Parashat Re’eh focuses on rooting out idolatry, and this chapter focuses on the problem of false prophecy. This creates two interesting themes in relation to America. First, the parasha rejects the rights of the people in the land, calling their practices abominations. Eleanor Roosevelt, in her 1948 speech to the UN, by contrast, posits human rights as universal. Second, in the provided excerpt, Roosevelt mentions the tendency of those who claim to defend freedom to argue against individual rights for the sake of preserving governmental power. The claim of those people is a false prophecy - there is a grain of truth to it, but ultimately works against the divine universal dignity of human life.
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