The Torah & Talmud
Questions drawing on Jewish law and teaching: the Torah, the prophets, the Talmud, and rabbinic tradition.
70 questions · Read on Sefaria
- Immigration & Border SecurityMass Deportations and Constitutional Due ProcessReligious traditions consistently reject treating people as categories — the moral logic that "each person is worth a world" runs across Christianity…
- Immigration & Border SecurityBirthright Citizenship: The 14th Amendment and Religious BelongingReligious traditions consistently teach that belonging — particularly the standing of children — is not contingent on circumstances of birth they cannot…
- Immigration & Border SecurityPausing Asylum While Accelerating Removals: A 'Deny-by-Delay' System?Religious traditions are alert to the particular corruption of preserving the form of a protection while destroying its function — James 2:15-16 in…
- Immigration & Border SecurityTrump v. Barbara: The Supreme Court Upholds Birthright CitizenshipReligious traditions hold that children are not punishable for their parents' actions or status.
- Immigration & Border SecurityDeaths and Abuse in ICE DetentionA country is judged, by every religious tradition that has thought about it, on how it treats the people it locks up — and the law judges it on whether civil…
- Immigration & Border SecurityICE Shootings and Lethal Force in Immigration EnforcementBeing in the country without authorization is a civil violation. Fleeing a traffic stop is not a capital offense. Tennessee v.
- Voting Rights & ElectionsWhat the Constitution Says About the Right to VoteReligious traditions affirm the equal moral standing of all people — the premise on which any case for broad voting rights rests.
- Voting Rights & ElectionsDoes Gerrymandering Align with Founding Principles?Religious traditions condemn systems designed to predetermine outcomes — and gerrymandering is precisely such a system.
- Voting Rights & ElectionsHow Secure Is Mail-In Voting? What the Evidence SaysReligious traditions are unanimous: truth matters more than politically useful narratives.
- Voting Rights & ElectionsWhich Election Policies Best Reflect Equal Citizenship?Religious traditions affirm the equal moral standing of every person — the foundation of any concept of equal citizenship.
- Voting Rights & ElectionsVoter-Approved vs. Legislator-Drawn RedistrictingThere is a meaningful moral difference between asking voters directly and having legislators act alone.
- Voting Rights & ElectionsBetting on Elections: Prediction Markets and the MidtermsGambling on election outcomes: what the Quran, Torah, Gospels, and Buddhist teaching say about betting, and what the Constitution and federal law say about markets that price democracy.
- Democracy & Constitutional OrderPolitical Violence to Overturn Elections: January 6Religious traditions are nearly unanimous: legitimate authority should be honored, and using violence to override lawful political process is a serious moral…
- Democracy & Constitutional OrderMercy vs. Justice: Pardons for Political ViolenceReligious traditions across the world distinguish sharply between mercy (which requires acknowledgment, repentance, and protection of future victims) and…
- Democracy & Constitutional OrderFederal Force Against ProtestersThe right to peacefully protest is among the most explicitly protected rights in the Constitution.
- Democracy & Constitutional OrderPardons for Financial Fraud That Erase Victim RestitutionThe pardon power is broad by design, and mercy toward the guilty — including the use of clemency to correct harsh sentences — is something every religious…
- Reproductive RightsWhere Religions Stand on Abortion When the Mother's Life Is at RiskOn the specific question of abortion to save the mother's life, religious traditions show much more agreement than the political debate suggests: Judaism…
- Reproductive RightsDo Religions Require Judging Women Who Have Abortions?No major religious tradition teaches an obligation to judge or shame women who have had abortions — and several (most notably Christianity through Jesus's…
- Reproductive RightsDo Religions See Judging Others as a Sin?Every major religious tradition identifies judging others as a moral wrong — Jesus's "judge not lest you be judged," Pirkei Avot's "do not judge your fellow…
- Religion & JudgmentIs Imposing Beliefs on Others Anti-Religious?Religious traditions across the world distinguish sharing faith (welcomed) from imposing it through judgment, shame, or coercion (condemned by every major…
- Religion & JudgmentIs Mocking Atheists or Other Religions Anti-Religious?Every major religious tradition explicitly forbids mocking or judging those of different beliefs — often more forcefully than it addresses the unbelief…
- Religion & JudgmentThe Core Teaching Across Religions: Lift Others UpReligious traditions that disagree about almost everything else agree on the moral center: lift others up, do not tear them down.
