At the Board meeting last month, the board of Beth Israel Congregation voted to join a new effort in the Jewish community called K'vod Habriot, respect for human dignity. This effort, was launched by Rabbis for Human Rights - North America, and begins as part of an interfaith effort to address one particular issue, an issue which is a critical one for our nation. It is an issue which I have spoken about many times from the bima and one which many moral and ethical leaders, including Elie Weisel, have spoken out on and which our Supreme Court has responded to as well. The position is clear: that this country should not engage in torture of prisoners in any situation and that there should be no ambiguity to this prohibition. In the past few years, several different letters against torture have been produced, one of which was signed by hundreds of Rabbis across the political and religious spectrum. This month has been designated as Torture Awareness Month, and the K'vod Habriot network has been formed to make a statement to our government that United States sponsored torture is wrong and must be prohibited by law.

This past week, an article appeared in the Forward by Yehezkel Dror, who is the founding president of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, a professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University, and a recipient of the Israel prize. These are very impressive qualifications, but I must say without any hesitation that I respectfully disagree with this article.

His article is entitled "When Survival of the Jewish People is At Stake, There's No Place for Morals." He begins by saying: "No matter how moral a society aspires to be, physical existence must take precedent." I don't disagree with this. Life is the closest we have to an ultimate value within Judaism.

Professor Dror later says that: "... human history refutes the idealistic claim that in order to exist for long, a state, a society or people has to be moral." This, also regrettably, may be true. Unfortunately, it is not always clear that survival goes along with moral behavior for a nation or an individual.

But what his entire article misses is the difference in Jewish Law between lichatcheela and bidayavad, decisions we make "before the fact," intentional actions, and those which we must take in a given circumstance to face difficult realities.

I want to be clear about the fact that the author of this article clearly states that he recognizes the importance of morals and ethics, and that the claim he is making only applies when life is at stake. Where I disagree is how he defines that time when existence is at stake. To claim that since our survival today is always at stake, we should therefore prioritize our lives without regard for ethics is a dangerous, dangerous precedent and does go against the entire reason for our existence as a people. Professor Dror writes at length about the dangers faced by Israel and the Jewish people and we all know he is right that those dangers exist, as dangers to our survival as a nation also exist. But to go into the debate already prepared to throw morals out the window, to say that we can not allow moral and ethical concerns to be a major factor in, for example, foreign policy decisions in today's world, may at times be pragmatically sensible; but is not in the spirit of who we are as a people. That sometimes pragmatism, when survival is at stake, causes us to act in a particular way that we might reject in calmer times is a fact of life. But that is not carte blanche to act callously and without regard for ethics.

And while we might be tempted to say that threat to our nation's security or very existence should justify taking any action we need to take, that too is a terribly dangerous precedent. Our United States Supreme Court has ruled that torture is against the law. We have seen the damage that torture does both to the victims and the perpetrators. It lessens the respect we have for human life and, in turn, causes us to value our own lives less. While there may be occasions when such actions have produced valuable information, many experts say that it will more than likely only result in greater animosity, louder calls for revenge, and the cheapening of human life in general. It is wrong.

No one can argue that our country need not be vigilant about our security. No one can argue against the need for intelligence systems which seek to prevent acts of terror or acts of war. No one can argue that those who seek to act violently against our nation ought to be pursued and tried in accordance with international law. This is the reality of the world and the responsibility of our nation. But for a nation which views itself as the hope of the world to engage in shameful acts of torture in any form is obscene; and I believe that we must express this clearly and loudly as joining the religious campaign against torture, being a part of the K'vod Habriot network, has done.

Some might ask: Doesn't making torture illegal tie the hands of our military in the event that an act of torture might possibly save thousands of Americans? Think about how we would respond if, God forbid, our family members were in danger. We would do what we thought we had to do, and then would seek to defend ourselves as having committed a justified act of self-defense. But we don't go into situations saying that morals don't matter in how we live our lives. We must never allow representatives of our nation to enter a situation armed with the thought that the American people and our system of law support unspeakable acts of violence against other individuals, no matter how grievous their crimes might be. It is just wrong.

Tomorrow evening, we begin the holiday of Shavuot and celebrate the moment in which we received the Torah and were given our mission as a people - yes, to survive; but to pursue justice at all times and to always act in accordance with the image of God. For our people, and for our nation, survival is the ultimate goal. But to survive without a constant eye for morals and ethics is wrong. It is wrong in other nations and it is wrong here. As citizens of this country, it is this country we can directly affect. Let us make our voices heard.

Robert Dobrusin, Rabbi
Copyright © 2008, Robert Dobrusin.
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This message was originally posted on June 12, 2008.

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