Back to Basics: One Law for All?

LOTL..
04 May '12..





Almost everyone has heard of the "Suckers' Tent" and their demands for equal military enlistment for ultra-Orthodox citizens, and it would seem as an afterthought, also Israeli Arab citizens. Absent though, has been the  suggestion how to also contend with the equally high exemption rate amongst the upwardly mobile, other than religious sector, concentrated in the Gush Dan area where the bulk of Israel's population lives. Perhaps the targeted population, i.e. chareidim, could take a cue from them in purchasing a psychological exemption,  "not fit for military service" that seems available just for the asking. A one-time usage of whatever drugs to fail the urine test? When targeting sectors it would seem, that one needs to know whom to leave alone.

In a similar vein Moshe Feiglin highlights the following from the Torah portion of the week:

One law shall you have for the stranger as for the home-born, for I am Hashem, your G-d. (From this week's Torah portion, Emor, Leviticus 24:22)

Enforcement of the law in different ways for different sectors neuters the law, making it the foundation of evil.

A small-time criminal works against the law.

A bigger criminal circumvents the law.

But a big-time criminal works by means of the law – specifically by selective enforcement of the law.

The real power is not in the hands of the judges, but in the hands of those who decide whom to prosecute. Nobody would even think of destroying an apartment building in the heart of Tel Aviv or Jerusalem – even if it is the "Holyland" project, tainted with corruption. But a settlement neighborhood will be destroyed with no qualms because in Israel, there may be law, but not the same law for all its citizens. The law is not the same for all because we have forgotten the end of the verse in Leviticus, "for I am Hashem, your G-d."

Whether from the Torah's perspective, or from our own sense of justice, isn't it about time to get back to basics, One Law for All. Not merely an expectation, but rather the right thing.

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