The Lottery Farce

A lottery is a way to remove human control from a decision by randomizing it. According to Tanach, it’s never truly random - “[When] the lot is cast in the lap, its entire verdict has been decided by God” (Proverbs 16:33). Still, human decision has been removed.

When it comes to allocating resources, there are different ways of doing it. You can allocate them all equally and fairly, as best as you can. Or you can decide to distribute them inequally and unfairly, but to make the decision as to who...