printI’m not a religious Jew; I’m a Hebrew—of the civilization that invented equality under the law; a principle that is dictated in Deuteronomy and Exodus centuries before classical Greek philosophy. I believe the passion for justice is in my genes, as transmitted to me by a father—a rabbi—who’d repeat the phrase most repeated in the Hebrew Bible: “Justice, and justice alone, you shall pursue.” (Deuteronomy 16: 18-20)
While the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, “the first written code of laws in human history,” put in place different laws for the aristocrat, the slave, and the commoner; my tribe, commensurate with the ethical monotheism it was instructed to practice, was being hammered about applying the same laws to the king (Samuel advised the people against having one), the commoner, the alien, the orphan, the widow, the slave, the rich and the poor.
One of my favorite injunctions comes from Exodus 23: 2-3. I know you’ll share in my admiration for its unadulterated exhortation of individualism and justice:
“You shall not be led into wrongdoing by the majority, nor when you give evidence in a lawsuit, shall you side with the majority to prevent justice, nor shall you favor the poor man in his suit.”
How wonderful; how brilliant! And how modern-day religious sects—the churches and the Jews—flout the law of immutable justice by demonizing, for example, those who possess the ability to accrue wealth while deifying those who don’t.
Update (May 24): One of the ignoramuses who frequent the site accuses me of “Jewish supremacy.” That, after I wrote a post explicitly extolling the “teachings” of the Torah as a pioneering text—not the Jewish people.
As I commented hereunder to a reader; then, as now, the stiff-necked people did not often heed the classical prophets.
Against Posting Policy, I’ve posted “Dan’s” missive even though he did not provide a valid email address, so you’ve not been spared his post. But let us provide the evidence of my “Jewish supremacy” for the research-averse Dan, in the form of my writings on matters Jewish:
Your Godless Government At Work (The teachings are praised, not the people.)
Chronicle of Jewish Community Omits Capitalism
Soul and Moral Tradition (Here I am quite scathing about the contribution of Jews to the popularization of psychology.)
More here.
Clever Anti-Semitic writers often point out that Jewish thinkers are chronically critical. I fall into that category, in as much as I find it impossible to refrain from pointing out contradictions and corruptions wherever I see them, irrespective of tribal affiliation.
Dan’s logic works in the Age of the Idiot, where making clear distinctions is obsolete.
Update II (May 25): This is getting a little personal for my taste, however, to reply to my friend, The Judge: I’m not sure I love my own, as you put it. In fact, I very much doubt that. I am not part of a Jewish community, don’t have Jewish friends, and am married to a WASP. What I am positive about— crystal clear, in fact—is that I love, and know a bit about, the Hebrew Bible (is it 39 books?). I can read it in the original prose (Hebrew). And as a writer, I have to agree with historian Paul Johnson’s assessment that very many of the biblical writers were geniuses, with a unique, pioneering creativity.
As for the principles of justice that are found in the early books we’ve been discussing and are developed by the classical prophets: this is the stuff upon which our concepts of justice rest. What else?
I’m not a person of faith, but for those who are: who other than the ancient Hebrews brought into being the “concept of a single non-corporeal God and its ethical and moral commandments”?
When Jews went into the diaspora and became a sickly, disembodied, landless people, the rabbis took over, implementing a faith dominated by particularist, legalistic, ritualistic elements.
Ms. Mercer, you could also add that the Hebrew prophets are in many ways proto-libertarian heroes who challenged the state and its oppression. Look at the prophetic hero Daniel, who refused to sellout his principles and worship the state (unlike, unfortunately, many modern Jews and Christians), and was punished for doing so. I think both Christians and Jews should take a second look at the proto-libertarian spirit of the ancient Hebrew prophets and realize how applicable their examples are in our modern times.
Yes, I do love the Torah and was pleasantly surprised to learn that the Lord is a libertarian. 1st Samuel 8:7
There are also numerous references to the Lord “stretching out the heavens”. Sound like cosmic expansion to anyone?
Our current economic crisis is a direct result of the systematic government-backed violation of “Though shall not steal” and the numerous commands to not oppress the poor.
I could go on and on.
Congratulations on your heritage, MS Mercer.
MB
They don’t demonize those who possess the ability to accrue wealth.
They demonize those who do not “share” the wealth.
So, redistribution is the only “just” result.
One could say that our modern Warfare-Welfare state does the “hat trick” – namely 3 simultaneous misdeeds – by doing things that are ILLEGAL , IMMORAL , and DUMB . Sadly, one mistake that many who oppose the Welfare-Warfare state do is to treat the state as some monstrosity that got foisted on the public as if by some external supernatural force. Unfortunately, it is the people of the US – via their apeish worship of the Republican/Democratic political gangsters such as Bush and Obama – that have brought the curse on themselves. Ahh – but this happened even in the time of Samuel when the idiotic mob insisted on a “strong King like other nations” rather than the rule of Torah.
