HOW THE JEWS CREATED THE FREE WORLD

A FEW BASIC VALUES THAT COME FROM JUDAISM AND THE TORAH RESHAPED HUMANITY IN WAYS ENABLED THE FREE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY AND THE RULE OF LAW.

THESE BASIC PRECEPTS WERE LEAPS WHICH LIFTED US OUT OF THE BITTER ANGRY DARKNESS OF BARBARITY AND  UP INTO THE SWEET LIGHT OF CIVILITY.

HERE'S WHAT I SEE AS THE BASIC INNOVATIONS:

• First: ALL PEOPLE ARE ONE FAMILY: the Torah reveals all humans are descended from the same ultimate parents and these parents from one breath or soul breathed into the first human - Adam.

The idea of human solidarity and the brotherhood of all mankind is from the Torah.

THE IDEA THAT ALL HUMANS ARE EQUAL BEFORE G-D AND THE LAW IS DERIVED FROM THIS CONCEPT.

• Second: THE FAMILY IS PRIMARY UNIT FOR PROMOTING GOOD CULTURE: From Abraham and Sarah, to Isaac and Rebecca, to Jacob and Leah and Rachel, to Joseph and his brothers, and the tribes - to the present day - the family comes first.

Not the state, not the school. not the academy, not the military. The family.

• Third: MERIT AND NOT BIRTH ORDER IS PARAMOUNT FOR LEADERSHIP: Jacob was not born first. Neither was David, or Solomon and many others.

Primogeniture was more common throughout history for royal families and the aristocracy and the gentry - the first born got everything, so as not to divide the estate. The idea that people inherit their permanent station in life by virtue of their birth order or race or gender was first rejected by Judaism.

THE IDEA THAT SOCIETY SHOULD BE A MERITOCRACY, THAT EVEN METAPHYSICALLY, LIFE IS A MERITOCRACY COMES FROM JUDAISM.

• Fourth: EARTHLY KINGS ARE SUBJECT TO THE SAME RULES AND LAWS AS EVERYONE ELSE.

There is no King but G-D; He is our Lord and our shepherd - and Lords are high and shepherds the lowest job on earth in ancient times. Men who proclaim themselves kings are earthly and transitory/temporal tyrants whose laws do NOT supersede G-D's Law. The nation of Israel was meant to be ruled by judges, but being human, the Israelites needed a king so they got kings, but they were all imperfect kings and they were all limited by G-D's Law.

THE IDEA OF A CONSTITUTIONALLY LIMITED GOVERNMENT COMES FROM THIS CONCEPT.

• Fifth, WHAT IS RIGHT AND WRONG AND JUST AND TRUE ARE ETERNAL, AND NOT RELATIVE. 

In a just and fair society - what is permitted or shunned or exalted or punished - is not a matter of will or whim, of fashion or trend. They are based on eternal truths which are themselves a reflection of the harmony of an ordered and lawful Universe created by design and for a purpose.

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PEOPLES WHO LIVE BY THESE VALUES, AND AT LEAST THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, CAN AND DO LIVE ON SOCIETIES THAT ARE GOOD TO LIVE IN.

PEOPLE WHO LIVE WITHOUT THEM DO NOT, OR SOON DO NOT.

(Jews did not invent these rules and values; we got them from G-D. We have kept them alive - even when we failed to live by them - and when we did fail, then the same bad crap happened to us as to anyone else; in fact, the Torah and Bible  (what gentiles call the old testament) is filled with stories of our failures and our king's failures - which is all the more reason everyone should believe it: if it was made up, then surely they'd have left all the bad stuff out!)

The idea for this post was inpired by this:

THOMAS CAHILL'S BOOK, HOW THE IRISH SAVED CIVILIZATION

And by this:

 JAMES WOOLSEY ESSAY, WE ARE ALL JEWS

CHECK'EM OUT!