The Torah Versus the Left

Commentary from Dennis Prager on Town Hall.com (Dec. 8):

Question: What book is the opposite of the left?

Answer: the Torah.

The Torah is the Hebrew name of the first five books of the Bible, the "Five Books of Moses." The Torah is the foundation of the rest of the Bible and the rock on which both Judaism and Christianity stand. No Torah, no Judaism. No Torah, no Christianity. No Torah, no God, no divine creation, no Exodus, no Ten Commandments, no "love your neighbor as yourself," no Judeo-Christian values, no Western civilization and no America.

As I am about to finish the third volume of my five-volume commentary on the Torah ("The Rational Bible"), I can say with some authority that the Torah is the antithesis of left-wing ideas and values. It is not the antithesis of liberal ideas and values; it is the antithesis of left-wing values and ideas. A serious and committed Jew or Christian can be a liberal or a conservative; he or she cannot be a leftist. Left-wing Jews and Christians use Judaism and Christianity as covers for their real values -- left-wing values.

Here are examples of basic laws and values in the Torah that are the opposite of what the left advocates:

No. 1: "Do not show favoritism to a poor person in passing judgment" (Exodus 23:3). "Do not pervert justice. Do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly" (Leviticus 19:15).

The left advocates judging the poor differently. A poor man who commits almost any crime, including a violent crime, is not to be held to the same legal or moral standard as other people. As reported last week in the City Journal:

"In October, the Seattle City Council floated legislation to provide an exemption from prosecution for misdemeanor crimes for any citizen who suffers from poverty, homelessness, addiction, or mental illness. Under the proposed ordinance, courts would have to dismiss all so-called 'crimes of poverty' -- which, according to the city's former public-safety advisor, would cover more than 90 percent of all misdemeanor cases citywide."

Since Karl Marx, the left has not divided the world between right and wrong, as the Torah, Judaism and Christianity do, but between rich and poor. [read more]