as those avoided. In other words, not only the paths taken, but the road eschewed. Punishment for social or religious violations have changed several times since the biblical period, but not necessarily in the direction which we ascribe to it. This paper will present only a skeletal outline with some tentative conclusions.! The subject is immense and so this essay can only begin to explore it.
Judaism since Biblical times has defined itself through a system of mitzvot—commandments. These are not suggestions, but divine demands on human conduct. They were worded very clearly, with“You shall” or“you shall not,” as in the Decalogue and elsewhere, dealt with specific situations as in many laws of Exodus and Leviticus . They might begin“If a person...,” and then conclude with a penalty which may simply be a fine or go as far as demanding death,’ or they might be presented as actual cases.
As the commandments were to be taken seriously, a system of timely penalties and punishments accompanied them. Some punishments were mentioned in the Decalogue , but far fewer than we might have expected and their nature did not make them socially useful. How would the average rogue react to the penalties provided by the Decalogue—"I will not hold him guiltless” or“visit the sins of the fathers upon the children for the third and fourth generation” or“will prolong their days in the land which the Lord your God will give you?” These specifics were not translatable into daily life unless the individual was truly religious. Furthermore no penalties were attached to the most common breaches of family and social morality mentioned by the Decalogue—murder, robbery, and adultery. Punishments were, however, provided later in the Torah .
What was the goal of the Torah ’s legal system? Exodus declared that Israel was to become“a kingdom of priests, a holy people” and that was reiterated in Deuteronomy as well as later. The thought was shared throughout the long biblical period.* In other words a special status of sanctity was to be achieved by the entire people. Whatever else holiness might mean, it certainly demanded the elimination of sin, as well as personal and social misconduct. The lofty goal was left undefined, but sins toward God and human beings were delineated and enumerated. The Torah , as a religious document, treated religious and ritual wrong-doings alongside crimes against individuals and society.
As the Torah is a religious document , not a national legal code, it would have been appropriate to leave punishments to God .