Saturday, / June 3, 2023

Above The Fray

Anti-Politics and Jewish Identity

The U.S. elections have passed, but the discord of the past few years continues to simmer, embroiling families, friendships, and communities. To stay together, finding a space outside of politics is more important than ever.

Judaism is neither liberal, nor progressive, nor conservative. It is Judaism. It precedes all of these categories, cuts through them, and floats above them. The wisdom of an eternal Torah, given by an infinite G-d, and articulated by 3,000 years of organic tradition can never be contained by any man-made ideology or party platform. This does not mean that the positions of traditional Judaism, those espoused by the Torah, will never coincide with a particular political position. Nor does it mean that we are supposed to remain detached from all temporal matters and from politics of the day. It only means that we can’t let ourselves be defined by them.

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