Death Penalty and Talmud Law, Part 4: US v. Talmud Law

In Sentence and Execution (Part 1 of "Death Penalty and Talmud Law") we watched the US Supreme Court create a precedent by accepting for consideration a brief based wholly on Talmud law. We watched as Israeli and American legal experts recommended that, on the issue of humanitarianism and the death penalty, that the US should use Talmud law as the exemplar.

What was missing from this presentation? The Orthodox Jewish advocates failed to mention that US and Talmud law are fundamentally incompatible.

In contrast, Talmud law insists on unequal justice under law. Talmudic law holds there is one law for Jews, and one for Gentiles. This is not inconsistent with the Old Testament, in which LORD God decrees that Jews should not enslave other Jews: Gentiles are the proper slaves of Jews.

Laws concerning slaves — bondmen, bondmaid, bondwomen, handmaids, etc. — are found throughout the Talmud in almost every tractate. A sampling of such laws is included in the Appendix: Talmud Slavery Laws.

Gentiles Easy To Convict

Under Jewish law, Gentiles are easy to convict for capital crimes; but it is difficult to convict Jews. The standards of proof are different.

(When excerpting the Talmud, we sometimes omit footnotes and non-germane text. The omission of text is indicated by an ellipsis (…). The full text and footnotes may be found by following the hot link at the end of the excerpt. It is our pleasure to make available the text of the complete tractates cited in this article, so you may read the Talmud in full context.)

Rabbi Adlerstein's statement is also confirmed by Talmud scholar and translator, Rabbi Dr. H. Freedman. In the following quotes, "Noahide" means a non-Jew. Rabbi Dr. Freedman tells us twenty-three judges must sit on a court that hears a capital case against a Jew; when a Gentile is tried on a capital charge, one (Jewish) judge is required.

Laws Different for Jew and Gentile

Not only are the court procedures and the standards of evidence different from one class to the other, the very laws are different. For example, if a Jew murders a Gentile, there is no death penalty.

No Jury of Peers under Talmud Law

Talmud law does not provide for the accused to be tried by a jury of his peers. In Talmud law, the accused is tried by rabbis.

Ox Gets 23 Judges

In case there were any doubt about the place of the Gentile in Talmud law, the following excerpt from Sanhedrin 2a settles the question. Recall that a capital case against a Gentile is heard by one judge. According to Sanhedrin 2a, a capital case against an ox, a hyena, or a serpent is tried by 23 judges.

Perspective on Gentiles

A further perspective in traditional Jewish laws and attitudes concerning Gentiles is contained in What About Gentiles? (18) Of particular interest is the modern study by Rabbi David Bar-Chayim, the head of the Makhon Ben Yishai Institute for Torah Research. Israel National Radio calls Rabbi Bar-Chayim "one of Israel's Leading Torah Scholars." (19) Rabbi Bar-Chayim's essay, The Jews Are Called "Man," offers a definitive statement of the doctrines concerning Gentiles, with extensive references to many Jewish Scriptures. (20)

US Supreme Court Warms to the Talmud

Approximately three years after Nathan and Alyza Lewin filed the Bryan v. Moore amicus curiae brief — a notable event in itself — another notable event took place. A kosher dinner was held to honor the establishment of the National Institute for Judaic Law (NIJL). The dinner was attended by 200 people, including Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Stephen Breyer, Antonin Scalia. Nathan and Alyza Lewin also attended.

The site of the dinner? The United States Supreme Court Building in Washington, DC. The Jewish Week reported the event in this manner:

Noson Gurary is an ordained rabbi of the Chabad Lubavitch sect, and follower of late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Chabad Lubavitch is a movement within the Hasidic (sometimes spelled "Chasidic") branch of Judaism. Rabbi Gurary is the executive director of Chabad of Buffalo, New York. (3) He is co-author of several books on Hasidic and Chabad Lubavitch philosophy. (7) Hasidism embraces a Kabbalistic concept of God, the Ein-Sof, (8), a power reminiscent of "The Force" in George Lucas' Star Wars.

Coming from Where We've Never Been

The Jewish Week explains more of the NIJL project. In the following paragraph, macher is a Yiddish word meaning "big shot," a person with access to authorities. (10)

It is a safe bet that all of Rabbi Gurary's students had been exposed to the Ten Commandments before, and none were encountering them "for the first time" in his classroom. Hence, Rabbi Gurary's term "Jewish law" must refer to Talmud law rather than Biblical law. Thus, Rabbi Gurary's statement reads that Western law "came from" Talmud law — and that is patently false. The sources for law in Europe and America include Roman law, Anglo-Saxon law, and the Western philosophers of Liberty. Neither American nor European law has ever institutionalized legal superiority of Jew over Gentile.

Bush Approves Talmudization of America

Justice Scalia Is a Key Player

The Jerusalem Post reports that Justice Antonin Scalia has high praise Jewish law.

In fact, Rabbi Gurary came up with the idea of the Institute as a result of correspondence with Justice Scalia:

Justice Scalia has sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and its Bill of Rights. Yet, by his attendance at this dinner he clearly indicated his support for an antithetical system: Talmud law. How does he reconcile the two? We are not told.

Talmud vs. Old Testament

Some non-Jews take the position that the Talmud perverted the Old Testament teachings. See, for example, Chapter I of Elizabeth Dilling's The Jewish Religion: It's Influence Today. The question then becomes: If the Talmud perverted Jewish law, what is real, un-perverted Jewish law — the Jewish law of the Old Testament? What was the quality of justice that pervaded the mind-set of the ancient Jews? Should we in America emulate that Old Testament sense of justice?

