An excerpt from Rabbi Ken Spiro's recently published book,
"World Perfect." While developing an idea for a lecture program,
I conducted a series of surveys over a period of two years,
asking people to list the fundamental values and principles
which they felt we needed to uphold in order to make our world
as perfect as is humanly possible. In total, some 1,500
individuals were questioned. Overwhelmingly, my respondents –
predominantly Westerners, from the United States, Canada, South
America, England, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the
Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Italy, etc – came up with
remarkably similar answers, which could be grouped into these
six categories: - Respect for Human Life. In a perfect world,
all people would be guaranteed certain basic human rights,
paramount among which must be the right to life. They should be
able to live that life without constant fear of its loss and
with certain basic dignity. - Peace and Harmony. On all levels –
whether communal or global – people and natio