Jewish Principle # 11: God is just

The eleventh principle asserts our belief that God is just. He rewards those who keep His commandments and he punishes those who transgress them.

The following lines are a direct quote from the extraordinary book of Rabbi Hayim Pereira Mendes published in 1905 (see the book here). 

1. Virtue brings its own reward. Sin brings its own punishment.

2. God does not punish in the sense of vengeance but only for correction, in order that we shall forsake our sins and lead better lives.

3. God rewards and corrects sometimes in this life and sometimes in future life.

4. God sends the reward or penalty when He thinks best.

5. Therefore we must not wonder if a righteous man remains long unrewarded or if a wicked man remains long uncorrected.

6. Suffering is not sent to us only for punishment of sin. It is often sent to arouse us to better and nobler lives, to educate us to higher ideals, to lead us nearer to God.

8. God has given us Free-will, to choose between good and evil, or right and wrong.

9. If we were destined to do right or wrong and did not have the power to choose, there would be no merit in doing the right, and we could not be justly punished for doing the wrong.

10. We Hebrews therefore do not believe in Predestination.

11. Nor do we believe in anyone suffering in order that other sinner may be saved from the results of his own sin. 

12. We Hebrews do not believe in vicarious atonement. (i.e., God punishing Mr. A to atone for the sins of Mr. B. Vicarious atonement is the Christian doctrine that says that Jesus' death was the atonement for all humanity. From a Jewish--and Biblical--point of view every individual must repent from his or her ownsins. Y.B.).

The debate over the DEATH PANELS in a new American Health care system

√  Watch this video   

√ Read the statement  given by the American Association of Neuroligical Surgeons. 

Rabbi Yehuda Alqalai (1798-1878)

Rabbi Yehuda Alqalai, was one of the first rabbis (or Jews) in modern times to formulate the idea of a return to Zion. Following the footsteps of Rabbi Yehuda Bibas, he did not envision the return to Zion just as a solution for the  eternal problem of anti-Semitism, but essentially as a way to fulfill the Jewish aspiration of a political normalization: i.e., Jews living in their Jewish homeland. He understood that the nation of Israel needs not to wait passively until the Mashiach comes to realize this aspiration. Rather, it should actively seek the reestablishment of an independent Jewish state in the forefathers land as a way to advance the coming of the Messiah. 

Rabbi Alqalai formulated his plan and ideas for the restoration of the Jews in Israel in his book Goral lahaShem, published in Viena in 1857.   In this book rabbi Alqalai designed a comprehensive plan with the religious foundations and the practical steps to be taken in order to reestablish the Jewish nation in Israel.  The book was published in three different editions and translated to many languages, including English. The correspondence between the practical ideas of this book and Theodore Herzl's : "The State of the Jews" (Medinat haYehudim) is so similar that it is not improbable the Herzl was familiar with his book and had internalized its concepts which were later on formulated in his famous book.  Simon Loeb Herzl, TheodoreHerzl's paternal grandfather, attended the Alqalai's synagogue in Semlin (Serbia) and the two frequently visited each other. Grandfather Simon Loeb Herzl "had his hands on" one of the first copies of Alqalai's  work Goral lahaShem prescribing the  "return of the Jews to the Holy Land and renewed glory of Jerusalem." Contemporary scholars conclude that Herzl's own implementation of modem Zionism was undoubtedly influenced by that relationship.

  

Rabbi Alqalai made Alyia to Israel in 1874. He established himself in Yafo and together with other Jews from the Ottoman empire and North Africa founded the community Mikve Israel of the Old Yeshub of the city. He died four years later and he is buried in the Har Hazetim (Jerusalem).   

I present to the readers the book   GORAL LAHASHEM   by Rabbi Yehuda Alqalai. It is very interesting to see the haskamot  (Letters of support) he had from many prominent rabbis. to me, the most interesting haskama was the first one, which seems to have been written originally in Hebrew, by Sir Moses Montefiore   (1784-1885) a contemporary of rabbi Alqalai. 

RELIGIOUS INTEGRITY: Robbing and stealing

Stealing, in Hebrew geneba is when I  take something that doesn't belong me without the owner of that object knowing. While robbing, gezela, is to take something from a person by force. Someone can steal your belongings when you're not home. However, if a person approaches you on the street and forces you to give them your watch, you have been robbed.

In both cases, the perpetrators must restitute the object they took or its  monetary value to its owner. But in ancient Jewish Law, the one that stole (sic) had to pay twice the value, while the one that rob had to restitute just whatever he took by force (this point will be explained later on). 

Stealing is forbidden regardless of the value of the object I take. Even if I steal something of an insignificant monetary value (pachot mishave peruta) I have perpetrated and act of stealing. Moreover, even if I take something temporarily from somebody else, i.e., I said to myself that I’m borrowing an object to use it for a while without the owner's knowledge and with the intention to bring it back to him, it is still considered stealing. 

It is forbidden to steal from a fellow Jew  or from a gentile.  If the gentile made a mistake and, for example, gave me extra change, although it is technically his mistake and legally I could hold the extra money, it might be an opportunity to fulfill one of the most important Mitzvot of the Tora: Kiddush haShem, sanctifying God’s name. Which will happen when a non Jew would see an exemplary moral behavior of a Jew and would be inspired to praise God for having given the Jewish people a Law of fairness and wisdom (=The Tora). Furthermore, according to Sefer haChasidim those who made money out of a mistake of a gentile did not see any blessing from it.   

READ:   GUSH KATIF, seven years later.

“Fortunately they were able to painstakingly put the pieces of their lives back together.

by Toby Klein Greenwald