DEUT862 See [[LEV502]] Leviticus 19:16 stand ISAACS 6-7

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DEUT860 Knowing how to act appropriately is often not a simple matter, and can require a lifetime of study. [American President Lyndon Johnson once said, "a president's hardest task is not to do what is right, but to know what is right."] For example, it is not enough to know that the Bible commands, "Justice, justice shall you pursue" [this verse]; we also need to study and deduce in every situation what constitutes acting justly. Having good intentions is not enough. For example, Immanuel Kant, perhaps the most esteemed philosopher of the past three centuries, argued, on moral grounds, that it was forbidden to lie to a murderer who asked where his intended victim had gone (see page 423). Hillel's principle dictates otherwise. If you would find it unconscionable for someone to answer a murderer truthfully as to your whereabouts, then assume that others (perhaps with the exception of Kant) would agree. Therefore, in such a situation, tell a lie (see pages 424 –– 427). That Hillel intended his summary of Judaism's essence to be taken literally is reflected in the fact that, when the non-Jew accepted this teaching as valid, Hillel converted him. [While there is no indication in the Talmud that the non-Jew committed himself to observing Judaism's ritual laws, talmudic commentators insist that Hillel, a man of unusual perspicacity, was confident that the man would become a fully observant Jew. Nevertheless, this story suggests that the teaching of Judaism to potential converts should focus disproportionately, though not exclusively, on Judaism's ethical teachings.]

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DEUT861 See [[LEV353]] Leviticus 19:12 swear TELVOL 1 420

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DEUT864 This teaches us that it is a mitzvah for a beth-din to seek out defenses for the accused in capital cases (Yerushalmi Sanhedrin 5:2)

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DEUT863 (Continued from [[LEV856]] Leviticus 20:25 revolting TZADIK 287-91). And he must be zealous to seek peace and pursue it, as it is written [Tehillim 34:15): "Seek peace and pursue it." And he must be zealous in seeking out knowledge of Torah and of the Blessed Creator, as it is written (Hoshea 6:3): "And we will know, we will run to know Hashem." And so have our Sages said (Avos 4:13): "Exile yourself to a place of Torah." And one must be zealous in seeking righteousness, as it is written [this verse]: "Righteousness, righteousness shall you pursue," and (Yeshayahu 51:1): "Listen to me, pursuers of righteousness, seekers of Hashem." And one must be zealous to transcribe books that he must study from; or, if he sees or hears a new interpretation, he must be zealous to write it down and not wait until he forgets it. (Continued at [[EXOD155]] Exodus 12:17 matzos TZADIK 291-3).

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DEUT866 See [[NUM431]] Numbers 35:34 defile OXFORD 476

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DEUT865 (Continued from [[LEV699]] Leviticus 19:18 love TZADIK 157). Until now we have spoken of the evils of cruelty, but there are instances in which one must conduct himself with cruelty: Against the wicked--as stated by Iyov (Iyov 29:17): "And I broke the jaws of the villain and cast the prey from his teeth," and as the Torah prescribes death and stripes for the wicked, as it is written [this verse]: "And you shall stone them." ... And one must be cruel in judgment, not to pity one's relatives, loved ones, or the poor, but to mete out justice to them. ... And one must be cruel to the wicked, not to pity them. Our Rabbis have said (Koheles Rabbah 7:16): "All who are merciful where they should be cruel ultimately are cruel where they should be merciful." Similarly, we find with King Shaul that because he was merciful to Agag, there descended from him Haman, who became a persecutor of the Jews (Megillah 13a). One must also be cruel to his body to exert himself always to do the Blessed Creator's will and not to be merciful to it by pampering it and following the dictates of his heart. He must be cruel to himself to subdue his evil inclination, to live a life of affliction, to study Torah and to fill the mitzvos even if this is very difficult for him. He should not be overly cruel to himself to the point of harming his body, but he should take the middle course. (Continued at [[DEUT650]] Deuteronomy 13:18 merciful TZADIK 161).

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DEUT867 According to Jewish tradition, the corpus of Oral Law was given along with the Written Torah at the very same time, in order to render the bare bones legal system of Torah verses into a working Jewish society of law for everyday living. Therefore, if we examine the details of capital punishment along with the details of its oral laws, we will discover that it was almost impossible to actually punish a perpetrator of any of these crimes or sins with the death penalty. For example, while the Torah says that a court needs two witnesses to convict a murderer [this verse], it does not set down the conditions or details about those witnesses or what they saw. The details of all the conditions that need to occur, which are specified in the Oral Law, make it almost impossible to actually convict a murderer or perpetrator of any of the sins mentioned above. The Talmud on tractates Sanhedrin and Makkot discusses the specific elements and conditions of all that must occur in order to convict a murderer in a Jewish court. For example, the two witnesses have to be adult Jewish men who keep the Commandments, know the Oral Law fairly well, and have legitimate professions. Both witnesses must have been able to see each other at the time of the act or sin. The witnesses must be able to speak clearly, without any speech impediment or hearing deficit. They are invalidated if they are related to the accused or to each other. In addition, the witnesses have to give a warning to the person right before the sin, saying that the sin he or she is about to commit is a capital offense. If the warning is not delivered within proximally ten seconds before the sin/crime, it is not valid. In that short time period after the warning, the sinner has to respond that he or she is familiar with the punishment, is going to commit the crime/sin anyway, and then begin to act immediately thereafter. In court, the following conditions must also be present: The judges have to examine each witness separately, and if even one point of their evidence is contradictory (even the eye color of the sinner), the witnesses' testimony is not admitted. Of the twenty-three Jewish judges in a capital case, a simple majority vote of twelve to eleven is not enough to convict (it needs to be at least thirteen to ten) and if all twenty-three unanimously vote to convict, the sinner goes free (based on the logic that if at least one judge cannot find something exculpatory about the accused, then there is something wrong with the court). Thus, it would be nearly impossible to satisfy each and every one of these conditions. While the punishment of death for sins or crimes is clearly stated in order to show the severity of each sin or act, and while the person who commits such crimes may indeed deserve to be killed, in practice, Judaism and Jewish courts could almost never actually convict and put someone to death.

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DEUT868 See [[DEUT848]] Deuteronomy 16:20 justice DORFFDRAG 114-5

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DEUT869 See [[LEV502]] Leviticus 19:16 stand ISAACS 6

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