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Yakov's avatar

Again, what lawlessnes are you referring to?

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Yakov's avatar

When I was in the Yeshiva, my chavrusa coined a pharase to describe Rabbi Hirsh's approach: Judaism with a human face. As an appologist for religion he presents a picture palatable to his times and tries to avoid problems. I prefer to let the text speak for itself.

We are awaiting the coming of the Moshiach and the restoration of the Davidic dynasty as the ideal of perfection. Does monarchy represent a transparent and just rule of law or does it have a history of being arbitrary and capricious? ד' אמר עלי בני אתה אני היום יולדתיך שאל ממני ואתנה גוים נחלתך. Here Dovid Hamelech refers to himself as a son of G-d who is given the dominance over other nations. In the hisorical context this is how the ancient rulers saw themselves, but what is special about this? What is here, considering the historical record, to hope for?

Incidentally, the incident with Batsheva I explain as Dovid Hamelech seeing himself as the son of G-d and being above the law. This explains why when rebuked by Gad Hanovi he immidiately accepted the verdict. All alone he understood that the parable of a poor man's sheep was meant for him and held that he was in the right but when confronted by the prophet he submitted. Is death a just verdict for a robbery of a sheep? Who sleeps with a sheep? Dovid understood and spoke in indignation at the assault on his divine royal rights. All other explanations that I have seen so far are nothing but appologetics.

I'm still waiting for examples of the just and transparent laws that the world can learn from us.

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