THE WAY AHEAD:

POLICIES FOR A BETTER FUTURE

by Manfred Davidmann

Contents

Summary

The Laws which Define Human Rights are Clear and to the Point

Our Rights Cannot be Denied

Within and Between Countries

Policies for a Better Future

This is What has to be Achieved

Safeguards

Achieving These Objectives

Appendix 1 Role of the Establishment

(Illustrated with reference to Jewish belief and practice)

Notes <..>

References {..}

Relevant Current and Associated Works

Relevant Subject Index Pages and Site Overview

Summary

This, Manfred Davidmann's latest work, contains findings and conclusions based on extensive research reported over a period of time in other publications.

Manfred Davidmann shows that the Torah contains a statement of scientific social laws of behaviour and of community and social organisation, such as:

Money has to be lent by the community, free of interest.

Outstanding loans have to be cancelled after a period of time.

A country's wealth belongs to its inhabitants.

He proves that keeping the social laws of the Torah guarantees human rights. They apply to all people alike and have the force of law. He also explains how the application of these social laws affects not only the standard of living of all members of society, but the future of the planet as a whole.

The Law which Defines Human Rights is Clear and to the Point

Outstanding is that the Torah <1> contains a statement of scientific social laws of behaviour and of social and community organisation.

The essential social provisions of Torah law are clear and to the point. This is what the Torah lays down as a matter of law {2}:

• The community has to provide ('lend') money to those who need it, free of interest.
• All outstanding loans are to be cancelled every seventh year.

You may look at these and you may think that these are simply out of tune with modern life. One person may not charge another person interest! Cancel loans every seventh year! Why? Of course one charges interest, of course one has to repay loans! Or so it would appear.

But look at it another way. Would it not help you to find an apartment, to get married, to develop your own business if you could borrow money interest free? Would it not help you and take a great load off your mind to know that debts you have been unable to repay, are cancelled every seventh year?

And to know that debts cannot be used to oppress or exploit those in need.

Consider carefully. These laws are part of a system of social security, are aimed at preventing independent citizens from falling into need, from losing their independence, from being oppressed and exploited because of need.

A person in need has to find someone who has money to spare, has to find someone who is prepared to lend it free of interest while knowing that the debt will be cancelled within seven years if the borrower cannot repay the loan, while knowing that the borrower will then be released from the obligation to repay.

Among Jews, these laws have been common knowledge for over three thousand years, and they have the force of law.

However, Jews found it difficult to get such loans, despite the direct Torah commandment to the rich to give to those in need, to give even if the year of release from debt was close at hand. For example, about two thousand years ago, the rich preferred to ignore the law and there was much cruel hardship and oppression of Jew by Jew. <2>

Jews found other ways.

On the one hand, the community made itself responsible for helping those in need. The community collects and the community distributes, as a matter of charity.

On the other hand, vast sums donated annually by world Jewry {1} were given away not just at zero interest but at negative effective interest rates <3>. This has the effect of reducing the value of the loan each year so that loans are in effect automatically reduced to negligible amounts, that is cancelled, at the end of seven years. In this case it looks as if the laws about lending without charging interest and about cancelling debts are in fact being observed in Israel.

However, there is a big difference between the intent of the social laws of the Torah and the two ways in which we have just seen it being applied.

The social Torah laws call for the community's money to be made available to those who need it in such a way that need and indebtedness can never be used to oppress so as to exploit and enslave. The social laws of the Torah are obviously intended to help those who are falling on hard times.

In the first case above, that aid was being provided at the discretion of the giver and not as a matter of right. This means that any aid given to individuals depends on the generosity of those who give, depends on the likes and dislikes of those who distribute aid, may be totally inadequate or even unavailable to those in need.

In the second case we saw again that it is the community which collects money from people. But it is the establishment which spends it, allocating large sums which are far too often given in effect to those already well off, rich, powerful, connected.

The social laws of the Torah demand that the community's funds be used only to support those who need such support, not by charity but as a matter of rightful entitlement.

People are entitled to the social security the Torah's laws provide, but only if, and as long as, they themselves follow the Torah'ssocial laws and apply its social system in their daily lives.

So far we have seen that loans have to be provided interest-free and debts have to be cancelled if the borrower cannot repay. But the Torah contains other laws which are just as telling, just as important, just as far-reaching in their effects.

According to the social laws of the Torah {2}

A country's productive assets, such as land, belong to those of its inhabitants who keep the Torah's social laws.

Hence land, amenities, raw materials under the earth, fish in the sea, the atmosphere above, are all yours. This includes factories, banks and capital as well as state-owned enterprises.

