and Gentiles alike, "view the Jewish tradition as the bedrock of modern justice." The Jewish people have been dominated by justice since Moses brought them the tablets with the 10 Commandments to this very day.
Professor Arthur Goodhart of Oxford University agreed in 1949 with :"The passion to shape the forms of justice has been one of the dominant forces in the life of the Jewish people from the time of the tablets to the days in which we now live." Do American Jews of today realize this? Arthur Lehman Goodhart KBE QC FBA was an American-born academic jurist and lawyer; he was Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Oxford, 1931–51, when he was also a Fellow of University College, Oxford
What is the heart of Judaism, then? The quest for justice is an important essence of this religion. There is no special Jewish way to define justice, however. Judaism as a religion is inherently neither "liberal" nor "conservative", left or right on issues of justice, but it is inherently active in its pursuit. A balance is required to find justice for all; rich or poor, man or woman, black or white, educated or illiterate, regardless of religious persuasion.
The rabbis teach us that G-d has 2 names; one representing justice, the other mercy. Sometimes justice rules, other times it is mercy, for people must use their common sense and remember that balance of each is the way. In the story of Jonah and the whale, G-d berated his people for lacking compassion. This teaches the divine mercy for all living creatures, even animals. It was written from the 8th to the 4th century BCE and reflects the evolution of a universalist outlook among Jews in the Biblical period. Saul, first king of Israel saw another side. He had delayed the act of taking the life of Agag, the king of Amalek, a people who were unmerciful to the Israelites who passed through their lands and had tried to kill them all. G-d berated Saul for being too merciful.
Hillel, the Elder, born in the 1st century BCE, and born in Babylon, president of the Sanhedrin, our great teacher, reminded us of the need to strike a balance. If I am not for myself, who will be for me? a balance between self preservation and justice when he said, "But if I am for myself alone, what am I? Every generation has viewed this balance differently. Sometimes persecution and victimization must be viewed on self preservation by protection, the IF I AM NOT FOR MYSELF thinking. If you are in the seat receiving success and empowerment, you must be on helping others less fortunate--IF I AM FOR MYSELF ALONE. He's also the author of the Golden Rule: DO NOT DO UNTO OTHERS THAT WHICH YOU WOULD NOT HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU. He was a man noted for his humility and a tendency to leniency.
Judaism's traditional emphasis on social justice through social action has had a noticeable effect in contemporary times.
TIKKUN OLAM, repairing the world, is a goal of Judaism. Jews try to see ways of improving everyone's lot in life. This is also an important aspect of Judaism that some Jews have made as their only goal while forgetting other important goals as Justice. It's a Jewish concept defined by acts of kindness performed to perfect or repair the world. The phrase is found in the Mishnah, a body of classical rabbinic teachings. It is often used when discussing issues of social policy, insuring a safeguard to those who may be at a disadvantage.
Tikkun olam implies that while the world is innately good, its Creator purposely left room for us to improve upon His work. The condition of the oceans today needs repair. This is one consideration.
Tikkun olam is a concept in Judaism, interpreted in Orthodox Judaism as the prospect of overcoming all forms of idolatry, and by other Jewish denominations as an aspiration to behave and act constructively and beneficially. It's become a substitute for the 10 Commandments in some minds, in my opinion. In Jewish teachings, it's any activity that improves the world, bringing it closer to the harmonious state for which it was created.
Professor Samuel David Luzzatto, a rabbinic scholar (1800-1865) in Italy, wrote that from compassion there will also be drawn forth the love for righteousness and justice, which are not independent virtues but extensions of the virtues of kindness and compassion.
People have various ideas of Tikun Olam which lock horns if thought of in political situations.
Alan Dershowitz could see many reasons why American Jews were vanishing. All the more reason why our religion has one chance of surviving; through the love of the Jews living in Israel, our last bastion of Judaism. What they are doing to preserve their heritage and believe system is something no one else would put themselves through; the constant of being in jeopardy of their lives by so many hateful enemies. Though the world has come along with Christianity and Islam, there is nothing like an original belief, a reminder of who we came from and what the world was like before. Though Israel is really a picture of justice with all kinds and levels of Jews there, it maintains the flavor, the taste of Judaism, spiced up with a dash of all religions as well.
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| Judge Brett Michael Kavanaugh Said he was innocent of charges. Charges could not be substantiated. Were there people bearing false witness? |
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| Senator Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein, Democrat, same age as Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg already on the Supreme Court. against his nomination |
Resource: THE VANISHING AMERICAN JEW by Alan M. Dershowitz 1997-1998 p. 268.
Chabad says: https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3700275/jewish/What-Is-Tikkun-Olam.htm?gclid=Cj0KCQjwuuHdBRCvARIsAELQRQEh40md0PAAgFXM2MhyI1VI2zetl6QtZ8L6XthT7L6kXV3BJdari8caAjgwEALw_wcB
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
Book: What Does Judaism Say About...? by Louis Jacobs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjdP1V-_iCE
Book: To Be a Jew by Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin
