One person (Adam) was created
as the common ancestor of all people, for the
sake of the peace of the human race, so that one
should not be able to say to a neighbor, "My
ancestor was better than yours.”
One person was created to
teach us the sanctity and importance of every
life, for one who destroys a single life is
considered by scripture to have destroyed an
entire world, and one who saves a single life
is considered by scripture to have saved an
entire World.
One person was created to
teach us the importance of the actions of every
individual, for we should treat the world as
half good and half bad, so that if we do one
good deed, it will tip the whole world to the
side of goodness.
Mishna Sanhedrin 4:5
A fundamental Jewish principle
is the equality and unity of humanity. We all
have one Creator; one God is the Divine Parent
of every person. Judaism is a universal religion
that condemns discrimination based on race, color,
or nationality. God endows each person with basic
human dignity.
The following teaching of the sages
reinforces the lesson of universality inherent
in the creation of one common ancestor: "God
formed Adam out of dust from all over the world:
yellow clay, white sand, black loam, and red soil.
Therefore, no one can declare to any people that
they do not belong here since this soil is not
their home." Hence Adam, our common ancestor,
represents every person.
Ben Azzai, a disciple of Rabbi Akiva, also reinforces
this concept in the Talmud. He states that a fundamental
teaching of the Torah is the verse "This
is the book of the generations of humanity (Adam)"
(Genesis 5:1). The statement does not talk about
black or white, or Jew or Gentile, but humanity.
Since all human beings share a common ancestor,
they must necessarily be brothers and sisters.
Hence these words proclaim the essential message
that there is a unity to the human race.
IMITATION OF GOD’S
WAYS
One of the most important ideas
about the creation of humanity is that "God
created people in God’s own image; in the
image of God He created him; male and female He
created them." (Genesis 1:27). According
to Rabbi Akiva, a Talmudic sage, "Beloved
are human beings who were created in the image
of God, and it is an even greater act of love
[by God] that it was made known to people that
they were created in the Divine image."
Because human beings are created
in God’s image, we are to imitate God’s
attributes of holiness, kindness, and compassion:
“And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying:
‘Speak unto all the congregation of the
children of Israel, and say unto them: You shall
be holy, as I, the Lord Your God, am holy’
” (Leviticus 19:1, 2). The fact that the
above mandate was delivered to the entire congregation
means that it applies to every Jew, not just to
a small elite group of spiritual or moral specialists.
In the following verses, the Torah
mandates that we walk in God's ways:
And now, Israel, what does the
Lord your God ask of you, but to revere the
lord your God, to walk in all his ways and to
love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with
all your heart and with all your soul (Deuteronomy
10:12).
For if you shall diligently keep
this entire commandment which I command you
to do it, to love the Lord your God, to walk
in all His ways, and to cleave to Him, ... (Deuteronomy
11:22)
The Midrash interprets the expression
"walking in God's ways" to mean
"Just as God is called 'merciful,' you should
be merciful, just as God is called
'compassionate,' you should be compassionate."
The third-century sage Hama ben Hanina expands
on the duty of imitating God:
What is the meaning of the verse
"You shall walk after the Lord your
God" (Deuteronomy 13:5)? Is it possible
for a human being to walk after the Shechinah
(God's presence), for has it not been said,
"For the Lord your God is a devouring fire"
(Deuteronomy 4:24)? But the verse means to walk
after the attributes of the Holy One, Blessed
is He. As God clothes the naked, for it is written,
"And the Lord God made for Adam and his
wife coats of skin and clothed them" (Genesis
3:21), so should you clothe the naked. The Holy
One, Blessed is He, visits the sick, for it
is written, "And the Lord appeared to him
(Abraham, while he was recovering from circumcision),
by the oaks of Mamre" (Genesis 18:1), so
should you also visit the sick. The Holy One,
Blessed is He, comforts mourners, for it is
written, "And it came to pass after the
death of Abraham, that God blessed Isaac, his
son" (Genesis 25:11), so should you comfort
mourners. The Holy One, Blessed is He, buries
the dead, for it is written, "And He buried
Moses in the valley" (Deuteronomy 34:6),
so should you also bury the dead.
