We should not be surprised with all the criminal activity happening among the richest people in America. Whether we speak about Enron, World Com. or the political campaign of John Ashcroft, or about the common muggings and burglaries that happen every day, what concerns us should not be the criminals but the lack of justice in our midst.
There are good people in the world and there are bad people in the world. There are people who act within the law and people who act outside of the law. There are people who see the world in black and white and people who see the world in different shades of gray. And among those people there are rich and poor, strong and weak, wise and foolish. No one is exempted because of station in life from the possibility of doing wrong.
What is disturbing, however, is the double standards we use with regard to justice. The jails are filled with the poor, some of whom never even had due process under the law. The rich walk around free with an implicit understanding that they will never go to prison. How many people involved in the great scams of recent years are in prison? I can think of two. How many people who were part of Clinton's escapades beyond the law are or were in prison? I can think of two. How many people who were perpetrators of the great evil schemes of America have gone on their way to do other evil schemes? The number is large and growing.
People are equal; justice is not equal. That is the lesson that we need to learn from the Torah portion that we read this week. Joseph had the opportunity to become wealthy by engaging in an immoral act. He thought about the act, was interested and decided to walk away at great harm to himself. He remembered the moral teachings of his father, the Midrash says, and turned away from the criminal act.
In time he became powerful and wealthy, but Joseph never forgot the issues of fairness and equity and justice that he learned in his home. And throughout the Bible sinners are defined as the poor and the rich, the slave and the king. All receive justice.
For society to exist society requires justice. Sadly Justice is in short supply among the powerful in America.