Q&A: Judaism and Democracy
Judaism and Democracy
Question
What do you think of the argument that, by definition, Judaism contradicts democracy, and that there is no such thing as democratic Judaism?
Ron Huldai – https://youtube.com/shorts/heuMbOiTqrA?si=uiqp5ZC1sS0UqZZz
Answer
Clearly, almost any agenda contradicts liberal democracy. The religion of the hostages and the progressive religion also contradict liberal democracy. When one is committed to two value systems, putting them into practice will always involve conflicts, and one should minimize them as much as possible. When people say “a Jewish and democratic state,” according to Aharon Barak it means Jewish so long as that does not contradict democratic. According to the religious, it means democratic so long as that does not contradict Jewish. According to Huldai’s straw man, these are synonymous terms anyway, so it’s enough to say just one of them. But all of them are mistaken. There can be full commitment both to Judaism (I won’t get into the interpretation of what that means) and to democracy, while implementation requires us to round off some corners. Everything else is empty slogans. That is my religion.
Discussion on Answer
That religion shuts the mouths of the “heretics” and forbids expressing positions different from its own, permits and even obligates baseless smears against various public figures, permits acting violently in the Knesset and in the streets and making residents’ lives miserable, and finally attacking the police, who barely do anything to prevent all this. And I haven’t even mentioned their actual position, according to which bringing back twenty-four people justifies devastating harm to the entire State of Israel. That is already a matter of a foolish opinion and doesn’t really contradict liberalism. It contradicts common sense. Does all that look like liberal democracy to you?
Thank you, Rabbi.
I was a bit tired from the Passover preparations and a few other things, and your words somewhat restored my soul, spirit, and inner being.
Have a kosher and happy Passover!
I’d be glad if you could explain in what way “the religion of the hostages” contradicts liberal democracy.