Maimonides finds a powerful statement
about the importance of imitating God in these
words from the prophet Jeremiah:
Thus says the Lord:
Let not the wise person take pride in his wisdom;
Neither let the mighty person take pride in
his might;
Let not the rich person take pride in his riches;
But let him that takes pride, take pride in
this:
That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the Lord who exercises mercy, justice,
and righteousness, on the earth;
For in these things I delight, says the Lord.
Jeremiah 9:22-23
Maimonides interprets this statement
to mean that a person should find fulfillment
in the imitation of God, in being "like
God in one’s actions." According
to Heschel, Maimonides originally considered
the highest human goal to be contemplation of
God’s essence, but later came to believe
that one’s ultimate purpose is to emulate
God's traits of kindness, justice, and righteousness.
He renounced his former practice of seclusion
and ministered to the sick throughout each day
(as a physician).
While Judaism has many beautiful
symbols, such as the mezuzah, menorah, and sukkah,
there is only one symbol that represents God,
and that is each person. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua
Heschel taught, more important than to have a
symbol is to be a symbol. And every person can
consider himself or herself a symbol of God. This
is our challenge: to live in a way compatible
with being a symbol of God, to walk in God's ways,
to remember who we are and Whom we represent,
and to remember our role as partners of God in
working to redeem the world.
LOVE OF NEIGHBOR
A central commandment in Judaism
is "You shall love your neighbor as yourself'
(Leviticus 19:18). According to Rabbi Akiva, this
is a [or perhaps the] great principle of the Torah.
Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev taught: “Whether
a person really loves God can be determined by
the love he or she bears toward other human beings."
Many Torah authorities write that
this should be applied not only to Jews but to
all humanity. Rabbi J. H. Hertz, former Chief
Rabbi of England, states that the translation
of the Hebrew word rea (neighbor) does not mean
"fellow Israelite." He cites several
examples in the Torah where that word means "neighbor
of whatever race or creed.” His view reflects
that of Rabbi Pinchas Eliyahu of Vilna, author
of the classic Sefer HaBrit, who states, “Love
of one’s neighbor means that we should love
all people, no matter to which nation they belong
or what language they speak…. For all [people]
are created in the Divine image, and all engage
in improving civilization….” Rabbi
Pinchas states that “all of the commandments
between man and man are included in this precept
of loving one’s neighbor,” and he
also provides a scriptural proof text in which
a non-Jew is also called “neighbor.”
The commandment "Love your
neighbor as yourself" logically follows from
the Jewish principle that each person has been
created in God's image. Hence, since my neighbor
is like myself, I should love him as myself. In
fact, the proper translation of the commandment
may be "Love your neighbor; he is like yourself."
In the same chapter of Leviticus
in which “Love your neighbor as yourself”
appears, the Torah outlines some specific ways
that this mandate can be put into practice:
You shall not steal; nor shall
you deal falsely nor lie to one another….
You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob
him…. You shall not curse the deaf, and
you shall not put a stumbling block before the
blind…. You shall do no injustice in judgment;
be not partial to the poor, and favor not the
mighty; in righteousness shall you judge your
neighbor. You shall not go up and down as a
talebearer among your people; neither shall
you stand idly by the blood of your neighbor:
I am the Lord. (Leviticus 19: 11, 14 –
16)
The Talmudic sages spell out how
one should practice love for human beings:
One should practice loving-kindness
(gemilut chasadim), not only by
giving of one's possessions, but by personal
effort on behalf of one's
fellowman, such as extending a free loan, visiting
the sick, offering comfort to mourners and attending
weddings. For alms giving (tzedakah) there is
the minimum of the tithe (one-tenth) and the
maximum of one-fifth of one's income. But there
is no fixed measure of personal service.
