Jewish history and Jewish tradition is characterized by a tension between universalism and particularism. On the one hand, the Bible opens with Human Beings (= all human beings) being created in the Image of God. And the absolute value of everyone’s life is in the command to Noah, the new father of humanity, “One who sheds a person’s blood, by another person shall his/her blood be shed, for in the image of God made human beings.” This invites the Mishnaic comment “Therefore was a single person created, to teach you that anyone who destroys a single soul is destroying a whole world, and anyone who preserves a single soul is preserving a whole world”. However, in the course of the transmission of the tradition, many editions of the Bavli Mishnah found themselves saddled with a particularist addition in the text thus: “… to teach you that anyone who preserves a soul of Israel…” - which, of course, both makes nonsense of the text about humankind being single and destroys a noble sentiment. Unfortunately, it is the interpolated text which is appealed to by religious nationalists, especially in times of national stress, and the blessing of Abraham, who took care of the “souls he made” and was promised that he would be a blessing to “all the families of the earth”, is forgotten.

Once the particularist accent is adopted, not only may common ground be found with racists and irredentists, but religious claims may exacerbate national self-centeredness; and there is no limit to the cruelty that such a combined ideology can perpetrate or the self-righteousness that it can engender. In place of Hillel’s teaching, “What is hateful to you do not do unto others”, and the Bible’s “You shall love the alien as yourself since you were aliens in the land of Egypt”, in which our occupancy of the land is conditional upon our behavior as taught by the Law and the Prophets, God becomes a national god, in place of Melech HaOlam, the King of the World. The Jew becomes dominant over the indigenous inhabitants of the Land against whom he is entitled to discriminate, or even remove from the Land. After all, it is maintained, there is no political system of democracy in the Torah. So who cares about the pledge in the Declaration of Independence to grant equal rights to all citizens irrespective of race and religion? And, perhaps, above all, any relationship between ritual (the fulfillment of “mitzvoth”) and human sensitivity is conspicuously absent. It is as though the great prophetic message of the primacy of the latter has been lost.

Recent Articles by Rabbi Isaac Newman

• Rabbi Issac Newman - May 26th, 2006
• Tazria: A single soul - April 8th, 2005

Categories: Tazria, Vayyiqra-Leviticus
Tags: Bo, human rights, ISM, palestinians, righteousness, settlers