Capital punishment? Even a casual reader will inevitably notice that there’s a whole lot of it going on in the Bible. A significant sampling, in fact, can be found of this week’s Torah portion Parashat Mishpatim, which spells out several vivid capital offenses, from bestiality to insulting one’s parents.
Thank goodness that the Bible does [...]
Archive for the ‘Capital Punishment’ Category
The Murderous Court
Posted in Capital Punishment, Current Events, Human Rights, Judaism, Religion, Torah Commentary on February 1, 2008 | 6 Comments »
Sick to My Stomach
Posted in Capital Punishment, Human Rights, Iraq, Politics/Middle East, Purim, Religion on January 3, 2007 | 3 Comments »
Like many of you, I couldn’t avoid images of Saddam’s hanging blasting out at me from every corner of the web this past week. The top posts on most blogs invariably advertised the most “uncensored” version of the now infamous cell phone footage of the Hussein execution. Not a proud week to be a blogger…
Apart [...]
Bearing Witness
Posted in Capital Punishment, Human Rights, Judaism, Religion, Torah Commentary on September 5, 2008 | 1 Comment »
From this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Shoftim:
A person shall be put to death only on the testimony of two or more witnesses; no one shall be put to death on the testimony of a single witness.
(Deuteronomy 16:6)
Taking its cue from Torah verses such as this, Jewish law places a powerfully high value on the importance [...]
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