DEUT1071 Kevod ha-Beriyot: Human Dignity in Halakhah. The most fundamental assumption of Jewish ethics is that there is something intrinsically and ineradicably sacred about the human person, the human body and spirit as such. … Human dignity is arguably the foundational and most aspirational ideal of Jewish law. The injunction to avoid humiliating or contemptuous behavior takes legal precedence over all other Rabbinic rulings. [See Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 19b; Shabbat 81a-b, 94b; Eruvin 41b; Megillah 3b; Bava Kamma 79b; Menahot 37b, 38a. The parallel text in the Jerusalem Talmud (JT) presents the opinion of R. Zeira that even Torah commandments are temporarily overridden when they conflict with human dignity (JT Kil. 9:1).] The Rabbis thus designate human dignity as the litmus test for their sacred law, a seeming recognition that were the law to participate in dishonoring the human person, it would betray its own raison d'etre. What are some of the practical implications of this lofty principle?... 1. We are not to debase the human body. For many authorities, the idea that the human body is the corporeal representation of divinity gives rise to legal prohibitions against tattooing and multiple piercings, not only outright abuse and degradation of the body. The law prohibits dishonoring even the dead body of a criminal convicted of a capital crime. (Deuteronomy 21:23, Rashi ad. loc.). (By Melissa Weintraub)