Clifford E. Librach

ment may be taken to mean that the criminals were a threat to the innocent just as thorns are a threat to the grapes that would otherwise flourish in the vineyard.

This possibility means that the controversy between Rabbi Eleazar and Rabbi Joshua may well reflect disagreement regard­ing the level of certainty of impending loss of life that is required to trigger the law of the pursuer—the rodef."> As is well known, in Jewish law, one who poses a threat to the life of others must be prevented from accomplishing the intended harm. Force—even deadly force—may be used in such a case without the need for a court hearing. And this threat need not be limited to the possibility that the criminal will actually harm another, but includes such fac­tors as the possibility that in response to a Jew being appre­hended for committing a crime, other Jews will be injured or anti-Semitism will be promoted.'®

Indeed Rashi argues elsewhere that Jewish law recognizes that a secular government may properly enforce any law validly promulgated under the rule“the law of the land is the law”(dina de-malkhuta dina), even against Jews .” The policy value of the application of this principle is“maintaining law and order”'8 or “the prevention of the world’s destruction.””” And it was pur­suant to such an argument that Rabbi Moshe Feinstein allowed a Jew to serve as a tax auditor for the United States Government, in a situation wherein the audit might result in the criminal pros­ecution of Jews for evading taxes.’

The dispute in Baba Metzia 83b-84a may thus be summa­rized: many authorities rule that only those viewed as of exem­plary piety must avoid assisting in the prosecution of Jewish criminals providing that the criminal prosecution is for conduct that violates Jewish law but otherwise there are no obstacles to others assisting in criminal prosecutions. Others disagree and follow Rabbi Joshua holding that it is prohibited to assist the sec­ular government in criminal prosecutions unless the criminal poses a general danger to society(the rodef). In practical applica­tion, the result may indeed be the same.

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