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July 8, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. Duty to save gullible from themselves?

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Islamists have the West just where they want us

JWisdom:: Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality, Part 3: The Fully Loaded Human Being by Rabbi Dovid Gross

July 3, 2008

Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski: A spiritual budget (TOUCHING!)

Jeff Jacoby: Israel still paying for its defeat

JWisdom:: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part IV by Rabbi David Aaron

JWisdom:: The Moses Method by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

July 2, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Appeasers Make Poor Patriots

The Kosher Gourmet By Kathleen Purvis: Slaw, y'all: For BBQs or Sabbath dinner, these southern recipes are something else!

JWisdom:: Rabbi Mordechai Becher: Jewish Rx for A Simpler Life

July 1, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. I think it's important to leave a legacy to my children. How much should I save towards this end?

Paul Greenberg:A President who is history deficient?

JWisdom:: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Poland's Unique Antisemitism

June 30, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: Remembering the architect of Torah Judaism for the modern world

Abe Novick: Hulk: Still a Jew?

JWisdom: : Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality, Part 2: The Abandoned Child

June 26, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Quantum leap to evil

Caroline B. Glick: Victimized families must not be allowed to dictate policy

June 25, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Today in Biblical History: King Jeroboam of Israel prevents pilgrimage to Jerusalem

Jonathan Tobin: Real Friends and Real Enemies

JWisdom: Raping of reason By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 25, 2008

Steven Emerson: Kristof: Never Mind the Terrorists

Stratfor Intelligence Briefing: Mediterranean Flyover: Telegraphing an Israeli Punch?

JWisdom: Rabbi David Aaron: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part III

June 24, 2008

Caroline B. Glick: What were they thinking!?

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Guilty knowledge

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Warping Innocence

June 23, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Diploma dilemma

Jeff Jacoby: A world without children

JWisdom: Rabbi Dovid Gross: Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality --- Introduction

June 20, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Man: The Crowning Glory of Creation

Caroline B. Glick: Israel's darkest week

JWisdom: We aren't worthy? by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 19, 2008

Rabbi Elazar Meisels: The saints who don't come marchin' in

Chris Christoff: Muslim woman demands an apology from Obama after camera snub

June 18, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Still Dancing Around Jerusalem

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky: Chilled fruit and vegetable soups

JWisdom: Souls Need A Check Up? by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 17, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Baby Einstein

Caroline B. Glick: Bush's rhetoric, Bush's policies

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part II by Rabbi David Aaron

June 16, 2008

Varda Branfman: Bob Dylan, won't you please come home?

Diana West: Academic dares to question the 'religion of peace'

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Positive Backfire

June 13, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: Trading manna for whine

Caroline B. Glick: Peace with friends

JWisdom: From the mouths of … by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 12, 2008

Michael Feldberg: Meet Paul Revere's pal, the Orthodox Jew who played a key role in laying Boston's cultural and business infrastructure

The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Manweiler: No need to be tempted by Wendy's mandarin chicken salad

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part I by Rabbi David Aaron

June 11, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: What would Hillel say?

Jonathan Tobin: UNRWA and NGOs: The Real U.N. 'Insult'

JWisdom: Sara Yoheved Rigler: Greatness Made Simple: How a momentary decision shifted life's course and destination

June 6, 2008

Rabbi Pinchas Stolper: Revelation: The basis of faith

Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Mere hours after becoming Israel's new 'best friend' Obama backtracks on status of Jerusalem

Caroline B. Glick: UN choosing to protect rogue nuclear programs

JWisdom: Sameness in difference by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 5, 2008

David Lightman: Now Obama wants to be Israel's newest 'best friend'

Obama's remarks to AIPAC policy conference

The Kosher Gourmet By Ethel G. Hofman: Shavous cuisine: Ruby Fruit Soup, Lokshen Kugel with Cheese, Key Lime Curd, Calsone Casserole Frittata with Wild Mushrooms, Sun-dried tomatoes and Olives, Baked Tilapia with Pepper Cheese Cream and Brown Sugar Shortbread

JWisdom: Why a Jewish Jerusalem makes so many nervous by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 4, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: A different sort of 'religious broadcaster'

Jonathan Tobin: Misgivings on the Road to Damascus

JWisdom: 44 Years Without An Argument? by Sara Yoheved Rigler

June 3, 2008

Daniel Pipes: Obama vs. McCain on the Middle East

Everything's Relative: There is a crisis growing in Orthodox synagogues worldwide, reveals Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel

JWisdom: White Facades; Black Secrets by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 2, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: Lie to outsmart discriminator?

