Judaism teaches that social justice includes leaving grain and produce during the harvest for the poor to glean in order to provide all people the dignity of work. A hand up and not a perpetual hand out.
“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the corner of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not pick your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger.” (Leviticus 19:9-11)
Our Jewish ethic teaches us that we have moral agency; free will; that we are the subject of our destiny and not the object of our fate. We are not the victims of circumstance because we choose our path, no matter the road blocks put in our way.
Yet, I watch and listen as Jewish people support a party that places multiple road blocks in front of those in most need of uplifting by promoting a welfare state: free stuff; free education, free health care, subsidized housing. It all sounds lovely, but for those whose hand is always out, there is no dignity; there is no moral agency. I agree there is no dignity in homelessness or hunger but socialism is not the answer. We know this from history watching what happened in Cuba, Russia, and Venezuela, rich beyond belief, from oil, whose people are now unable to buy toilet paper. Socialism is evil. It is debilitating. It undermines dignity turning citizens into generational victims.
Dear Jews, listen to those less fortunate. Listen to the Latinos and Hispanics whose families fled socialist countries to come to America for the freedom to rise up and to fall down, knowing you could rise up again. Listen to them as they warn against socialism as preached by Bernie Sanders and shared by AOC.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=697973864124554
Read about Professor Jason D. Hill, a black gay man from Jamaica who extols the freedom offered to him when he came to America.
You may not be aware that the Jewish people gave the world the ethic that all life is sacred. ALL LIFE. You know, my dear Jews, that a fetus is a potential human being; not a thing to sucked out, or cut up into pieces to remove from the uterus so that the organs can be sold.
Yet, you are promoting a party that does not agree with that premise because that party, the Democrat Party of today, promotes unfettered abortion. Abortion as birth control. You are standing with Black Lives Matter who support the Democrat Party; the party that supports and protects unfettered access to abortion by supporting Planned Parenthood which donates millions to the Democrat Party each year. I assume you are aware that Margaret Sanger who promoted abortion did so to rid the world of certain people: black at the time. Since 1973 more than 18 MILLION black babies have been aborted. It’s easy because Planned Parenthood is found in every black community. So as you stand with BLM who stand with the Democrat Party, you stand with the genocide of black people. And if you are unaware of the fact that Planned Parenthood does this then shame on you. But it is never too late to learn and rethink.
BLM, supported by the Democrat Party, has called for the end of the nuclear family; it is too patriarchal, too white. Nothing is more important in Judaism than the family. The family is the smallest unit of authority in a society. When families are intact communities, societies and the nation, thrive. Healthy authority is bottom up, not top down. When authority is top down, as promoted by many Democrats this year, socialism and fascism enter.
Something has happened to your Democrat Party when Vice Presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, in 2020 feels comfortable saying ‘protests’ are essential for our ‘evolution’ as a country.” America is under attack from Antifa and sadly, Black Lives Matter. There are a plethora of videos sharing the looting, the burning, the shooting, the destruction, particularly of black businesses. How does this aid in the evolution of America? How do these “protests” make America better?
And what about the Green New Deal? Although Biden stated in the debate that he does not support the Green New Deal his campaign page offers a different message on the $1.7 trillion, 10-year “Biden Plan for a Clean Energy Revolution and Environmental Justice.”
“Biden believes the Green New Deal is a crucial framework for meeting the climate challenges we face. It powerfully captures two basic truths, which are at the core of his plan: (1) the United States urgently needs to embrace greater ambition on an epic scale to meet the scope of this challenge, and (2) our environment and our economy are completely and totally connected,” the page says.
AOC is in charge of the Green New deal, put in charge by Biden, despite Biden now saying he is in charge during the first debate. Biden had said “I’m working with Bernie and with his people. And so, and we’ve made some changes. We’ve listened to Bernie supporters and, you know, for example, we have Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, she is on one of the panels” and in fact will be co-chairing the panel. Believe these people when they say they are going to revolutionize the economy to protect the environment.
