And the land became defiled, and I visited its sin upon it,

and the land vomited out its inhabitants. (Vayikra 18:25)

 

The nations have defiled themselves... and the land became defiled - These words are usually used in reference to the entire planet earth - as it relates to humanity, since the entire earth is called land. Its name [adama - "earth"] reflects its significance - the foundation for the development of the human [adam]... blessings for the land depends on man's level of ethics. Since the land is adama, it cursed because of man - adam (see Bereishit 3:17); the earth which took a brother's blood from the hand of his murderer will no longer give him its product (see Bereishit 4:11-12)... corruption of human ways brings about the similar corruption of all living things... this is the relationship man's moral behavior and the entire earth. However, the Holy One, blessed be He, established a much stronger tie between Israel and its land, for these two have been chosen as His instruments for the moral rejuvenation of the human race... the earth loses the reason for its existence if the society living upon it corrupts it’s ways and loses the reasons for its existence. That is why a socially and morally corrupt population has no future in this land.

 (Rabbi S.R. Hirsch ad loc)

 

And the earth stands forever - Resh Lakish said: Everything that the Holy One blessed be He created in man he created in the land as well. Man has a head and the land has a head, for it said: and the beginning [literally: the head] of the dust of the earth. Man has eyes and the land has eyes, for it is said: and it covered the eye of the land. Man has ears and the land has ears, for it is said: and listen O earth. Man eats and the land eats, for it is written: a land that eats its inhabitants. Man drinks and the land drinks, for it is written: you shall drink of the dew of heaven. Man rages and the land rages, for it is said: the land raged and quaked. Man gets drunk and the land gets drunk, for it is said: the earth shall surely move like a drunk. Man vomits and the land vomits, for it is said: and the land vomited out its inhabitants. Man has hands, and so does the land, for it is said: and the land is broad-handed. Man has a navel and so does the land, for it is written: Who dwells upon the land's navel. Man has hips and so does the land, for it is written, and [I shall] gather them from the uttermost ends [literally: the hips] of the earth. Man has feet and so does the land, for it is written: and the land stands forever - stands and preserves its trusts. R. Aha said: Its food, and the land stands forever - that is Israel, for it is said: for you shall be a desired land.

 (Yalkut Shimoni Kohelet 1, 967)

 

Retaliation, Revenge, and "Measure for Measure": Aharei Mot-Kedoshim

Deborah Weissman

Dedicated to the memory of my parents

My father and teacher Dr. Nahum Weissman, z"l

Who passed away on 21 Nissan 5753

And my mother and teacher, Sylvia Weissman, z"l

Who passed away on 21 Adar 5756

In the course of my work teaching Judaism to Christians who visit Israel from places around the world I occasionally come across some very different interpretations of theirs of the Scriptures we jointly consider holy. One excellent example of this is an expression found both in Shemot 21:24 as well as Vayikra 24:20, i.e., an eye for an eye. This law has been given the Latin name of lex talionis. Lex means "law" and talionis is related to the English word "retaliation." Some of the Christians view this law as "primitive," making Judaism morally inferior to Christianity. One Christian Arab even insisted that the verse does not appear in their Bible! Others quote the Gospel according to Matthew (5:28-29) where Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount: "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also" (NKJV translation). Both Jews and Christians seem to have forgotten that this idea first appears in Lamentations (3:30): Let him offer his cheek to his smiter; let him be filled with reproach. The passage quoted from Matthew continues Jesus' critique of the Torah, for instance: "...that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust... And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?" (5:45-47).

Thus was born the Christian anti-Jewish stereotype according to which Christianity is a religion of love and forgiveness towards enemies while Judaism is a religion of wrath and vengeance.

Some Christians try to defend the Hebrew Scriptures. They usually contrast biblical law with that of similar codes from the ancient Middle East, claiming that the former demonstrates moral and human progress by limiting the range of retaliation. There had been cultures in which the loss of an eye was repaid by the assailant being killed by the victim or his family. These Christians read the verse as saying only an eye [and not two eyes] for an eye. The law sets forth limits upon permissible retaliation.

