DEUT535 See [[DEUT147]] Deuteronomy 5:1 observe DORFFLOV 27-8

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DEUT543 See [[EXOD63]] Exodus 3:6 hid DORFFOV 38

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DEUT549 See [[EXOD1022]] Exodus 34:6 compassionate DORFFLOV 223

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DEUT597 Given the strong emphasis on the integration of body and soul, it is not surprising that in Jewish law the community's obligations to support healing include not only medical ministrations but psychological and social support as well. The major advances in contemporary medicine, and the American culture of seeking technological solutions for every problem, have accustomed us to focus exclusively on the physical aspects of healing. Long before medicine could do very much to conquer illness, though, the Rabbis realized that social support could make a big difference in the struggle to regain health. They thus decreed the obligation of visiting the sick (biqqur holim), claiming that in visiting the sick we imitate God: "Follow the Lord your God" (this verse). What does this mean? Is it possible for a mortal to follow God's Presence? The verse means to teach us that we should follow the attributes of the Holy One, praised be He. As He clothed the naked, for it is written "And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife coats of skin and clothed them" (Genesis 3:21), so you should clothe the naked. The Holy One, blessed be He, visited the sick, for it is written (after the description of Avraham's circumcision), "And the Lord appeared to him near the oaks of Mamre" (Genesis 18:1), so you should visit the sick. The Holy One, blessed be He, comforted those who mourned … and so should you comfort mourners. The Holy One, blessed be He, buried the dead ... and so should you bury the dead. (B. Sotah 14a.)

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DEUT602 See [[EXOD63]] Exodus 3:6 hid DORFFOV 38

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DEUT1067 After all is said and done, though, the use of corporal punishment, even within permissible parameters, is questionable. The same Book of Proverbs that advocated the use of physical force in raising children (23:13-14) also says, "Educate a child according to his own way." (Proverb 22:6). The Talmud understands this to mean that parents should make age-appropriate demands so as not to put their children into a situation in which corporal punishment would be called for. In other words, parents have a duty to set reasonable standards for their children so they avoid even being tempted to use physical forms of discipline. As the Talmud says, parents must not make it difficult for their children to fulfill the commandment of honoring them. (B. Kiddushin 30a and see Rashi there). Even in the worst of cases – the kind of described by Deuteronomy -- the Talmud could not accept anything like the death penalty. The Rabbis therefore legislated evidentiary procedures that made it impossible ever to attain a capital conviction in such a case. Once having created these barriers, they themselves said, "A wayward and defiant son [subject to execution according to Deuteronomy 21:18–21] never was and never will be." (B. Sanhedrin 71a). If the Rabbis insisted that even courts not go to the limit available to them under biblical law in physically punishing children, parents should certainly limit the physical punishment they inflict – – or, even better, refrain from it altogether. After all, if the parents' duty is to teach the child proper behavior, they should not, in the process of doing so, do to the child exactly what they do not want the child to do to others. Educationally and pragmatically, then, as well as Jewishly, the best policy is not to use physical punishment at all.

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DEUT1079 Courts may impose lashes for trespasses of the law, but in doing so, even they had to take due care to preserve the dignity of God and of the culprit, who is, still, God's human creature. (For the Torah's rescriction on the number of lashes, see Deuteronomy 25:3). Nowadays, when Jews live under the jurisdiction of national legal systems that treat Jews as equal citizens and do not carve out separate civil and criminal authority for Jewish courts over Jews, even Jewish courts no longer have the authority to beat others; individuals have even less authorization to do so. Indeed, the Rabbis took the notion of the integrity of the individual so far as to say that those who slander others (and certainly those who cause them physical injury) are as though they had denied the existence of God. J. Pe'ah 1:1. Conververely, Rabbi Eliezer said, "Let your fellow's honor be as dear to you as your own." M. Avot 2:15.

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DEUT1186 See [[LEV835]] Leviticus 20:10 adultery DORFFLOV 87-8

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DEUT1188 See [[GEN49]] Genesis 1:26 image DORFFLOV 22

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DEUT1320 The Torah provides for divorce (this and following three verses), and so from our earliest texts the Jewish tradition has not consider divorce a sin. On the contrary, at times divorce is appropriate and possibly even a Jewish and moral good. That would certainly be true when the marital bond includes abuse or when it causes severe harm to the self-esteem of one or both spouses; but it might even be true when a couple simply cannot get along, despite counseling and other modes of trying to repair the relationship. On the other hand, though, the Talmud teaches that the Temple altar itself sheds tears upon the termination of a marriage (B. Gittin 90b), suggesting that divorce is a source of immense sadness to all involved, not only to the couple and the family but even to the community and the world. Divorce is sometimes the right thing to do, sometimes a tragedy, and often both.

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