The Torah Teaches Justice But We Have Chosen Compromise

Like most of the world, since 2020 I have spent a lot of time wondering what is wrong with our world, and I found the answer in The Torah: Justice. G-d’s laws did not teach us to run a world based on political correctness, diplomacy, and anarchy. Instead, G-d told us in Amos 5:24 to let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream. The Torah teaches righteousness, justice, and law, but we have chosen compromise.

That’s Not Torah Justice

Sadly, we’ve failed at living out the justice Torah teaches. Justice is not when a country is attacked, its people slaughtered, and kidnapped and the world supports the attackers and turns its back on the victims. It is not justice when a group of evil rich men kidnap and rape children and the world decides not to prosecute. Justice is not allowing thousands of invaders into your country who are attacking and murdering your own citizens.  Our world has put on blinders to evil and allowed it to grow unchecked. The Torah gives us examples of Divine Justice and teaches us what we should do in each of the above-mentioned scenarios.

Justice in The Torah

Justice in Esther

True justice looks like Esther fighting for the right of Jews to defend themselves against those who would slaughter them.

In Esther 7 she begs for the right of her people to defend themselves. “7 So the king and Haman went to Queen Esther’s banquet, ² and as they were drinking wine on the second day, the king again asked, “Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted. ³ Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor with you, Your Majesty, and if it pleases you, grant me my life—this is my petition. And spare my people—this is my request. ⁴ For I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed and annihilated. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king.^[a]”

The king kills the man who ordered the attack on Jews and allows the Jews to defend themselves. That is Torah Justice. 

Justice in Genesis

Putting a man and his entire village to death when they have dared committed rape is Torah Justice. In the story of Dinah in  she is raped and the assaulter wants to marry her. Her brothers devise a scheme. They tell the rapist to have all the men in their village circumcised and they will bless the marriage. While the men were still in pain, the brothers entered the village and killed all the men. Genesis 34:24-25 records, “²⁴ All the men who went out of the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male in the city was circumcised.²⁵ Three days later, while all of them were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting city, killing every male.” That is God’s Justice. That is Torah Justice.

Justice in Judges

Justice is putting a tent peg through the head of the invader. Jael did not stand by and watch her people overran by the enemy. Instead, she invited them in fed them and put a tent peg through their temple as they slept.

Judges 4:18-21 tells us, “¹⁸ Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come, my lord, come right in. Don’t be afraid.” So he entered her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.¹⁹ “I’m thirsty,” he said. “Please give me some water.” She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up.²⁰ “Stand in the doorway of the tent,” he told her. “If someone comes by and asks you, ‘Is anyone in there?’ say ‘No.’”²¹ But Jael, Heber’s wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.”

That is how you deal with invaders. That is Torah Justice.

A People Set Apart

Our Talmud reminds us “If someone comes to kill you, kill them first. steinsaltz.org Reminds us that we are not Christians. They state “Judaism does not subscribe to the idea that one should “turn the other cheek” when attacked. In fact, one important rule taught by the Talmud is ha-ba le-horgekha, hashkem le-horgo – if someone comes planning to kill you, you should hurry to kill him first.” That turn the other cheek stuff just leaves evil unpunished and the righteous in tears. Judaism was meant to do the opposite. It is actually this principal which first drew me to Judaism and away from Christianity. The just shouldn’t suffer for the wicked. Rather the wicked should meet justice and the just should rejoice. That is Torah Justice.

Healing Our World With Torah Justice

This is what we have forgotten.  We are not Christians and we are not Muslims. We are a people set apart by G-d to carry out his Justice. We’ve tried to distance ourselves from the violence. We’ve tried to be kind to even the evil.

I have several theories about why. The Holocaust certainly instilled a great deal of empathy in us, and it also gave us a distaste for violence of any sort. Also, we want to separate ourselves from the wicked Muslim committing Jihad and colonizing the Earth. We don’t want it to look like the Christians with their love and forgiveness are better people than us.

However, we are not supposed to compare ourselves to other religions. We are to be a people set apart. The Jewish people know that there is a difference in Jihad and self-defense. We know when war is righteous and demanded by the divine. As a people, we need to act like the people we are and defend the vulnerable, fight for the victim, and defend our land.

Justice Not Compromise

A world built on compromise and fake smiles will not stand. Only a world built on divine truth and law can stand the storm. It was our job to bring The Torah to the nations, and we did that. However, we must not let the nations make us abandon Torah for their convenance or belief.  Just because the world doesn’t want the law, doesn’t mean we can abandon it too. We received The Torah because when the other nations rejected it, we said yes. That is a promise we need to keep. We cannot afford to choose compromise over Justice. We have a chance to repair our world, but that will only happen if we build a society on the law and justice of G-d.