It is interesting to see how sometimes the secular State follows, intentionally or unintentionally, Jewish custom.
A new law has been proposed, in light of the most recent political scandal of an Israeli mayor being arrested for corruption and grant fixing, tender fixing, and the like. Supposedly much of his crime was in order to cover some massive debts he had accrued in his business from before he had run for mayor.
MK Ronit Tirosh of Kadima has proposed a law that would not allow anybody who is seiously in debt to run for mayor - if he or a company he owns owes more than 5 million NIS, he would not be allowed to run, according to the law if it will be approved.
Tirosh's theory in drafting this law is that the office of mayor holds a lot of power. The mayor should be able to run the city without having to be concerned about his own finances. Such concerns might make him abuse his power for his own benefit.
This concept has been a rule in Judaism for a long time. The Torah requires judges and leaders to be wealthy so as to minimize any possibility of them being "bribe-able".
Interesting.
In the US, if they were to make a law to prevent this in the future, they'd focus on the procedures - how funding gets allocated, or some checks and balances in the approval process.
ReplyDeleteJust like with the newest airport security checks.
Baruch Hashem some of our politicians display real Jewish intelligence. It makes me proud to live here.
It would be interesting to see if any "frum" parties vote against this one.
ReplyDeleteThe company I work for does a credit check on all its applicants, regardless of the position being applied for. It's not about being wealthy, it's about being in serious debt or other financial trouble that would suggest a person might be more or less likely to try to steal from the company, particularly if their job involves handling cash.
ReplyDelete