“religion” as a separate entity from state has no place in a jewish hashkofa. The sanhedrin sat in the lishkas hagaziz next to the azara, because laws and mandates must be in congruence with and ultimately an expression of the ratzon Hashem. Goyim have a mitzvah to make dinin, laws that are good in the eyes of Hashem. They also have a mitzvah not to kill, and they are charged with enforcing the other 6 mitzvos.
If we daven “lesaken olan benalchus shakai” and “vehaya Hashem lemelech al kol haaretz”, and wish for His name to not be disgraced, how can one say “it’s a civil rights issue, not a religious one”. I don’t understand how otherwise religious people can make these statements, banishing Torah to the keren zavis, relegating it to what we do in synagogue and rituals, and maybe our personal norals….if we believe fully that our religion is correct, not just “our Truth” but THE truth, binding on all mankind, how can we comfort ourselves in an attempt to save face with the liberals? Are we to be ashamed of our emunah? We don’t have to proselytize; we have a mesorah, but to feel apathetic or worse…to agree with the promoters of licentiousness that advocate for abortion…it makes me recoil in disgust.
Reb E, why is the amount of seforin one posek writes determine his authority? He was a posek, one of 100 or so prominent figures in the mid 20th century. He wasn’t rav shlomo zalman in eretz yisroel, or rav Moshe in America – nobody in halacha circles will equate the two; rav moshe (as heard from rabbi leibel willliger) said that nobody is on the level in our time to argue with him, besides rav elyashiv. Of course if anyone else who wasn’t the quintessence of humility that was rav moshe had said that, we’d say it’s arrogant, but it’s along the lines of “haika ana” that rav huna said in response to the gemara that said that when rebbe was niftar, humility ceased to exist. It’s about being aware of one’s self, and attributing it all to Hashem, and not your own accomplishments or independent abilities.