This is a plan that will destroy thousands of jobs. Take a look north to Canada. Fossil fuels are under attack. Pipelines to move oil across Canada so that Canada will no longer be dependent on Saudi oil are stopped by government. Newfoundland and Alberta are dying. Jobs are disappearing because of this idea of Green Energy.
In America, California, the number one supporter of green energy, had to ask all citizens to turn off power in the summer; because there was no power to share. “Officials at the California Independent System Operator described a “perfect storm” of conditions that caused demand to exceed available supply: scorching temperatures in California and across the western United States, diminished output from renewable sources and fossil-fueled power plants affected by the weather, and in some cases plants going offline unexpectedly when electricity was needed most… Public Utilities Commission had ordered utility companies to line up sufficient power supplies… the commission failed to ensure adequate power capacity on hot summer evenings, when electricity from the state’s growing fleet of rooftop solar panels and sprawling solar farms rapidly drops to zero but demand for air conditioning remains high. It’s a challenge that will only intensify as California adds more solar panels and wind turbines to meet its targets of 60% renewable electricity by 2030 and 100% emissions-free power by 2045.”
If you care about social justice, how can you vote for this radical change? There is a middle ground between the Paris Climate Accords that give China and India a pass on emissions and job destroying regulations, and doing nothing.
And then there is Globalism, a policy promoted by the Democrats. Globalism is negatively impacting those whose livelihood depends on jobs at home; especially in manufacturing . Globalists care not a whit about the poor, the working poor, the middle class. They care not at all about these people called the “somewheres;” the Deplorables, the people firmly rooted in the land and the country itself. They care only about cheap labour wherever it can be found, and profits. Globalists care about the “anywheres” workers; elite aspirants hoping for a job at a billionaire-backed NGO or an internship that might lead to a job at McKinsey; people who have no particular loyalty to country, who are comfortable anywhere they work, because their work is portable. People who truly support Tikkun Olam cannot support these policies.
The Democrat party of today is not the one of your parents or grandparents. I know many Jews look to FDR as the finest President, but don’t forget FDR refused to let Jews come to America. He was asked by Hitler himself to take Jews and he said no. And he refused to accept the Jews from the St. Louis. Yet, Jews love him and continue to revere him by voting Democrat. The Democrats were against the abolition of slavery. They became the home for the KKK and David Duke, past Grand Wizard, now supports the Democrats. Remember that the Democrats promoted Jim Crow laws and this same Party was against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Today, your party is filled with Jew haters from Ilhan Omar to AOC and supporters including Louis Farrakhan, who has said Jews “have infected the whole world with poison and deceit” and that Judaism is a “system of tricks and lies,” and Linda Sarsour, a raving anti-Semite/anti-Zionist.
The Democrat Party does not stand with Israel. AOC first accepted an invitation from Americans for Peace Now that honored the memory of Yitzhak Rabin, and then declined to attend. Keep in mind Americans for Peace Now is a left wing organization. AOC sent a loud message to Jews who hoped that the increasingly influential activist wing of their party could be persuaded to line up with the Israeli left. AOC cannot even do that. This matters. Israel is the only nation in the world that is Jewish and it is the nation that is most attacked by the UN and the EU and the Democrat Party. Why would you stand with those who stand against Israel? You are a Jew. I know Croatians and Serbians and Czechs who love their homeland, their lantzman, while being loyal to their new home. You can do both without being disloyal.
Dear Jews, America is under attack, from within; from the Progressive policy of diversity that has led to divisiveness, not equality. And divisiveness, dividing people into groups based on race, colour, creed, religion, sexual orientation is diametrically opposed to Tikkun Olam – repairing the world. If Tikkun Olam matters to you as you say, then listen to the poorest in America who want a hand up and not a handout. Care for the other. Listen to the legal immigrants who fled horror to come to America to be free from the oppressive hand of socialism and authoritarianism and free to live with hope and dignity, in one united nation.
From the Ethics of the Fathers: “Rabbi Tarfon used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it.”
