What Is Retribution?

This month has been a tough month again for the sanity of religion and sometimes, when we look at the horrific events that seem to engross the Middle East, one wonders how God must feel at the aspect of such cruelty again being depicted in His name. I am a Jew, and thus our history is covered in blood- stained attacks against us, people trying to justify our slaughter throughout the ages. Now we see others that cite holy texts as justification for the bloody treatment of so many.
The Lex talionis is the section in the Bible on the law of retribution and justice that God seems to demand. It is in the book of Exodus and is often misunderstood. ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,’ seems to give justification for the cruelty that humanity has done and will do to right a wrong done to one or one’s family.
In truth, this is not what God asks. It is the opposite. So the question is once again asked, “What is retribution and who has the right to seek it out and how should it be unloaded?”
The quote from Exodus 21:24 reads “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25. Burning for burning, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. 26. And if a man strikes the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, and destroys it; he shall let him go free for his eye’s sake. 27. And if he strikes out his manservant’s tooth, or his maidservant’s tooth; he shall let him go free for his tooth’s sake.”
On the surface the biblical quote seems to be pretty exact in asking for revenge, but the Talmud (ancient rabbinic commentary) turns this quote on its head. The Talmud in Baba Kama 83b states “Does the Divine Law not say ‘Eye for eye’? Why not take this literally to mean (putting out) the eye (of the offender)? — Let not this enter your mind, for it is not literal punishment rather to pecuniary compensation.”
The Talmud looks at the quote and sees it rather as a case of civil law and the just amount of payment needs to be judged as for the eye or the tooth rather than a literal removing of the eye to seek justice.
The Talmud seems to take the biblical tradition of what God seeks in the role of punishment to mean that punishment needs to be determined by justice rather than revenge and thus one must not let their emotions overtake the concept of righteousness in the pursuit of justice.
The Talmud thus believes that if the world seeks a literal eye for an eye, the world would become blind by constant stakes for revenge.
I cling to these principles as this month unravels and we see the cruelty of the world of religion devolving in the Middle East and Africa. My family mostly came from Europe where they often hid in fear as their Christian neighbors would rise up in pogroms citing some unbelievable slight such as a false blood libel or an ancient call for revenge against killing Jesus.
In modern times, Europe outgrew its obsession with religious purity, but sadly we now see that barbarism of religious purity has spread to the Arab world and the African continent and sadly the Christians in those communities are experiencing the pogroms and blood libels once accused against us as there are no more Jews left in the Arab world to accuse.
In such a bloody world we must see the humanity in our faiths and seek a higher ability to find compassion in humanity and our Muslim cousins as they work out this bloody civil war against radical fundamentalism that seems entwined with religious nationalism. We must remind the world that the one universal call God asks of us is to seek justice and embrace compassion and somehow these words of God need to pierce the hearts of the world so that we can embrace sanity in our faiths without calls for revenge.
This past week we read the section in our week’s parshah that speaks about an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and I realized that it’s tempered with the words of Ezekiel 18:1-3:
“And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, what do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying: The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge? As I live, says the Lord God, you shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine.”
These brave words from the prophet are meant to teach us that God does not ask us to seek revenge but to move on when the time comes.
My people were mistreated by Christians for many years. Now, Christians are our greatest friends. We Jews have learned to forgive and in time the world must learn to forgive our Muslim cousins as well, hopefully by teaching the world that revenge is never meant to continue forever and just as God forgave his children we must learn to forgive each other even when wronged.
Looking at this verse personally we must realize that as angry as we may feel when wronged we can’t continue to have hatred in our hearts forever it can never lead to good things. Let’s look at the crazy world we see before us and focus on the personal and try to find forgiveness from others who have wronged us and maybe try to right some wrongs we have done ourselves, let that good deed spread and maybe it can find a place in the bad parts of the world so in need of forgiveness rather than retribution.
Rabbi Jeffrey Lipschultz is the spiritual leader Beth Judah Temple in Wildwood NJ. He welcomes your comments at dvjewish@rof.net