Parshat Mishpatim
February 4-5, 2000
Shevat 29, 5760

A convicted criminal is waiting to be executed.   He experiences a  religious conversion, and is transformed into a new person.   He is now deeply remorseful over his evil deed, and committed to a life of positive action and public service (as he explains in his long Rolling Stone interview).  A public outcry goes up: the Governor should show mercy by commuting the man's sentence.

It's a plausible scenario; in fact, it really happens from time to time.  This week's parsha contains a stark declaration of what the proper course of action should be in such a case-so take heed, Governors. 

"If a man shall act intentionally against his fellow to kill him with guile-from My Altar shall you take him to die. (21, 14; Artscroll translation)." 

Even if the murderer is a Kohen, and is in the Temple ready to present  on the Altar a holy offering unto G-d--that Altar which is the very symbol of  divine compassion for the Jewish people (and mankind)--, he is taken away to be executed. 

Now, don't misunderstand: my intent is not to endorse the way capital  punishment is carried out in the United States.  Jewish law, of course, is a  universe removed from current practice in Texas. For conviction and execution in a homicide, the Torah required the eyewitness testimony of two witnesses who verbally warned the perpetrator before the crime was committed; the person doing the crime had to acknowledge that he was aware of what he was doing, and of what the penalty would be.  What's more, the halacha stipulates extensive interrogation of those witnesses to uncover false testimony, and other judicial measures to reduce the possibility of actually carrying out capital punishment.  Recall the famous statement of the Mishna: "A Sanhedrin (Jewish court that tries capital cases) that executes [even] once in seven years is called, 'destructive.'  Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah says: 'Once in seventy years!'"

The point--and it's central to the Jewish view of man and civil society--is that true Justice, with a capital J, must be carried out on earth with scrupulous faithfulness.and no room is given to override that through the exercise of an opposing "mercy," however well-intentioned. 

That Justice, of course, is not "cruel" in the least because it is not a   concept fashioned from the efforts of limited human minds, however great; it is nothing more nor less than the Divine Law of the Torah in its totality.   As Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch beautifully writes:

"The whole idea of the right to grant clemency or mercy was entirely absent in the Jewish Code of Law.  Justice and judgment is the prerogative of G-d, not of man.  When the very precisely defined Law of G-d.ordains death for a criminal, the carrying out of this sentence is not an act of harshness to be commuted for any consideration whatsoever; it is itself the most considerate atonement-atonement for the community, atonement for the land, atonement for the criminal, atonement in quite the  same way as that brought by the altar." (Hirsch: Commentary on the Torah-II, 306; my emphasis.)

A somewhat similar admonition is given to judges later in the parsha:
"Do not glorify a destitute person in his grievance."  (23, 3)  While human
"compassion" for a poor person might counsel a departure from "strict
justice," we are specifically commanded not to follow its dictates.  Again:
not because we are cruel, but because we place our faith and the source of our discernment in a higher source, the Torah. 

The Torah is the only Book we can turn to if we want to find and implement Justice on earth.  As we have seen, not the Altar nor one's empty (or full) wallet can provide any haven from the just and proper penalty (and atonement) which the Torah-mercifully-dictates.

Good Shabbos!

Insights Into Genesis
Insights Into Exodus

Rabbi Yosef Edelstein is Director of the the Savannah Kollel and the Savannah Torah Education Project (STEP).
Phone: 912-355-0157;
fax: 912-354-9923; e-mail: Yosef18@aol.com

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