The IRS Outrage - Who is Responsible?

By Rabbi D.B. Ganz

Would it make sense for a middle or even upper level IRS employee to risk job loss and possible criminal prosecution in order to launch an illegal attack against the Tea Party? What would they get out of it? Based on Talmudic logic, it seems that this outrage likely originated from within the ruling administration.

From this point on, things become speculative. Several different Obama Administration higher ups would benefit from an elimination of the Tea Party, and this must be looked into – possibly by a special prosecutor.  However, the person who stood to gain the most from this IRS abuse is none other than President Barack Obama himself. In the midst of trying to be elected to a second term and further pursue his agenda, he, more than anyone else, stood to gain from straight-jacketing the Tea Party. Accordingly, he must be seen as a very real suspect. If he himself is in any way implicated, it should have the effect of choosing the old Monopoly card: "Go to jail without passing Go!" [more...]

The central text of traditional Judaism is called the Talmud - a vast collection of Jewish laws and traditions touching on a wide range of subjects. In this context, Rabbi D.B. Ganz, a Talmudic scholar, has written a new book that applies the wisdom of the Talmud to many major social and political topics faced by today's Western societies. Uncommon Sense: The Talmud's Timeless Solutions to Political and Social Challenges redefines these topics and illustrates how to come up with solutions to many problems we face today. Rabbi Ganz presents ancient Talmudic concepts and demonstrates their contemporary relevance and application... and you don't have to be Jewish to appreciate and learn from this text. Talmudic wisdom is neither Liberal nor Conservative.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rabbi D.B. Ganz studied Talmud full time for 15 years at the Rabbinical Seminary of America (AKA Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim) in Queens, NY. He served as Dean of the Hebrew Academy of Suffolk County, an Orthodox Jewish elementary school in Long Island. He then published Defining Humanity, a book on Talmudic ethical principles and human insights, after which he founded the Jewish Heritage Initiative of Cambridge (JHI), which promotes in-depth Talmud study among the local university students at Harvard and MIT.