Q&A: Democracy as a Value?
Democracy as a Value?
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I read chapter 39 in “Walks Among the Standing.” You mentioned there democracy as an independent binding source for you, in addition to Jewish law and morality. What is the rationale for that? Fair enough regarding morality, where you showed that it comes from the Holy One, blessed be He, and is embedded in our intuitions. But democracy, as I understand it, is only a man-made system of government, with advantages and disadvantages, which should be evaluated on a utilitarian level and not as a value in itself. How can it be weighty enough to stand against a command from the Holy One, blessed be He?
Seemingly, as you wrote, one could say that there is an obligation to it by virtue of the categorical imperative. But if we know that idolatry is something bad in an essential and not merely relative sense, then eradicating it from the world is a good thing, and the desirable general rule here is “one should eliminate instruments of idolatry.” After all, if there were an object that produced moral evil, we would want to eliminate it even if there were a group that supported its existence (contrary to morality). Why should something religiously evil be any different?
Answer
Democracy is a label for what seems to me a reasonable and proper form of government. There is no god of democracy that serves as a source of authority. When there is no consensus that something is evil, it is not right to eradicate it just because Jewish law says so. That requires some kind of agreement and general understanding. ISIS also eradicates evil according to its own view. As for morality, there is broad agreement there, and so the situation is different.
Discussion on Answer
That Jewish law was said in a different world, very unlike our own. In that other world, it was accepted practice to fight and destroy the gods of foreign religions. War over belief was a common and legitimate phenomenon. In our world there is democracy, and it has its own basic premises.
By the way, in my opinion this is also what almost all halakhic decisors hold, except that they are not willing to put this argument honestly on the table, and so they either keep quiet and wink, or talk about “our hand is not strong enough” and so on. Exactly like the law of “they are lowered and not raised,” which everyone agrees is not relevant today.
So then what are the circumstances in which this Jewish law would apply? After all, it’s clear from the Torah that it wasn’t given only for a situation in which there is consensus that idolatry is evil.