Rabbi Moshe Leib of Sassov tells
how to love our neighbor as ourselves by relating
an experience in his life:
How to love people is something
I learned from a peasant. He was sitting * in
an inn along with the other peasants, drinking...
he asked one of the men seated beside him: "Tell
me, do you love me or don't you love me?"
The other replied, "I love you very much."
The first peasant nodded his head, was silent
for a while, then remarked: "You say that
you love me, but you do not know what I need.
If you really loved me, you should know."
The other had not a word to say to this, and
the peasant who put the question fell again
silent. But I understood. To know the needs
of men and to bear the burden of their sorrow
-- that is the true love of man.
Aaron, the brother of Moses, also
teaches how we can love our neighbors.
When two people were quarreling, he would go to
each separately and tell
him how the other deeply regretted their argument
and wished reconciliation. When the two would
next meet, they would often embrace and reestablish
friendly relations. Because of such acts of love
and kindness by Aaron, the great Talmudic master
Hillel exhorts people to “Be of the disciples
of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving
humanity, and drawing them closer to the Torah.”
When a pagan confronted Hillel and
demanded that the sage explain all of the Torah
while he, the potential convert, stood on one
leg, Hillel’s response was: "What is
hateful to you, do not do unto others, -- that
is the entire Torah; everything else is commentary.
Go and learn."
KINDNESS TO STRANGERS
To further emphasize that "love
of neighbor" applies to every human being,
the Torah frequently commands that we show love
and consideration for the stranger, "for
you know the heart of the stranger, seeing that
you
were strangers in the land of Egypt" (Exodus
23:9).
The stranger was one who came from
distant parts of the land of Israel or, like the
immigrants of our own day, from a foreign country.
The Torah
stresses the importance of treating them with
respect and empathy.
The importance placed on the commandment
not to mistreat the stranger in our midst is indicated
by its appearance thirty-six times in the Torah,
far more than any other mitzvah. It is placed
on the same level as the duty of kindness to and
protection of the widow and the orphan. [According
to rabbinic tradition, most of these references
to the 'stranger' refer to one who converts to
Judaism (ger tzedek) or to non-Jews living
in the land of Israel who accept Jewish sovereignty,
observe basic laws of morality, and repudiate
idolatry (ger toshav). But since we were
neither converts nor formally accepted fellow-travelers
in Egypt, there must be additional meaning in
our obligation to the ‘stranger.’]
The German Jewish philosopher Hermann
Cohen (1842 – 1918) states that true religion
involves shielding the alien from all wrong. He
comments:
The alien was to be protected,
although he was not a member of one's family,
clan, religious community, or people; simply
because he was a human being. In the alien,
therefore, man discovered the idea of humanity.
In our world, with its great clannishness
and nationalism, with
its often harsh treatment of people who don't
share the local religion,
nationality, or culture, the Torah's teachings
about the stranger are
remarkable:
And a stranger shall you not wrong,
neither shall you oppress him;
for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
(Exodus 22:20; Leviticus 19:33)
Love you therefore the stranger;
for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
(Deuteronomy 10:19; Leviticus 19:34)
And you shall rejoice in all the
good which the Lord, your God has
given you... along with the stranger that is
in the midst of you. (Deuteronomy 26:11)
The stranger is guaranteed the
same protection in the law court and in
payment of wages as the native:
Judge righteously between a man
and his brother and the stranger that is with
him. (Deuteronomy 1:16)
You shall not oppress a hired
servant who is poor and needy, whether he be
of your brethren, or of the strangers that are
in your land within your gates. In the same
day you shall pay him. (Deuteronomy 24:14,15)
When it comes to Divine forgiveness,
the stranger stands on an equal
footing with the native:
And all the congregation of the
children of Israel shall be forgiven,
and the stranger that sojourns among them. (Numbers
15:26)
Like any other needy person, the
stranger had free access to the
grain that was to be left unharvested in the corners
of the field and to the
gleanings of the harvest, as well as to fallen
grapes or odd clusters of grapes remaining on
the vine after picking (Leviticus 19:9,10; 23:22;
Deuteronomy 24:21). The stranger, like the widow
and the fatherless, was welcome to the forgotten
sheaves in the fields (Deuteronomy 24:19) and
to the olives clinging to the beaten trees (Deuteronomy
24:20). He also partook of the tithe (the tenth
part of the produce) every third year of the Sabbatical
cycle (Deuteronomy 14:28, 29; 26:12).
