What about the death penalty?

The death penalty, it's a wish and a curse. For some it is seen as a blessing against evil while others will regard it as a horror to humanity. But, no matter how we interpret it, it will stay a cause for concern in many households, and especially within every governing body. After all, taking the life of another human being is not something you can take lightly, or for granted because once it has been taken, there is no way back. A life that is lost, is one that is lost. You never win, even when it in first instance seems to be so when it concerns a matter of evil within everyone's own perception that is. Yes, whatever good that person could still have brought into our world, it will forever be gone into oblivion till another one comes around with the same talents of goodness. In the mean time, we can only hope that it will be not too late. We can only hope that the ones who have been affected by the evilness within that person will not gain fertile ground, and sow thistles and thorns instead of wheat and barley. But, for that to become prevented, we can only achieve it through our own hands after having, first and foremost, looked into our own mirror of wisdom. We have to start looking within our own mind and thoughts for the answers to the why that these things do happen, or are still happening all around us. And at the same time, let us neither forget that everything within human society, even all of nature, is one way or another interwoven with each other. It's a reality no one can disconnect him-/herself from. It means thus that there is no easy way out, no escape possible. Or we work together with due respect, or we falter completely into the pit of a lost paradise, a hope we did let slip through our fingers, a wish we could have materialized if we only would have learnt to master the skills of real strength. If we only could have.., what a most beautiful world we all would be living in.

Still, this is not something impossible. It doesn't have to be a mission impossible for otherwise we wouldn't have become accredited with the Torah in the first place. If G-d wouldn't have shown faith in us, we wouldn't have come to know how to present our faith in Him. But, we did. At least some did. A few did so within the beginning of this tremendous adventure into the unknown. The people within that faith became Jewish. And it's true that they were called Hebrews in first instance. Nevertheless, today they are Jewish. And in that sense did G-d gave the entire world His name for He said who He is, namely I am who I am. Or it is also referred to as that He will be who He will be. It's probably the most mystic revelation in all of the Torah. Only, once we refine it into our own heart and connect it with the values of humanity, then we can come to understand the deeper essence of what He truly could have meant with this name of His when He shared it with us. At the burning bush, He revealed His name to Moshe. To him He said: 'I am who I am.' Moshe was a Hebrew. He was who he was, the same as we as Jews are who we are. The entire Torah lives within that name as it's Torah. Without it, it can not survive. This name of His is the breath that keeps our Judaism alive and well, that gives us being Jewish the ability to be who we truly are for if we forsake on it, it is as if we forget Yerushalayim. And of her it is said: O, if I forget thee.. Yes, if I forget who I am, then I am a nobody for I will have lost all faith into myself. In a court of law, I will have sentenced myself with a verdict, namely the death penalty, the one that would figuratively have put me to death for I would have forsaken not only on who I truly am, but also will become a beacon of darkness instead of light to all the others who were, are, or will be on the verge of doing the same. By telling Moshe His name, He gave him the freedom to make a choice between Him or the pagan gods. It was for Moshe to choose, and likewise will others follow his example. This name is thus not only the backbone of Judaism, it's the salvation of the entire humankind, even all life.

Of course, beside all the above, we do have another version of the death penalty as well. This we have called war. The decision for going to war is in a certain way also one sentencing others to their death. Only, it's not always clear in these circles of which party that has truly created the atmosphere for such a decision to be taken, as it's the one, the community, or the nation that has caused it to be given that can only be found guilty to the verdict it caused to occur. One that goes to war within a defensive, or pre-emptive defensive spirit can not be seen as the one that brought upon the world the culture of dead to emerge again to the forefront of everyone's life. Let us therefore in that perspective never forget that war is always related to the pagan god of war, and not to G-d, the One we in Judaism only belief in. Every religion that claims that their god asks them to kill, to murder, to go to war against the other, in this case often regarded as infidels, is one that beliefs, or still does belief, in a multi- religious concept, not in one G-d only. G-d is not a god of war. That vision is one that belonged to Rome and other non-Judaic cultures of before that period of time in humankind's history. It's not ours anymore. It's not the one of the world we live in today. It's neither so on a minor scale, nor on a greater one. In whatever circumstances we do fulfil the duties of our life, whether in private and in public, in our homes and on the job, this god is not of this world. And it's in that sense that we should look at all the commands where our Torah seemingly does gives us the green light to put others to their death. It often only should be regarded as an act of mercy because the person will not be truly killed. He or she will only be figuratively dead for the family and/or the community, even the entire nation. He or she will still have the opportunity to become forgiven when so possible after having followed certain preset rules to the matter in question.

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