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DEUTERONOMY — 19:13 pity

DEUT943 (Continued from [[NUM392]] Numbers 33:52 destroy BLOCH 63-4). The same admonitory phrase was also used in the second area of concern, the protection of human life (Deuteronomy 19:13, 21). The sanction of the death penalty as a deterrent against murder and other crimes did not violate biblical standards of morality. Indeed, no nation prior to the twentieth century expressed any misgivings about the propriety of capital punishment. Yet as far back as the sixth century B.C.E. the prophet Ezekiel alleged that God is averse to the death penalty. "Have I any pleasure at all the wicked should die?, says the Lord God, and not rather that he should return from his ways and live?" (18:23).

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DEUTERONOMY — 19:13 pity

DEUT944 The Talmud teaches: "From where do we know that if someone pursues another [that is, an innocent person] to kill him that the pursued should be saved at the cost of the pursuer's life? The Bible teaches, 'Do not stand idly by while your brother's blood is shed'" (Sanhedrin 73a). In other words, if we have great strength, fighting ability, or possess a weapon, we should use it to save an endangered person's life even if it means killing the pursuer. [When a person sees a pursuer pursuing a colleague to kill him… and he has the potential to save the pursued from the pursuer and does not do so... such a person violates two negative commandments, 'You must show him [in this case, the pursuer] no pity' [this verse], and 'Do not stand by while your brother's blood is shed'" (Maimonides," Laws of Murder and Preservation of Life" 1:15). If the threat can be averted by injuring the assailant in the leg or arm, we should do so. Jewish law regards it as murder if one intentionally kills the assailants (See Sanhedrin 74a and Maimonides, "Laws of Murder and Preservation of Life" 1:13). However, if the pursuer seems intent on killing or seriously hurting his victim, then you should stop the attacker by any means necessary, including killing. Your goal should be to use the minimum force necessary to prevent a criminal act. However, when the pursuer's intent cannot be ascertained, the primary goal, according to Jewish law, it is to protect the pursued (see Sefer HaChinnuch, commandment 600). ... Similarly, when police confront an assailant who has a weapon and is threatening them, they should try to preserve his life by disabling him. But they are not required to put their own lives at risk. In the words of an ancient biblical expression, damo b'rosho ("his blood is on his head"; see, for example, Joshua 2:19 and Ezekiel 33:4).

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DEUTERONOMY — 19:14 boundary

DEUT945 It is a negative commandment not to encroach beyond a neighbor's boundary, specifically in the Land of Israel as Scripture says, You shall not move your neighbor's landmark … in your inheritance which you shall inherit [this verse]--which means taking some of his land. If a person entered his neighbor's domain by even the breath of a finger, even outside the Land of Israel -- if it was by main force, he is thus a robber; if it was by stealth, he is a thief.

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DEUTERONOMY — 19:14 landmarks

DEUT947 According to most decisors of Jewish law, intellectual property is considered actual property. Thus, all the laws prohibiting stealing also apply to taking copyrighted material without permission from or payment to the owner. … There are a few Rabbis who believed that an idea cannot be owned, and thus copying intellectual property or books is not stealing per se. Nevertheless, they forbade the practice of copying for different reasons in Jewish law. ... The first reason given is that if a secular law prohibits copying, then Jewish law must follow secular law (in areas that do not conflict with Jewish law). This principle is discussed many times in the sources and it is brought down as Jewish law in numerous places by Shulchan Aruch (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 55:11, Choshen Mishpat 369:6; Rema, Yoreh De'ah 165:1, Choshen Mishpat 207:115, 236:9). ... The second reason is the prohibition of encroaching on someone else's business, which is forbidden in Judaism, ([this] Torah verse). Chatam Sofer specifically says that anyone who will cause others to lose money as a result of copyright infringement and copying anything owned by someone else is guilty of this sin (Responsa of Chatam Sofer, Section 5, Choshen Mishpat 79). (It is estimated that the recording and film industries lose billions of dollars a year because people download songs and films for free instead of paying for them.) The third reason is what is called in legal terms "accepted practice law." Whenever there is a legitimate agreement among the people of the city or any particular industry, this is regarded as binding in Jewish law (Rema, Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat 37:22). Since copyright infringement is agreed upon by most law-enforcing countries, this agreement, even if not official law, is binding in Jewish law.

