Healing Well of Miriam

ב״ה

One of the Seven Laws of the Universal Noahide Covenant of the Torah is to establish courts of justice.  Establishing courts of JUSTICE is incumbent upon ALL people of the world.  JUSTICE, not merely law.    Nations do have courts of Law, but those laws may be arbitrary and whimsical, depending on the moods of the legislative policymakers at any given time.  Tyrannical governments, such as Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, had laws and courts to enforce them; but they were hardly just.

As a child in 1969, I stood at Zeppelin Stadium in Nuremburg, Germany, where Hitler had declared the Blood Preservation Laws in 1935.  Jews were not allowed to marry or have romantic relationships with Aryan Germans.  It was the law, upheld by their courts.

In 1985 I was involved in the Soviet Jewry movement, the political activism for the release of the Jews from the Soviet Union.  I wrote to a prisoner in the Russian gulag.  I knew he would never be able to write back, and I knew there was a good chance he would never even see my letters.  That was not the point.  It was to let the Russians know that people of the world knew he was there.  He was not forgotten.  It was to hold them accountable, if nowhere else, before Heaven. 

When I was in Cambodia in 2002, I visited the Killing Fields outside Phnom Penh.  There is a towering glass pavilion, stacked with the skulls and the bones of the victims.   The Khmer Rouge killed the upper classes of the society—people who spoke other languages, or wore glasses, or demonstrated any trait that could be deemed “western” —considering them enemies of their revolution.   A school in Phnom Penh was made into a prison, where people were held and tortured in the classrooms.  Those atrocities are “legal”; none of the victims had any recourse whatsoever in any courtroom.   While I was teaching English in Cambodia, I asked the principal of the school if they taught the children history.  He answered that they only taught ancient history, because “no one knows who did what, and they’re still here.” 

In the Soviet Union it was against the law for Jews to learn Hebrew; courts would convict them and send them to prison.  In countries like South Africa, there are laws based on race.  The Communist Chinese have send “dissidents” (people of minority groups, such as the Tibetans and the Uyghurs) to concentration camps, where they are horribly tortured.  All these instances have been completely legal in the courts of law under those regimes. 

While I was living in Israel, I was questioned by the police concerning a charge against my (then) husband.  I was told I may NOT have a lawyer present during questioning, that “this is not America…” the policewoman then quickly added, “…but it’s not Russia either!”  She told me, “We are the police.  It is our job to protect the state. “   I looked at her and asked, “What about the people?”  Under Israeli law, a person can be held without charges.   During the years of the Rabin government there were more Jews under house arrest than had been since the years of the British Mandate.

The United States has led the world in civil rights reform and has the most progressive civil rights laws in the world.  That struggle was long and hard, achieved, though, and officially on the books since the 1960s.  It is something for all Americans to know with pride.  The laws are there; they just need to be acknowledged and upheld.  This nation has led the way in the ideals of justice for the individual since its founding in 1776.  There is no “official” attitude of “protecting the state” in place of the individual citizen.  Yet, the per capita number of people incarcerated in the United States tops ALL nations of the world including South Africa, China, and Russia!  How is this possible?  It makes one wonder who is making money from this…and how in the world are they doing it? 

Many times, whether a person is going to be convicted, and if so, what the sentence will be, depends on the attorney he can afford.  For those poor people who cannot afford one, and one has to be appointed for them, the inexperienced public defender, many times will give erroneous advice, and they end up serving unfair sentences.  On the other hand, for those who can afford the best, they can get away with just about anything.  This is contrary to the law of the Torah that admonishes judges NOT to favor the wealthy over the poor: “ You shall not commit a perversion of justice; you shall not favor the poor and you shall not honor the great; with righteousness shall you judge your fellow” — Leviticus 19:15.  

The Torah has a lot to say about crime and punishment, and details how justice is meted out.  Actually, there is no provision for imprisonment in Torah Law.  Nations surrounding Israel had prisons, but Israel, during the time of the Torah, did not.  The reading of “punishments” for crimes should be understood in a sense of prescriptions for the ailment of the soul that allowed for the crime to be committed in the first place.  The objective of the journey of the soul in the world is tikkun (repair) of, not just the individual soul, but of the cosmic Soul of Adam (all Mankind). So, the punishments described in the Torah are not even simply “consequences” in this world, but serve a higher spiritual purpose for the remedy to the damage in the individual soul, as well as, to the cosmic Soul of Adam. 

One of the most obvious examples of damage repair is restitution for theft.  If a person stole, he was required to pay back MORE than he had taken.  (Notice there is no cutting off the offender’s hand.)  The punishment fit the crime.  He took from the person, he returned in kind, plus more to make amends.   This is the idea of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” (Exodus 21:24, 25; Deuteronomy 19:21).  The punishment should fit the crime.  To impose more is “cruel and unusual punishment,” prohibited by the Eighth Amendment to the American Constitution.

Another part of the “an eye for an eye” passage is “a life for a life.”  From the very beginning, after the Flood of Noah, murder has been a capital crime:  “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God He made man” –Genesis 9:6.  This is part of the Universal code of the Torah, known as the Noahide Laws.  However, the Torah takes into consideration the motive of the killer.  If the killer hated the victim, he is condemned.  On the other hand, if the killer committed the crime accidentally (or, I would add, in self-defense), he could flee to one of the cities of refuge (Deuteronomy 19:1-13).  As stated above, there were no prisons.  The Levites in that city would render judgment in the case.  If he was guilty of intentional murder, he was not given refuge.  If he was not guilty, though, he was admitted to their city, where his days would be spent learning Torah.  The idea was rehabilitation of his soul, for whatever damage there that ALLOWED for him to commit such a crime…even accidentally, for there are no accidents.

Incarceration is an unfortunate necessity in our society, meant to protect society from dangerous (unredeemable) people and to rehabilitate those who can be, with the objective of their re-entering society as contributing members.   Unfortunately, there are many people behind prison walls who really do not deserve to be there.  They are simply being “warehoused”…for some reason.  The damage is not only to them, and to those who love them, but to our society itself, with the loss of these people who could make valuable contribution.