GEN995 … the Enlightenment’s view of human beings as individuals with rights leads Western countries to think of law as preserving rights, with major implications for law’s limits and methods. In contrast, the Jewish tradition understands Jews as members of a thick, organic community that has chosen to respond to God’s commandments and fulfill its mission of fixing the world. This underlying perception of the source and purposes of the law directly affects it (sic) scope, content, procedures, and tone, and it makes Jewish law significantly different from Western legal systems like that of the United States.   Stories are a good way to get to the heart of a civilization and its laws. The first Jewish story is that of Abraham. Unlike the beliefs of all the other peoples of the ancient world, for whom the gods rule on the basis of their power alone, where “might makes right,” Abraham discovers that the ways of God are “to do what is just and right,” [this verse]. It is that which later prompts Maimonides to characterize Abraham as “the pillar of the world” M.T. Laws of Idolatry 1:2 (end). Maimonides uses the same term for Abraham in his Guide for the Perplexed, part 3, chap. 29, for everything after that in the Jewish tradition, including the law given by God to and through Moses, is based on that fundamental premise. God is moral, even if we do not always understand how, and we therefore must be moral too (imitation dei).  DORFFLGP 88