Virtual Talmud

Drowning with Spitzer

Wednesday March 19, 2008

Categories: U.S. Politics

My Dad had a terrific insight on the lessons learned from the Spitzer fiasco and the rise and tarnishing of his successor, David Paterson. In Ethics of our Fathers we are told that Hillel “once saw a man’s skull floating on a body of water: whereupon he said: Because you drowned others, you shall be drowned and ultimately those who drowned you they themselves will also be drowned.” (2:7)

There were far too many people gleefully cheering at Eliot Spitzer’s downfall. They were mimicking Spitzer’s own glee, but ultimately the ones who had the biggest joke played on them were the people themselves. For only a few hours after the honorable David Paterson took the oath over the Bible and was inaugurated in as Governor of New York, he admitted to having his own infidelity problems. And so who really is the joke on? Of course Paterson’s and Spitzer’s situations are radically different but the point remains the same: When we go on witch hunts the hunts will eventually come to our own doorsteps.

Celebrating downfalls is one of the saddest cultural mores of our society. It creates a world that encourages its own destruction. Its not that we should be lax with our standards, but that the most important trait a lawmaker can have is a sense of compassion and understanding. Divorcing compassion from judgment was Spitzer’s first great sin, everything after that is only commentary that repeats the very same offense.

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Comments
E.T. Feanny
March 20, 2008 1:16 PM

If I were Mrs. Spitzer ~ I would not only have stood by my man (as he confessed) with his head held high but I would have turned to him in front of all the media & slapped him so hard his brain would have started to think properly again! Then I would smile at him & at the media and walked away, leaving him all alone.

Divorce him? No way! I'd let him atone for his sins every day of our marriage ~ let them look at him & he at them day in & day out! Cheater!

Carroll Straus
March 21, 2008 1:22 PM

Bummer. I used to think self ruigheous ranting about the sins of others was a "born again" (you should pardon the expression) "right wing" thing.

I guess not.

I think self righteousness is unbecoming, no matter from whom it issues. Very few of us are utterly without sin. Or faults, if you prefer.

Was Eliot Spitzer a hypocrite? It seems so. But politics is a game of hypocrisy, power plays and trade-offs. I think it was Mark Twain likened it to sausage-- something you don't want to see being made. It's ugly and it's corrupt.

Until all God's laws are observed by man-- voluntarily--these human flaws and failings will be manifested, and more publically so by those who have acheived power.

But we can only condemn acts, not persons, or we ourselves are committing acts of prode, judgement... and other unGodly acts. Only God can judge our souls.

As for his wife, she did the noble thing and i salute her. Yes, i am a female.

It woud far more noble for all of us to pray for her-- and for our entire planet, which needs so much healing. Tikkun, not blame.

Ariel
March 22, 2008 3:09 PM

It is terribly sad that all the messages I have ever received about men is that they all cheat, that it is almost a right, or their perogative. A woman of valor? Ah, for a man of valor, worth his weight in gold, and the love and respect of his counterpart, a woman of valor. I hope in the next Life that I will understand it all.

laura mushkat
March 24, 2008 2:06 PM

There is much to be learned from the Spitzer problems he left NYS with. We now find out altho he said he was not involved in any way that he was deeply involved in "troopergate". The man is a liar.

Richard Ray Shreve, Ph.D.
March 28, 2008 7:26 PM

Ah Eliot Spitzer, the person without a soul, how you let all of us down, let your family down, let your spouse down and even let yourself down. A wealthy so called educated individual, that proved to be no better than the lowest trash on the street of a slum.
The wide ranging mental destruction that ES has caused can not be erased by any action on his part. Only forgiveness from on high can provide any degree of relief and that is beyound my wildness imagination. May he be confined to a remaining life & future death of torture, multitudes larger than he has rendered to society. Even this will be insufficient for repayment.

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Brad Hirschfield currently blogs on Windows and Doors.

brad.jpg Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism. Listed as one of the nation’s 50 most influential rabbis in Newsweek, and a regular commentator on Court TV, he is the creator of the popular series, Building Bridges, airing on Bridges TV, and the co-host of the weekly radio show, Hirschfield and Kula.

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