TREATMENT OF NON-JEWS
Since God is the Creator and Divine
Parent of every person, each human being is entitled
to proper treatment. A person's actions, and not
his or her faith or creed, are most important,
as indicated in the following Talmudic teachings:
I bring heaven and earth to witness
that the Holy Spirit dwells upon a non-Jew as
well as upon a Jew, upon a woman as well as
upon a man, upon maidservant as well as manservant.
All depends on the deeds of the particular individual!
In all nations, there are righteous individuals
who will have a share
in the world to come.
The Talmud contains many statutes
that require us to assist and care for non-Jews
along with Jews.
We support the poor of the non-Jew
along with the poor of Israel and visit the
sick of the non-Jew along with the sick of Israel
and bury the dead of the non-Jew along with
the dead of Israel, for the sake of peace (mipnei
darchei shalom)....
In a city where there are both Jews
and Gentiles, the collectors of
alms collect from both; they feed the poor of
both, visit the sick of both, bury both, comfort
the mourners whether they be Jews or Gentiles,
and restore the lost goods of both, mipnei darchei
shalom: to promote peace and cooperation.
The essential spirit of Judaism
toward other people was expressed
by Maimonides in his Mishneh Torah (18:1):
Jew and non-Jew are to be treated
alike. If a (Jewish) vendor knows
that his merchandise is defective, he must inform
the purchaser (whatever his or her religion).
Influenced by this statement by
Maimonides, Rabbi Menahem Meiri of Provence ruled
in the fourteenth century that a Jew should desecrate
the Sabbath if it might help to save the life
of a Gentile. Meiri states that any previous ruling
to the contrary had been intended only for ancient
times for those non-Jews who were pagans and morally
deficient. The late Israeli Chief Rabbi Chaim
Unterman in a responsum in which he vigorously
denied a charge raised by a Dr. Israel Shahak
that Jewish law forbids violating the Sabbath
to save a Gentile’s life quotes this decision.
Rabbi Ezekiel Landau, eighteenth
century author of Noda B’Yehuda, ruled:
I emphatically declare that in
all laws contained in the Jewish
writings concerning theft, fraud, etc., no distinction
is made between Jew and Gentile; that the (Talmudic)
legal categories goy, akum (idolater), etc.,
in no way apply to the people among whom we
live.
The following Midrash dramatically
shows that Jews are to treat every
Person, not just fellow Jews, justly:
Shimon ben Shetach worked hard
preparing flax. His disciples said to him, "Rabbi,
desist. We will buy you an ass, and you will
not have to work so hard." They went and
bought an ass from an Arab, and a pearl was
found on it (hidden in the saddle), whereupon
they came to Rabbi Shimon and said, "From
now on you need not work any more." "Why?"
he asked. They said, "We bought you an
ass from an Arab, and a pearl was found on it."
He said to them, "Does its owner know of
that?" They answered, "No." He
said to them, "Go and give the pearl back
to him." To their argument that he need
not return the pearl because the Arab was a
heathen, he responded, "Do you think that
Shimon ben Shetach is a barbarian? He would
prefer to hear the Arab say, 'Blessed be the
God of the Jews,' than to possess all the riches
of the world.... It is written, 'You shall not
oppress your neighbor. 'Now your neighbor is
as your brother, and your brother is as your
neighbor. Hence you learn that to rob a Gentile
is robbery."
