I often teach about the Biblical concept of justice. In particular I often teach about the idea of “eye for an eye”. In fancy terms, it’s called a “Lex Talionis”. It means the punishment must match exactly the crime or injury committed.
If you break my foot, I (or a recognized authority) breaks your foot. If you burn me, I burn you. Specifically, if you unlawfully kill a human being, it was a capital offense. Life for life.
These laws were explained and interpreted by the rabbis in order to set up a system of laws and rules to apply those laws. While the ‘tit for tat’ method of frontier justice speaks to our baser nature and even seems ‘fair’ in some way, when you really look at how this plays out in a civilized society, it becomes clear that such laws are, must be, really, metaphorical. The rabbis are clearly correct in determining that the intent of the Torah is that people are compensated for the value of the injury done to them. That is the only truly ‘fair’ way to restore what is in most ways impossible to restore.
This is taken to the extreme when we consider capital punishment. Killing a killler does not bring back the person the killer killed. The murderer’s victim is still dead. You can’t ever restore what was taken away. The Jewish view of capital punishment is, as you would imagine, complex.
Now, what in the world could have happened this week that would inspire, or necessitate really, my talking about capital punishment. Oh, right. Navy SEALS stormed a compound in Pakistan last Sunday and shot Osama Bin Laden dead.
You will hear all sorts of opinions about this; some will be motivated by political posturing. Others by a lamentable naivite that refuses to see or admit that there is real evil in the world. Still others will condemn this action because we should have had a trial for Bin Laden.
There are those, and you will certainly see them on television if you don’t run into them at the office or facebook or the parking lot, that say all killing is wrong and nothing justifies taking a human life. That’s certainly a noble sentiment; if everyone felt that way, the world would indeed be a better place.
These people may trot out this week’s Torah verse as an example of such ‘backward’ thinking; “eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” said Gandhi.
Killing Bin Laden was not about ‘eye for an eye’. Bin Laden had the blood of thousands upon thousands on his hands. He was actively leading one of the most dangerous Terrorist networks in the world. He wasn’t a captured Nazi war criminal. He was on the field of battle in the way his type defines it, that is to say, ordering the death of women and children while cowering behind a house full of women and children.
Does his death solve anything, or resolve the underlying problems in our world that give rise to Bin Ladens? Of course not.
My understanding of the Jewish response to the death of Bin Laden is, as most Jewish responses are, based on multiple ideas; the first that we are trying to build a better world, where universal peace and respect are the order of the day and the second idea that we are very far away from that place.
The Torah teaches us that if a thief is found tunneling into your house at night, that he can be killed without fear of a murder charge. After all, he’s sneaking in because he fears he will be discovered. That means he knows he must be prepared to be confronted and it is safe to assume he is armed. And since it is the nature of thieves to not want to be caught, one can assume he will attack someone who confronts him.
You protect yourself. You protect your family. You protect your community and your nation. You do what you need to do.
The rabbis took this idea of self-defense and took it a step further. They taught “If someone is coming to kill you, get up earlier than he does and kill him first.”
Now, that’s not a nice thought, nor is it ‘spiritual’ or ‘holy’. It’s practical. And it’s based on the belief that life is the greatest gift God gives us and we are obligated to protect it. Even if it means we have to kill someone to do it.
You will notice, however, that it does not go on to say “and then run out into the streets chanting USA USA! We’re number one! We’re number one! Hey, Al Qa’ida– In! Your! Face!
Many of you will be familiar with the scenes of joy and celebration that engulfed certain corners of the world when the Towers came down nearly ten years ago, or the joyous back-slapping and dancing that occurs whenever Israeli soldiers or civilians are lynched. Or even more recently, the distasteful and undignified way in which those carrying out the execution of Saddam Hussein behaved, making him (making him!) seem the civilized one.
So, Osama Bin Laden is dead, and may his name be blotted out. We should be happy and proud that we got him and did so in a daring, bold and courageous way. We should not for a moment deny ourselves a moment of satisfaction.
Neither should we behave as though our college basketball team just won the NCAA tournament. The dead slain by Bin Laden and his cronies are still dead. Terror and hatred are still very much alive in this world. Bin Laden, however, will never plot another day and whoever takes his place will do so knowing that we see them tunneling in the night, and we have set our alarm clocks very, very early.
It is also appropriate to remark upon the great tragedy that is Bin Laden, a man born to wealth and possessed of passion, charisma and undeniable leadership gifts. Would that he had been a force and voice not of hatred and death but of peace and conciliation. He was a product of great evil and the producer of still more.
The shame is that we must be happy at the news of his death because he was a wicked, evil, hateful, repulsive, cowardly, backward, thuggish, satanic force in the world. He killed my friends and my friends friends. I don’t rejoice in his death so much as I rejoice in the fact that it was Navy SEALS that killed him. That they found him tunneling and got up earlier in the morning than he does.
And because of them, tomorrow, you can sleep a bit later. God Bless America and Shabbat Shalom.