In other words, the land and its productive assets belong to, and have to be shared out among, the country's inhabitants. <14> {2}

Part of one's entitlement is also a home which is one's own. Belonging to one, under one's own control.

Getting a share of an asset does not mean you get just a piece of paper. It means that you have to be the completely independent owner of your share, in control of what is yours. The share you own, your independent control of it and the resulting income are intended to provide you with the means for independence.

You are to have control <4> over your share so as to make you independent from the boss, the government, the rich, all those who may wish to exploit your needs so as to make you serve them. There would seem to be no reason why you should not co-operate with others, joining your assets with theirs and working together with them as long as you remain in control of your assets. It is you who has to gain the advantage of the work you do.

According to Torah law

inhabitants who keep the social laws are also entitled to have a sabbatical year every seventh year. During this sabbatical year they are entitled to be freed from work at the expense of the community.

You are entitled to your sabbatical year regardless of the work you do or the level at which you are working during the other six years. But during the sabbatical year you must not work for pay, or produce to sell. {2}

This means that during every seventh year the community has to pay you sufficient to provide you with a standard of living which corresponds to the average earnings for the country as a whole.

Everyone, regardless of what they do, is entitled to receive the same and this must be the best the community can provide for all.

Academics already enjoy regular sabbatical years. During this period their salaries are often paid by the taxpayer and to that extent their sabbaticals are in fact provided by the community.

For example, this is so in Israel when salaries are largely paid by the taxpayer and by funds contributed by world Jewry.

If heavily subsidised universities use contributed funds, or any other funds for that matter, for this purpose, then so can the community use some of its funds in the same way. If such a large and well paid section of the community regularly enjoy their sabbatical years, then there is nothing impossible about it.

Academics enjoy their sabbatical years and everyone in the community, being equally entitled to them, should have their sabbatical years as a matter of right.

Consider what sabbatical years would mean not only for you but also for those who are now in need, depressed, filled with a spirit of hopelessness and defeat, who would during such a year be free to do as they pleased.

Think of the way in which people, just like you or I, would be able to spend their time. We could travel, train for more skilled or better work, could study, gain greater understanding, could qualify.

We could have much more satisfying lives, we could do much for our own communities, could do much for those in need, for those who are underdeveloped and unable to afford our own expert skills.

If you follow the Torah's social laws then you are entitled to a regular sabbatical year. You should not have to persuade your government or establishment to grant this. It is yours by right.

Our Rights Cannot be Denied

Have another look at these four social Torah laws:

1. The community has to provide ('lend') money to those who need it, free of interest, as long as they keep the social laws.
2. All such loans, if outstanding, are to be cancelled every seventh year.
3. A country's productive assets, such as land, belong to those of its inhabitants who keep the Torah's social laws.
4. Inhabitants who keep the social laws are also entitled to have a sabbatical year every seventh year. During this sabbatical year they are entitled to be freed from work at the expense of the community.

Social security means social security for those in need, is social security for all. The basis of any insurance scheme or co-operative is to share the risk, the many providing for the few who are in need. Whichever way you look at it, social security does not mean taking from the many and giving to the privileged few, making the rich even richer. 'He is not honest who has never had the opportunity to steal' and he does not keep the social laws who in a position of responsibility misuses other people.

Our rights cannot be denied. It is only those who have not yet studied the Torah enough who would try to deny our rights.

What has been said here applies to all alike, applies to Christians, Jews, Muslims and all others. These laws are scientific laws {2}. Keeping or not keeping them has consequences which cannot be avoided. It is time that Torah law is applied in the way in which it is clearly stated, in the way in which it is intended to be applied.

Within and Between Countries

The laws and our rights apply equally well in any one country, and apply between countries.

What this means is that capital and wealth <6> belong to the community. They must not be centrally held or controlled and every family has to receive its equality-based share of capital, wealth and income, be in full control of how it uses its share and receives the resulting income.

The income <7> of those families who are well off needs to be seen for what it is, namely as the result of the community's group mind and of the community's mental as well as physical efforts. This means that there must not be any wide differentials in income between those who are well off and those who are not. Hence an increase in income needs to be shared out, say annually, in such a way that the income received by the already well-paid is increased to maintain the differential. But it is increased only after the income of the lowest paid family has increased, the maximum differential between highest and lowest being three. {15; Also 16; 13}

Just as this holds for people living in any one country so it holds for people living in different countries. Funds need to be transferred between communities (countries) in a co-ordinated way. Transferred funds have to be distributed to and within the poorer community so that here also the total income received by the wealthiest family increases. But it is increased only to maintain the differential to the poorest, doing so only after the income of the poorest has increased, the maximum permitted differential again being three.

