A people abandons law at the peril of their own character, justice and survival.
The Prime Minister of Norway even bolstered that claim by quoting from the statesman/philosopher Edmund Burke (18th-century England) that, “When bad men combine, the good must associate, else they will fall one by one.” While this insight might be news to the largely-Christian West, it merely confirms the age-old conviction of Judaism that law is the indispensable expression of love and decency. In other words, the opposite of hate is law. But the consensus of these most accomplished, powerful and thoughtful people was that, “Only the belief in and execution of the law can defeat hatred.” Ask anyone what the opposite of hate is, and they will tell you it’s love.
The two questions which shaped their deliberations were, “Why do people hate?” and “Why do people band together to express hatred?” Although the speeches were beautiful and the resolutions were firm, the entire event was fairly predictable, except for their primary conclusion, which seems so at odds with common sense.
The glittering list of invited participants included four presidents, and 70 writers, scientists and academics. In response to this propensity to hate, Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel organized an international conference on hate in Oslo, Norway. Men and women war against each other blacks and whites, gay and straight, liberals and conservatives, city-folk and suburbanites–there is no end to stereotypes, hostility and mistrust. Human beings never seem able to express all their hatred for each other. Commentary on Parashat Ki Tavo, Deuteronomy 26:1 - 29:8
0 kommentar(er)
