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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.
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Trump’s Travel Ban on 12 Countries Goes Into Effect Early Monday
US President Donald Trump attends the Saudi-US Investment Forum, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
US President Donald Trump’s order banning citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States goes into effect at 12:01 am ET (0401 GMT) on Monday, a move the president promulgated to protect the country from “foreign terrorists.”
The countries affected by the latest travel ban are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
The entry of people from seven other countries – Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela – will be partially restricted.
Trump, a Republican, said the countries subject to the most severe restrictions were determined to harbor a “large-scale presence of terrorists,” fail to cooperate on visa security, have an inability to verify travelers’ identities, as well as inadequate record-keeping of criminal histories and high rates of visa overstays in the United States.
He cited last Sunday’s incident in Boulder, Colorado, in which an Egyptian national tossed a gasoline bomb into a crowd of pro-Israel demonstrators as an example of why the new curbs are needed. But Egypt is not part of the travel ban.
The travel ban forms part of Trump’s policy to restrict immigration into the United States and is reminiscent of a similar move in his first term when he barred travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations.
Officials and residents in countries whose citizens will soon be banned expressed dismay and disbelief.
Chad President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said he had instructed his government to stop granting visas to US citizens in response to Trump’s action.
“Chad has neither planes to offer nor billions of dollars to give, but Chad has its dignity and its pride,” he said in a Facebook post, referring to countries such as Qatar, which gifted the U.S. a luxury airplane for Trump’s use and promised to invest billions of dollars in the U.S.
Afghans who worked for the US or US-funded projects and were hoping to resettle in the US expressed fear that the travel ban would force them to return to their country, where they could face reprisal from the Taliban.
Democratic US lawmakers also voiced concern about the policies.
“Trump’s travel ban on citizens from over 12 countries is draconian and unconstitutional,” said US Representative Ro Khanna on social media late on Thursday. “People have a right to seek asylum.”
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Israeli Military Says It Struck Hamas Member in Southern Syria
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, May 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/Pool
The Israeli military said on Sunday that it struck a member of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in southern Syria’s Mazraat Beit Jin, days after Israel carried out its first airstrikes in the country in nearly a month.
Hamas did not immediately comment on the strike.
Israel said on Tuesday it hit weapons belonging to the government in retaliation for the firing of two projectiles towards Israel for the first time under the country’s new leadership. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz held Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa accountable.
Damascus in response said reports of the shelling were unverified, reiterating that Syria does not pose a threat to any regional party.
A little known group named “Martyr Muhammad Deif Brigades,” an apparent reference to Hamas’ military leader who was killed in an Israeli strike in 2024, reportedly claimed responsibility for the shelling. Reuters, however, could not independently verify the claim.
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Israel Orders Military to Stop Gaza-Bound Yacht Carrying Greta Thunberg
FILE PHOTO: Activist Greta Thunberg sits aboard the aid ship Madleen, which left the Italian port of Catania on June 1 to travel to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid, in this picture released on June 2, 2025 on social media. Photo: Freedom Flotilla Coalition/via REUTERS/File Photo
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told the military on Sunday to stop a charity boat carrying activists including Sweden’s Greta Thunberg who are planning to defy an Israeli blockade and reach Gaza.
Operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the British-flagged Madleen yacht set sail from Sicily on June 6 and is currently off the Egyptian coast, heading slowly towards the Gaza Strip, which is besieged by Israel.
“I instructed the IDF to act so that the Madleen .. does not reach Gaza,” Katz said in a statement.
“To the antisemitic Greta and her Hamas-propaganda-spouting friends, I say clearly: You’d better turn back, because you will not reach Gaza.”
Climate activist Thunberg said she joined the Madleen crew to “challenge Israel’s illegal siege and escalating war crimes” in Gaza and highlight the urgent need for humanitarian aid. She has rejected previous Israeli accusations of antisemitism.
Israel went to war with Hamas in October 2023 after the Islamist terrorists launched a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing more 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to the enclave.
Katz said the blockade was essential to Israel’s national security as it seeks to eliminate Hamas.
“The State of Israel will not allow anyone to break the naval blockade on Gaza, whose primary purpose is to prevent the transfer of weapons to Hamas,” he said.
The Madleen is carrying a symbolic quantity of aid, including rice and baby formula, the FFC has said.
FFC press officer Hay Sha Wiya said on Sunday the boat was currently some 160 nautical miles (296 km) from Gaza. “We are preparing for the possibility of interception,” she said.
Besides Thunberg, there are 11 other crew members aboard, including Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament.
Israeli media have reported that the military plans to intercept the yacht before it reaches Gaza and escort it to the Israeli port of Ashdod. The crew would then be deported.
In 2010, Israeli commandos killed 10 people when they boarded a Turkish ship, the Mavi Marmara, that was leading a small flotilla towards Gaza.
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