DEUT443 Instead of using whatever prominence and influence we have only to advance ourselves, should use it to help others. [This verse] describes the Lord as "the God of Gods and the Lord of lords," while the next verse tells us that "God executes justice for the fatherless and the widow." The first verse speaks of God's preeminence, while the second suggests that one of God's greatest concerns is to help the vulnerable. Similarly, successful people should imitate God by helping "the fatherless and the widow," and all others who are vulnerable. A friend who has achieved considerable fame confided that its greatest benefit is that it makes it easier to do good for others. For example, he knows that if he, as a well-known person, calls someone who is sick, his fame will help the vulnerable person feel better about him-or herself ("The fact that an important person calls me means that I am important"), more so than if the call came from a less prominent person. (This is not fair, but, fair or unfair, this is how the world works.) We should also use whatever prominence and connections we have to make calls or write letters of recommendation to help people find employment or a better job. What a different take on fame in a society in which prominent people who are not afforded the respect they take for granted are known to shout, "Do you know who I am?"

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DEUT528 See [[DEUT251]] Deuteronomy 6:7 children TELVOL1 500

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DEUT598 God represents the ultimate biblical model for character-building. … The best way for us to emulate God is to become a blessing in other people's lives.

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DEUT860 Knowing how to act appropriately is often not a simple matter, and can require a lifetime of study. [American President Lyndon Johnson once said, "a president's hardest task is not to do what is right, but to know what is right."] For example, it is not enough to know that the Bible commands, "Justice, justice shall you pursue" [this verse]; we also need to study and deduce in every situation what constitutes acting justly. Having good intentions is not enough. For example, Immanuel Kant, perhaps the most esteemed philosopher of the past three centuries, argued, on moral grounds, that it was forbidden to lie to a murderer who asked where his intended victim had gone (see page 423). Hillel's principle dictates otherwise. If you would find it unconscionable for someone to answer a murderer truthfully as to your whereabouts, then assume that others (perhaps with the exception of Kant) would agree. Therefore, in such a situation, tell a lie (see pages 424 –– 427). That Hillel intended his summary of Judaism's essence to be taken literally is reflected in the fact that, when the non-Jew accepted this teaching as valid, Hillel converted him. [While there is no indication in the Talmud that the non-Jew committed himself to observing Judaism's ritual laws, talmudic commentators insist that Hillel, a man of unusual perspicacity, was confident that the man would become a fully observant Jew. Nevertheless, this story suggests that the teaching of Judaism to potential converts should focus disproportionately, though not exclusively, on Judaism's ethical teachings.]

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DEUT861 See [[LEV353]] Leviticus 19:12 swear TELVOL 1 420

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DEUT913 If you occupy a position of authority, study the Torah and the other Jewish sources to remind yourself not to feel superior to those over whom you have power. People who occupy high positions often become arrogant, both because of their power and because of the flattery offered them by subordinates. To counteract this tendency, the Torah ordained that, upon assuming office, a king should write and carry around his own Torah, thereby reminding himself that he is God's servant, and serves at God's wish. The Torah also notes that they should be done so "that his heart not be lifted above his brothers" [this verse]. Sit down periodically and study or copy Jewish teachings, such as Deuteronomy 17:14–20 or Psalm 82, which remind the powerful that God is above them, and Psalm 15, which reminds us all of how God wants us to act.

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DEUT967 Biblical law exacts what is, as far as I know, a unique and uniquely fair punishment for false witnesses: "And you shall do to them what they schemed to do [to their victim]" [this verse] Thus, lying witnesses who make a false claim of $10,000 should themselves be fined $10,000, well Jewish law rules that witnesses who tried to have capital punishment inflicted on an innocent person pay that penalty themselves.

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DEUT1207 The sage Rabbi Yochanan taught that we should be careful not to publicize information that will cause innocent people suffering and humiliation. This applies even when we can cite Jewish law as a justification for making the matter known. For example, the Torah rules that a child born of an adulterous or incestuous union is classified as a mamzer (bastard); both the child and its descendants are forbidden to marry other Jews [this verse] unless, as the Rabbis explain, they too are bastards.[In Jewish law, the term bastard does not apply, as it does in Western societies, to a child born out of wedlock; under Jewish law such a child suffers no legal disadvantages.] However, Rabbi Yochanan advocated that those who are aware of such children's status remain silent. He told his colleagues, "It is in my power [to reveal the families of impure birth in Jerusalem] but what shall I do, seeing that the greatest men of our time are mixed up therein?" (Kiddushin 71a). Apparently, Rabbi Yohanan reasoned, "Why should I destroy these people's marital prospects, and cause suffering to some very fine, innocent people?" This teaching should serve as a reminder to all of us who casually pass on gossip and unflattering information about others. Either out of malice or the desire to be perceived as knowledgeable, many people share privileged information about others that can cause them great embarrassment and damage their reputations.

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DEUT1223 Don't point to an institution's imperfections as reasons for not acknowledging the good it has done you. The Talmud teaches, "Cast no mud into the well from which you have drunk" (Bava Kamma 92b). Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik taught that if you study at a school, even if you come to disagree with the school's approach later, don't "throw mud at it" and condemn it because of those aspects of the institution with which you now disagree (Rabbi Soloveitchik's teaching is cited in Weiss, Insights, vol. 1, 66). This dictum is relevant as well for those who have changed their religious orientation. For example, some Jews who grow up Orthodox later leave it for other denominations, while others who grow up Reform, Conservative, or unaffiliated later become Orthodox. Such people often speak with bitterness of the movements in which they were raised, but they should also acknowledge whatever good they gained from their earlier experiences. And those who claim that their experience was entirely negative should reflect on what is perhaps the most unusual of the Torah's 613 commandments: "You shall not abhor an Egyptian, for you were a stranger in his land" [this verse]. Although the experience of Egyptian slavery included oppression and the drowning of Israelite newborns, the Israelites were commanded not to hate Egyptians; rather, they were to remember--along with the recollections of slavery--how Egypt originally admitted them (at the time of Joseph), saved them from famine, and treated them with generosity. If we are commanded to remember the good even when mingled with such evil, then we are certainly obligated to recall the good done for us by institutions and denominations with which we later come to disagree.

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DEUT1228 The Midrash comments that the words "a time for hating" (Ecclesiastes 3:8) refer to "the time when a war is being fought" (Ecclesiastes Rabbah 3:8). The implication of both the biblical verse and the midrashic comment is that when the war is over, the hatred should end. As Winston Churchill said, "I oppose the pacifists during the war, and the jingoists after the war." This is consistent with what was noted earlier; after the Exodus from Egypt--but not during the time Jews were enslaved there-- Jews were instructed not to hate Egypt [this verse].

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