To be sure, there is no direct inference to be made from the Torah to contemporary politics. Jews have identified with all shades of the political spectrum: from Trotsky to Milton Friedman, from socialism and communism to laissez faire capitalism. The Torah is not an economic theory or a party political program. It is about eternity, whereas politics is about the here-and-now: the mediation of competing claims and the management of change. The Torah - especially Sefer Vayikra, Chapter 25 - sets out the parameters of a society based on equality and liberty. These are eternal values. But they conflict. It is hard to pursue both fully at the same time
Communism favors equality at the cost of liberty. Free market capitalism favors liberty at the cost of equality. How we construct the balance varies from age to age and place to place.
--"The Proper Use Of Power "by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
http://www.jewishpress.com/printArticle.cfm?contentid=43593
1 comment:
The Only Answer lies in Union with the Trinity. Within the Trinity there is the perfect unsullied expression of each Person, yet the persons exist in perfect unity of the One Nature. And because the Unity of the Godhead is the Father, the Godhead is Personalist.
When men enter into mystic unity with the Trinity, that life is lived out in a mysterious way, preserving the individual yet affirming the unity for which we all hunger.
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