Читать книгу The Essential Agus - Steven T. Katz - Страница 30

In the domain of social and economic life, we recall that the Jewish religion was born in a recoil of the soul from the horror of enslavement. In the first of the Ten Commandments, the Lord is identified as the author of freedom. The Sabbath is ordained for two reasons—one to emphasize man’s kinship with the Supreme Being, Who contemplates serenely the work of His hands; the other, to afford all servants and even animals the opportunity to rest one day a week. Man was designed to be free, to be like God, in His creative labor and His calm reflection.

At the same time, the leaders of society were urged to ordain laws that would mitigate the hardships resulting from human inequality and the caprices of fortune. The Jubilee year, the returning of fields to their original owners and the liberating of the slaves, is an example of Pentateuchal legislation in this area. So, too, is the cancellation of debts in the seventh year and the prohibition of usury.

However, even in ancient times, these laws were insufficient to control the blight of poverty. Hence, the injunction to establish charitable enterprises in behalf of the poor. “The Holy One, blessed be He, loves the poor.”¹³

In Talmudic law, artisans were permitted to band into guilds in order to establish standards for their trade and to fix prices. Merchants were allowed to use various gimmicks to attract customers to their stores. But there were also certain definite limits upon these rights. The resident scholar and the representative heads of the community had to approve the regulations of the guilds. The merchants were not allowed to charge more than the right price, even when the demand far exceeded the supply. Workers could band together to strike against an employer. Even a single worker had the right to discontinue working at any time, “even in the middle of the day.”¹⁴ However, a strike was justified only if its purpose was to compel the employer to submit to arbitration in accordance with the Torah (din Torah).

What are the basic, inalienable rights of man? They are the circumstances that are needed for the realization of his humanity, the “image of God” within him. In the course of history, different “rights” and “freedoms” become essential, if men are not to be “dehumanized.” Stalin in his constitution for the U.S.S.R., and Pope John XXIII in the encyclical “Pacem in Terris,” have written of the “right to work.” Certainly, governments are obligated to provide a minimum subsistence for all who, for one reason or another, cannot fit into the normal spaces of the economic system. Already, the Book of Deuteronomy makes the elders of a city responsible for the life of all who enter its boundaries.¹⁵

Justice Brandeis maintained that every person should have the right to choose between staying in his own native land and emigrating to another country. Pope John XXIII expressed a similar view. In Judaism, this right appears to be fundamental, for we belong to God first and only secondarily to a particular nation or state. Thus, the first Divine command to Abraham was to go forth from his native land. And the first of the Ten Commandments introduces the Lord as the One “who took thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” The ceremony of pidy on haben, the redemption of the firstborn, in the course of which the father “buys” his son from a priest, dramatizes the principle that a child belongs to God, not to the state, nor the tribe, nor even the family.

In general, Judaism does not insist on one or another economic system, but it asserts the inadequacy of all systems. In a society where free enterprise is the rule, Judaism asserts the constant need to combat poverty and to safeguard the freedom and dignity of the individual. In a socialistic society, it would stress the sanctity of the human person and the inviolability of his basic rights. Whatever the existing structure of society, the Vision of Perfection looms above it, as a goal and as a standard of judgment.

The Messianic ardor of Judaism is directed toward the building of a just, even a perfect society, here on earth. But this massive force is balanced by the built-in caution against the belief that any concrete plan or any visible structure is indeed Messianic. Jewish history is as dramatic a warning against pseudo-Messianism, as Jewish idealism is a persistent source of Messianic longing. In the non-Orthodox realm of discourse, the Messiah is a symbol of the attainment of perfection, in the life of the individual as in society generally. But, so paradoxical is human nature, that actual perfection is almost a contradiction in terms. The Messianic ideal can only loom on the horizon as a many-splendored vision, urging mankind to advance along the diverse pathways of the spiritual life, but it cannot be fully realized. If the Messiah claims to exist here and now, he is a false Messiah.

The dominating motif of Jewish social ethics is therefore melioristic, rather than Messianic—that is, we are bidden to improve our society, not to impose a perfect plan upon it. The Talmud asserts that we are not permitted to force the coming of the Messiah, only to hasten his arrival by deeds of charity and repentance.¹⁶ We are therefore enjoined to be active builders of the “Kingdom of God,” but also to know that our efforts cannot but be fragmentary and more often than not contradictory. As we noted earlier, the religious spirit is at once conservative and reforming.