Essential safeguards are that capital and wealth

1. may not leave the country or leave the community in other ways <8>,
2. may not be transferred from one family to another <9; 10>,
3. must not be allowed to accumulate beyond the permitted level in the hands of any family for any reason.

Capital and wealth belong to the community as a whole and have to be redistributed at regular intervals of only a few years, say every three years {15; 16; 17}. Families benefit according to size, the parents' family reducing in size as their children marry while their children qualify after marriage.

POLICIES FOR A BETTER FUTURE

When talking about policies then we are talking about achieving a way of living and a quality of life which corresponds to the social laws and the social system of the Torah. We are talking about the future well-being and security of all the people and of our country. It is these which are at risk {2} and it is this which makes the policies being put forward here so important.

To have a country of one's own means both backing and security, help in time of need, a place of refuge, a source of strength. But we have much more to struggle for than just territory. To us the land is a means to an end. Being there gives us the opportunity for gaining what we have struggled to achieve over the centuries. What we are aiming at is to be a free people in our own land.

As far back as 1973 I pointed out {6} that:

• One job per family should be sufficient to provide its members with a good life. This applies equally well to the young who want to marry and set up home.
• There should be work for those who want it. There should be equal opportunity dependent only on ability.

Some progress has been made but not enough. We, the people, are still far too far from achieving these.

Consider what effect the application of the kind of laws we have talked about would have on your own well-being and on the quality of your life. Consider also what effect it would have on the commitment of people towards each other, on their willingness to support a country (community) in which people live such free and secure lives.

It is the application of these laws which we must now achieve. It is time we started this struggle for a better future.

To achieve these policies, specific objectives need to be gained and these objectives are outlined in the following section 'This is What has to be Achieved'

The more people know about these laws and understand them, the more people know just how practical they are, the quicker will we gain what is ours as a matter of right according to the social laws and social system of the Torah.

This is What has to be Achieved

Social security means social security for those in need, is social security for all. But people may not selfishly profit from benevolent social legislation, at the expense of others, at the expense of the community. For example, the community cannot give funds free of interest to those who 'need' the money for lending to the poor at high rates of interest.

Hence only those who themselves keep the social laws and live according to the social system of the Torah, may benefit from its provisions and from what we are setting out to achieve.

We have already shown that

• The community has to provide ('lend') money to those who need it, free of interest, as long as they keep the social laws.
• All such loans, if outstanding, are to be cancelled every seventh year.
• A country's productive assets, such as land, belong to those of its inhabitants who keep the Torah's social laws, and have to be shared out among them.
• Inhabitants who keep the social laws are also entitled to have a sabbatical year every seventh year. During this sabbatical year they are entitled to be freed from work at the expense of the community.

We are also setting out to achieve

• The application of the social laws of the Torah and gaining our rights, in our country, in other countries and between countries, for our communities.
• There should be work for those who want it. There should be equal opportunity dependent only on ability.
• One job per family should be sufficient to provide its members with a good life. This applies equally well to the young who want to marry and set up home.
• Four-day week, achieved by reducing the hours worked each week without loss of income and without loss of standard of living.
• All capital and all wealth belong to the community as a whole. Each family has to receive its equality-based share of capital, wealth and income, be in full control of how it uses its share and receive the resulting income.
• Any increase in income needs to be shared out in such a way that the income received by the already well-paid is increased to maintain the differential. But it is increased only after the income of the lowest paid family has increased, the maximum differential between highest and lowest being three.
• As regards those of us living in different countries, here also funds need to be transferred between the communities in a co-ordinated way. Transferred funds have to be distributed so that the total income received by the wealthiest family increases only to maintain the differential to the poorest. But it is increased only after the income of the poorest has increased, the maximum permitted differential again being three.
• Capital and wealth belong to the community as a whole and have to be redistributed at regular intervals of only a few years, say every three years. Families benefit according to size, the parents' family reducing in size as their children marry while their children qualify after marriage.
• Effective, appropriate and fair remedies are available and can be developed for putting the country's economy on a sound footing. {12-18}
• Free education and job training to be made available with grants to cover also living expenses.
• Also needed is high quality housing to acceptable standards, subsidised according to need, at prices people can afford, as a matter of right.
• The establishment, both secular and religious, of each community must be accountable to its community (and failing this then to the other communities). They are accountable not just for their successes but also for their failures, for actively supporting other communities and individuals in their need and also for failing to do so. <5>
• What are needed are properly elected and accountable secular representatives holding office for a limited non-repeating period, which serve the people and which are selected by and are accountable to the people. What is also needed is a religious leadership which serves God and people. And the income and position of secular and religious community leaders must be made to depend on their well-informed community and depend on results <12>.

