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Obligations
Obligations
Is There a Practical Way to Bridge the Gap Between Traditional Jewish and Modern Expectations of Rights and Obligations?
October 2, 1991
In looking for a bridge between traditional Jewish and modern views of obligations and rights, we can turn to the tradition of federal liberty? the liberty to live in accordance with the covenant to which one has consented? as developed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by Reformed Protestant theo-political revolutionaries. Taking the biblical paradigm as the starting point, it is possible to suggest reconstruction of the modern rights model in line with ideas of federal liberty as follows: All human beings are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights ? e.g., life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness.
Haredi Conceptions of Obligations and Rights: Polish Jewry, c.1900-1939
October 2, 1991
In their speeches and articles, Orthodox politicians and publicists in Eastern Europe devoted scant attention to the issue of individual rights. The author theorizes that, beyond a predilection in Jewish tradition for obligations rather than rights, the specific historical context of East European Jewry played the major role in shaping Orthodox concepts of oli garchic rabbinic leadership. Long-term institutional factors, such as the nature of the Jewish communal structure and the strong influence of Hasidism in Eastern Europe, plus more immediate historical factors, such as the rise of secularist Jewish political parties, led to the development of the ideology of daat Torah.