- Technology & AI EthicsDeepfakes and AI Misinformation: What Religions Teach About TruthThe prohibition on deception — particularly fabricated witness about other people — is among the most universal teachings across religious traditions.
- Technology & AI EthicsPrivacy and Surveillance: Religious and Constitutional PrinciplesReligious traditions across the world treat privacy as a moral category — protecting the inner space for conscience, family, and personal life that the…
- Technology & AI EthicsThe Right to Repair DebateReligious traditions across the world endorse stewardship of material goods and treat wasteful disposal of repairable items as a moral failing.
- Economic JusticeWhat Religious Teachings Say About Wealth InequalityEvery major religious tradition treats wealth as a serious moral concern and concentrated wealth as a particular danger — Jesus on the eye of the needle, the…
- Economic JusticeTaxation and the Common GoodReligious traditions converge on a clear answer: wealth carries communal obligations, and structured systems to fulfill those obligations are morally…
- Environment & ClimateWhat Religious Teachings Say About Environmental StewardshipReligious traditions across the world treat the natural world as a moral trust — humans as stewards, not owners.
- Environment & ClimateClimate Change and Intergenerational JusticeReligious traditions are unusually unified on intergenerational obligation — the Indigenous Seventh Generation, Jewish l'dor v'dor , Islamic amanah …
- Environment & ClimateClean Water and Air as Fundamental RightsReligious traditions across the world treat water and air as sacred shared resources — Christian creation theology, Jewish bal tashchit , Islamic communal…
- Environment & ClimateAI Data Centers, Water, Power, and Eminent DomainReligious traditions teach that natural resources are held in trust for the community — not as commodities for unlimited private extraction.
- Free Speech & MediaBook Bans in SchoolsReligious traditions generally favor access to challenging texts — Jewish textual debate, Christian commitment to direct reading, Islamic "Iqra," Buddhist…
- Free Speech & MediaConditioning University Research Funding on Speech PoliciesReligious traditions built universities precisely because they understood that truth requires protection from political coercion.
- Free Speech & MediaExecutive Order 14398: Barring DEI in Federal ContractsReligious traditions hold equal dignity and impartial treatment in genuine tension — and the people who think they have a clean answer to the DEI debate are…
- Free Speech & MediaDefunding Public Broadcasting: The End of CPBReligious traditions across the world have built educational and informational infrastructure for centuries, on the principle that accessible knowledge is a…
- Free Speech & MediaThe Prairieland Nine: Protest, Terrorism Charges, and NSPM-7Proportionate punishment and guilt by association: what scripture and the Constitution say about the Prairieland sentences and the NSPM-7 crackdown.
- Criminal JusticeThe Death Penalty in Religious and Constitutional TeachingReligious traditions are divided, but most major traditions — Jewish practice, contemporary Catholic teaching, mainline Protestantism, Buddhism, much of…
- Criminal JusticePolicing and Use of ForceReligious traditions affirm both the legitimacy of public order and the obligation to limit the violence used to maintain it.
- Criminal JusticeIncarceration and RehabilitationReligious traditions across the world insist on the dignity of the incarcerated and the possibility of change — Jesus identified himself with prisoners…
- Criminal JusticeEnhanced Interrogation and Guantanamo DetentionThe consensus among religious traditions on torture is unusually complete — Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu teachings converge on…
- Healthcare & WelfareIs Healthcare a Right or a Responsibility?Religious traditions across the world converge on healthcare as a communal moral obligation — Jesus's healing ministry and the first Christian hospitals…
- Healthcare & WelfareWhat Religious Teachings Say About Social Safety NetsReligious traditions treat provision for the poor as obligation, not optional charity — Jewish gleaning laws and tzedakah , Christian early-church…
- Healthcare & WelfareMental Health and AddictionReligious traditions across the world treat mental health and addiction as conditions deserving compassion and care, not moral failures deserving judgment …
- Healthcare & WelfareCutting Medicaid by $863 Billion and SNAP by $295 BillionReligious traditions speak with rare unanimity about the obligation to feed the hungry and care for the sick — and judge communities by how they treat the…
- Healthcare & WelfareThe 2025 Shutdown and ACA Healthcare SubsidiesReligious traditions hold that those with power are responsible for the harm caused when they use disruption as a tool of leverage.