The outcome has to be

• An increasing standard of living.
• Satisfying work and leisure activities.
• Increasing quality of life.

See ACHIEVING THESE OBJECTIVES for what can be done to change matters for the better, to improve the way in which we live and to gain these objectives.

SAFEGUARDS

One safeguard is that a family may use its share to what it considers to be its best advantage but may not sell it.

It is each family which is entitled to its share rather than each individual since the family is the basic unit of society on which the strength of the individual and of the community depends. {7}

Another provision which safeguards the people is that the sharing out of the country's assets and income has to be updated at regular intervals. The assets of the country have to be redistributed at regular intervals.

Every square foot of land, every factory matters. If the country grows richer, the people are better off, you gain automatically. Important is that all has to be looked at and redistributed at regular intervals so that no person may gain at the expense of another.

He who does not charge interest is himself not charged interest, he who provides social security for others in turn benefits from social security by the many when he is in need. He who does not oppress others is himself protected from being oppressed.

But there are those who do not follow the social laws and social system of the Torah, those who charge interest, oppress others or exploit others, those who ignore the rights of the people. Those who oppress or exploit must not be provided with resources.

Hence it is important to appreciate that rights and social security provisions are in force only between those who follow the social laws and social system of the Torah.

Another safeguard is that part of the national income is first used to provide for a free national health service and education, free to all.

Everyone is entitled to the sabbatical year but it is each family which is entitled to its sabbatical year rather than each individual.

It must be up to the individual to select and choose what he wants to do. Ranging perhaps from travel abroad and seeing the world to studying the Torah or for that matter studying for a higher qualification.

Sabbaticals are not an opportunity for the government, the state, a political party, a religious hierarchy or the management of an organisation to direct or train its employees, to condition through some kind of educational scheme, to pressurise one way or another.

The Torah states what every person is entitled to as long as that person follows its social laws.

What this means is that capital and wealth <6> belong to the community. They must not be centrally held or controlled <11> but every family has to receive its equality-based share of capital, wealth and income, be in full control of how it uses its share and receive the resulting income.

The income <7> of those families who are well off needs to be seen for what it is, namely as the result of the community's group mind and of the community's mental as well as physical efforts. This means that there must not be any wide differentials in income between those who are well off and those who are not. Hence an increase in income needs to be shared out, say annually, in such a way that the income received by the higher paid is increased to maintain the differential. But it is increased only after the income of the lowest paid has increased, the maximum differential between highest and lowest being three both in a single community and in all the communities considered together. {15; Also 16; 13}

Essential safeguards are that capital and wealth

1. may not leave the community <8>
2. may not be transferred from one family to another <9; 10>
3. must not be allowed to accumulate beyond the permitted level in the hands of any family or individual for any reason.

Capital and wealth belong to the community as a whole and have to be redistributed at regular and frequent intervals of only a few years, say about three years under present conditions. Families benefit according to size, the parents' family reducing in size as their children marry while their children qualify after marriage. <13>

In the same way power and patronage must not be allowed to accumulate in the hands of individuals or families who are wealthy and particularly not in the hands of office holders in any of the armed forces or military type organisations such as police forces and associated services, in the hands of those who held office in or controlled any of them or in the hands of those who have been in such positions.

Every establishment, both secular and religious, must be held accountable individually and collectively both now and for ever for what they did and omitted to do, for what they do and omit to do. Never again must an establishment be allowed to escape.

A community has to enforce these safeguards if it wishes to survive. And the communities will gain strength and prosper to the extent to which the application of the laws is achieved and to the extent to which they are kept.

See ACHIEVING THESE OBJECTIVES for what can be done to change matters for the better, to improve the way in which we live and to gain these objectives.

ACHIEVING THESE OBJECTIVES

What can each one of us do to gain a better future for all of us through achieving these objectives.

We have to spread this knowledge about our basic human rights.

We have to come together. We have to learn how these essential Torah laws apply today to our daily lives and how they apply to community and religious leaderships.

We need to pass the information about these social laws, and about our social human rights under these laws, to other people.

If you would like more information or wish to contact other like-minded people in your area, write to us.

And if you have any comments or suggestions about what is written here, please let us know (see end of document for address).

