By Rabbi Alberto Sermoneta
We are all ready to take on responsibilities, we all take responsibility when we find ourselves faced with something, perhaps faced with a fact to testify to, yet none of us knows exactly what “justice” means.
These two terms, “justice and responsibility”, which have an apparently similar yardstick, can instead have completely different parameters if referred to us humans or if referred to Him who is above us: to the Eternal One.
If we analyse the text of the Torah, the Pentateuch, we find an endless series of rules concerning the relationship between human beings, the relationship between a man and his fellow, whereas we find a smaller number of rules regarding the relationship between man and G-d; this is because the task entrusted to man on earth, created in the image and likeness of G-d, is to manage social life towards his neighbour. So much so that we repeatedly find a reward for good behaviour between human beings and almost never a reward for the respect that must exist between man and G-d. This is because the Torah itself wishes to give us an indication of what social behaviour among men should be. If we think for a moment, speaking of human and divine justice, about the first two chapters of the book of Genesis, in the entire first chapter, considered the chronology of creation which has been the subject of in-depth study by exegetes, we never find the tetragrammaton, whereas we find it in the second chapter.
In the first chapter we always find Elohim, which does not mean G-d alone (and of this we have certainty in the book of Exodus, precisely in chapter 21 of Exodus, where it is also attributed to human beings), at verse 6 of chapter 21 regarding the administration of justice between master and servant, we find it written: “and his master shall bring him to the Elohim” and then we can do nothing other than translate Elohim as judges; therefore G-d is the judge par excellence!
Elohim is used in the first chapter of Genesis because the Lord G-d tried to create the world with justice, whereas it almost seems that in the second chapter He thought better of it; that is, if He had had to create it with justice alone, the world probably would not be here today. For this reason, He adds the tetragrammaton, which according to rabbinical tradition is considered middat ha rachamim, namely the attribute of divine mercy, where rachamim is the plural of rechem, that is maternal womb; and a mother towards her child, no matter how wayward and distant he may be, cannot use justice, or at least cannot have an attitude of exclusive justice, because all human beings were created in order to be able to make mistakes and then remedy their errors.
The term Elohim derives from an Arabic root illaha which would signify the divine creative force; it is justice par excellence, pure justice which, despite being considered a divine attribute, is nevertheless relative, because G-d creates with justice but then adds mercy, therefore we too, human beings, cannot judge unless we use mercy. But there is also something that we will see in the course of this brief lecture of mine, something that accompanies justice and which is defined as responsibility.
Responsibility and justice can also be two terms where one accompanies the other. In the concept of “arevut” – responsibility, we find one of the greatest institutions attributed to the Jewish people, and it is perhaps the basis of the behaviour that the Jewish people must have towards their neighbour as an example for others to follow.
It is written: “Israel arevim ze ba ze”, “every Jew is responsible for the other”, is the guarantor of the other. When speaking of Judaism, one never speaks of the individual, but rather of “kelal Israel”, namely the Jewish collectivity; every Jew is therefore responsible for all the rest of the people.
This is a very strong concept among the Jewish people and in rabbinic tradition; inasmuch as if we must ask ourselves the reason for certain events, both positive and negative, that happen to our people, we must not merely eat our hearts out saying: “perhaps it is because of me that these things happen!” but we must instead understand that if something happens, it is not solely due to the merit or fault of an individual, but the reasons are to be sought in society, in the kelal. A banal example that often occurs regarding Jews: if, G-d forbid, there is a robbery and by chance among the robbers there is a Jew, the presence of that Jew is immediately highlighted. The same thing also happens in the opposite sense, in a positive way.
