The Gifts of the Jews

In his popular history, The Gifts of the Jews, Thomas Cahill contends that one of the gifts imparted to human civilization by the Jews was their notion of justice. It was, though, an idea of justice intertwined with mercy. Mercy is essential to the administration of justice in the realm of human experience because Torah not only conceded but also explicitly taught the fallen state of humans.

Thus, while lex talionis requires “a life for a life,” the Jews were prohibited by Torah from implementing this principle of punishment upon the evidence of only one witness to an alleged intentional, “treacherous” killing of another human being. Rather, Torah requires the testimony of at least two witnesses.

Some argue that lex talionis is not, in the first place, a Jewish concept but was rather a contribution from the ancient Babylonian civilization via the Code of Hammurabi. Even if this point of history is conceded for the sake of argument, Torah’s expression and guidance in the administration of lex talionis demonstrates a substantial tempering of its severity in application albeit not in its formulation.

Justice, as it is taught in Torah, is both an affirmation of the dignity of every human being based upon Imago Dei and an accommodation for the finitude and fallen state of humans. Torah teaches mercy in the midst of justice through its accounts of divine acts in response to human sin (e.g. Cain, Noah, and Lot) as well as in its provisions for both procedural and substantive criminal law in ancient Israel.

I am just beginning to formulate my expression of these ideas. I intend to develop a more thorough thesis in coming weeks. In the meantime, I would value your responses.