in the Hebrew Bible, God reveals himself primarily in the form of laws, for Judaism is concerned not just with salvation (the soul in its relationship with God) but also with redemption (society as a vehicle for the divine presence).

They are an account, at the beginning of the Torah’s narrative history of humankind, of a failure, first personal and then moral, to take responsibility – and it is this for which leadership is the answer.

Words create moral obligations, and moral obligations, undertaken responsibly and honoured faithfully, create the possibility of a free society. So – always do what you say you are going to do. If we fail to keep our word, eventually we will lose our freedom.

What is flawed about the Kantian approach is that it sees heteronomy and autonomy as opposites rather than what, in fact, they are: two different stages in moral development. We begin, as children, by obeying other people’s orders. But we do not end there. Moral growth is that process by which external commands are internalized through habituation