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Bechukotai 5768 -- Peace and Justice

I wrote this d'var Torah for Rabbis for Human Rights, who first published it...

If you walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.  And your threshing shall last to the time of vintage, and the vintage shall last to the sowing time; and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. And I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid; … Leviticus 26:3-6.

  אִם-בְּחֻקּתַי תֵּלֵכוּ וְאֶת-מִצְוֹתַי תִּשְׁמְרוּ וַעֲשִיתֶם אתָם: וְנָתַתִּי גִשְׁמֵיכֶם בְּעִתָּם וְנָתְנָה הָאָרֶץ יְבוּלָהּ וְעֵץ הַשָּׂדֶה יִתֵּן פִּרְיוֹ: וְהִשִּׂיג לָכֶם דַּיִשׁ אֶת-בָּצִיר וּבָצִיר יַשִּׂיג אֶת-זָרַע וַאֲכַלְתֶּם לַחְמְכֶם לָשבַע וִישַׁבְתֶּם לָבֶטַח בְּאַרְצְכֶם: וְנָתַתִּי שָׁלוֹם בָּאָרֶץ וּשְׁכַבְתֶּם וְאֵין מַחֲרִיד

In sixty years, Israel has made some truly remarkable financial accomplishments. We have gone from being a backward third world country relying on exporting oranges and collecting handouts from overseas to being a high-tech powerhouse.

We have hundreds of high tech companies starting every year, and we not only have millionaires – what the heck a million dollars is not what it used to be – but we have seven BILLIONAIRES – and that’s measured in US dollars, not in shekels.

One often hears claims that one of Israel’s problems is an uneven distribution of wealth – we have seven billionaires, but we also have a third of our children living in poverty. As sad as that statistic sounds, the truth is that wealth distribution in Israel is really not that far out of kilter. Wealth is more evenly distributed in Israel than in the United States. If you exclude those who are “voluntarily poor” – mostly haredi (ultra-Orthodox) families with twelve children and a father who studies all day instead of going to work – our income distribution would look even better.

But for all of our financial success, money has not been able to buy the one thing that really matters most: peace.

The State of the State

This post was originally published by the Israel at Sixty blog.

Last year I wrote a think piece presenting what my platform would be if I were running for Prime Minister of Israel.  You can read it here.  Since I have the hubris to think as if I were running for Prime Minister, the logical next step is to think as if I WERE Prime Minister. We recently celebrated the 60th anniversary of the founding of the modern state of Israel.  If I were the Prime Minister, what kind of “State of the Union” speech would I have given?  Sixty years after our founding, what successes do we celebrate, what challenges do we face?