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Pinchas: Freedom Must be Won

6/27/2013

 
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Tell me if this story sounds familiar to you.

A group of people who had been denied basic rights enjoyed by others approached the highest court in the land. Thousands of years of tradition stood against them. They were opposed by powerful interests that saw their cause as a threat. On their side, they had only the righteousness of their cause and the truth of their arguments. When their pleas for justice were heard, the honest sensibility of their position was so incontrovertible that the halls of power could not deny them. They won fair treatment that put them on the path toward freedom and equality. 

That is this week's story, both in the news and in the Torah. It is the story of the U.S. Supreme Court restoring equal marriage in California and ruling that the federal government must recognize all legal marriages equally — those of same-sex couples the same as those of straight couples. It is also the story of the daughters of Zelophechad in this week's Torah portion (Pinchas).

The Torah recounts how the five daughters of Zelophechad — Machlah, Noah, Choglah, Milkah and Tirzah — approached Moses after the death of their father. In front of all the elders of Israel, they explained that their father had no sons to carry on his name and inherit his land. Since women were not permitted to inherit, his name would be lost and his land holdings would be absorbed by others. They asked, given these circumstances, that they receive the right to inherit.

Traditionally, this is considered one of the four incidents in which Moses had to consult with God in order to answer a legal question (Sifre Shelach 113). Moses brought the case of the five sisters to God and God told Moses, "The plea of Zelophechad’s daughters is just. You should give them a hereditary holding among their father’s kin. Transfer their father’s share to them" (Numbers 27:7). In addition, God instructed Moses that this rule would apply any time a man died without a son. His daughters would be allowed to inherit. 

In the context of the time, this was a great victory for justice. But was the victory of the daughter's of Zelophechad complete? No. They won the right to inherit, but only when there were no sons to inherit ahead of them.  It took many centuries more for any human society to reach the point where men and women would be be accorded equal property rights. It was not a complete victory, but an important milestone on the way toward equality.

The same is true of Wednesday's victories in the Supreme Court. It was a great victory, but not a complete one. Two thirds of Americans still live in states that do not accord equal marriage rights to all of their citizens (and I am one of them). There is still a great deal of work left to do in the cause of justice.

We Americans are proud to live in a country that values liberty and freedom as much as we do. Sometimes, we assume that freedom comes as easily as breathing in our country — as if it were part of our society's culture and DNA. We forget that there are many Americans whose freedom is denied by persistent forms of discrimination. If some adult Americans do not have the right to marry the person they love, no matter what state they live in, we have not yet reached the full promise of being a free country. 

We also forget that winning freedom is not easy. Like the thousands of American men and women who have spoken up for equal marriage, the daughter's of Zelophechad did not sit in their tents waiting for justice to be delivered to them. They did not despair that the obstacles were too great, or that they had to accept inequality. They gathered their courage to stand in front of powerful men to ask for something no woman had received before. They made their case in such a powerful way that not even the mighty could deny the truth of a God who loves justice. They won because they dared to speak up and to fight for what they believed.

Tell me if this story sounds familiar to you. The task is not yet complete. There is so much more we need to do to create the society of our dreams. Keep standing up and speaking out for justice.


Other Posts on This Topic:
DOMA, the Supreme Court, and Love
Pinchas: Five Sisters Who Turned the Key to Unlock the Torah
Life's Do-Overs

The Torah and the Constitution

7/3/2011

 
Tomorrow is Independence Day, the day on which we Americans celebrate our independence from Great Britain and the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. It is a day that American Jews embrace and celebrate with joy. 

America—called the "Golden Medina" by a prior generation of Jewish immigrants—is the country that gave Jews freedom of religion when Europe offered pogroms and antisemitism. The Fourth of July, the holy day of American freedom, can be seen as the secular Passover. Barbecues and parades take the place of gefilte fish and seders for American Jews who remember the escape from persecution and entrance into a new promised land.

American Jews often talk  about how the values of American democracy parallel the ideals of Judaism. Respect for the integrity of the individual, concern for the welfare of the downtrodden, and belief in people's ability to choose their own destiny are all values common to American and Jewish aspirations. Yet, it is worth remembering that the belief systems of American freedom are not always consonant with those of Torah.

The building blocks of American freedom are rights. American freedom is equated with the right to free speech, the right to practice ones religion, the right to bear arms, the right to privacy, the right to a fair trial, among all the rights guaranteed in the Constitution's Bill of Rights. We are so steeped in the language of rights that it sometimes comes as a surprise to realize that "rights" are completely absent from the Torah.

The language of freedom in the Torah is expressed as obligations, not as rights. Where the U.S. Constitution protects the rights to life, liberty and property, the Torah speaks of the obligations not to kill, not to oppress the stranger, and not to steal. The distinction may seem like a mere matter of rhetoric. If everyone is required to pursue justice, for example, then the right to justice is guaranteed, isn't it? But notice how the language of rights is intrinsically different from the language of obligation.

A right is something that affirms what others owe to you. An obligations affirms what you owe to others. The Constitution protects the individual from the abuses of the many. The Torah requires the individual to serve the needs of the many. The Constitution promotes a focus on the self. The Torah promotes a focus on others. 

This does not mean that we should say that the Constitution is morally inferior to the Torah. In truth, they serve different purposes. The Constitution defines the relationships between the people and the government. The Torah defines the relationship between the people and God. Both are needed. 

On this Independence Day, take some time to be grateful for the blessings of liberty that we enjoy as Americans. No other government in history has stood so strongly for the rights of human beings to speak what they wish to say, or to worship as they choose. But, we should also remember that the rights guaranteed by the Constitution are not an end in themselves. They are merely the foundation that makes it possible for us to choose to serve others and, by so doing, to serve God.

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