Elections 2016: What Does Judaism Say?

1. Wealth and Leadership- A Torah Perspective
Is it an asset or a liability for a leader to have personal wealth?
The personal wealth of a candidate has increasingly become a heated election issue. Some presidential candidates have highlighted wealth and success as evidence of their unique qualifications for the presidency. Other candidates have pointed to their own middle class status as evidence that they would be in touch with the concerns of the common person.
Hear the rabbis’ view of the relationship of personal wealth and the quality of leadership.

2. Income Inequality
Is disparity in income necessarily a social evil?
Must a just society impose restrictions on the amounts of income? Or can a disparity in incomes be acceptable for a society? When we as a society set out to make life better, is income equality the best goal to set, or should we set our sights on the elimination of poverty as our primary goal?
Explore the Torah’s wisdom on this issue that has attracted attention in different societies over the centuries and is still an issue today.

3. The Kabbala of Your Political Choices
In today’s politics, the differences between conservative and liberal, Republican and Democrat, progressive and libertarian, seem to have hardened.  TV, radio and social media are filled with angry political opinions. People react to these with frustration and annoyance – how can someone be so unseeing, uncaring, or so ignorant as those people on the other side?
The vision of the Jewish masters has always been to uncover a deep hidden unity in all things. Within the nature of our unique individual personalities lie numerous differences, and understanding who we each differ is crucial for all successful relationships. How might that apply to the fractured, intolerant, contentious politics of today? Can we find the insight and the practical hope that can help us to understand and listen to each other, even when we disagree?

4. The Biblical Tax Rate
Advocates of various tax philosophies seek to show how their beliefs have biblical support. Believers in the flat tax or the fair tax or in progressive taxation will point to the Bible as a powerful evidence for their preferred system as being the correct one. How does the biblical tax system work? How did Jewish communities through the centuries, informed by Jewish law, fund the various kinds of needs present in communities then and now?