The Jewish Scholar James Kugel also takes this tack. In his book, How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now (Free Press, 2007, pp. 64-65, he cites Bereishit 4:3-24): Now Lemech said to his wives, "Adah and Zillah, hearken to my voice; wives of Lemech, incline your ears to my words, for I have slain a man by wounding [him] and a child by bruising [him]. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, then for Lemech it shall be seventy seven fold." Kugel claims that Lemech is announcing all of this in order to frighten off any would-be attackers. It is significant, he says, that Lemech views Cain and his descendants - the Cainites - as an example of disproportionate revenge. It seems that from a very early period the Cainites had a reputation for being people who would kill seven of the enemy for each one of their number who was killed. God granted them this special privilege because they were nomads who did not enjoy the protection of walled cities.

My Christian students are usually surprised to discover that the Oral Law reads the phrase an eye for an eye as plainly referring to a monetary penalty. Neither are they acquainted with the halakhah's sophisticated definition of compensation based on the categories of damage, suffering, medical expenses, lost working time, and humiliation (Mishnah Bava Kama 8:1). This compensation may also be intended to keep the victim's family from retaliating. Halakhah does not recognize retaliation or revenge against the attacker as something the victim "deserves." Our parasha warns us, Do not hate your brother in your heart... (Vayikra 19:17). That is to say - not to hold a grudge even against those who have genuinely hurt us.

Critics of retaliation claim that it is not enough to limit revenge, since even attenuated revenge encourages a continued cycle of violence. It was in that spirit that the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi said, "An eye for an eye will blind the whole world." Is the correct response to forgive and forget? Certainly not, if the attacker continues his aggression and constitutes an existential threat. In such a case retaliation is not a matter of revenge but rather a method for ending violence. As members of a society that possesses institutions for the promotion of law and order - the police and judicial systems - we expect them to deal with criminals so that blood feuds do not develop between families, a phenomenon found in various cultures. The purpose of imprisonment in contemporary society is not so much to punish as to rehabilitate. The criminal is supposed to undergo an "educational" process that will facilitate his remorse and inner change. If this process does take place, he can leave prison to live life as an ordinary citizen.

All of the above is fine until we get to the question of revenge at the national level. Our parasha tells us, You shall neither take revenge from nor bear a grudge against the members of your people (verse 18), but what happens when members of other peoples are involved? Don't our classical sources and liturgy contain many references to revenge against the nations?

At this juncture I would like to mention the work of Prof. Ruth Langer of Boston College. In a drasha she gave in Newton's Shaarei Tefillah synagogue on Purim of 2008, Prof. Langer had the following to say about vengeance:

On the one hand, we need communal responses to our situations of persecution and oppression, to validate our anger and our pain, and to allow us to deal with them; but on the other hand, what our liturgy traditionally does is to divert us from active personal responses by placing the onus for actually solving the situation in God’s hands. In general, this is not the way that Judaism works; in most situations, we are expected to do our human best to solve the situation. That is what makes this liturgical response so powerful and deserving of attention.

Here are some examples:

The Passover Haggadah says "Pour out Your wrath" - and not "our wrath."

Psalm 94 says: God of vengeance - appear!

The name of a slain victim is followed by the phrase "May the Lord avenge his blood", and not "We shall avenge his blood."

The benediction following the Megillah reading speaks of God as "Our avenger."

As for the first example, I must mention that while many of my friends are completely opposed to that passage, I have no problem including it in the Seder. I think the reason for this is that in my parents’ home - they were non-religious Socialist Zionists - that moment in the Seder was used to commemorate the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising which began on the first day of Passover 5703. We read a special prayer in memory of the Shoah and sang Ani Ma'amin - "I believe with a perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah." After growing up I came to understand that we were not asking God to pour out His wrath on all the nations - God forbid - but rather only upon those who "did not know You," such as the Nazis, may their name and memory be erased. Those who know the Lord can be our friends and allies. I have personally invited Christian guests to the Seder and felt no embarrassment when we said "Pour out Your wrath."

Beyond this, I would ask whether Langer's suggestion can really solve the problem for the Jewish People - a people which is commanded to walk in God's ways. If God is a "God of vengeance," where does that leave us? An internal debate was sparked in my synagogue - Kehillat Yedidya - concerning the recitation of the Av HaRahamim prayer on Shabbat. That prayer opens with noble words:

May the merciful Father who dwells on high, in his infinite mercy, remember those saintly, upright, and blameless souls, the holy communities who offered their lives for the sanctification of the divine name. They were lovely and amiable in their life, and were not parted in their death. They were swifter than eagles and stronger than lions to do the will of their Master and the desire of their Stronghold. May our God remember them favorably among the other righteous of the world. (Birnbaum translation)

If the prayer were to end with those words, no problems or reservations would have arisen concerning its recitation. On the contrary - up to this point the prayer may even invite a universalistic interpretation, connecting members of our people who died for the sanctification of the divine name with the "righteous of the world." However, those lines are followed by others taking a rather different tone: "May He avenge the blood of His servants which has been shed... the Avenger of bloodshed remembers them... " And also the especially problematic line: "He will execute judgment upon the nations and fill [the battle-field] with corpses; He will shatter [the enemy's] head over all the wide earth.." It is hard for us to stand in prayer with these words in our mouths. How does this prayer affect those who hear it - such as our children? The congregation has not yet made a decision in the matter.

