When Moses received the Torah on Mount Sinai there were no doctors, as we know them. There were no pharmacists. There were no accountants. There were no professional teachers. There were no universities or high schools or even grammar schools. There were no lawyers, no jailers, no social workers, no psychologists or psychiatrists. There were no brokers, no corporate executives, and no corporations. The world that our ancestors knew was so different from our world almost entirely.
In the torah portion that we read this week, we discover where our worlds overlap, or at least where they should overlap. Both then and now, civilized society is based upon justice. Both then and now, judges were necessary for a smooth working system of government. The rabbis, in fact, held that society to be civilized had to have a system of courts and judges.
Much has changed in the past three thousand years, but our desire to create a just society has remained. Our hope for the future before all else is predicated upon a just society. That is the sine qua non that makes people different from animals.
Sometimes we become so involved in the culture of the time, high tech and Internet, culture and medical advances, anthropology and astronomy, that we forget that ethics are the bedrock pursuit of mankind. Certainly some of the top executives of our country have forgotten that lesson. Certainly suicide bombers have forgotten that lesson. Certainly every time we look askance at what is right and proper, we fail as people.
Our monotheism is not just about the existence of one God, but about the existence of a God Who demands ethical creation from people. The idea of the End of Days is about making that just world that God demands.
We have a long way to go.