The Beholder’s Eye by Doug Brook
Define Wealth. Decision: 5773
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Near the beginning, Adam was created with the freedom to choose. He chose to take a nap, lost a rib, lost his solitude, lost his freedom to choose, and found the unavoidable freedom to experience the consequences of choosing. The history of humanity is that people are instilled with the inherent potential to have the freedom to choose. Of course, this has depended widely on factors such as whether one person chooses that another does not get to choose, and so on. Since the creation of the election process, the majority of people have cared about the freedom to choose just about as much as their potential choices have cared about them. So, what does Judaism say about this election season? Go ask a rabbi. But do it What does Judaism offsite since the synagogue say about the election needs to maintain its tax season, and will asking exemption. Buy him a nice salad, but hold the anchovies a rabbi endanger the from the Caesars. shul’s tax exemption? While waiting for a table, consider some Jewish ramifications of various aspects of the voting process. Starting with the group descriptor that has eluded the Jewish people, both internally and in the greater global community, for millennia: The majority. There are many kinds: Simple majority — The only thing more simple about a half-plusone majority is the people in it. Two-thirds majority — A majority that leaves everyone no more than two-thirds happy with the results. Three-fifths majority — A majority whose decisions drive the voters to each consume three fifths of whiskey per legislative session. Super majority — Any majority greater than half-plus-one, though the voters seldom observe what makes them so super. Absolute majority — A majority of all eligible voters, rather than the few hopeful idealists and fanatics who do. Absolut majority — A majority whose decisions inspire the voters to make a majority of what they consume be produced by Absolut. Double majority — Technically, the only way that the electorate can actually be required to give 110 percent. Relative majority — A majority whose decisions would not be trusted by voters any more than if it were their own relatives. Also known as a plurality. Plurality — The largest group when there is no majority; a mandate so weak that it’s the closest to consensus typically reached in an Israeli Parliament election. Singularity — A central object within a black hole, toward which most people watch political campaigns spiral in the final weeks before the election. Silent majority — A myth never observed in the history of Juda-
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November 2012
Southern Jewish Life