Judaism is the Source of Democracy:"An answer to Muhathir Mohamad"

Rabbi Gary S. Creditor 
November 7, 2003

Several weeks ago weeks ago representatives of the 1.3 billion Moslems in the world convened the Islamic Conference, which was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. At this conference the host President of Malaysia, Muhathir Mohamad, made a long speech, which could have been an Arabic transcription of the worst of the anti-Semitic speeches of Joseph Goeboels. It was a most serious event. While in America we want and believe in harmony and respect between every group of people, regardless of how that group is defined, by gender, race, sex or religion, on the world stage, where we do not write the script nor set the agenda, that is not the case. Current events are perceived as a war between the faiths, specifically between and Islam/Moslems and Judaism using Christians as our tools. And that is what Muhathir Mohamad told them, receiving a thunderous ovation. The evil canard created by the early Church, embraced by the Tzars and perfected by the Nazis, that there is some Jewish conspiracy to control the world and eliminate all other faiths, is alive and well in leading segments of the Arab and Moslem world. I would parenthetically pause to consider the utter lunacy of that thought. We are the only nation that has been, with brief and few breaks, in a dispersion for almost 2,600 years. Oil - never had it, never will. We are the only nation, totally defenseless, thrown into the ovens for nothing more than existing. We are the only nation who is numerically less today than we were in 1939. And we have a large segment of Jews living below any designated poverty line. I still can't fathom what 1.3 billion Moslems could possible fear from less than 12 million scattered Jews.

There is one sentence of his demented speech that is partially true, and for which we should stand up proudly, and take the credit. The first half of the sentence is false: "...the Jews rule the world by proxy." We don't even control one major American newspaper. The second half begins with a falsehood based on the first half, "and that, to protect that power..." but the last part is true. The Jews "invented democracy and human rights." At least this part he got right.

I believe that without Torah and Judaism:

John Locke and his philosophy that so heavily influenced the early American patriots could not have been.

The colonists would not have had the concept of a "sacred document" that could not be undone, but only amended by additional documents and changed through interpretation by each succeeding generation. The template is our Written Torah and the Oral Torah.

The creators of the Constitution, the sacred document, would not have had the tripartite model for executive, legislative and judicial branches. We created that in the division of King, prophet and elders, which became the Sanhedrin.

The Torah is the original document in human history that proscribed the power of the king, leading to the restrictions of the president.

I am exceedingly proud to claim that Judaism beginning in Abraham's time was and still is a revolution against the world and its idolatry. Greece did not invent democracy. Judaism did. The Greeks lacked a critical component, which Judaism inaugurated:

The holiness of each and every single human being, and thus the equality of all.

From where do we learn this?

I. Midrash refers to the many collections of Rabbinic statements. Some are stories and others are interpretations. While we might be able to date the time of the collections, much of the material is very ancient. One of the oldest is Bereshit Rabbah, the great collection on Genesis. In it there is a midrash which addresses several questions. One is, why was Abraham chosen by God? Secondly, it informs us about Abraham before he sets out for Canaan. Imbedded in this Midrash is a fundamental statement that is the corner stone of democracy. This might sound familiar but I repeat, it is in the Midrash and not in the Torah.

Rabbi Hiyya said: Terach was a manufacturer of idols. He once went away somewhere and left Abraham to sell them in his place. A man came and wished to boy one. "How old are you?" Abraham asked him. "Fifty years," was the reply. "Woe to such a man!" he exclaimed, "you are fifty years old and would worship a day-old object." At this he became ashamed and departed. On another occasion a woman came with a plateful of flour and requested him, "Take this and offer it to them." So he (Abraham) took a stick, broke them, and put the stick in the hand of the largest. When his father returned he demanded, "What have you done to them?" "I cannot conceal it from you," he rejoined. "A woman came with a plateful of fine meal and requested me to offer it to them. One claimed, 'I must eat first,' while another claimed, 'I must eat first.' Thereupon the largest arose, took the stick, and broke them." "Why do you make sport of me," he cried out; "have they then any knowledge!" "Should not your ears listen to what you mouth is saying," he (Abraham) retorted. Thereupon he seized him and delivered him to (the king) Nimrod. "Let us worship the fire!" he (Nimrod) proposed. "Let us rather worship water, which extinguishes the fire," replied he. "Then let us worship the water!" "Let us rather worship the clouds which bear the water." "Then let us worship the clouds!" "Let us rather worship the winds which disperse the clouds." "Then let us worship the wind!" "Let us rather worship human beings, who withstand the wind." "You are just bandying words," he exclaimed; "we will worship nought but the fire." [Bereshit Rabbah xxxviii.13, pg. 310]

