The Torah’s Political Philosophy
It is fitting Parshat Noach will precede the 2024 election, for the portion serves as the Torah’s political primer. God decided to destroy the world via flood because it was filled with chamas, violence (Rashi understands this to mean theft). In other words, the world had reverted to its pre-creation state of tohu u’vohu, primorial cacious. Later on political philosophers would refer to this state of anarchy as a “state of nature.” So fearful was the great 17 century philosopher, Thomas Hobbes of this anarchy, that Hobbes advocated for Britain’s return to absolute monarchy. While Hobbes’ view is understandable in light of the fact he was reacting to the chaos caused by the English revolution, the Torah does not view absolute monarchy as the appropriate response to anarchy.
A second story appears at the end of the Parshat Noach, Migadol Baval, The Tower of Babylon. It is often argued, including by scholars such as Rashi, that the Tower was created by humanity in order to dethrone God. As tempting as it is to understand the Tower in this fashion we must consider that the Tower clearly appears to be a Babyloian ziggurat. These ziggurats were Towers used for worship. In other words, the construction of the Tower wasn’t an attempt to dethrone God but a pious attempt to draw closer to God. The obvious question is, why does God respond to humanities entreatment by scattering humanity and forcing them to speak in different tongues. The answer lies in the opening sentence of the chapter dealing with the building of the Tower, Genesis 11:1.
“The entire word was united in the same language and purpose.”
Anyone who has ever been to a board meeting of any sort knows how hard it can be to get even a few people to unite in common purpose. So how did the Babylonian emperor Nimrod manage to unite the entire world in common purpose? There is only one way to achieve such absolute conformity – through oppression. The fact that all humanity was speaking the same language suggests that a dominant culture, in this case Babylon, was overrunning other cultures. By scattering the builders of the Tower and inhibiting their ability to communicate with each other by forcing them to speak in different tongues, God was now too rejecting authoritarian governance.
The juxtaposition of the great flood and Tower narratives teaches us that God rejects both anarchy and authoritarianism. Rather, a middle ground was needed, therefore God entered into a covenant with Abraham and gave his descendants the Torah. The Torah provides a blueprint which provides structure to ensure that a society which bases itself on it will not again devolve into a state of anarchy, while at the same time, safeguarding human dignity so that such a society will not be overrun by authoritarianism.
The American experiment in democracy has taken the Torah’s political philosophy to the next logical step by proving that a society can be successfully structured without the benefit of monarchy. Regardless of who wins the election, let us pray that America continues to lead the way and remains that “the city on the hill,” referenced by American luminaries such as the 17 century leader of Massachusetts Bay Colony, John Winthrop, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Regan & Barack Obama. God bless America.
Rabbi Steven Saks