According to Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik,
the rabbinic leader, scholar, and Professor of
Talmud at Yeshiva University, Shimon Ben Shetach
in the above story gives a remarkable definition
of a barbarian: “Anyone who fails to apply
a uniform standard of mishpat (justice)
and tzedek (righteousness) to all human
beings, regardless of origin, color, or creed,
is deemed barbaric.”
SLAVERY IN THE BIBLICAL PERIOD
From today's perspective, the widespread
and legalized practice of slavery in biblical
times seems to contradict Jewish values with regard
to treatment of human beings. However, we must
look at slavery as an evolving process; it was
a common practice in ancient times and was thought
to be an economic necessity. Therefore, the Torah
does not outlaw it immediately but, through its
teachings and laws, the Torah paved the way toward
the eventual elimination of slavery.
Slavery in Israel's early history
had many humane features in comparison with practices
in other countries. Slaves' rights were guarded
and regulated with humanitarian legislation. They
were recognized as having certain inalienable
rights based on their humanity. For example, slaves
had to be allowed to rest on the Sabbath Day,
just like their masters.
The Talmud proclaimed legislation
in order to mitigate slavery's
harshness, especially with regard to a Hebrew
slave:
He [the slave] should be with
you in food and with you in drink, lest
you eat clean bread and he moldy bread, or lest
you drink old wine and he new wine, or lest
you sleep on soft feathers and he on straw.
So it was said, "Whoever buys a Hebrew
slave, it is as if he purchased a master for
himself."
It is significant that, unlike
the law of the U.S. before the Civil War, the
Biblical fugitive-slave law protected the runaway
slave:
You shall not deliver to his master
a bondsman that is escaped from
his master unto you. He shall dwell with you
in the midst of you, in the
place which he shall choose within one of your
gates, where he likes it
best; you shall not wrong him. (Deuteronomy
23:16,17)
VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS
One test of the decency of a community
is in its attitude toward strangers. A just society
teaches its members to welcome outsiders and to
be kind to those who are disadvantaged.
Unfortunately, the history of the
world is largely a history of exploitation and
the violation of human rights. Today in many countries
there is widespread discrimination against and
oppression of people of different races, religions,
nationalities, and economic status. As will be
discussed in Chapter Eight, often due to injustice
and repression, half the world's people lack adequate
food, shelter, employment, education, health care,
clean water, and other basic human needs.
Perhaps no people has historically
suffered more from prejudice than the
Jews. The Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Holocaust
are just three of
the most horrible examples in Jewish and human
history. Many times Jews have been killed, expelled
from countries where they had lived and contributed
to for many generations, subjected to pogroms,
or converted at swordpoint (or died resisting),
solely because they were Jewish. Whenever conditions
were bad, the economy suffered, or there was a
plague, Jews provided a convenient scapegoat.
Anti-Semitism continues today. Nazi-type
groups and the Ku Klux Klan use the Internet and
other means to spread their hateful messages.
There are several groups that preach that the
Holocaust never occurred. Jewish organizations,
such as the Anti-Defamation League, are working
to reduce anti-Semitism, but much more needs to
be done to eliminate this ancient, but still ever-present
and virulent disease.
It is essential to educate all
people to the evils of anti-Semitism and other
forms of discrimination. In addition to openly
confronting and opposing anti-Semitism and racism,
it is also necessary to work to reduce or eliminate
injustice, poverty, slums, hunger, illiteracy,
unemployment, homelessness, and other social ills.
Just, democratic societies will be far safer for
everyone, including Jews.
JEWISH VIEWS ON RACISM
Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik, a contemporary
educator and author, indicates how strong Jewish
views against racism are:
From the standpoint of the Torah
there can be no distinction between one human
being and another on the basis of race or color.
Any discrimination shown to another human being
on account of his color or her skin constitutes
loathsome barbarity.
