The Ideal Society and State

Abstract If theocracy is characterized simply as God’s rule and if the Torah by definition offers teachings about how human beings should live in accordance with God’s instructions, it follows that the ideal Jewish society and state is one in which divine directive governs. But things are not so simple. While many, if not most, Jewish sources and philosophers identify the ideal society and state with God’s rule, most remain ambivalent about the relationship between divine rule and actual human politics. It is a tension and not an absolute dichotomy between Divine Law and human politics that animates diverse Jewish considerations of the ideal society and state as well as different, and often contradictory, conceptions of theocracy. Considering the ideal society and state from a Jewish philosophical perspective also requires answering a number of fundamental questions. What is the purpose of an ideal society or state that makes such a society or state ideal? What conception of human nature do different Jewish political philosophies assume? Is an ideal society or state only for Jews or for all people? And how, exactly, do human institutions and individuals mediate God’s rule?