Ilana,
I’ve been reading your posts for quite awhile, and one thing I’ve noticed is your proclivity to constantly elevate your “tribe” above all else at the expense of everyone who isn’t Jewish, as if Jews are the only intelligent human beings on the planet. While I respect Jews and their contribution to Western Civilization, your Jewish supremacy shtick is growing quite stale….
[Okay, this has been posted despite the absence of a valid email. See “Posting Policy.“]
“… my tribe, commensurate with the ethical monotheism it was instructed to practice, was being hammered …” Ilana
Yes, this is an amazing fact. Rather than be jealous of the Jews for their favored position, those of us who may be Gentiles should appreciate that the Lord chose only one tribe to work specially with. The nations were allowed to wander in relatively ignorant bliss.
And now we can benefit from that “hammering”
[But the stiff-necked people did not often listen to the classical prophets, right?]
You are such a proponent of “Jewish supremacy” that you became a libertarian, opposed the war against Iraq (and a potential one against Iran), and are against giving Americans’ taxes (“foreign aid”) to Israel. Ms. Mercer, as a Gentile, I must say that if this is what constitutes “Jewish supremacy” then I say keep it coming.
There is a disease running through the world theses days that makes people see only what they want to see and discard the rest. Ms mercer here gets to suffer these fools a lot and I would guess Vox Day even more so (judging from the volume of comments his blog attracts). I recently made a joke that, in my mind at least, was fairly witty. Needless to say I was lambasted for hate speech against orientals. The joke went thus: “Q:Why are Asians’ eyes so squint? A: They are blinded by the stupidity of the west.” The objections were that I was focusing on a racial characteristic, while anyone who has had some high school education should be able to prove otherwise. What’s even worse is that not even one Asian has objected (probably too busy laughing). Yes, the age of the educated man has come and gone.
“[But the stiff-necked people did not often listen to the classical prophets, right?]” Ilana
Yes, that is so. Thank God, we have the Torah and can possibly learn from their mistakes.
In response to the man who didn’t have the courage to leave his email address who called himself “DAN”, who accused ILana of “Jewish Supremacy”: I would direct Dan to John 4:22. Here Jesus met the woman from Samaria at Jacob’s Well. She was a Samaritan and Samaritans had NO dealings with Jews. I will post the verse for Dan, because if he doesn’t have the courage to post his email address, he probably won’t have the courage to read Matthew 4:22. So this is for you Dan: “You worship that which you do not know;we worship that which we know;for salvation is of the Jews”. ~Martin Berrow
The celebration of individuality is at the heart of liberty, whereas, the soul of socialism requires obscurity of the masses. Dan and the people JP Strauss refers to would have us blend into a dull monologue. Every time you bring up your heritage, the liberty bell rings.
It should be expected from the churches, I guess. It is an important part of the teachings of Jesus after all.
“Yes, this is an amazing fact. Rather than be jealous of the Jews for their favored position, those of us who may be Gentiles should appreciate that the Lord chose only one tribe to work specially with. The nations were allowed to wander in relatively ignorant bliss.” M.B. Moon
It wasn’t one tribe that G-d chose it was twelve tribes that constituted the nation of Israel.
Ilana, for a “non-religious” Jew, you have a better understanding of Torah than most “religious” people. Kudos to your Father for his adherence to Torah and instructing you in it, even though you don’t consider yourself “religious”
Ilana,
I am not at all offended by your defenses of your Jewish heritage and traditions. In fact I think it makes you a better and more thoughtful writer. To criticize you for it would also implicate me as a hypocrite since you seem more than willing to listen to thoughtful Christians who also enjoy your site. I don’t really know where tolerance turns into indifference, but I am not indifferent to my own traditional Catholicism or offended by your thoughtful defenses of your own traditions. It hasn’t always lead to a easy friendship, but it has formed a respectful one. That should be more than sufficient for the purposes of blogging. I also appreciate your fearless posting of someone who may have mistaken a genuine love of ones own for a false pride or supremacy. You run a thoughtful hard hitting blog and knowing you as I do,I imagine that will continue just as it should.
What makes me sadder than anything else is that no more than a hundred years ago, people like Ilana Mercer were a dime a dozen. Everyone understood their freedoms and their duty to protect them. They had the gonads to critique government and keep it in check. But today, I only know of a handful of major players in the libertarian arena, and only two of them are active regularly (the Mistress of this blog and her colleague Vox Day). What we need are a thousand more like them.
[…And our readers; Vox, the American patriot, has a large fan base.]