Shabbat Table Topics – Parashat Ki Tetze/0/en

Shabbat Table Topics – Parashat Ki Tetze

This topic has not yet undergone editorial review

Effective Punishment

Devarim 25:11-12 describes the administering of bodily punishment in a case of assault, demanding to cut off the hand of a woman who has intervened in a brawl and seized the private parts of a male.  Other verses seem to imply a punishment of mutilation as well, as in the famous call for "eye for an eye, tooth for tooth".

• Is such "measure for measure" punishment the the fairest form of justice, or "cruel and unusual" punishment?
• In setting penalties for crimes, which of the following objectives should take precedence: compensation to the victim, rehabilitation of the criminal, retribution, or deterrence? What does this law suggest? Is this the norm or exception in Torah?
• The overwhelming majority of Talmudic sages rule that in the case of bodily harm, the guilty party pays restitution rather than being mutilated. But is this the simple interpretation of the verses in the Torah? Does the peshat of the Biblical texts differ from the Rabbinic verdict? If so, why is this? And, most importantly, how can the peshat and derash be reconciled? See "עַיִן תַּחַת עַיִן" – An Eye for an Eye.