This week commemorates the giving of the Torah, which happened at Sinai, 7 weeks after the Jewish people left Egypt.

The Torah is considered the ultimate guide and compass to living a good life, and the stories–whether one believes they are true or not– contain incredible lessons for living a valuable life.

Now, this makes sense for the individual, and specifically for the Jewish people.

How do we define morality as a society? Beyond that, what is appropriate or not appropriate to include in our moral compass that we impose on others?

I know with absolute certainty, if left up to man, morality would shift and would be at best inconsistent– and at worst, straight up immoral. Yet, if I enforce my Judeo values on others, I’m no different than the societies before me who have enforced their beliefs on me– beliefs that often contradicted my own, which led to the harm of so many.

Do you have any ideas or thoughts?

Truthfully, I’m not really sure. However, my current thought is, any religion and moral compass that guides us to treat all mankind equally, and not harm one another in its name, is good in my book.

For example, murder is bad universally (unless it’s to defend), stealing is never okay, and talking ill of others for the sake of gossip is no bueno. Yet, it truly gets complicated when I try to impose this moral compass on society as a whole.

I will say, the one guiding principle that I find universally true for me, is don’t do unto others what you wouldn’t want done to yourself. In other words, treat others as you want to be treated.

This week, let’s find the compassion for others we hope that they find for us. Let’s offer grace; if we do that, we may just get it in return.

Accountability, Community, Unconditional Love

Asher

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Posted in Thought of the Week