... אָמַר רַבִּי אֲבָהוּ בְּשֵׁם רַבִּי שְׁמוּאֵל בַּר נַחְמָנִי, לָמָּה כְּתִיב: כִּי אֶת אֲשֶׁר יֶשְׁנוֹ פֹּה וְגוֹ' וְאֶת אֲשֶׁר אֵינֶנּוּ פֹּה. לְפִי שֶׁהַנְּשָׁמוֹת הָיוּ שָׁם וַעֲדַיִן גּוּף לֹא נִבְרָא, לְכָךְ לֹא כְּתִיב בָּהֶן עֲמִידָה. ...
... R. Abahu said in the name of R. Samuel bar Nahmani, “Why does it say, ‘those who are [standing ('md)] here [...]; and those who are not here’ (without using the word, standing)? Because all the souls were there, [even] when [their] bodies had still not been created. It is for that reason [their] existence (literally, standing, rt.: 'md) is not stated here.”...
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.."
-Declaration of Independence
"..How can Americans, for example, be morally bound by the promises made by the Founding Fathers and the state legislatures that approved the Constitution long ago, especially because the ancestors of most Americans were not even living within its borders at the time?
There are at least two answers that philosophers have proposed. One hearkens back to the 17th-century thinker Thomas Hobbes. He argues that if you are still part of a nation not he day that you become an adult (however the nation defines that), then you have given your tacit consent to all of its laws and can be held responsible to obey them."
-Rabbi Elliot Dorff, For the Love of God and People: A Philosophy of Jewish Law (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2007)