Devar/5770/Bereshit
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עברית
English
…the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto Me from the ground (Gen 4:10)
The nations of the world are proud of their justice systems. Police, lawyers and courts which keep order and achieve a certain level of justice. And since according to the Torah they do have a commandment to establish a system of justice for themselves, (Laws of Kings 9:1,17) this is a good thing.
As opposed to the systems of justice of the rest of the nations, the People of Israel (still not in the State of Israel) have precise instructions from the Torah how to establish justice. Most important of them: we do not accept "testimony" unless it comes from two properly observant Jews. That is, we don't rely on cameras, nor on the testimony of one person, nor even on a confession from the accused! That is because we have a rule: a person may not "make himself" an evildoer. Even if we saw him running after another person with a knife in his hand, and we saw them entering a building, and one came out with a bloody knife in his hand, and we checked in the building and saw the other lying dead on the floor, stabbed, and the first one said, "I killed him" -- nonetheless, we are commanded not to subject him to a death penalty, because there is no 'testimony' at all here, just speculation.
And why does the Torah demand us take care to such an extent? Not only because it states: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established (Deut 19:15). But also because our verse comes to teach that anyone who destroys one life, is credited with having destroyed an entire world; and anyone who saves one life, is credited with having saved an entire world (Laws of Sanhedrin 12:7). If the matter is not proven absolutely that the person is guilty, we may not kill him. Since in the event of a mistake, it is impossible to restore him to life -- and we rely on our Father in heaven to repay the evildoer in accordance with his evil, if we are unable to bring him to an appropriate punishment. Because there is no person so wise and understanding that he never makes a mistake; only the Holy One blessed is He alone "sees the innermost thoughts".
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