104 CCAR Journal: The Reform Jewish Quarterly Hobbes, Maimonides, Health Care Reform, and Tzelem Elohim: The Political Theology of Universal Health Care Haim O. Rechnitzer Are we as a society morally obligated to guarantee everyone equal access to health care? Religious leaders cannot exempt themselves from the discussion, leaving the politicians to determine the ide- ological parameters of the debate and the experts to phrase the questions. The way the problem is defined determines the solu- tions. The economics regarding feasibility and logistics should be secondary. According to Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), the father of modern political philosophy, rationality stems from man’s fear of violent death. It is the psychological, pre-rational conflict with the natu- ral hostile world that leads man to seek a social contract with his fellow man, a contract that is based on conscious reason. Man’s fear of violent death provides the raison d’être for sovereignty and the structure of the state. The state must provide first and fore- most, protection of life. The artificial, man-made “protection” by means of political organization is the ultimate precondition for the development of industry, culture, arts, and science. 1 Human rea- son is based on the principle of self-preservation. This principle takes precedence over the satisfaction of any other desire. Unlike Platonic political philosophy, the state is not the vehicle by which we as a society pursue a particular idea of “the good.” Since the RABBI HAIM O. RECHNITZER (J03) is an assistant professor of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati. He thanks his friends and colleagues, professors Mathew Nesvisky and Mark Raider, as well as the Journal’s anonymous reader, for their comments on earlier versions of this article; he alone is responsible for its contents and any errors that remain.