Page 13 - Issue 5

Innumerable other admonitions to establish justice are found in the Torah and have made
their way into the text of the Declaration of Independence, the American Constitution and
other documents throughout history.

So now what do we do with this? Buber said: “There are three principles in a man's being
and life, the principle of thought, the principle of speech, and the principle of action”.

Judaism can be utilized as a code to guide our lives in a just fashion. In the Torah, Abraham
sees a palace. The analogy is that he sees the world has order. But the palace is in flames! –
thus, the world is full of disorder - full of evil, violence, injustice. In Judaism, at the very heart of
reality (by which I mean reality as we see it from our point of view) there is a contradiction
between order and chaos: the order of the natural world and the chaos we make.

Now the question is: how do we resolve that contradiction? And the answer is that the
contradiction between the palace and the flames, between the world that is and the world
that ought to be, cannot be resolved at the level of thought. The only way we can resolve
that tension is by speech and action; by making the world better than it is. This is the only
way we can lessen the tension between the palace and the flames. When things are as they

ought to be, when there is only a palace and no flames - then we have resolved the tension.
Then we will have reached our destination.
Anarchist Mikhail Bakunin put it simply: “Socialism Is Justice”. He was referring to that justice

which is based solely upon human conscience. This justice can be found in the
consciousness of everyone and can be expressed simply as equality or equity. He states:
“This universal justice which, owing to conquests by force… has never yet prevailed in the
political or juridical or economic worlds, should become the basis of the new world. Without
it there can be neither liberty, nor republic, nor prosperity, nor peace. It then must govern our
resolutions in order that we work effectively toward the establishment of peace. And this
justice urges us to take upon ourselves the defence of the interests of the terribly maltreated
people and demand their economic and social emancipation along with political

freedom”.
Nietzsche suggested that there is no justice. Maybe he was right. Maybe there is no palace -
only the flames. In which case, all we have is the struggle for existence and what Nietzsche

called "the will to power". The strong crush the weak. The clever outwit the simple. The
powerful dominate the powerless. And in such a world there is no reason not to expect a
disaster.

All this cannot be. If the ‘disaster’ has struck, our responsibility and challenge is to fix it – to
regain and retain order. This is our path to pursue justice. As Buber said: “The law is not thrust
upon man; it rests deep within him, to waken when the call comes”.

The call has come.

" Justice, pursue justice, that you may live (Deuteronomy 16:20) "

Jez