This is practically what that rabbinic maxim “every Jew is guarantor for the other” wants to teach us, so much so that in the book of Leviticus at verse 17 of chapter 19 it is said: “do not hate your brother in your heart, surely rebuke your neighbour, so that you may not incur guilt” in any case, when verbs in the imperative are repeated, it means that the Torah emphasises the matter in a special way. Rebuke him, by rebuking your neighbour so that you may not sin! That is, each of us has the duty to rebuke a person at least twice. In Talmudic terminology this is called hattra’ah, that is the warning; a warning that must be given in public, before witnesses, so that whoever does so may not be guilty of remaining silent before someone who finds themselves in a condition of doing wrong. We find this marked imperative explained in such a way that in the case of testimony in court, it should always be done before the person concerned. That is, one does not testify except before the person who listens, that is to say, I must bring this matter to court but before the person who is accused, with regard to what is written in the book of Psalms: “listen, my people, and I will speak” and in the Talmud the teachers continue to say “a person is not reproached except when they are present, and praise is not given to a person except when they are absent. That is, praises are sung in their absence but they are rebuked in their presence.
Having said this, we could quietly make a biblical excursus of what justice and responsibility are in the Jewish tradition, of which we will find traces throughout the Torah.
The absolute first is regarding what can be defined as the first murder in history: Cain and Abel.
At chapter 4 verse 9 we find it written: “and the Lord said to Cain, where is Abel your brother? I do not know, am I my brother's keeper?” and He said further “what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground” therefore there is an accusation by G-d against Cain of having done something, something particularly grave. It is for this reason that Cain says to the Lord: “… my punishment is too great to bear”. G-d does not punish Cain with death; yet Cain has killed, he is a murderer within the family, he has slain his brother but G-d does not punish him with death, He punishes him with a sentence that can serve as an example to others and lays down a judgement:
“therefore, whoever kills Cain will be punished 7 times” that is to say, Cain is a murderer, Cain has realised his grave fault, he must not be killed because G-d does not repay with the same measure, but leaves a sign that must serve as an example for all other men in history, because if G-d had killed Cain He would have stained Himself with the very fault with which Cain himself had stained himself.
G-d is defined by one of the greatest men of the Torah, Abraham, as “the judge of all the earth”; it is a challenge that Abraham launches to G-d. What does divine justice mean then? How could we define G-d as judge? Abraham says: “shall not the judge of the earth do justice?” We are speaking of Sodom and Gomorrah, they are the most classic example of the collective responsibility of human beings, Abraham who feels invested with the responsibility of safeguarding humanity struggles with G-d, challenging Him by saying “shall not the judge of all the earth know how to do justice?” G-d wanted to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah but Abraham here appears greater than G-d because he wants to spare human beings and G-d indulges him by telling him that “if there are righteous ones I will not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah” but go thou and search for them because thus you will realise that righteous ones do not exist. Unfortunately, it is not merely a matter of repenting from their deeds there; it is a society that no longer has the possibility of turning back, it is so depraved that only its destruction can be a means of improvement, but Abraham understands justice in a different way.
Man does not have a vision of justice equal to the divine one; finding ourselves faced with a misfortune, the death of a child or the suffering of a person, we say: “what kind of justice is this?” What evil has a child done to come into the world and then die? How many times do we men find ourselves faced with certain situations and say, is this perhaps justice? The parameters are completely different, many times we would want to kill and G-d does not, so now we will see when it comes precisely to listing the differences between the way of interpreting divine justice and human justice. There is another place where responsibility is spoken of, arevut, which are two terms that yield responsibility or guarantee. I give you a guarantee that I will do this thing, if I do not carry it through I will have to pay with my own means. In the passage where it speaks of Joseph who is in Egypt and who detains Simeon to see Benjamin, his youngest brother. This is a vignette that can represent an environment of the traditional Jewish ghetto with all the most popular, most classic feelings and sensations of a Jew. Jacob who is afraid, the sons of Jacob who try to encourage their father, but are more afraid than he is, when it comes to taking Benjamin and bringing him to Egypt. Jacob who says: “Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you will take Benjamin away; what will become of my life?” At a certain moment, facing this family drama, there is Reuben, the firstborn, who begins with an unsympathetic expression that Jacob does not like at all, at verse 37 of chapter 42: and Reuben says to his father: “I will put my sons to death if I do not bring back Simeon and Benjamin to you”. Jacob grows angry with Reuben, treats him like a fool, asks him what kind of words those are, what grandfather can hear himself told “I will put my sons to death to bring back your son”, Jacob says that Benjamin will not go down with them to Egypt, there is no question of it until there is a wiser, much more Jewish, much more familial intervention: that of Judah, who says: “send the lad with me and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die. Look, here is the word “live”, I guarantee you with my life and not with my death that I will bring back Simeon and Benjamin. There is a guarantee of life, this is justice, not death. Death does not give a guarantee because it is death, life does; the famous popular saying: “while there's life, there's hope”, the hope of a guarantee, of improvement, of life. Here we find the true concept of the responsibility of the individual regarding the collectivity, within the family towards two human beings, and it is for this reason that Jacob accepts. He accepts only when there is talk of a guarantee of life.