He writes the songs that make our souls sing:Gavriel Aryeh Sanders interviews Jewish music legend Ben Zion Shenker; includes stirring, uplifting song

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Of laws and lives

March 22, 2007

J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !)

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review April 4, 2005 / 24 Adar II, 5765

One nation under law

By Jeff Jacoby

Jeff Jacoby
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | The court-ordered death of Terri Schiavo generated an intensely polarized debate about the sanctity and quality of life, and it will be a long time before the passions aroused by her case come to rest. Virtually everything about this tragedy was heatedly fought over: The extent of her brain damage. The right of her husband to decide her fate. The intervention by Congress and the president. The pain — or painlessness — of dying from dehydration. The pro-euthanasia activism of Michael Schiavo's lawyer. The ''culture of life" invoked by President Bush. Even the wording of opinion polls and the authorship of a political memo.

But amid all the anger and anguish, one crucial fact was never in doubt: Terri Schiavo's fate would be determined lawfully. The courts would decide whether her feeding tube should be reconnected, and their decision, whatever it finally was, would be obeyed. At one point Governor Jeb Bush reportedly sent a team of Florida law enforcement agents to seize the dying woman and move her to a hospital. But when the local police made it clear they would enforce the judge's order, the state troopers peacefully retreated.

It may seem an obvious thing that legal disputes — even those that become bitter causes celebres — get settled in court. But in an era when we hear endless talk of a culture war and ''two Americas" and how a widening gulf is tearing us apart, there's a measure of reassurance in knowing that even when it comes to our most vehement public controversies, combatants who may agree on nothing else agree they will live by the law.

Deference to the legal process has nothing to do with admiration or even respect for judges. Innumerable Americans are appalled by the judiciary, and their disdain didn't start with the Schiavo case. High on the bestsellers lists at the moment is Men in Black: How the Supreme Court is Destroying America by Mark R. Levin, president of the Landmark Legal Foundation (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.). ''The biggest myth about judges," it begins, ''is that they're somehow imbued with greater insight, wisdom, and vision than the rest of us."

In the current Weekly Standard, William Kristol sarcastically thanks the US Supreme Court for its recent decision saving the life of Christopher Simmons, the youthful sadist who murdered Shirley Crook for the fun of it in 1993. In seven paragraphs of well-tempered fury, Kristol contrasts the judicial sensitivity to ''evolving standards of decency" that spared Simmons from the death penalty because of his age with the absence of any such sensitivity when it came to Terri Schiavo. ''Perhaps it is time," he concludes, ''to rise up against our robed masters, and choose to govern ourselves."

Levin and Kristol are conservatives, but liberals have had their share of contempt for the courts as well. Just recollect the storm over Bush v. Gore.

Yet for all the outrage that judicial decisions can provoke, no one seriously advises disregarding court orders or taking legal battles to the streets. Though Levin refers repeatedly to the ''tyranny" of federal judges, his proposals for resisting them are lawful ones like impeachment and legislated limits on jurisdiction. When Kristol calls for an uprising, he means that Bush should nominate conservative judges and that there should be ''a serious national debate on the distinction between judicial independence and judicial arrogance."

This acquiescence in the legitimate authority of judges to settle conflicts wasn't something Americans could always take for granted. In 1832, the Supreme Court ruled that states had no power over Indian tribes and that Georgia's attempt to take over the lands of the Cherokee Nation were therefore, as Chief Justice John Marshall's opinion in Worcester v. Georgia put it, ''repugnant to the Constitution, laws, and treaties of the United States."

But President Andrew Jackson was determined to see the Cherokee driven out and declared the ruling a dead letter. ''John Marshall has made his decision," Jackson reportedly said. ''Now let him enforce it."

But courts — even supreme courts — cannot enforce their decisions. The Cherokee were dispossessed, stripped of their belongings, and sent on a 1,200-mile forced march that left thousands dead from hunger and exhaustion. Their ''Trail of Tears" is more than just a monument to the devastation of a people. It is also a reminder of what can happen when the rule of law is tossed aside.

A common commitment to resolve disputes through law is no guarantee against travesties of justice. Terri Schiavo's public death was tragic and grotesque, and the debate it launched is far from over. Oh, yes, the culture war goes on. But civil society does, too. Whatever else may divide us, we remain one nation under law.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

Jeff Jacoby is a Boston Globe columnist. Comment by clicking here.

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