Divrei Torah

The Divrei Torah in this section have been translated by Rav Reuven Ungar, Director of Alumni Affairs

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Da Ma LeHashiv - Democratic Values- Part III

By: Rav Moshe Ganz

Summary of Parts I and II: The function of Democracy as a system of govering  a society is outside the scope of this essay. Rather, it is aimed to examine  the concepts that comprise “Democratic Values”. Liberty, Equality and  Fraternity have been elevated to values of supreme importance- overriding  other concepts. In the name of freedom (of expression), degenerate material  is open for all.

Discipline of children has suffered-due to an exaggeration of the value of  equality. Children permit themselves to treat their parents in ways that  were unheard of in the past. Books are even being published to assist  parents to re-assert their authority, to properly function as parents!

Nowadays, student scan only be expected to learn through games; one may not  demand from children to exert themselves with conceptual thinking. For the  latter is not appealing to them; without discipline once cannot teach  material that is not appealing. Undoubtedly, uncontrollable children will  become adults without restraints. Indeed, recently a leading judge decreed  that a potch (even administered by a parent for educational purposes) is  considered violence!

Security forces are prohibited from aggressively interrogating terrorist.  Experts form the General Security Service (Shabak) comment that this  situation leads to bloodshed. As far as the High Priests of Democracy are  concerned, the crucial issue is not to infringe upon the human dignity and  liberty of the terrorist.

All of the above-mentioned absurdities (and more) are results of evaluating  every issue by the ruler of Democracy. Were we to judge items in a quest to  perform what is good (relying upon healthy intuition), the results would  differ considerably. It behooves us to shatter the idol of Democracy and to  replace it with the goal of striving for goodness.

Ultimately, as people dedicated to the Torah, we deny the underlying basis  of “Democratic Values”. Democracy assumes that the well being of individual  man is the paramount focus of moral values. The Torah emphatically rejects  this assumption. The Master of the World is our focus. He desires us to be  good and to engage in good behavior- all of the Mitzvoth (including those  between man and man) stem from the Divine directive to be good.

This statement- that Hashem is the focus and not man- is most certainly  anti-Democrat!

 

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Uploaded: 1/17/2006 1:38:26 PM