Ethical Standards for Public Officials

After months of rumors, inuendo and speculation, Ehud Olmert has announced that he will not seek to continue as Israel's Prime Minister after his party, Kadima, elects a new leader this fall. There are many ramifications from this that are beyond the scope of my rabbinic mission:

1. Should the next leader of the Kadima become prime minister automatically or should new elections be held?

2. If new elections are held, will the Israeli vote swing back to the right, out of frustration with the "peace process", which Olmert and his predecessor, Ariel Sharon, have supported?

3. Will Olmert attempt to forge a peace deal with the Palestinians as a "lame duck", as has been suggested in some US newspapers this week?

What I would like to focus on is the Jewish perspective on the ethical standards which are applied to governmental leaders, in Israel, the US and anywhere else. It isn't for me to say whether Ehud Olmert is innocent or guilty. He'll have to answer to the Israeli courts and ultimately to "the Judge of all the earth" (Genesis 18:25) about that. But how should we view the conduct of public officials -- more generously or more critically than that of other people?

Some of us have a tendency to excuse failings on the part of public officials that we would judge much more harshly in our friends or relatives. We "cut them a break" because of the pressure that they're under and the responsibility that they bear. Traditional Judaism teaches us a different way of looking at this.

There are rabbinic teachings that if Moses had been an ordinary man, the sin of striking the rock to get water for the Israelites, instead of speaking to it as God ordered, would not have been bad enough to keep him from entering the Promised Land (Numbers 19:12). Because Moses had been elevated by God to a higher position he was held to a higher standard of behavior.

There is a teaching from in Midrash Rabbah, the Roman-era Torah commentary, that bears on this issue. Rabbi Nehemiah says that as soon as one accepts a role of leadership, that person can no longer say the he (or she) lives for himself (or herself) alone. Rather, that person has taken upon himself (or herself) the "whole burden of the community" (Exodus Rabbah 27:9).

One of the ways that I interpret this teaching is that people in roles of public trust must regulate their private conduct by higher standards than those which apply to the rest of society, lest their private conduct compromise their effectiveness as a leader and discredit the office that they hold. Recent incidents involving governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, a US congressman from Staten Island and several US senators are examples which come to mind.

I hope that Ehud Olmert is innocent. It will be better for his office and for Israel if that is so.