Opinion & Commentary:
Start setting a Jewish example
By Debbie Israel

My mother and I are addicted to the truTV forensic shows like "Forensic Files" and "LA Forensics". But lately we've been noticing something very alarming: too many of the murderers (mostly husbands murdering their wives) are Jewish.

Mind you, it's not just that they have Jewish names, but there seems to be an obviousness about their being Jewish -- a "rabbi" from Cherry Hill, a man active in his Temple. And don't even get me started on a certain principal and youth leader who was horribly inappropriate with his female charges and physically attacked his male charges.

This "thing" with Elliot Spitzer has me totally non-plussed. This was a man who fought injustice; this is a man who campaigned against the sleazebags of society. And now I hear that he's "lying down" with the very people he sought to get off our streets. What is this world coming to? Better yet, what is the Jewish world coming to?

There's a story I heard many times growing up. There was a rabbi (I forget who) who was at an Inn and was offered a ride to the next town by a wagoner. They're riding along when they pass a field with hay sitting in piles. The wagoner asks the rabbi to stand watch and signal him if he sees anyone watching because he wants to take some of the hay. As the wagoner gets closer to the pile, the rabbi calls out, "Someone is watching! Someone is watching!" The wagoner hurries back to the wagon and speeds off. After a while, the wagoner realizes that there was no one around, so he turns to the rabbi and says, "Why did you say someone was watching? I haven't seen anyone." The rabbi turns to him and says, "God is always watching."

To me, that meant that when we are "naughty," God will be disappointed in us. I never thought that it was OK to take things that didn't belong to me. I was always taught to treat other people's property better than my own (and I was always more upset when I damaged someone else's property than when I damaged my own). I never thought about legal repercussions because I always thought about God (and my parents and family) being disappointed and that bothered me more than anything else.

I also felt that if I ever did anything untoward, my friends and family would feel betrayed and the younger generation (when I was growing up, my siblings, and now, my nieces and nephews and all the young people I tutor or interact with in synagogue or the community) would feel I had let them down.

When Hashem gave us the Torah, it was more than just a set of rules and rituals. It was (and is) a guide to living a civilized life. Just as good manners are designed to make people feel comfortable and treat others respectfully, so, too, are the Torah laws. The laws of a civilized world that the Torah gives are not just for Jews, they are for gentiles, too. And there is a good reason for them all.

If we were to live in a world without Torah values, people would never know if they could trust others. There would be no interdependence, no marriages, no children being born to perpetuate the species, no way that people could interact. One of the issues I have with the Quran is that it teaches that it's all right to lie if you are lying in the service of Allah. Because of that one "permit" I never know if I can trust anyone who follows Islam. No matter how nice a person seems, that person may be "lying" in the service of Allah.

This shouldn't be the case with anyone who follows the Torah. Lying is against the Torah. In order to avoid possibly lying about a person, we are taught to not even speak ill of a person in general (this is unfortunately one of the hardest mitzvot to keep).

So why is it that so many Jews are committing crimes that are totally against the Torah's teachings? Why do people think that the only thing that makes something wrong is if you get caught? And even if that were true, nowadays it's much easier to get caught -- there are cameras everywhere, there is forensic evidence, DNA testing, etc. Why do people think they won't get caught?

As Jews, we need to be the light unto the nations. This means that others look to us as role models. If we don't act in a civilized and "Torah-dika" way, it is like teachers telling their students and parents telling their children, "Do as I say, don't do as I do." We need to "clean up our act" and start behaving in a way that is a good example not only to our children, but also to the world as a whole. We need to conduct ourselves in a civilized way, a Torah way.

We need to work with others not against them. And, through our Torah actions, we can again be a light unto the nations. We need to remember what it really means to be a Jew.

Debbie Israel lives in Highland Park.