We have prepared a sampling of Old Testament passages in a compendium called In His Own Image. (21) Let us examine an incident described in Genesis 34.

Shechem is a Gentile, a Hivite. Jacob's daughter, Dinah, catches his eye. Under circumstances not fully described, Shechem seduces Dinah. Shechem loves Dinah tenderly and wants her as his wife. He offers to give any dowry asked for her, and suggests to Jacob's family that their two tribes be joined. While harboring vengeance in their hearts, Jacob's sons (the progenitors of the Tribes of Israel) deceitfully agree to the merger, but insist that the Hivite men be circumcised. The Hivites agree. While the Hivite men are recovering from the operation and still in pain, the Hebrews attack the city, kill all the men, and take the women and children as captives — slaves.

While many religions frown on sex before marriage, most of us understand that unmarried sex happens. If a man — or even the son of the prince — slept with our sister before marriage, few of us would think it appropriate to murder all the other men in the city, loot the fields and buildings, and take the women and children into slavery. Nor is it likely, having done such a thing, that we would find a sympathetic judge or jury to hear our case. In short, what we have here is a very different concept of justice — so different that many of us could not agree it should be called "justice." The Bible passage shows that:

Jacob's final statement on the issue is particularly telling: He complained to his sons that they had put him at odds with the local tribes, and they might retaliate. In no other way did Jacob find fault with their actions.

We have examined each of the Soncino Scriptural index entries for Genesis Chapter 34: there are no comments from the Sages on the injustice in this incident. All apparently approve of the actions of their ancestors.

This is the Old Testament tradition, repeated over and over again through many narratives, as cited in In His Own Image. In particular, note the fate of those who do not follow the Hebrew religion — they are put to death. Is this the tradition of law and justice for which we should trade our Bill of Rights?

A Little Beacon of Light

Many defend the Old Testament because, they say, it contains commandments that regulate human interaction and produce an ordered society. But earlier civilizations had codes of law regulating human society. See, for example, the Code of Hammurabi, who reigned in Babylon between 1795 and 1750 BC. (12) Moses received the Tablets of Stone in 1275 BC. (13) Hammurabi's Code was on public display approximately 500 years before LORD God's conversation with Moses on Mt. Sinai.

In its report of the November, 2002 kosher dinner at the Supreme Court, The Jerusalem Post quotes Rabbi Gurary thus:

How much light Jewish law and its moral values brought to this world is a subject for open, informed discussion. See also Was Jesus a Jew?

Thank you for your consideration of the above,
Carol A. Valentine, Ear at come-and-hear dot com
July 14, 2003 ( This article is on line at http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/capunish_4.html )

NEXT: Blood Ritual 1: Holy Atrocities and Judaism

Endnotes:

This and other Come and Hear™ Studies on Talmudic Judaism can be found online:: http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor
The Jewish Religion: Its Influence Today by Elizabeth Dilling, complete with all 300 exhibits, can be found online:: http://www.come-and-hear.com/dilling
Soncino Babylonian Talmud tractates, with Forewords, Introductions, Glossary, List of Abbreviations, and footnotes. Now you can study the Babylonian Talmud in full context and with the running commentary of the finest scholars of Judaism:: Tractate Berakoth: http://www.come-and-hear.com/berakoth; Tractate Shabbath: http://www.come-and-hear.com/shabbath; Tractate Yebamoth: http://www.come-and-hear.com/yebamoth; Tractate Kethuboth: http://www.come-and-hear.com/kethuboth; Tractate Nedarim: http://www.come-and-hear.com/nedarim; Tractate Nazir: http://www.come-and-hear.com/nazir; Tractate Sotah: http://www.come-and-hear.com/sotah; Tractate Gittin: http://www.come-and-hear.com/gittin; Tractate Baba Kamma: http://www.come-and-hear.com/babakamma; Tractate Baba Mezi'a: http://www.come-and-hear.com/babamezia; Tractate Baba Bathra: http://www.come-and-hear.com/bababathra; Tractate Sanhedrin: http://www.come-and-hear.com/sanhedrin; Tractate Abodah Zarah: http://www.come-and-hear.com/zarah; Tractate Horayoth: http://www.come-and-hear.com/horayoth; Tractate Niddah: http://www.come-and-hear.com/niddah; Tractate Tohoroth: http://www.come-and-hear.com/tohoroth; Search the Talmud http://www.come-and-hear.com/tindex.html
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Appendix: Talmud Slavery Laws

Babylonian Marriage Market by Edwin Long, 1875
Of course, people who are bought and sold are normally called "slaves," and the artist's title is ironic.

Sampling of Slavery Laws and Regulations in the Talmud

The basis for Jewish slavery, and particularly the enslavement of Gentiles, is found in the Old Testament in Leviticus 25:44-46.

The Talmud contains detailed regulations concerning slaves and slavery. Use Search Come and Hear™ to search for "slave" in the Talmud tractates on line. Of those approximately 1,500 files, 301 contain slavery regulations. We have selected five for inclusion here, adding emphasis to aid the reader. An ellipsis (…) indicates text omitted by the Come and Hear™ editor. The full text is available through the cite hot link.

— Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Berakoth 16b (emphasis added)
Soncino 1961 Edition, pages 96-97

While the United States of America renounced and outlawed slavery with the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment, there is no mechanism in Judaism that could vacate or cancel the Old Testament or Talmud slavery laws. And they have not been canceled. Those laws are the Word of God.

Footnotes: Full specifics for each of the printed sources are provided in the Bibliography. Outside URLs were valid at the time this article was written. However, be mindful that URLs do change.