A Thought On Parshas Ki Setze

"...ki kil'alas Elokim talui..." "...for a curse of Elokim is one hanging" (21:23) The Torah empowers the Sanhedrin to execute individuals who commit heinous acts. Moreover, that great Court in Jerusalem is commanded, in those cases, to hang the corpse of the executed person for a short time. However, our verse adds that this hanging, which follows execution which, according to halachic parameters, is rapid and humane (the Talmud details the procedures which were taken to assure that the sentence was carried out in order to fulfill the commandment but to prevent the condemned from physical agony), was not to be a prolonged event. The corpse could not remain overnight on the gallows, for this would be, per our verse, "kil'alas Elokim", cursed of or by or about HaShem. You can see from the ambiguity of my effort to translate that expression that it is begging interpretation. The Rishonim take differing perspectives on this expression. The Panae'ach Raza adds his view to that variety of interpretations. He offers, in his second perspective, that we need to picture the scene. On the one hand, we know that the Sanhedrin ruled during a time when the populace was G-d fearing and abhorred wrong doing. They adhered to the Torah, and would not tolerate those who willfully transgressed its mitzvos in public. This is where the phenomenon of execution came in. When an individual flagrantly demonstrated intentional violation of a specified set of abhorrent crimes and sins, with witnesses, and verbalized refusal to stop his crime or transgression, he was brought to judgement. Now, it is very important that we note that executions were quite rare - the Talmud writes that more than one in seventy years rarely occurred. When it did happen, the nation understood that this was essential justice, a verdict reached following long deliberation by a large group of compassionate and learned judges. There was no vigilantism and no impulsive killing. The nation knew that execution was more painful for the Sanhedrin than for the victim (the Talmud even writes that such executions had to be done in a manner which preserves the "golden rule" of "you must love your fellow as you do you yourself"). So - when the deed was done, the corpse was briefly hung but not left there on display. Why was that? The Panae'ach Raza suggests that to leave a corpse hanging for a long while, even over night, might draw public curiosity. People were bound to pass by and see the corpse without knowing the circumstances that had led to the verdict. They would focus not on the criminal record (which they did not know) but rather on the sight of a fellow Jew hanging dead. This would arouse compassion (in their not knowing the rationale) and then would ignite anger towards the judges. A judge is called, in the Torah, an elohim. (Worded differently, when we refer to HaShem as "Elokim", we are actually using the sanctified form of the generic word for judge. HaShem is "The Judge"). So, reasons the Panae'ach Raza, the people seeing the hanging corpse, ignorant of the history, would be angry at the court and would curse its judges. The Torah actually forbids one from cursing a judge, as it says (Sh'mos 22:27) "elohim lo ti'kallel." Hence, our verse forbids the Sanhedrin from letting a corpse remain hanging, for this will lead to the judges being cursed, obscuring the justification for bringing the culprit to justice in that way, which would be an affront to the Torah's Divine system. It would also whitewash the criminal by insinuating that the judges were cruel, uncompassionate and unjustified, which would desecrate the reality of the very pious sages who served G-d and nation. I read once that when the British justice system turned against Captain William Kidd, who had worked for England as a loyal privateer (and not as a criminal pirate) - although he was wrongly accused, tried without a real case against him, and sentenced for political reasons by officials and noblemen who later confessed their treacherous wronging of Kidd - he was put to death and his corpse was preserved and hung across the River Thames for three years as a "reminder" not to run afoul of the law. After a while, no one knew who that cadaver had been but only that the High Court had left his body on display for years, arousing the ire of the public. Kil'alas elokim talui. The concept of execution alarms us today, whether authorized by civil law or perpetrated by hate groups. The specter of a Jewish man being beheaded this week by "the caliphate" has horrified some, aroused the schadenfreude in others, and has been dismissed and downplayed through the denial and apathy of still others. It is a hard image for us to grasp in these "civilized" times. Understanding the halachic parameters of how and when the Sanhedrin exercised their authority and knowing that there were situations when the death penalty was essential, yet undertaken with great deliberation and compassion, not with brutality and drama, should help us respect and revere those who toil to adjudicate Torah law, not to revile them. Good Shabbos. D Fox