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Parshat Hashavua
Rabbi Michael Laitner Parshat Balak What about Judicial Process? ‘And G-d said to Moses, take all the leaders of the people, and hang them up against the sun, and the wrath of G-d will retreat from Israel. And Moses said to the judges of Israel, let each man kill his neighbour if the neighbour is attached to the idolatry of Baal-peor’. (Bemidbar 24,4-5) The evil pagan prophet, Bilam, failed to curse the Jewish people when hired to do so by Balak, king of Moab (today an area in Jordan). As a last resort, he advised Balak to tempt the Jewish people with immoral and idolatrous behaviour, which are both serious sins. Many questions arise from these two verses. We will examine Moses’ command to the judges. Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, 11th century), the foremost Torah commentator, explains that Moses told each judge to kill two perpetrators. This interpretation is disputed by Ramban (Rabbi Moses ben Nachman, 13th century), since the Babylonian Talmud (TB Sanhedrin 2a is one example) tells us that one judge is not able to decide a capital case on his own. Instead, based on the Jerusalem Talmud, (Sanhedrin 10,2) Ramban explains that each judge was required in court to judge the members of its tribe, applying capital punishment if necessary and in line with the law. This approach can also apply to verse 4, maintaining that the hangings took place after due judicial process, and also could explain why Moses spoke to the judges rather than immediately hanging the condemned people. Ultimately, this judgement was suspended, due to the zealousness of Pinchas, which appears in the following verses. Return to Rabbi Laitner Parsha Home |
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