{"id":41898,"date":"2018-10-11T18:59:36","date_gmt":"2018-10-11T15:59:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=41898"},"modified":"2022-05-09T08:02:18","modified_gmt":"2022-05-09T05:02:18","slug":"non-eternal-truths-and-the-limits-of-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/non-eternal-truths-and-the-limits-of-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Non-Eternal Truths And The Limits of Power"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":50634,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[503,354,541,410],"acf":{"old_id":"41898","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33923,"related_cahpter":"68","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"All human authority is delegated authority, subject to overarching moral imperatives ","content":"<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Parshat Yitro consists of two episodes that seem to be a study in contrasts. In the first, in chapter 18, Yitro, Moses\u2019 father-in-law, a Midianite priest, gives Moses his first lesson in leadership. In the second, the prime mover is God himself who, at Mount Sinai, makes a covenant with the Israelites in an unprecedented and unrepeated epiphany. For the first and only time in history God appears to an entire people, making a covenant with them and giving them the world\u2019s most famous brief code of ethics, the Ten Commandments.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What can there be in common between the practical advice of a Midianite and the timeless words of revelation itself? There is an intended contrast and it is an important one. The forms and structures of governance are not specifically Jewish. They are part of chokhmah, the universal wisdom of humankind. Jews have known many forms of leadership: by prophet, elders, judges and kings; by the Nasi in Israel under Roman rule and the Resh Galuta in Babylon; by town councils (shiva tuvei ha-ir) and various forms of oligarchy; and by other structures up to and including the democratically elected Knesset. The forms of government are not eternal truths, nor are they exclusive to Israel. In fact the Torah says about monarchy that a time will come when the people say, \u201cLet us set a king over us like all the nations around us,\u201d \u2013 the only case in the entire Torah in which Israel are commanded (or permitted) to imitate other nations. There is nothing specifically Jewish about political structures.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What is specifically Jewish is the principle of the covenant at Sinai, that Israel is the only nation whose sole ultimate king and legislator is God himself. \u201cHe has revealed his word to Jacob, his laws and decrees to Israel. He has done this for no other nation; they do not know his laws, Halleluyah\u201d (Psalm 147: 19-20). What the covenant at Sinai established for the first time was the moral limits of power. All human authority is delegated authority, subject to the overarching moral imperatives of the Torah itself. This side of heaven there is no absolute power. That is what has always set Judaism apart from the empires of the ancient world and the secular nationalisms of the West. So Israel can learn practical politics from a Midianite but it must learn the limits of politics from God himself.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Nation of Leaders, <\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Covenant &amp; Conversation,<\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Yitro<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (5774)<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":96476,"id":96476,"title":"ecc1-vanity wisdom book","filename":"ecc1-vanity-wisdom-book.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/ecc1-vanity-wisdom-book.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-futility-of-vanity\/ecc1-vanity-wisdom-book\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ecc1-vanity-wisdom-book","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":96473,"date":"2021-08-16 15:21:40","modified":"2022-05-09 05:02:15","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1280,"height":720,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/ecc1-vanity-wisdom-book-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/ecc1-vanity-wisdom-book-300x169.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/ecc1-vanity-wisdom-book-768x432.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":432,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/ecc1-vanity-wisdom-book-1024x576.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":576,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/ecc1-vanity-wisdom-book.jpg","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":720,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/ecc1-vanity-wisdom-book.jpg","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":720,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/ecc1-vanity-wisdom-book-1200x675.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":675,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/ecc1-vanity-wisdom-book-747x420.jpg","home_baner-width":747,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Non-Eternal 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