- Healthcare & WelfareReplacing the CDC Vaccine Advisory CommitteeMost religious traditions support vaccination as consistent with the obligation to protect life and health, while affirming substantial parental authority…
- EducationPublic Funding of EducationEvery major religious tradition treats education as a religious value or obligation — Jewish communal schools since the 1st century, Islamic pioneer…
- Gun Rights & ViolenceWhat Religion and the Second Amendment Say About Bearing ArmsReligious traditions support self-defense while consistently warning against weapons becoming the primary response to social problems.
- Gun Rights & ViolenceSanctity of Life and Gun Violence PreventionEvery major religious tradition teaches that protecting life is a paramount duty — and extends the obligation from individuals to communities.
- Gun Rights & ViolenceCarrying a Firearm at a ProtestA right that gets you killed when you exercise it is not a right — it is a trap. When the same government that fights for gun rights in court tells citizens…
- Separation of Church & StateCan a Leader Claim Faith Belongs to One Party?No political leader has the authority to decide who is or isn't a person of faith — every major religion reserves that judgment for God alone.
- Government Transparency & AccountabilityThe Epstein Files: Who Gets Protected?The law required transparency about the powerful and protection for victims. What was delivered was the opposite: victims exposed, enablers shielded.
- Government Transparency & AccountabilityGovernment Secrecy and the Public's Right to KnowBoth religious traditions and the Constitution presume that governance should be transparent.
- Government Transparency & AccountabilityAI Mass Surveillance of CitizensReligious traditions across the board treat the dignity of human privacy as a serious moral concern — and warn that rulers who build elaborate watching…
- Government Transparency & AccountabilityPresidential Profit, Memecoins, and the Emoluments ClausesReligious traditions across the world have warned for thousands of years about rulers who convert sacred trust into personal money.
- Government Efficiency & Federal SpendingCutting Government Waste vs. Protecting Essential ServicesReligious traditions demand both wise stewardship and protection of the vulnerable — waste is wrong, but so is cutting services that protect "the least of…
- Government Efficiency & Federal SpendingMass Federal Workforce Reductions: Is Public Service a Trust?Every major religious tradition holds that workers deserve fair treatment and that authority is a trust, not a weapon.
- Government Efficiency & Federal SpendingPrivatizing Public ServicesReligious traditions teach that serving the vulnerable is a communal obligation — not a profit opportunity.
- Government Efficiency & Federal SpendingDismantling the Department of EducationReligious traditions across the world treat the education of children — and especially the protection of the most vulnerable children — as a moral foundation…
- Executive Power & Checks and BalancesThreats to Annex Greenland by ForceThe Constitution gives Congress — not the president — the power to go to war. International law prohibits threatening or seizing another nation's territory.
- War Powers & Foreign PolicyStriking Iran Without a Declaration of WarReligious traditions across the board place the decision to go to war in collective, accountable bodies — not in a single ruler.
- War Powers & Foreign PolicyDoes a 'Pause' Stop the War Powers Clock?The War Powers Resolution was Congress's answer to Vietnam — a bipartisan recognition that endless undeclared wars destroy democracies.
- War Powers & Foreign PolicyMilitary Strikes on Alleged Drug Boats Without TrialDrug trafficking is a serious harm, and no religious tradition pretends otherwise.
- War Powers & Foreign PolicyDismantling USAID and the Projected Death TollReligious traditions converge with unusual unanimity: the obligation to feed the hungry and heal the sick extends across borders, and the foreseeable…
- War Powers & Foreign PolicyThe 2021 Afghanistan Withdrawal and Abbey GateEnding a twenty-year war was a decision within the president's authority and defensible on serious grounds.
- Cultural Institutions & Public MemoryRenaming Lake Ontario "Lake America"Erasing a 400-year-old Indigenous place name to punish a trading partner: what religious teachings and the founding framework say about names, memory, and grievance.
- Cultural Institutions & Public MemoryRenaming the USS Doris Miller for a Sitting PresidentReports that the Navy may rename the future USS Doris Miller for the sitting president, examined through scripture on honor and humility and the founders on personal glorification.
- Direct Democracy & Voter WillOhio Legislators Overriding Voter-Approved Marijuana LegalizationReligious traditions hold that authority is legitimate only insofar as it serves those who granted it.
- Direct Democracy & Voter WillState Resistance to Voter-Passed Reproductive Rights AmendmentsOn the substantive question of abortion, religious traditions disagree — and that disagreement deserves respect.
- Polarizing Ideologies & MovementsIdentity Politics Across the Political SpectrumReligious traditions across the world converge on the principle that every person is made in the image of God (or its tradition-specific equivalent) and that…