Rabbi's Message

Rabbi’s Message:

                           Democracy--- A Part of Our Jewish Heritage

It is a common  misconception, even among many Jews, that the roots of the Jewish People are in urban life. We think of the teeming tenements of the Lower East Side of New York, or even further back, we recall the crowded city ghettos of London, Venice, Rome, Frankfort and Hamburg.

However, truth be told, the earliest  roots of the Jews were in the wilderness.  Our ancient Hebrew Patriarchs and Matriarchs were nomads tied to the lands of the Middle East, shepherding their flocks and growing food on it. And this life continued with Moses' generation in the Sinai desert.

Fascinatingly, even though Jews later did become primarily a city-dwelling people, practically all Jewish holidays, while celebrated in the city,  reflect this earlier life on the land.  For example,  the special plants used on Tabernacles; the recalling of the first sheaf of the wheat harvest on Passover; the fruits of Tu B'Shvat, the Jewish  New Year of the Trees--- these are but a few of the many examples of our agricultural roots  that could be cited.

It is interesting to note that out of these origins came a cherished key value of Judaism - a spirit of democracy. In those days, there was no king, no feudal system. All were free-born people of the wilderness. There were tribal leaders, however, all individuals were inherently equal. Even when our people later did have kings for a brief historic period, the democratic ideal could not be extinguished as much as the king was under the same Law as the common man.

And, that original wilderness ideal always remained, as democracy is fiercely followed in Jewish life to this day.  Although there are Chief Rabbis in Israel and in other countries, there is no ecclesiastical hierarchy per se in the Jewish world. The members of each synagogue elect their rabbis and lay leaders and establish their own unique set of rules and regulations; each is an autonomous entity. Religiously speaking, the House of Israel has been and continues to be a fully-functioning democratic system.

As a Jew, I am very proud of this democratic phenomenon which  harks back to the earliest wilderness roots of the Jewish  people, as recorded in Torah and as practiced by generations of our ancestors.  Also, I truly believe that we can all agree with what Sir Winston Churchill once said in the House of Commons: “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”