Morals and Ethics-- Individual and National Obligations

King David, according to the Talmud, has messengers from the nation of Israel come to him in the wee hours of the morning with something very important on their minds. "Your Nation-Israel- needs "Parnassah" they say. Ok answers the king, let them go and practice free enterprise and let the economic engine roar says he. Oh but that is impossible for as a self contained country with limited resources there is not enough to go around they reply. Well then responds the king, the only option left is to go and conquer another nation.

This concept of conquering another nation  to feed your nation sounds ethically unsound based on how we have been taught to think within the construct of  western culture. How is it ok to subjugate another nation and to take their resources only because you feel a need for their resources and you can? A parallel case involving individuals would be antithetical to everything the Torah teaches. Just imagine, I need money and have a hard time making a living so I go and take someone elses house, money, etc. because I can??!!.

We must learn to differentiate between interpersonal ethical conventions and National/International ethical conventions. The Torah speaks to individuals not to nations. Nations, especially National leaders must act in the best interest of their nations. If a nation needs another nations resources then the stronger nation may go and acquire those resources through any method they can. Obviously there must be rules regulating International ethics too, but those rules are totally different than the rules and requirements of individuals. (Those rules we must leave for a different time to discuss).

This might explain the concept of Eved Kanaani. I would suggest that Eved Kanaani falls under the rubric of the International rather than the individual. This would explain how morally one can subjucate anther human being even though one might find it antithetical to basic moral principles. We must see it through the lens of the International not the individual. An Eved Kanaani is a byproduct of the subjugation of one nation by another nation possibly.

I am still searching for other applications...

addition:

Upon further reflection the pshat is simple. The king or government's job is to take care of its citizens. The poorer citizens can be taken care of by taxing the rich but there is a better way, tax the rich of another country rather than taxing your own citizens and that is what dovid hamelech did.

maybe the machlokes king david and the chachamim that came to him was that king david was a keynsian and he believed in the multiplier effect or taxation to which the chachamim replied "ein hakometz masbia es ha'ari" you cant squeeze out more than a dollar out of a dollar and you also cannot tax the rich to feed the poor as that would restrict investment and thereby shrink GDP but you can tax the rich of the neighboring countries.

About Nes, Hishtadlut, and Teva

The Gemara in Yoma 38A tells us the story of Beit Garmu, the family that were the only ones who knew how to bake the Lechem Hapanim to perfection. This family, mentioned in the Mishna, was intent on protecting their turf and therefore would not teach anyone else the skills necessary to bake the Lechem Hapanim so that it didn't crumble and would stay fresh. The Chachamim, we are told, imported experts from Egypt to try their hand to break the Beit Garmu monopoly. They were able to get the consistency right but could not master the technique to the extent needed to keep the bread fresh for the duration of the week that it was out on the Shulchan. Tosfos Yeshanim asks why do they need to go to this great length to keep it fresh if we know that one of the nisim in the bais hamikdash was that the lechem hapanim stayed fresh by way of a miracle. Tosfos Yeshanim answer that the miracle only started after everything that can possibly be done by man was done.

I believe that this is a very basic lesson in general in God's intervention and hashgacha in this world. Even in things that we can expect hashgacha they will only start after man has exhausted all that he can do. Miracles and, I suggest hashgacha, will not replace what man can do. Hishtadlut is not a condition precedent for godly intervention it is a way of getting to the point where God takes over

Asakta Betorah?

The Gemara in Yoma 36b discusses the three types of people that will try to excuse themselves from hitaskut Be'torah, the poor man, the rich man, and the rasha. The Gemara says that the retort to the poor man will be have you been poorer than Hillel etc. therefore Hillel obligates all poor people. The same goes for the rich man for you are no richer than R' Elazar Ben Charsom and the Gemara goes on to describe his great wealth. Both Hillel and R' Elazar ben Charsom could have made the excuse that they were so busy just getting by, Hillel working hard just to make ends meet and R' Elazar Ben Charsom just administrating to his affairs  that they simply would have had very little time to be Osek in Torah. However, the Gemarah says that both of them spent much time studying Torah, R' Elazar so much so that his servants did not recognize him and he did not know of all his wealth.

What seems odd is that the Rasha seems a little incongruous. The Gemara says that they will ask the rasha why werent you osek in Torah and if he says "Osuk Beyitzri Hayisi" they will ask him were you more osuk than Yosef who had the beautiful wife of Potifar do everything in her power to seduce him and he did not allow it to happen. The simple question is what does this have to do with being osek in Torah. Furthermore what does "Asuk Beyitzri Hayisi" have to do with being Osek in Torah? To keep things congruous and simple it must be that the "Rasha" is the person that has this great Yetzer Harah for he is beautiful or has some other great yetzer hara that for some reason makes it very hard for him to focus on learning Torah and to fight that yetzer harah he  feels that he needs to learn musar or occupy himself with some other occupation to keep his mind off his yetzer harah. As a direct response to that person the Torah shows us that Yosef was able to overcome his Yetzer harah through sheer willpower and not by sidetracking himself with other occupations that would preclude him from learning Torah