Obligations and Rights in the Jewish Political Tradition: Some Preliminary Observations

In the modern concept of rights developed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, variously formulated as life, liberty and property" or "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," rights transcend civil society, which then translates them into constitutional, civil, criminal, and property rights. In contrast, the traditional Jewish view on rights is derived from the biblical sense of the obligation of all humans to God as their creator, sovereign, and covenant partner. Fundamental to the Jewish conception is the principle that God is the creator and sovereign of the universe, all of which ultimately belongs to Him including all life within it. What emerges out of the biblical approach are a series of protections and limitations which can roughly be translated into rights and obligations.