Jewish law’s death penalty jurisprudence

Date

2024-02

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Yeshiva University

YU Faculty Profile

Abstract

Once a staple of criminal punishment in many societies, the death penalty is now morally contested. This paper will examine the death penalty and its moral validity from the perspective of Jewish law.... The Torah prescribes the death penalty for certain egregious transgressions. In this paper, I will identify the core principles upon which the death penalty is based, and analyze the intricate interplay between them. These principles, I will show, include (i) the value of justice (מידת הדין ), (ii) the removal of the threat of evil from the midst of Israel ( ובערת הרע מקרבך ), and (iii) educating the community about the immorality of specific sins in order to deter individuals from pursuing such behavior ( וכל ישראל ישמעו ויראו ).... I will then discuss how the fundamental principle necessitating that the death penalty be carried out by Man is the Torah’s concept of communal responsibility and culpability for sins performed publicly in their midst (ערבות ). I will show how this principle obligates the active participation of the community, as represented by the court, in responding firmly to heinous transgressions worthy of death committed in their midst, so as to set the ethical tone and milieu of the community.... I will then show how these principles are modified and curbed to an extent by God’s mercy on the sinner (מידת הרחמים )... I will then close with a discussion of the relevance of these principles for today... To illustrate these points, I will not only analyze the intricacies of the laws of the Jewish death penalty, but also compare and contrast it to its Noahide counterpart and other offshoots of the death penalty in Jewish law.

Description

Undergraduate honors thesis / Open access

Keywords

Jewish law, LAW/JURISPRUDENCE, death penalty, capital punishment, punishment

Citation

Finkelstein, N. B. (2024, February). Jewish law’s death penalty jurisprudence [Unpublished undergraduate honors thesis, Yeshiva University].