Re: law and freedom: P.S.

[Robert Cohen <rlcm17...>]

Since I posted on this subject, Jordan's spoken to it better than I did.  
But just a brief P.S.:

On the most trivial level--worlds removed from the Torah, but still perhaps 
enlightening:  Without traffic lights and traffic rules, are drivers (and 
pedestrians, for that matter, and bicyclists) *freer*--or less free?

Maybe freer to get killed.

--Robert

P.P.S.  I realize that I'm writing in the context of a crooked election, 
decided by a crooked Supreme Court and okayed by a crooked Congress.  I'm 
writing in the very different context, though, of Torah law, wisely 
understood and applied.


>From: Brian Dichter <dbrian (at) enteract(dot)com>
>Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
>Subject: Re: Klezmer "bootlegs"?
>Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 08:07:24 -0600
>
>on 1/28/01 10:40 PM, Owen Davidson at owend (at) tp(dot)net wrote:
>
>
> >> "When Law came into the world, freedom came into the world." --Talmud
> >>
> >
> > What is the meaning of this?  That each thing, by the act of its 
>creation,
> > brings
> > its opposite into being, as a cookie-cutter leaves an uncookie in the 
>sheet of
> > dough?
> >
> > --
> > Owen Davidson
> > Amherst  Mass
>
>I'm sure there are many ways to interpret this (the law as the torah). I
>like to think that with the rule of law (people agreeing more or less on
>basic rules of conduct) it is possible to live freely, an idea similar to
>the philosophical idea of the "social contract". Without some basic rules,
>people will tend to be in a "constant state of war" or disagreement. From
>law, there can be justice and, sometimes, fairness. On the other hand, too
>many rules infringes upon our freedom.
>
>brian
>--
>"Form follows function." --Louis Henri Sullivan, Lippincott's Magazine,
>March 1896
>
>

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com

---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+