Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Elder of Ziyon
Previously, we have discussed and listed a set of Jewish ethical values.
However, a list of values is not enough to build an ethical system.
Again using Progressivism as an example, progressives have values too: equity, inclusion, anti-racism, environmental justice, anti-colonialism, and others. They also would seem to be aligned with some Jewish values, like preserving life, helping the downtrodden, and justice.
Yet we showed how their values ended up supporting things that are absolutely immoral, like support of terrorism.
The perversion of Progressivism comes from their overemphasis on some values and downplaying others. Anti-colonialism is one of their values, but if is interpreted as "colonialism is the ultimate evil and must be fought by any means necessary" that can then be used to indeed justify terrorism against perceived colonialists. The "preserving life" value is somehow defined as less important than the "resisting injustice" value. We've seen how the term "colonialism" has been applied as a crime only for specific Western states (not Chinese imperialism, the Islamic conquest or the Ottoman Empire), strongly indicating that the value itself is being politicized beyond its definition.
A separate problem is that when they make these sorts of determinations of the relative weight of values, there is no transparency. They just say that they want "justice" and their loudest members are the self-appointed judges. When they make a values-based decision, the relative importance of conflicting values is not explained.
A third problem is that they apply their definitions dishonestly. They declare Israel is "colonialist" or "settler colonialist," period. They can point to academic papers to support their viewpoint, but they consciously ignore papers that refute it. They elevate their biased opinions to the status of proven scientific theory - and anyone who disagrees is essentially excommunicated.
The problem isn't necessarily that their values are definitionally invalid. It is that the process of applying those values is subject to subversion and perversion. In the end literally anything can be justified under the Progressive ideological system.
A moral system that can justify immorality is not a moral system.
Most moral systems have the same shortcomings. Many only define themselves by their values. Some have additional rules. But only the Jewish value system has extensive checks and balances on how it is applied and implemented. Moreover, it has full transparency and self-correcting mechanisms built-in so it virtually impossible for it to be hijacked and politicized. While Judaism is criticized as being outdated and inflexible, in reality the Jewish ethical system, refined over millennia, is better positioned to address and adapt to new situations then any other.
The Jewish moral framework we are building has three tiers*:
Core Values: A list of foundational Jewish ethical ideas rooted in Torah, Talmud, and rabbinic tradition. As we've seen, these include concepts such as Pikuach Nefesh (the supreme value of life), Emet (truth), Tzedakah and Chesed (justice and kindness), Tzelem Elokim (human dignity), and Lashon Hara (ethical speech), among others.
Adjudication: The methodology for balancing and applying these values in real-world or complex situations.
Integrity: This governs how the framework is applied and ensures the process maintains integrity. It is not about the outcome, but the process of reaching and explaining the outcome.
We've already listed the core values tier. Here are the informal rules of the adjudication tier:
Internal Coherence – Does not contradict itself across cases.
Context-Sensitivity – Values may weigh differently depending on the situation.
Value Fidelity – Ethical decisions must be faithful to the source values; they cannot be a smokescreen for violating them.
Ethical Triage – Provides tools to weigh competing values (e.g., when truth and peace are in tension).
Balance of Principles – Encourages multi-value analysis rather than moral flattening to a single imperative. Every ethical decision must consider whether it violates any of the others, and if so, it must be justified.
Transparency – Moral reasoning must be public and explainable, modeled after shailot u'teshuvot (responsa literature). Like a good rabbinic teshuva, decisions should be laid out with their logic and sources made clear. This allows others to understand, critique, or build on the decision. Transparency isn't just good practice; it makes the system self-correcting and proof against manipulation.
Replicability – Others should be able to follow and potentially reproduce the reasoning.
Open Participation – Anyone can take part in the interpretive process—Jew or non-Jew, scholar or layperson—if they agree to play by the rules. This is not centralized authority but decentralized legitimacy. Authority is earned through fidelity to the values and the process, not conferred by title. (It becomes a meritocracy - the wisest interpreters generally get reputations that give their opinions more weight, but brilliant newcomers can "break in" to the top tiers.)
Contrast this to other systems where authority is centralized and often coercive.Critique-Friendly – The system is designed to be challengeable. Reasoning must be principled and sourced, and those offering interpretations are obligated to respond to valid critiques - either refuting them or admitting that they were wrong (intellectual honesty.)
Humility – No interpreter claims omniscience. The system assumes human fallibility and encourages correction when mistakes are found. Disagreement to uncover the truth (lishmah) is a central value.
Curiosity and Sincerity – Those using the system must aim to learn and improve, not score points. Seeking out competing views is not a weakness—it is a requirement.
Insulation from Power – The process must resist co-optation for personal or political gain. Interpretations that favor powerful interests without transparent justification should be met with suspicion and scrutiny. The top Jewish ethicists rarely hold political positions nor even head major institutions.
All issues are important - Questions that revolve around a dispute over a penny are treated seriously, because the underlying values are the same for seemingly important and unimportant cases.
This structure prevents capture by ideology. If someone begins to distort or selectively apply the values - say, always interpreting them to benefit one group or political stance - their reasoning can be challenged, dissected, and rejected by others in the community. It is a form of built-in resistance to corruption.
Most moral systems fall apart not necessarily because their core values are wrong, but because the people interpreting and applying them are either unaccountable, dishonest, or inconsistent. Jewish ethics, through centuries of practical development, has built a system of moral reasoning that includes safeguards against this. To gain respect, the top authorities must be experts in the process, well versed in other fields and of impeachable moral standards.
The third layer is what gives this moral system its staying power. It acknowledges human fallibility and creates a structure that rewards honest reasoning, respects dissent, and allows course correction.
A secondary but important benefit is that by keeping the system and logical processes transparent, anyone who learns the system can apply the rules themselves to any situation they find themselves in. When they are presented with any information - a newspaper article, a video, a lecture, an advertisement - this process gives everyone the tools to evaluate them objectively. People try to manipulate us all the time, whether to join their cause or to buy their toothpaste. the Jewish moral methodology helps defend us all against being seduced into doing things that might not align with our own values.
This is not just a framework—it is a blueprint for moral civilization.
It is Jewish, yes—but it is also universal, precisely because it demands clarity, integrity, and accountability from everyone who engages with it.
This is a mature, time-tested system of ethical trust. And anyone willing to uphold its standards is welcome to participate.
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* I want to emphasize that while these tiers have existed for centuries, this may be the first time they are described in these terms.
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"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022) |
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