THE LAW OF THE LAND IS THE LAW – AND THAT MEANS YOU TOO

One of the things I do is cheerlead for religion. As an observant and dedicated practitioner of Judaism, I truly believe that the foundational principles and the dictates of Jewish practice have the potential to truly bring out the best in each of us. I find the same to be the case for my friends and colleagues of Christian, Moslem and other communities of faith. That being said we have a problem, and succinctly stated, here it is. There are those who are members of all of our faith traditions who believe that by observing what they consider to be the “letter of the law,” they are exempt from its spirit or any other system of law which may be relevant to their lives – including civil law, laws of humanity and so forth. In so doing, they may not even be following the letter of the law, but that is an entirely longer and more complicated conversation. Too many stories. We all know the unfortunate barrage of narrative of sexual abuse, tax evasion, misappropriation of funds intended for a stated purpose in our religious communities and so forth. There is the self-proclaimed fervently religious individual who sets himself up as a paradigm of all that is right and correct in life who proceeds to build a huge house in a township and proudly states with a laugh, “I have broken every ordinance they have. We got around them.” Then there are the honorees in religiously observant communities who absolutely use public funds inappropriately or do not properly report income and skirt their taxes. There are the communities that push sexual misconduct under the rug and coerce people to let the community deal with the problem so as not to “harm” the community. Business dealings in our non-profit religious organizations that occur between a religious leader, who is an employee, and the board that governs the community of faith. All of these are seriously problematic, both from a legal point of view as well as from the religious perspective as well. In Jewish teachings, we learn that “dina d’malchuta dina” -- the law of the land is the law! That is to say that NO OBSERVANT JEW is exempt from being a totally honest and law-abiding citizen. This standard is also held by my colleagues mentioned above in their respective communities. No wonder too many people turn away from what they observe as the blatant hypocrisy of religious communities. While I totally understand their angst, and cannot say they are wrong, I do believe that we all need to step back and remember that there is never any guarantee that this Priest or that Rabbi or another Pastor or youth leader, just because they are working within the context of the religious sphere necessarily lives according to the proper codes of conduct. Yes, there is way too much “hiding under the cloak,” so to speak. So how do we address this problem, especially in our present climate where more and more passes seem to be given to those in authority or those who “seem to be” so religious? We learn in our Jewish teachings to choose your own mentor (Rabbi or leader) and to acquire for yourself a friend to share your journey. Here is the answer. We need to ask ourselves who are our role models and be careful NOT to yield to what may “seem to be Kosher,” if you will, but rather insure that you are associated with those who are, as we learn in Jewish texts, “tam v’yasher” – or truly and completely honest and acting with integrity. If we can do this for ourselves and empower those around us NOT to assume but to ask questions and choose carefully, very carefully, then perhaps we will be able to truly help our various faith communities put all that they are and the wonderful lessons they teach out there for all to see.