Judge Dennis Davis
The Jewish Concept of Freedom and Reconciliation
Summary
Judge Dennis Davis reflects on the concept of freedom in the context of a Seder, discussing three different Hebrew words for freedom: “Chofesh”, “Dror”, and “Herut”. He also discusses the perspectives of philosopher Isaiah Berlin and references Eric Nelson’s book “The Hebrew Republic”, which suggests that European political thought originated from the Jewish tradition.
Judge Dennis Davis
Dennis Davis is a judge of the High Court of South Africa and judge president of the Competition Appeals Court of South Africa. He has held professorial appointments at the University of Cape Town and University of the Witwatersrand, as well as numerous visiting appointments at Cambridge, Harvard, New York University, and others. He has authored eleven books, including Lawfare: Judging Politics in South Africa.
It’s strictly disadvantaged people, which is our euphemism for black people remain presently disadvantaged by and large. A large part of this has to do with the inability to have spent the taxpayers money prudently and allowed corruption to run rife and allow promotion of a whole bunch of rent seekers really have created havoc in our society. I think social democratic literature and the Jewish tradition are so compatible in so many ways because the idea that the idea of redistribution would allow for a harmony in society. Whilst millions and millions of people really have not benefited at all from democracy, that is a terrible tragedy, that is not to say that we aren’t in a fantastically better position than we were back in 1990.
I think that’s a terrible mistake. I think that the, my own view about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was that, as I’ve indicated previously in a previous lecture, seems a very long time ago on our Lockdown University. It was vital for us to have it to, as it were, move into democracy. But I think that certain elements of it were terribly flawed. And it is absolutely correct that the reparations were never really implemented in the way they should have been.