The Jewish people have always faced the world with unmitigated hutzpah.

Their self-imposed arrogant worldview has always been at odds with the prevailing religious attitudes. When the Greeks were seeking in the deepest recesses of their brains for a philosophy that could explain the world, at the time that the self defined god rulers of Egypt and Mesopotamian kingships were articulating their power, as the Romans were proclaiming the emperors to be divine, Hebrew prophets and religious thinkers were affirming the responsibility of human beings to respond to the daily process of living in a vital moral manner.

Even today, some religious thinkers haughtily characterize their beliefs to be superior to that of others. There are those who create a two path religious philosophy with only one road leading to a blissful heaven for true believers.

Judaism ignores these sophistic arguments and points itself to looking at the real world. The resonating phrases of the Hebrew prophets pointed to the need for human beings to deal with each other with compassion and justice.

With fiery poetry, the earliest of the prophets castigated those who “sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes.” (Amos 2:6) He satirically chastised those who fattened their lives at the expense of others. “Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan…that oppress the poor, that crush the needy, That say to their husbands, ‘bring that we may feast.”’ (Amos 4:1)

Modern Judaism focuses its efforts on Tikkun Olom, an ancient phrase that means “to repair the world.” For the Jew of today it is an affirmatively motivating concept that recognizes that our present world is far from perfect. It is ecologically becoming fragile, economically becoming insufficient for too many while communally becoming painfully fractured. We see the Jewish ideal as to be inspired by our vision of God while laboring together to repair and improve our world.

It does take hutzpah to speak for God. But, what else but the Jewish spirit could ask, “What doeth the Lord require of you. But to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)