HILLEL DAY SCHOOL Elf5 Mr ei NOW ACCEPTING KINDERGARTEN AND FIRST GRADE ENROLLMENTS FOR FALL 1987 Please do not assume that you cannot afford a Hillel Day School education for your child — Come in and speak with us. Rabbi Robert Abramson, Marcia Fishman, Headmaster Executive Director For further information call Rochelle Itzkovitz, Assistant Principal. 851-2394 — 32200 Middlebelt — Farmington Hills, MI 48018 Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit admits Jewish students of any race, color, national or ethnic origin. Its admission and scholarship programs are non-discriminatory. No child will be denied an education at Hillel because of parents inability to pay the full charges. Tuition allowances will continue to be granted based on individual needs. your advertising dollars do better in THE JEWISH NEWS Call Us Today! 354-6060 TORAH PORTION Taking A Closer Look At 'An Eye For An Eye' RABBI RICHARD C. HERTZ Special to The Jewish News T his week's Torah por- tion, Mishpatim, con- cerns the subject of law. Moses' genius forsaw that un- less law governed relation- ships between individuals, chaos would occur. After giv- ing the monumental Ten Commandments as the basis of all law in Exodus 20, he fleshed out the details of a just society in a series of laws covering the day-to-day relationships of the Israelites. Ordinances dealing with property, personal dam- ages and liability, marriage, divorce, arson, homicide, bor- rowing and lending of money—all these and others formed the Book of the Cove- nant. Some laws were ancient and perhaps codified by-Moses. Moses grew out of the experi- ences of the Israelites coming out of the Sinai desert and into a sedentary, agricultural way of life in Canaan. These were wise and simple practical rules which made for a world of jus- tice. None proved to be more noteworthy than the verse 'in Exodus 21:24 about an "eye for an eye." This was the law of retaliation, known as lex talionis. QAciftfor eternity Eternity Bracelet Eternity Necklace Diamond Studs A gift she will treasure for- ever and ever ...A gift for Eternity The Finest Expressions of Love comes from .. . naptellee GEM/DIAMOND SPECIALIST Established 1919 AVM COMP IT PAM Milli s HAMM ■ 11111, Slit 131 INN MEM M., 111111111111, 18 Friday, February 27, 1987 HOURS: Doily 10:00-5:30 xd, Thurs. 10:00-8:30 sot 10:00-5:00 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS People sometimes say to me, "The Jewish religion is harsh. Look at your Torah! It calls for an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Isn't the Christian reli- gion more humane? The God of the Hebrews was a God of ven- geance. Jesus taught people to turn the other cheek." What such people forget is that the law of retaliation was a much more humane law than what had preceeded it. The Judaism of Moses was not a vindictive religion. In primi- tive times, when someone gouged out an eye, the whole tribe might retaliate and wreak vengeance. There wasn't any other recourse for punishing the guilty. They had no police forces, no jails to house prisoners. Justice was meted out in cruel and primi- tive ways in retaliation fo in- jury. Moses improved on the old ways. He taught that not more but not less should be the punishment. The term lex talionis, law of retaliation, is an ancient term referring to codified numerical equality in every punishment. For example, one eye for one eye, not two. One hand for one hand, not ten, and so on. The Code of Hammurabi (c. 1795- 1750 BCE) treated citizens differently from slaves, men FINE JEWELERS , Dr. Hertz is rabbi emeritus of Temple Beth El. differently from women. A slave for a slave, an eye for an eye, a broken bone for a broken bone. The agents who would carry out the sentence were usually those involved by the misdeed: the plaintiff and his relatives. Moses and his law of lex talionis got away from punishment being a tribal matter. He created the founda- tions for later rabbinic and talmudic courts to base a judi- cial system whereby not the clan nor the tribe but courts of law would hand down justice. Damages became a large body of talmudic law determining the rights of individuals sus- taining a loss. In the tenth century, Saadya Gaon taught, "Suppose a man injures another man's eye so that he loses one-third of his Mishpatim, Shabbat Shekalim: Exodus 21:1-24:18; 30:11-18, II Kings 11:17-12:17, I Samuel 20:18,42 vision. How could a corre- sponding penalty be inflicted on one so that he will lose one- third of his vision, no more and no less?" The law, he said, can- not be applied literally, only figuratively. That the punishmment must fit the crime is basic to civilized law. After all, no eye can be accepted as the precise equiv- alent of another eye. Thus did the ancient prescription of monetary compensation evolve, a predecessor of mod- ern insurance companies. Monetary compensation makes up for damages done if the amount is equitable and as far as possible equivalent. Measure for measure thus substituted legal punishment in place of wild revenge. Incidentally, the law of lex talionis may have been moot. There is no evidence that a single case was ever found in 3,000 years of Jewish history, where the literal application of "eye for eye, tooth for tooth" was ever carried out. What we have in this sidrah, which contains so many differ- ent examples of humane and brotherly concern for the rights of one's fellow man, is a clear step forward in man- kind's quest for law and equity. Ancient severity gradually led to greater humaneness. Ven- geance led to retribution. Guilt is not only avenged but is also punished.