JUDAISM, LAW AND JUSTICE *

By the Presidentof Israel, Mr. Chaim Herzog **

As the President of a small, democratic nation, I have become sensitive to the importance of democracy and to its struggle - not at all an easy or simple struggle - for the minds of men and peoples. It is a sad but, I think, justified observation that in these concluding decades of the twentieth century, democracy would appear at times to be on the wane. In the United Nations barely one third of a total of more than 160 Member States are democracies. I mention this fact because the basis of what we know as the democratic system is the Rule of Law. I represent a nation which gave to this world the concept of the Rule of Law. I was nurtured on the twin concepts of Judaism and Law and Justice. Perhaps the outstanding aspect of Jewish civilization is its inherent justice and the fact that the concept of justice occupies a paramount place because of its principles. After all, many of the principles of human justice which are accepted as a matter of course in civilized countries today - an acceptance which is, historically speaking, of comparatively recent vintage - are the principles ex- pounded to mankind by our Jewish forebears over 3000 years ago. These are principles which are non-existent today in the overwhelming majority of the nations of the world. These are principles which are being maintained today in the democracies of the world, the com- paratively few that exist - thanks only to the fact that a few democracies led by the United States stand between them and totalitar- ian eclipse. These are principles which are trampled daily underfoot in derision and disdain in the United Nations. These are principles which will never be known to or experienced by the bulk of the human

* Excerpted from a speech given in the Middle Temple Hall on 28 March 1984 on the occasion of President Herzog's visit to London, England. ** K.B.E., LL.B., LL.D. (Hon.); former Ambassador Extraordinary and Pleni- potentiary, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations; member of the Tenth Knesset; advocate, author and editor.

9 10 JUDAISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS race living in over 100 countries in which the value of human freedom, as we understand it, does not exist. The Israeli system of law, based on the Mishna and the Talmud, has developed over the ages and is, therefore, applicable to this day, because the great interpreters of the Talmud through the ages had the sense of reality which encouraged them to adapt the experience of the past, so that it may best serve the needs of the present. Over the centuries a narrow interpretation of the law was displaced by a more liberal doctrine, which brought the law into consonance with the principles of humanity. As Justice Benjamin Cardozo so aptly emphasized on one occasion when discussing the relationship between justice and law, the legal process must be one of compromise and concordance. In his words "The reconciliation of the irreconcilable, the merger of antitheses, the synthesis of opposites, these are the great problems of the law". It is, indeed, sobering to reflect on the profundity of these words on the one hand, and to contemplate the process in the world which is so diametrically opposed to them. For precisely the opposite is occurring in the world, and as this transpires man's mind is becoming accustomed and inured to new standards. These new standards, which are based on cynical expediency, negate the principles which inspired Cardozo and the great legacy of the Jewish tradition from which Western culture has drawn so much. We Jews have given to the world a legal system founded upon what my late father, Chief Rabbi Dr. Isaac Herzog, described as "the elabo- rate, massive, towering structure of Jewish law." ' This form of law re- cognizes the existence of a special reciprocal tie between law and morality, a tie that stems from the common origin of both concepts in Judaic sources. The common origin of the concepts of law and morality remained a guideline for Judaism in all periods and genera- tions. "Thou shall not kill" and "thou shall not steal" are enjoined with the same finality as "Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself; I am the Lord". Indeed, Jewish law, functioning as a legal system, impels recourse to a moral imperative, and in so doing prepares the way to conversion of the moral imperative into a fully sanctioned norm. Thus a legally sanctioned norm is to be found in the direction to act

1 As noted in the Preface of Herzog, The Main Institutions of Jewish Law (XV), Vol. 1 (1936).