In the book of Deuteronomy we find precisely the word “zedek” – justice, different from the word “mishpat”, “justice, justice shalt thou pursue” why twice the word “zedek”? Because the Torah probably wants to teach human beings how one is truly righteous – “zaddikim”, not merely as “chasidim” – pious ones – justice par excellence or as “chesed”, mercy, or together, so much so that commentators translate the first “zedek” as “good justice” and the other as “mishpat”, right justice, justice par excellence. You shall issue a verdict keeping these two things in mind, and finally we find the expression of Job who says: “just is the Lord in all His ways, and good in all His works” therefore there is the word zaddik and the word chasid, and the Psalm says: “---steadfast love and truth meet, righteousness and peace kiss”. How is it possible for goodness to agree with truth and justice with peace? If it is truth, it must be just, that is we must see through the eyes of the judge, the one who knows how to be impartial before a fact, knows how to be the arbiter of true things. Isaiah concludes his first chapter with the words: “Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her inhabitants with zedakah”, that is G-d does not want the death of men but the justice of deeds.
Returning to the beginning of our talk, we have attempted, ventured to analyse what the term justice means in the Torah, indeed I ask your pardon if anyone might think differently and I believe it is right to be so.
We were saying that every Jew is responsible towards all his people. Think for a moment about prayer, about the “viddui”, the confession of sins that we recite every day, morning and afternoon. Think for a moment about the sins listed in this poem which goes under the name of “viddui” – confession of sins, that is the realisation of sins. I sincerely when I read that list of sins cited in it, think to myself that I have never done these things. “We have acted with violence, we have robbed, spoken falsely, spoken iniquitously…”, I have only tried to do my best, I may not be a saint…. If I pronounce them and the other pronounces them, we are not for this a people of disreputable folk, we say them because in the event that someone might have actually committed them, we ask G-d in the first person plural to forgive whoever has committed them, thanks to our prayers. The concept of collectivity in society is a concept of responsibility, everyone is responsible for the actions of others. If you think about what the second commandment says: I will remember the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, it does not say I will kill but I will remember, I will keep in mind.
So much so that in Deuteronomy it is said: “the fathers shall not die because of the children, nor the children because of the fathers; every man shall die for his own sin”, everyone is responsible for their own sin, assumes responsibility for it, but let them know that because of their sin even their people can be affected. It is a warning, when speaking of death, individual death is spoken of; when speaking of remembrance, it is spoken of within the collectivity. I want to conclude by quoting the text of a very beautiful prayer that we recite at the beginning of Kippur: “You have loved justice”, justice is in function of life, “and You have hated wickedness” is in function of death. G-d who sits upon the throne of justice on the day of Kippur – it is only the beginning of Kippur, not the end, when He will move to the throne of mercy, it is still the beginning – G-d sits there upon the throne of justice and is analysing human beings, one by one, He is analysing them to find a single thing that can appeal them to life; “follow after the many to do good”, do good to seek something to appeal to for the good of man, for his life, to issue a true verdict.
Thank you.