Eye for an Eye, Measure for Measure

Emor
Leviticus 21:1 - 24:23

Précis: This parasha is divided into four sections. First, it reviews rituals for the Priests to use to remain ritually pure. Second, it outlines the festival and holiday calendar. Third, it explains the use of the olive oil and display bread on Shabbat. Finally, there is a brief narrative about a blasphemer who is condemned to death.

Leviticus 24: 19-21 “If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has injured the other, so he is to be injured.”

Our text states the idea clearly: anyone who maims another is maimed in return. This is one of three biblical locations for the biblical phrase, “ayin tachat ayin” (eye for eye); similar language appears in Exodus 21:23-25 and Deuteronomy 19:21.

This expression was troubling to the sages of Israel, as can be learned from an examination of Mishnah, which takes it for granted that the phrase means that we are to pay monetary damages equal to the loss suffered. The Talmudic explanation offers a host of reasons why the Torah’s injunction should not and cannot be meant literally, based on other proof texts. For example, since “one law” applies to all, how could we take the eye of a blind person? 

The Rabbis of the Talmudic era also offer a parallel concept called “midah k'neged midah” (measure for measure) which is also referred to as the idea of “correspondence.” In other words, one gets what one deserves. Proof texts deal with the punishments for Pharaoh, Amalek, and Haman as examples of those whose punishment corresponded to their evil acts. Other textual citations refer to Joseph, Moses, and the Israelites who are blessed with rewards corresponding to the mitzvot they performed.

This concept, however, runs smack into the reality of the unfairness of life; could we really believe that the victims of the Holocaust were punished because of their sins? Reality tells us that, at least sometimes, the wicked do prosper, and that the good do suffer.

We can “resolve” this problem by accepting the idea that in olam habah, the world to come, the scales of justice will be righted. But we live in this world. Perhaps we can find our way through the inevitable disparities of outcomes in human events by following the core messages of Leviticus: seek holiness, and seek justice.