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DEUTERONOMY — 19:14 landmarks

DEUT948 Another principle related to theft is hasagat g'vul, or "moving boundaries." Hasagat g'vul provides an excellent illustration of how a concept has evolved over time: from a simple rule in the Torah not to steal land by moving a boundary marker, the tradition has evolved into a prohibition against unfair competition, and then this is further extended to protect intellectual property. Hasagat g'vul literally means "moving a boundary," and the concept is rooted in a prohibition found in the Torah. "You shall not remove your neighbor's landmark." [This verse] In other words, do not steal his land by moving the landmarks used to delineate the boundaries of his field. The Talmud extends this concept to tradespeople in competition. In the Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 21b, we find the following teaching: "If a resident of a cul-de-sac set up a mill to grind grain for others, and then a fellow resident of the cul-de-sac comes and sets up a mill in the same street, the law is that the first one can stop the second one, for he can say to him, 'You are cutting off my livelihood!'" The same discussion in the Talmud brings another example--namely, that fisherman have to respect each other's fishing areas, even though the fish themselves are ownerless: "Fishing nets must be kept away from [the hiding place of] a fish [that has been spotted by another fisherman] the full length of the fish's swim." The Rabbis did, however, recognize that competition can be a good thing, bringing lower prices, and that other people--competitors--are entitled to make a living as well. The Talmud provides several examples of limits to the ability to argue "you are interfering with my livelihood." This is one of them: Certain basket-sellers brought baskets to Babylon [to sell]. The townspeople came and stopped them [because they did not want the competition], so they [the basket sellers] appeal to Ravina. He said, "They have come from outside [the town], and they may sell to the people from outside [the town]. This restriction, however, applies only to the market day, but not to other days; and even on the market day only for selling in the market, but not for going around the houses." B. Bava Batra 22a. We can see in this example that the Rabbis were concerned about balancing the livelihood of the local basket-sellers against the desire of the townspeople for competition and the ability of the itinerant basket-sellers also to make a living. In the last few hundred years, the principle of hasagat g'vul, not to move boundaries, has even been extended as a rationale for the protection of intellectual property. The Rabbis see it as a natural extension: since the Talmud, for example, expressed a concern about protecting the livelihood of a fisherman who had invested effort in a particular fish run, it follows that we should also protect the livelihood of someone who has invested effort in creating something new, such as a book, a song, or an invention. Respecting boundaries is a fundamental principle that applies to many of our business relationships. Some of the ways this principle finds expression and contemporary business situations are these: One must honor confidentiality agreements between an employer and employee, or between companies. One must have respect for the intellectual property rights of others. Anti-competitive behavior--for example, using predatory pricing to drive competitors out of the market so you can raise your prices afterward--is prohibited. The balance the Rabbis tried to strike and extending the concept of hasagat g'vul to unfair competition is exactly what anti-trust laws try to accomplish--to permit competition but to put limits on competition to avoid situations that are patently unfair. (By Barry J. Leff, "Jewish Business Ethics")

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DEUTERONOMY — 19:14 landmarks

DEUT949 Some of the decisions in favor of restraints on competition were from the biblical commandment (Deuteronomy 19:14) against removing a neighbor’s landmark (the stones which served as the boundary markers between fields) -- hasagat g’vul. The sages queried the purpose of such an injunction, since the Torah had already forbidden theft, which hasagat g’vul is. They answered that this injunction taught that whoever annexed his neighbor’s domain in the land of Israel was guilty of two transgressions-- theft and hasagat g’vul. Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Rotzeakh, chapter 12, halakhah 12, based on Mishnah, Avodah Zarah, chapter 1, mishnah 7. The rabbinic legislators following this broader application expanded the concept of hasagat g’vul to encroachment on another's livelihood. ... in most cases the limitation on encroaching on the livelihood of one's neighbor did not apply to those cases where such competition would lead only to a decline in profitability, but primarily to cases involving the total destruction of the other’s livelihood. Furthermore, the restriction was, as often as not, limited in time, in effect providing a “breathing space” until the market adjusted itself.

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DEUTERONOMY — 19:14 misleads

DEUT950 One who speaks or listens to lashon hara is also subject to the curse of אָר֕וּר מַשְׁגֶּ֥ה עִוֵּ֖ר בַּדָּ֑רֶךְ, “Cursed is one who misleads a blind man on the way” (Devarim 27:18). It is well known that the intent of this pasuk is to curse someone who places a stumbling block before another person, causing him to transgress. This course is similar to the prohibition of וְלִפְנֵ֣י עִוֵּ֔ר לֹ֥א תִתֵּ֖ן מִכְשֹׁ֑ל, “Before a blind person do not place a stumbling block” (Vayikra 19:14), regarding which we explained, in negative commandment 4, that one who speaks or listens to the lashon hara violates this prohibition.

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DEUTERONOMY — 19:15 single

DEUT952 A good name is so important that giving someone a bad name is a vile Jewish offense: "R. Eleazar b. Perata said: Come and see how great is the power of an evil tongue! The ten spies who brought back an evil report against the wood and stones of the land of Israel received a severe punishment; how much the more so will this happen to one who bad-mouths his neighbor! (Ar. 15a). A similar story is told in a legal context. Under Jewish law, one witness is not enough to convict someone of a crime. "It once happened that Tobias sinned and Zigud alone came and testified against him before R. Papa. Since one witness does not constitute definitive proof, R. Papa had the witness ZIgud punished. R. Papa explained, the Torah says: 'One witness shall not rise up against a man' [this verse], so by testifying against him, you have brought him into ill repute" (Pes. 113b). As children, we proved how self-righteous we were if we responded to someone who called us something awful by screeching out: "Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me." Today we know how false that is, for a "bad name" can be hurtful indeed.

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