Mishpatim
Ex. 21:1 - 24:18
Précis: Having received the Ten Commandments (in the previous parasha), Moses now reveals ordinances (mishpatim) needed to implement a comprehensive system of laws. The first group of commandments (mitzvot) relate to the rights of servants (slaves), followed by rules about murder, crimes against parents, personal injury law, offenses against property, and bailment. A list of moral offenses follows, including seduction, witchcraft, sexual perversion, polytheism, and oppression of the “widow, the orphan, and the stranger among you.” The parasha also includes the command to observe a sabbatical year, the Shabbat, and then lists the requirements for the observance of the pilgrimage festivals (Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot). The command not to boil a kid in its mothers’ milk (a key proof text for the laws of kashrut) is mentioned, and at the conclusion of the parasha, we find a ceremony where the People, represented by Moses and 70 elders, have an encounter with the Divine Presence and accept the laws and the Covenant.
Ex. 21:12 “Anyone who strikes a person with a fatal blow is to be put to death.”
The viability and use of the death penalty seem to be an issue which has, in recent years, receded in terms of importance. Perhaps it is time to return to a serious consideration of the matter, since this week’s reading literally commands the death penalty.
Rabbi Lewis Warshauer has written (MyJewishLearning.com 2/12/13), about a panel discussion (the 2001 Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life) which included Catholic, Jewish, African-American Protestant, and Southern Baptist speakers on behalf of their denominational views on the subject.
The Catholic representative focused on his Church’s gradual movement away from acceptance of the death penalty, citing the catechism of the Church, papal statements, and statements of the US Catholic Bishops. He suggested that the state should not impose the death penalty.
The Southern Baptist spokesman stated support for capital punishment because the Bible supports it. He did not cite this particular verse, but made note of Gen. 9:6: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed.”
The Protestant African-American spokesman used essentially secular reasons for his group’s opposition to the death penalty, not relying upon Biblical sources.
The Jewish representative (a member of the Orthodox Movement) quoted rabbinic barriers to the penalty pronounced by the Sages which form the core of Jewish law on the subject. These include including requirements for two witnesses, even-handed and intense judicial inquiry, and the need to warn the actor against his action. He advocated limitation of the death penalty in the United States because of the enormous questions as to its fairness and impartiality as imposed.
What grounds support abolition of the death penalty? There may yet be instances where capital punishment is appropriate (see, e.g., Adolf Eichmann, the only individual who has ever been sentenced to death by an Israeli court). But as applied in the United States today, it appears that our system is erratic and unfair.
I take note that the only countries which execute more individuals than the United States (and not on a per capita basis) are China, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Iran. In America, the penalty is at times applied to those who most would consider to be children, and at times to those with diminished mental capabilities. Few could dispute that the death sentence is imposed much more often on the poor than on those who can afford excellent legal representation. We should recognize that the Jewish tradition’s demand for truth and fairness is not necessarily the primary goals of the American criminal justice system. This being the case, it is time to re-elevate the debate about the death penalty in our civil discourse.
