The Divrei Torah in this section have been translated by Rav Reuven Ungar, Director of Alumni Affairs
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”.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 (incl
This statement- that Hashem is the focus and not man- is most certainly anti-Democrat!
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