Much has been spoken lately about the concept of "proportionality." The notions of retaliation and vengeance assume a foundation of "measure for measure." However, it is not always clear to us what scale should be used to check this and when the use of force becomes "disproportionate." The philosopher Michael Walzer¹ claims that rules of proportionality are different in war. War has a future-oriented goal - it is not concerned with the payment of past debts. In wartime, proportionality must not be judged by the provocation that preceded it but rather by the achievement of the war's aims in the future.

A friend once told me, "Zionism means that Jews must get their hands dirty. We must exercise police and military force." However, he added, "There is a difference between getting your hands dirty and wallowing in the mud."

May we know how to distinguish between the two!

[1] "On Proportionality: How much is too much in war?" The New Republic, Jan. 8, 2009.

Dr. Deborah Weissman, a founder of Kehillat Yedidya in Jerusalem, is an educator.

 

You shall not oppress your fellow. You shall not rob. The wages of a laborer shall not remain with you overnight until morning.

 (Vayikra 19:13)

 

The wages of a laborer shall not remain with you - Then and Today

Withholding the payment of wages demoralizes employer as well as employee. The employer loses sensitivity to the sin he is committing, so much so that one may hear justifications for such behavior, as if the employer has a right to "borrow credit" in this way in order to maintain his business. When an employee waits a long time to receive his wage, he feels as if his work goes unrewarded, and he will reach the conclusion that his efforts to support himself through his own labor are pointless. The original Jewish conception views the withholding of wages as being prohibited by the Torah. The Sages, who understood the matter deeply, compared it to a capital crime. The Gemara says: "You shall pay his wage on that very day... for he is poor and sets his soul upon it (Devarim24:15) - Why did he climb up the stool, hang on to the tree and risk death, if not to obtain his wage?...When anyone withholds a hired laborer's wage, it is as if he had taken his soul [i.e., life] from him" (Bava Metziya 112a).

(Moshe Unna z'l, a member of Kevutzat Sdeh Eliyahu, formerly the Chairman of the Law and Justice Committee of the Knesset, as quoted by Prof. Nehama Leibowitz in her Iyyunim Hadashim BeSfer Vayikra, pg. 244)

 

Just scales

It forbids us even to have an imperfect weight or measure in our possession, it forbids us to be careless in measuring or weighing our material even if there is no immediate idea of trading with it, if there is the slightest possibility of its being bought or sold, it commands us not only to exercise the utmost care in the manufacture of weights and measures, but to be most conscientious in keeping them in good condition and repair, to take meticulous precautionary measures against any change in weights, scales, and measures due to wear... The reference to the Exodus from Egypt, with which this command of honesty in measures concludes, shows what an important position in the sphere of the Lawgiving it occupies. It is on the basis of the redemption from Egypt and all that which it made known to us of God's management amidst the earth, in the midst of the life of nations on earth, as well as all that which thereby established for all time our special relationship to God, and our duty towards Him, that God makes the demand: You shall not commit a perversion of justice, etc. true scales, true weights, etc. Hence, we find in the Torat Kohanim on our verse: "I am the Lord, your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt upon this condition: I brought you out of the land of Egypt on the condition that you accept upon yourselves the commandment regarding [fair] measures, for everyone who accepts the commandment regarding measures accepts [the veracity of] the Exodus from Egypt, and anyone who rejects the commandment regarding measures rejects the Exodus from Egypt." The "Law of Measures" is considered as being on a level with the laws of arayot [prohibited sexual relations]... Just as in arayot we see the foundation of personal morality and family life, so in the laws of measures is the foundation of social life... It wants to make the feeling for right and the respect and consideration for right and honesty to be a fundamental trait of the Jewish national character.

 (Rabbi S.R. Hirsch on Vayikra 19:35-36, following the Levy translation)

 

 

 

 

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