This Midrash is the first articulation, going against everything in the ancient world and the not-so ancient, that denies the deification of any human being and thus the equal humanity of all. Democracy rests totally on this concept. It is first proclaimed to the world by the Jewish people.

II. Indeed we can comb the laws of the Torah and continually and repeatedly find legislation that institutes complete equality before the law. That is the underpinning of democracy, without which there would not be a Constitution or the United States, as we know it. When viewing the Torah's "civil laws" in the comparison to the law codes that preceded and followed it in history, one clearly understands the utter uniqueness of Judaism and it revolutionary statements. I will illustrate it by just citing a few:

Leviticus 19:15

Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment; thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor favour the person of the mighty; but in righteousness shall thou judge thy neighbor.

Leviticus 24:22

Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for the homeborn; for I am the Lord your God.

The prophet Malachi verbalized the singular statement that levels all humanity to the one commonality:

Malachi 2:10

Have we not all one father? Hath not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother?

III. Rabbinic Judaism was created during the Greco-Roman times where only free land owning men were citizens and others were bought and sold as chattel. In those times were composed the following teachings upon which democracy is based.

Jerusalem Talmud Nedarim 9:4

Rabbi Akiva maintains that the most important passage in the Torah is "Love thy neighbor as thyself" (Leviticus 19:18). Ben Azzai said: "This is the book of the generations of man." (Genesis 5:1).

The point of this difference is that Ben Azzai's citation brings us back to Adam, which means that we all have the same human origin. Regardless of superficial differences, we are the same and are entitled to the same rights, opportunity, and protection.

This is more specifically stated in the following:

Mishna Sanhedrin 4:5

Why did God create only one man, Adam? And they answer: So that no man should be able to say, 'My ancestor is greater than yours."

This same Mishna has to other seminal paragraphs:

For this reason a single man was created: to teach you that if one destroys a single person, Scripture imputes it to him as though he had destroyed the whole (population of the) world, and if he saves the life a of a single person, Scripture imputes it to him as though he had saved the whole world.

For man, in minting coins, makes one mold and every coin minted is an exact replica of all the others. Whereas the Almighty made one mold - Adam - and formed all men in that mold; nevertheless, no one of them is exactly like another.

Conclusion

All of this just barely scratched the surface of our Jewish laws and literature that teach and virtually demand democracy. Judaism is predicated on the holiness of each person, which leads directly to the equality of all. While Muhathir Mohamad's other statements are grievously in error, when he got up in front of all those dictators and terrorists where there is not one true democracy among them all, I wish I was there to get and say "You betcha!" We did invent democracy! God taught it to us in the Torah! Our Rabbis have extended it and enumerated it! And the founders of America who knew their Bible, which they got from us, used it as the cornerstone and template for America. Their anti-Semitism and their anti-Israel, the venom of the Nazis, is not because we have or don't have money. It is not because we want this shtickle land here or there. It is because what we have represented and for which we still wave the banner proudly and vigorously. In that we must be eternally proud. We have unwaveringly stood for the holiness of humanity and the dignity of all people, even when it harmed us, the bearers of the message. Democracy was born on Sinai and proclaimed in Jerusalem. And we are keepers of the flame. Amen.