He points out that Judaism does
recognize distinctions between Jews and non-Jews,
but this is not based on any concept of inferiority,
but “is based on the unique and special
burdens that are placed upon the Jews.”
The prophet Amos challenges the
state of mind that looks down on
darker-skinned people, in a ringing declaration
on the equality of all races
and nations. He compares the Jewish people to
Blacks and indicates that God
is even concerned with Israel's enemies, such
as the Philistines and
Syrians.
Are you not as the children of
the Ethiopians unto me,
0 children of Israel? says the Lord.
Have I not brought up Israel out of the land
of Egypt?
And the Philistines from Caphtor,
And the Syrians from Kir? (Amos 9:7)
Judaism teaches the sacredness of
every person, but this is not what has always
been practiced in our society. And, as with many
other moral issues,
religion has too seldom spoken out in protest.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel points
out the tremendous threat that racism poses to
humanity:
Racism is worse than idolatry;
Racism is Satanism, unmitigated evil.
Few of us seem to realize how insidious, how
radical, how universal
an evil racism is. Few of us realize that racism
is man's gravest threat to man, the maximum
of hatred for a minimum of reason, the maximum
of cruelty for a minimum of thinking.
He points out that bigotry is inconsistent
with a proper relationship with God:
Prayer and prejudice cannot dwell
in the same heart. Worship without
compassion is worse than self-deception; it
is an abomination.
Rabbi Heschel asserts that "what
is lacking is a sense of the monstrosity of inequality.”
Consistent with the Jewish view that every person
is created in God's image, he boldly states: "God
is every man's pedigree. He is either the Father
of all men or of no men. The image of God is either
in every man or in no man.”
It is an embarrassing fact that
most of America’s religious institutions
did not originally take the lead in proclaiming
the evil of segregation; they had to be prodded
into action by the decision of the Supreme Court
of the United States in the case of Brown v. the
Board of Education in 1954.
Based on Jewish values of compassion
and justice, many Jews were
active in the struggle for Civil Rights. Two Jewish
college students, Andrew
Goodman and Michael Schwerner, along with a black
student James Chaney were brutally murdered while
working for Civil Rights in Mississippi in 1964.
After the Six-day war, the Black Power movement,
and the rise of ethnic pride in the late 1960’s,
some fissures developed in the decades-long alliance
of Jews and Blacks for progress in America. But
while some on both sides would emphasize points
of disharmony, Jews and Blacks have many common
interests and goals and have much to gain by working
together for a more just, compassionate, peaceful,
and harmonious society, as is modeled by the continuing
close cooperation between the congressional Black
caucus and Jewish members of Congress on many
issues.
Jewish identification with disadvantaged
people is rooted in Jewish
historical experience: we were slaves in Egypt
and have often lived as oppressed second-class
citizens (or worse) in ghettos, deprived of freedom
and rights. Hence, we should understand the frustrations
of other minorities, here and elsewhere, and their
impatient yearning for equality and human dignity.
It is significant that the government of Israel
has for some time had a policy of preferential
treatment for immigrants who need help adjusting
to their new home. Special programs have been
devised for the children of Mizrachi (Middle Eastern)
and Ethiopian Jews who come from homes where there
is low literacy. Compensatory measures include
free nurseries, longer school days and school
years, special tutoring and curricula, additional
funds for equipment and supplies, extra counseling
services, and preferential acceptance to academic
secondary schools, although there is unfortunately
also some discriminatory treatment and segregation:
Israel is not yet ideal in its treatment of some
newcomers and minorities.
In summary, Jewish values stress
the equality of every person, love of neighbor,
proper treatment of strangers, and the imitation
of God's attributes of justice, compassion, and
kindness. Hence, it is essential that Jews work
for the establishment of societies that will protect
the rights of every person, each of whom is entitled,
as a child of God, to a life of equitable opportunities
for education, employment, and human dignity.