Timeless Torah

From the very outset, the people of Israel knew something unprecedented had happened at Sinai. The authenticity of a revelation supposedly experienced by one person (as in Christianity and Islam) could be questioned. One witnessed by an entire nation, young and old, saint and sinner, could not.
But more than a new religion was born that day; a unique type of nation was being formed, one that would be the antithesis of Egypt in which the few had power and the many were enslaved. At Sinai, the children of Israel ceased to be a group of individuals and became a body politic under the sovereignty of G-d whose mission was to be, “A holy nation.”
Three developments proved crucial in order for that vision to be realized. The first is that long before Jews conquered Israel and acquired a system of government, they had entered into a covenant with G-d which set limits to the exercise of power. Generally, monarchies always had one fatal weakness; there was no law superior to that of the state; the lawgiver was above the law. In Judaism however, prophets were mandated to challenge the authority of the king if he acted against the Torah. Even private individuals were empowered to disobey illegal or immoral orders.
The second key element lay in G-d’s declaration: If you obey Me fully and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession…You will be for Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” The people: We will do everything the L-rd has said.
What was the significance of this exchange? It meant that until the people had signified their consent, the revelation could not proceed. There is no legitimate government without the consent of the governed, even if the governor is Creator Himself. This was revolutionary - way ahead of its time - G-d desired the free worship of free human beings.
The third Biblical brainchild was that a national ritual to remind the nation of their collective mission be instituted. Thus at the end of Moses’ life, he warned the people about forgetting their true vocation, becoming complacent, and believing that what they had accomplished, they achieved for and by themselves. These fault-lines would erupt and destroy everything.
No one has articulated the terms of national survival more starkly. Nations begin to die from within. Affluence leads to overconfidence, to forgetfulness, to decadence, to lack of social solidarity - the prelude to defeat. Israel's very existence, said Moses, would depend on memory, mission and morality - remembering where it came from, what it was called on to do, and how it is called on to do it. Hence the 612th command, known as Hakhel: At the end of every seven years…during Sukkot, when all Israel comes to appear before the L-rd…you shall read this law before them…Assemble (Hakhel) the people; men, women and children…so they can listen and learn to fear the L-rd and follow carefully all the words of this law.” (Deut. 31: 10-13)
Hakhel was a re-enactment of the covenant at Mount Sinai (Rambam) challenging the nation to stay faithful to its ideals. It was a ceremony of national rededication and a reminder of the people’s history and chosen destiny. Indeed, this is what Jewish leaders did at critical junctures. Joshua did so at the end of his life. So did King Josiah when the Torah was rediscovered during the Temple restoration, and Ezra for those returning from Babylonian exile.
Hakhel had a significance that goes far beyond its specific details. It created a societal agreement to uphold a code of responsible conduct. A thousand years later, when Athens experimented with democracy, only a limited section of society had rights. Women, children, slaves and foreigners were excluded. The Torah, Israel’s constitution, includes everyone.
Governments have rarely seemed more unstable. Survey after survey reveals disenchantment with politicians of all shades. People are looking for a vision that would lend coherence to a troubled world, but what abounds is cynicism, as if, every political alternative having been tried, has failed. Indeed, the nations of the world are faced with a seemingly unanswerable dilemma. When neither socialism nor communism delivered what they had promised, we lost faith in the State as the vehicle of salvation. The alternative, that the State withdraw, leaving private initiative and the free market to distribute equitable justice, has also proven false. Major social ills continue unabated. Crime figures still rise. Health and welfare services outgrow our ability to fund them. The inner cities still fester. Poverty and homelessness abound. And despite the best efforts of race relations policies, ethnic tensions remain.
From where then is a new vision to emerge? We are caught between the interventionist and the minimalist State, knowing the failings of both and without a third alternative. The answer is a modern variation of Hakhel. We need to reinvent and reinvigorate a sense of community, by which I mean any voluntary association of people larger than the family, be it charitable organizations, religious congregations, or neighborhood watches. The community can become a potent factor in our life, stronger than the individual or the State. It is in these associations that we acquire the virtues that sustain our common life: duty, honesty, service, self-sacrifice, integrity, neighborliness, and civility. This communal partnership waiting to be forged is where our political leaders should focus their efforts.
There is nothing inevitable about the survival of great powers: the pages of history are littered with tales of their decline and fall. Few indeed are those that have defeated this almost inevitable cycle. The concept of Hakhel can be central to a nation’s endurance. Purpose does not come from nowhere. It is shaped by historians and prophets; taught in schools and homes; rehearsed in prayer; symbolically enacted in rituals; and recalled periodically in Hakhel-type gatherings. Though for Jews these assemblies were essentially religious, finding a contemporary equivalent of Hakhel is a pressing task if free societies are to survive.
There is much else to be said about the political theory of the Torah. But one thing is clear. With the revelation at Sinai something unprecedented entered the religious and political horizon. It would take millennia before its full implications were understood. Let’s not disregard the lesson.