Appendix 1

ROLE OF THE ESTABLISHMENT

(Illustrated with reference to Jewish belief and practice)

Secular and religious establishments have clearly failed to provide leadership and guidance, for reasons which are now clear {13; 17; 18}.

Power and patronage must not be allowed to accumulate in the hands of individuals or families who are wealthy. They must not accumulate in the hands of office-holders in any of the armed forces or military type organisations such as police forces and associated services. Power and patronage must not accumulate in the hands of those who control any of them or who have been in such positions.

This can be illustrated by considering Jewish belief and practice, as follows:

Scriptures tell {3; 4} that the Jewish people twice lost their country because the Jewish establishment betrayed God and people by rejecting the laws of the Torah.

Events now taking place clearly indicate that Israel will be lost once again because Jewish secular and religious establishments have once again rejected the social laws and system of the Torah.

The Jewish religious establishment has continued to dance around the Golden Calf, the Golden Calf being the image which represents those who wish to oppress so as to exploit, so serving a secular establishment which only serves itself.

At the end of the Second World War, the Allies exposed and punished the inhuman brutality of Nazi war crimes at the Nueremberg trials. The French and Russian and other people punished the quislings and collaborators who had betrayed them to the inhuman Nazis.

The Israelis tried Eichmann in Jerusalem. But what that trial proved was that with relatively few exceptions it was the Jewish secular and religious establishment which organised for Eichmann within their own communities the deporting of their communities. The deporting of their communities to the concentration camps and thus to the gas chambers. They even misled their communities by not telling them the truth about the deportations. {20; 6; 19}

Now consider this: So interbred and interconnected was and still is the Jewish secular and religious establishment, and such is the tight control they exercise over the Jewish media and over the minds of their subservient communities, that as far as I know not one member of the Jewish establishment has ever been held accountable by Jews. Not one member of the Jewish establishment has been held to account for betraying their communities, for betraying God and people for the sake of Nazi-given power. Hannah Arendt {20} considers that they apparently saw themselves as first and foremost serving the Nazi rulers when they should have served and organised their people in battle against the oppressors. To my knowledge nowhere have any of them been indicted, tried, found wanting and held accountable for betraying the Jewish people.

The establishment of each community must be accountable to its community (and failing this then to the other communities). They are accountable not just for their successes but also for their failures, for actively supporting other communities and individuals in their need and also for failing to do so.

Never again must any establishment be allowed to escape to their foreign bank accounts, their tax havens, their villas and estates elsewhere, leaving behind the betrayed communities.

What is needed are properly elected and accountable secular representatives holding office for a limited non-repeating period. Representatives who serve the people and who are directly selected by, and are directly accountable to, the people. What is also needed is a religious leadership which serves God and people. And the income and position of both secular and religious community leaders must be made to depend <12> on their well-informed community and depend on results.

Never again must communities such as the European Jewish communities be allowed to suffer,

never again must communities in need cry out in pain for so long.

Any and every establishment, both secular and religious, must be held accountable both now and for ever for what they did and omitted to do, for what they do and omit to do.

Why should a priest, minister, rabbi, mullah, guru and others, etc., get paid more by vote of his local establishment than is earned by many in his congregation? Why should his terms of service and conditions of employment depend on the local secular establishment instead of directly on the secret vote and secret voluntary contributions of his congregation?

Communities need to make sure that the religious establishment does not teach or preach establishment-orientated beliefs and practices. In other words, the religious establishment may not teach and preach what amounts to warm consoling comforting and tranquillising beliefs and practices while leaving out the central core social laws and social system of the Torah. {21}

Present-day rabbinical Judaism consists of a shell of comforting tranquillising beliefs and practices. It is a shell which is empty of content, as the rabbis edited out from belief and observance the Torah's central social laws and system which gave meaning to Judaism and purpose to the Jewish people.

The rabbis in this way rejected, and so stopped the people from following, the essential core Torah laws, the word of God as written down by Moses. And caused the destruction of the Second Temple and of Israel and the consequent monstrous suffering of the people. {2; 3}

In the same way and as matters stand today, present-day rabbinical Judaism is the fundamental cause of the weakening of Israel.

God acts when the people act and holds his hand out over them. When the people do not act then God withdraws his protection from them. Hence there is an urgent need for everybody to stand up and follow the social laws and the social system of the Torah.

And now stand up and be counted.

NOTES

REFERENCES

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Copyright    ©    1979, 1983, 1994    Manfred Davidmann
ISBN 0 85192 052 7    Third edition 1994
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