Truth Or Consequence: Judging People On Social Media by Rabbi Efrem Goldberg
In his book Other People’s Money and How Bankers Use It, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously wrote:
“Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.”
Shining a spotlight on an issue can expose and reveal corruption, dishonesty, fraud or abuse that otherwise might go unnoticed, ignored, or even excused. Brandeis wrote these words well before the Internet was a thought in anyone’s mind and he likely could not have even dreamt of the sunlight it would shine and the accountability it would generate.
Justice, Justice, You Shall Pursue: Why There Are So Many Jewish Lawyers by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
One of the most famous Jewish lawyers of our time, Alan Dershowitz, wrote a book called Abraham: The World’s First (But Certainly Not the Last) Jewish Lawyer, in which he said:
“[Abraham], the patriarch of the legal profession: a defense lawyer for the damned, who is willing to risk everything, even the wrath of God, in defense of his clients.”
“What is this?” asks the rabbi. “I am a learned rabbi and he is only a taxi driver who, not to put too fine a point on it, drove like a lunatic.”
“Exactly so,” replies the angel. “When you spoke, people slept. But when they got into his taxi, believe me, they prayed!”
