Navigate to News section

Jewish Group Appeals to Sen. Lieberman

Justice, justice and the public option shall you seek

by
Marc Tracy
December 22, 2009

Although the U.S. Senate has since passed a health-care reform bill that lacks a public option, the Shalom Center (“A Prophetic Voice in Jewish, Multirelgious, and American Life”) has not given up on Sen. Joe Lieberman. Instead, it has asked him to perform tshuvah, or rededicate himself to the Torah and its message—and in so doing, come to support the public option (again):

we believe your obligation of pekuach nefesh, saving life, saving the lives of the flesh-and-blood citizens of Connecticut, shaped in flesh and blood in God’s Image and subject to damage of that same flesh and blood that requires healing, is an even higher obligation than you owe to your insurance-company constituents. Indeed, two-thirds of your flesh-and-blood constituents support a health-care bill that includes a strong public option.

Hard to avoid that this reasoning buttresses others’ argument that the income tax distorts God’s design by punishing virtue. Or that permitting gay marriage subverts God’s will.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.