42 Clifford E. Librach
assistance(as in the case of Rabbi Eleazar in Baba Metzia 83b-84a), must find specific justification from among a system of values which places life and the maintenance of law and order at its apex. Such justification depends upon the relative weights which the rabbinic personality places on these various policy considerations.
In the cases outlined at the beginning of this paper, no reference to secular authority was made by the rabbi. Following pastoral counseling, the scheme to harbor an illegal alien was voluntarily terminated. The real estate and bank fraud was the subject of an indictment and plea of guilty, and the abusive parent was convinced to obtain counseling and treatment which resulted in the end of misbehavior a restored standard of appropriate conduct.
In assessing the degree to which we should hasten to assist the guilty or“turn them in,” an obvious and central philosophical question for the modern rabbi concerns the appropriate and justified degree of confidence in secular authority. Classical rabbinic Judaism exhibited a strong distrust of secular authority. Though we surely live in a different world,“calling the police” may nevertheless best remain a last and desperate resort.
Notes
1. Temple Sinai of Sharon is a 550 family congregation in Sharon, Massachu setts , a south suburb of Boston .
2. For obvious reasons the names of the individuals involved will not be used nor divulged. In addition, the relevant statutes of limitations applicable for the commission of the crimes to which reference is herein made have all run, thus vitiating the criminal culpability and legal vulnerability which may have otherwise obtained.
3. The actual resolution of the three cases will be addressed at the end of the paper.
4. Maimonides , Sanhedrin 18:6; see generally J. David Bleich , Contemporary Halakhic Problems II(New York : 1983), pp. 349-357 and Norman Lamm , Faith and Doubt(New York : 1986), pp. 78-92.
5. Tosafot, Niddah 61a(s.v.“atmarinkhu”) and Rabbenu Asher, Tosafot Harosh on Niddah 61a(s.v.“atmarinkhu”).
6. Hershel Schachter ,“Dina Di’Malchusa Dina: Secular Law as a Religious
Obligation,” Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society 103, 121-22(Spring