Why Judaism is compatible with democracy

The enactment of the Nation State Law is not anti democratic. Judaism has democratic roots dating back thousands of years. Nov 27, 2014,  | Rachel Avraham

MAIMONIDES-EL GRAN RAMBAM

In recent days, many voices, both within Israel and abroad, have criticized the Nation State Law, claiming that it is anti-ethical for a country to emphasize Judaism yet at the same time to be democratic.    However, those that argue that Jewish belief is the anti-thesis of democracy aren’t familiar with the ancient democratic roots that can be found in Judaism.

Many democratic ideals find their origins in the Torah. For example, Exodus 23:9 declares: “You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger because you were strangers in the Land of Egypt.” 

This biblical passage encourages the protection of minority rights.

“The biblical vision, regularly reaffirmed in the Jewish political tradition, is that the nations and peoples of the world have a right to exist and be autonomous under G-d,” Daniel Elazar wrote for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. “In this sense, Judaism, unlike Christianity and Islam, is not ecumenical. It does not seek a single world state, an ecumene, in which all national and religious differences are obliterated. Quite to the contrary, the Jewish vision of the messianic world order is one in which all nations recognize the sovereignty of G-d but retain their separate national and even religious characteristics.”

Ruth Wisse, a professor at Harvard University, wrote in Moment Magazine: “If democracy encourages governance from below—by the people, of the people and for the people—then the memory of all the Jews standing at Sinai and later, the practice of all the Jews reading from the Torah would certainly have encouraged a democratic culture. Democracy is less a Jewish idea than a by-product of the Jewish way of life. The Greeks developed the idea of democracy in thinking about how one governs a polity. Among Jews it began with the sanctity of individual life.”

Fania Oz-Salzberger of Haifa University added: “In the Talmud, that same instinct is seen in the way that large numbers of rabbis and scholars debate each other. The Jewish community has always left a window open for disagreement—intellectual and rabbinical, but also on matters of community and society. There is an ongoing tradition of openness—albeit not always and not everywhere—to a plurality of opinions.  It’s not full-fledged democracy, but it’s a condition for it.”

“In modern Israel today, anyone pretending that Judaism and democracy are incompatible traditions and that Israeli society must decide between the two is showing a certain measure of historical ignorance,” Oz-Salzberger noted. “Not only are Jewish and democratic elements of Israel’s statehood compatible, but they have been influencing one another for well over 2,000 years.”

It is critical to note that communities in the Jewish Diaspora and in Israel, from the Second Temple period onwards, were governed by representative bodies chosen by each Jewish community. They were known as kehillas. These bodies served all Jewish communities, assisted the poor, and they were separate from the religious courts. These kehillas were even given the ability to legislate and had executive authority over the community. As Spanish Talmudist Rabbi Solomon Ibn Idret wrote in the 13th century: “As regards the decisions of the people of a specific locality, the law is that whenever the majority agree to enact a law and accept this law, we pay no attention to individual opinions, since the relation of the majority in each town to the individuals of the community is equivalent to the relationship between the Great Court to the entire Jewish people: Whatever they decree shall stand and whoever disobeys is to be punished.” These kehillas, which worked in harmony beside the religious courts, served as the foundation for Israel as a Jewish democratic state.

Given the strong democratic roots within the Jewish religion, no one needs to fear the enactment of a Nation State Law that promotes Israel’s Jewish character; it won’t infringe upon minority rights. However, by emphasizing that Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people, this will only strengthen Israel in the face of negotiations with the Palestinians, forcing the other side to recognize Jewish national rights in the Holy Land, a necessary precondition for peace to be successful. It will also be an expression of Jewish self-pride in our Judaic democratic culture. Just as the Republican Party in the US is not anti-democratic for proudly displaying their Christian identity and many European countries, such as Greece, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom prominently place the cross on their flag while maintaining their democracy, Israel should be able to do the same.

MY PS.- AMEN TO THAT....

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