Sublime

The message of the Bible for the politics of the contemporary West is that it is not enough to have a state. You also need a society – meaning, that common belonging that comes from a sense that we are neighbours as well as strangers; that we have duties to one another, to the heritage of the past and to the hopes of generations not yet born; that

In one of the most haunting passages of his masterwork, Democracy in America, he says that democracies are at risk of a completely new form of oppression for which there is no precedent in the past. It will happen, he says, when people exist solely in and for themselves, leaving the pursuit of the common good to the government. This is what life

leader does not stand above the people. He serves the people, and he serves God. The

“All Israelites are responsible for one another” (Shevuot 39a).

People need encouragement if they are to lead.

A society must ensure equal dignity – the Hebrew phrase is kavod habriyot, ‘human honour’ – to each of its members.

great leader has the responsibility to both be an ambassador and inspire his or her people to be ambassadors as well.

Only if my desires have been educated beyond selfishness to the common good do I experience law as freedom itself—as the Psalm put it: “I will walk in freedom for I have sought out Your law.”