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Why It Is So Important for Jews to Follow the Rule of Law
Remains of a 2000-year-old building recently excavated near the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
Photo: Yaniv Berman / Israel Antiquities Authority
This week’s Torah reading of Eikev, follows the pattern of the previous three weeks.
Moses continues his review of the history of the previous 40 years. He retells certain events, such as smashing the Tablets of Stone and making a second set, and repeating the theme of the importance of following our Divinely-inspired way of life.
This week, we read the second chapter of the Shema, in which it says, “If you really listen to the commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and to serve with all your heart and all your soul, then I will give the rains at the right time, the first rain and the latter rain and you will gather your corn and your wine and your oil and there will be grass in the fields for your animals to eat and be satisfied” (Chapter 11, verse 13).
This raises one of the controversial issues of the Torah, and indeed all religions — reward and punishment. It implies that in physical terms, the rains come and go based on how we behave, and that God’s relationship to us is dependent on our relationship to God. Yet, if we are rational and look at history, we can see that it doesn’t always appear to be the case. The whole issue of why good people suffer, and bad people seem to thrive, has always presented a major theological challenge to every religion.
One way of dealing with this challenge is to say this is not about each one of us individually and what we go through in life, but it’s about the nation and whether the nation survives or not. There is no guarantee that there won’t be warfare. After all, the invasion of Canaan was warfare. But we have been and are engaged in an existential struggle for survival. Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. But even in this existential struggle for survival, we are still bound by the laws of the Torah.
I have always tried to balance different moral positions both as a Jew and as a citizen of the world. I’ve accepted the principle of “doing as you would be done by,” and always making sure that whatever I do is ethical and can be justified by halacha. One of the biggest problems we have had morally, both in the Torah and to this very day, is the question of zealotry. When can you break laws? And indeed, there is much debate and confusion over retaliation and conflicting religious positions, absolute and moderate.
With all the pain and suffering that Israel has gone through this past year, we have prided ourselves on the fact that our war record is far superior to any other example of a country facing an existential threat and invasion. If there are non-combatant casualties or human shields, these are the painful and reluctant result of the way our enemies have fought us.
Once upon a time, Israel was united in rejecting the extremism of Kahanaism. In recent years, that ideology has made a frightening comeback as attacks on civilians have increased by Arab nationalists. So, it was with great relief this week that the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, came out forcefully condemning the attitude of those outwardly religious young men who rampage through Arab villages killing people.
Even so, that’s a matter of shame to me — that people calling themselves religious Jews, act in a way that I cannot morally accept. Thank God they are a minority. Of course, the world press wants to make them out to be the majority, but that’s the perversity and bias of most of the world’s press.
But I don’t want to be associated with people who act outside of the law. The issue of how prisoners are treated is not for mob justice or mob violence, but the law. As the Torah and the Talmud tell us, God cares about all God’s creatures. We all came from the same source, and should be treated as such. If we ignore the Torah, we suffer the consequences.
Jews have been lynched by mob justice. And so, I repeat, do as you would be done by.
The author is a writer and rabbi, currently based in New York.
The post Why It Is So Important for Jews to Follow the Rule of Law first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.