How They Do It– 'The death penalty contradicts Judaism'

‘Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey…’ 1 Samuel 15:3

‘The man who refuses to listen to the priest who stands there to serve the LORD your God, nor to the judge, that man shall die; thus you shall purge the evil from Israel…’–Deuteronomy 17:12

‘Therefore you are to observe the sabbath and whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death…’–Exodus 31:14-15

‘Now while the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the sabbath day and he was brought to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation…Then the LORD said to Moses ‘This man shall surely be put to death, all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.’ So all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, just as the LORD had commanded Moses…’–Numbers 15:32-36

‘If any man has a stubborn son who will not obey his father or his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to them, then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gateway of his hometown. Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death and remove the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear of it and be afraid…’–Deuteronomy 21:18-21

The above quotes are a mere SMATTERING of similar passages within Judaism’s holy book, the Torah, where the death penalty is SPECIFICALLY commanded for the most trivial of matters, including gathering firewood on the sabbath.

For exactly what reason our esteemed Hebraic author is engaged in this not-very-clever disinformation campaign we can’t say for sure, but one thing that is beyond dispute is that every letter, word, sentence, paragraph, etc comprising his argument is proved patently false by anyone with a copy of the bible and 3 brain cells, and if they are willing to lie so brazenly about something as easily disproved as this, imagine what they are able to accomplish on the geo-political stage utilizing the ‘by way of  deception we shall make war’ protocol where things are more complicated.

Naftali Rothenberg for Times of Israel

The early release of cruel murderers raises serious moral questions, in addition to the anger and deep pain among the families of the murdered and the public. Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that the call for the imposition of the death penalty on murderers returns to the agenda almost after every terrorist attack in which the terrorists are caught alive. Recently the government announced legislation that would extend the authority to impose the death penalty to civil courts.

Let us leave aside for a moment the debate over whether the death penalty functions as a successful deterrent, and whether there is a global security significance to the potential murder of released prisoners before the end of their sentences. The fundamental question is whether in Israel, the Jewish nation-state, we must allow the court to impose the death penalty.

The defense establishment has a moral right, and also the legal ability, to use violence, and even to take the lives of people who intend to harm Israel’s sovereignty and the welfare of its residents. This ability is a condition for the existence of a state. That is, the state has the right to take human life in order to fulfill its duty to protect its citizens from outside and domestic enemies. We will leave the difficult decision on the restrictions on the use of force necessary to maintain our sovereignty to the security forces, whose duty it is to decide what action is legal and what is not. Questions of life and death must remain the responsibility of forces that are subordinate to an elected civilian government, and subject to criticism by various inspection bodies.

The judicial system functions in a completely different arena. While it also serves as an important tool for maintaining public safety, the conditions under which it operates are different. The court examines the evidence presented before it under sterile conditions. That is, the legal process is independent. The court does not have weapons, but the law gives it great power to determine the fate of the person facing it.

The judicial system should not be granted unlimited power. It is wrong to allow a flesh-and-blood judge to issue a final verdict that cannot be reversed. This is the meaning of the sanctity of life: wherever we can, we make it clear to ourselves in society that we do not grant the state, the court, the right to take the life of a person, even one whose terrible deeds violated this sanctity. In war, this principle cannot be implemented, and therefore the security forces are allowed to kill our enemies. In the courtroom, where the defendant no longer poses a threat, we are able to let the sanctity of life be superior to other potential concerns.

This moral position derives from the Jewish tradition, which not only strongly opposed the execution of criminals by the halakhic judicial system, but also sought to facilitate parallel justice systems (the king’s trial, for example) and to commute the punishments of those whose guilt was determined on the basis of questionable evidence. Even today, the Torah sages are concerned about the “slippery slope.” The concern is that the death penalty initially imposed on terrorists, on murderers, would later be imposed on the abominations of rapists, accessories to murder, and others. We would risk executions becoming routine, human life turning cheap, and Israel would degenerate into a moral low.

The law that is being formulated in the government has so far won the support of Yisrael Beiteinu, the Likud and Kulanu. However, the coalition agreement does not oblige United Torah Judaism and Shas. If these parties operate on behalf of Torah opinion and the authority of great Torah scholars, they cannot be part of a coalition that will allow the imposition of the death penalty in Israeli courts.

As Jews who uphold a tradition that sanctifies human life and rejects violence and cruelty against any person, we must oppose the fact that in the Jewish nation-state, the court can sentence a person to death. These are our values, and we must live up to them even when the sight of murderers being released engenders difficult feelings.