Justice, Justice

People are obsessed with justice. We demand that murderers be locked up. Rapists deserve no second chance. The death penalty is not used nearly enough. Why do the good continually have to suffer instead of those who really deserve it (and we all know who they are!).

The Torah too is suffused with ideals of justice. Did you know, to choose just one example, that a child can be put to death for disabusing the fifth commandment? Or that an idolater must be executed? Or that murderers are to find no place of refuge from the fury of justice?

And we ask, “Why me? Why do I have to bear the wounds of terror? Just look at all the people speeding by! Why did that cop have to pick on me??”

Dorothy Sayers wrote, “When we demand justice, it is always justice on our behalf against other people. Nobody, I imagine, whatever ask for justice to be done upon him for everything he ever did wrong.”

It does not take a quantum leap of imagination to use this notion about people who cheat on their taxes. “Let them get what's coming to them.” Now, when they ever say this about themselves? I would like to meet the person who states, “Boy, am I glad they caught me breaking the law and pressed charges!”

A paradox: no one wishes to be found guilty of crimes while we fervently hope for others to be punished for the same or similar transgressions.

And, if there is an order to the universe; if God dispenses rewards and punishments, why does it seem that we never get what we really deserve?  I have yet to meet a single soul who asks, “Rabbi, why not me?  I was a “no good” person.”  It is, I believe, that thee word “justice” has a double meaning. Justice applies to the discovery of our innocence while also meaning punishing others.

Sayers continues, “We want justice - we want revenge; and that is why, when justice is done upon us, we cry out that god is vindictive.”

What do we deserve?  Do we merit grace or pain?  I have often thought that the best determination of what we deserve is to approach the most honest person we know (or our fiercest antagonist) and ask them to tell us what hey really think of us.  Few would dare take up that challenge.  This speaks volumes.

A great truth from the Talmud.  A human being should always carry two pieces of paper in opposite pockets.  On one should be written, I am created from the dust and earth.”  On the other, “I am created in the image of God.”  That is us.

Just Justice

An ancient source states: “When the mountains bear grain, people enjoy peace.”

Want increases anxiety; it produces jealousy and desire.  When people have work, when they have income, when dependents look to them for sustenance – they generally act with care and deliberation.  On the other hand, when a society is fearful, when they look for food and find none, when work is sporadic or non-existent – people become suspicious and potentially hateful. 

A just society is one that has both expectations of the individual with attendant responsibilities along with the possibility of being lifted out of poverty when life becomes too oppressive.  We are our brother’s keeper and as such need to learn morality in our religious institutions and schools.  There is a right and wrong.

A great Jewish thinker once suggested that a ‘just society is determined by the way it treats its poor.’  Few people would ever doubt that the privileged are denied justice.  What we need to be concerned with is that the underprivileged receive the same treatment.

I therefore make two suggestions:

1. We need to constantly learn and teach not just mathematics and science but morality as well.

2. Everyone deserves the opportunity to work and learn and eat.  There are times in a person’s life when they are impoverished of spirit.  At such times, it is the responsibility of the larger community to help them reestablish their ability to be self-sufficient and a contributing member of society.