What does Torah say about Social Justice?

You shall not do injustice in judgment; you shall not show partiality to the poor nor give preference to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly (Leviticus 19:15)

The thirtieth reading from the Torah is named Kedoshim (קדושים), which mean "holy." The title comes from the words in Leviticus 19:2, which says, "You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy." It is important to note that in Hebrew, the concept of "holy" is quite different from the modern church concept of "holy." Those in the church tend to think of being"holy" as being pious or perfect, or holding to a supreme standard. In Hebrew, kedosh or kedoshim (plural) means "to be set apart." Basically, to be holy is to not be doing what the world is doing. Leviticus 19 describes the holy community through a series of specific commandments.

Today we will look at the commandment found in verse 15 and how it relates to the current hot topic of "social" justice." We hear a lot today about "social" justice. It is one of those terms one might assume that everyone knows the meaning of, but the reality is that it isn't necessarily easy to get a consensus on exactly what social justice is. Nonetheless, everyone seems to know it when we don't have it. As I scoured the internet for a good concise meaning of social justice that really explains it in layman's terms, I came across this one on Investopedia (1). I know, Investopedia is an unlikely source, but nonetheless, it has a really digestible description of social justice that I think will be a good starting point.

Social justice is a political and philosophical theory which asserts that there are dimensions to the concept of justice beyond those embodied in the principles of civil or criminal law, economic supply and demand, or traditional moral frameworks. Social justice tends to focus more on just relations between groups within society as opposed to the justice of individual conduct or justice for individuals.

In modern practice, social justice revolves around favoring or punishing different groups of the population, regardless of any given individual's choices or actions, based on value judgements regarding historical events, current conditions, and group relations.

You will note that in this theory of social justice, basic foundational principles of law, economics and traditional morals simply aren't enough for achieving this rather abstract concept of justice. In essence, the rules and the realities we have always lived with regarding justice simply aren't cutting it. We need something new and different. In fact, we will probably have to tear down, deconstruct, defund and dismantle all of these traditional considerations for achieving justice and come up with some better ones.

The first and most critical concept to go must be the old-fashioned idea that we should all be held accountable for our own actions, not for the actions of those who look like us or share some immutable characteristics such as sex or race. For social justice to be achieved, people can, and should, be found guilty for simply sharing pigmentation or body parts of the accused. Guilt through association is another term for this concept. Therefore, in a socially just world, all white people alive today can be held guilty for the act of slavery that ended in the United States over 150 years ago, and all men can be held guilty of rape. THIS is the new form of justice the world is trying to foist on us.

How does it square with God's justice system. In 2 Corinthians 5:10, Paul says,

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive compensation for his deeds done through the body, in accordance with what he has done, whether good or bad.

This statement is pretty clear. Each of us stands alone before the judgment seat of Christ-- not with our ancestors, not with other people with the same skin color or body parts--- ALONE. We are each judged in accordance with what we (meaning, singular me/I) have done. The guy down the street has his own "day in court" so to speak and thankfully, you and I are not held guilty for what he has done. We have enough to deal with on our own.

And what about the idea of people being held to different standards simply because of the groups they are associated with? Last summer, we were treated to TV images of people tearing down statues, trespassing on private property, destroying businesses, and blatantly looting and stealing; yet, there was very little if any prosecution of these "crimes." We heard excuses that these people were "fed up with systemic racism and economic inequality" and thus were justified in their actions. Is a poor man who robs a grocery store more or less guilty of theft than a rich man who does so? Not according to Leviticus 19:15. Are the politicians we elect less liable for the crimes they commit compared to the rest of us? Not according to Leviticus 19:15. Is a white man more or less guilty of murder simply because of his skin color? Not according to Leviticus 19:15. God's justice does not consider your economic, social, political status in determining guilt or innocence. Now certainly, this is NOT a commentary on whether or not we have a responsibility to feed the poor, lift up the downtrodden, clothe the naked and help the widow and the orphan. As the people of God, we most certainly do have this responsibility, and God will judge us each accordingly. But systems, programs, and governments do not stand before God at the judgement seat; individuals do.

As we look back at Leviticus 19:15 one more time, we see the standard for judging our neighbors (Interestingly, God's word does not say we are not to judge others; it just has rules for doing so.) The standard for judgment is "justice". The Hebrew word used here is "tzedek" which means "righteousness." And that righteousness, what is right and what is wrong, must originate with God, not man. God determines righteous and unrighteous behavior. Thankfully, we don't have to guess what He is thinking. He tells us in his Torah. So if our goal as God's people is to be "holy" as he is "holy"-- (Leviticus 19:2; 1Peter 1:16) we must follow only his set apart standards of right and wrong. No where in God's justice system does He give special preference for skin color or genitalia or social or economic class.

So what does Torah say about "social" justice? Nothing. According to Torah, there is no such thing.

(1)Investopedia: Wholly owned by IAC (NASDAQ: IAC), Investopedia is the world's leading source of financial content on the web, with more than 20 million unique visitors and 60 million page views each month.