In a recent string of podcasts and public appearances, comedian and libertarian commentator Dave Smith, has positioned himself as a moral “authority”, critiquing policies and passing judgment on complex ethical questions with the confidence of someone who believes he has discovered universal truths. However, Smith's attempt to lecture on morality reveals a profound ignorance of history's most enduring moral framework and the people, the Jewish nation, who have preserved it for millennia.
The Jewish people stand unique in human history as the receivers of divine moral instruction at Mount Sinai. This transformative moment—when God directly communicated moral law to an entire nation—established a covenant that has guided not just Jewish ethics, but has formed the moral foundation of Western civilization itself. The Ten Commandments, and the Torah's 613 mitzvot, constitute the most comprehensive moral system ever revealed to humanity, addressing every aspect of human conduct from interpersonal relationships to business ethics, from family life to community responsibilities, and even ethics in war.
For over 3,000 years, the Jewish people have studied, interpreted, and lived by these divine instructions, producing volumes of ethical discourse unmatched in depth and breadth. The Talmud's intricate moral reasoning, Maimonides' systematic ethical codes, and the rich tradition of mussar (ethical contemplation) represent a moral tradition that has withstood the test of time, while other ethical systems have risen and fallen.
Against this backdrop, Smith's libertarian moral pronouncements appear not just simplistic, but presumptuous. His political philosophy, barely two centuries old and derived primarily from secular Enlightenment thinking, cannot match the wisdom accumulated through millennia of engagement with divine instruction. When Smith speaks of non-aggression principles or sovereign individualism, he is merely recycling fragments of moral concepts that find their complete expression in Jewish ethical tradition.
The Jewish experience has uniquely positioned us to understand morality's complexities. Having maintained ethical standards while enduring persecution, expulsion, and genocide, the Jewish people have demonstrated moral resilience that transcends theoretical pontification. Our ethics aren't abstract principles discussed in comfortable podcast studios, but lived realities tested in history's crucible.
Smith's libertarianism, with its focus on individual liberty above communal responsibility, misses the balanced approach of Jewish ethics, which recognizes both individual dignity, and communal obligation. The Torah teaches that true morality exists not in isolation but in relationship—with God, with community, and with the stranger among us. This nuanced understanding recognizes that sometimes individual desires must be subordinated to greater moral imperatives.
Moreover, Smith fails to appreciate that morality requires authority. The Jewish tradition understands that moral principles derive their power not from human reasoning alone, but from divine revelation. Without this transcendent foundation, morality becomes merely preference or convention—precisely the relativism that plagues modern discourse. The moral certainty Smith aspires to cannot be achieved through political philosophy alone; it requires acknowledgment of a higher source of moral truth.
This is not to say that the Jewish tradition is closed to dialogue or development. On the contrary, our moral tradition thrives on questioning, interpretation, and application to new circumstances. But this process occurs within a framework of reverence for revealed truth and accumulated wisdom—elements conspicuously absent from Smith's approach.
For a people who have preserved divine moral instruction through exile and persecution, who have debated ethical minutiae with rigorous intellectual honesty, and who have produced moral giants in every generation, there is something almost comical about being lectured on morality by political commentators whose moral horizons extend no further than their libertarian podcasts. This, to a certain extent, was the point the distinguished author, Douglas Murray, who is not Jewish, was making against the comedian, Dave Smith, on the recent Joe Rogan podcast.
The Jewish people do not claim to be perfectly moral in practice—our tradition emphasizes constant self-improvement and teshuvah (repentance). But we do claim to possess, through no merit of our own but by divine gift, the most complete moral system ever entrusted to humanity. This is not pride, but acknowledgment of responsibility.
So while Dave Smith and others may continue their moral pronouncements, those who stand in the shadow of Sinai know that true morality comes not from political philosophy, but from divine revelation, not from podcast musings, but from millennia of moral wisdom. You simply cannot teach morals to the people who received them directly from God.