bo i

EE in bE

Punishment: Its Method and Purpose 47

Divine punishment could be meted out in the form of diseases, accidents, farming or business misfortunes, and might be deliv­ered in this or succeeding generations. The entire natural and human world could be seen as enforcing agencies. Punishment could also be postponed to the next world with powerful descrip­tions of the site of such punishment, as vivid as Dante’s Hell . Judaism sometimes took the first path and interpreted disasters of a personal nature as punishment for specific acts® or national disasters as divine punishment for wrong doing of the entire people. Such an interpretation was frequently invoked® and con­tinued to be used as an explanation for great national disasters such as the destruction of the Temple, the expulsion from Spain, and the Holocaust .” These explanations usually served best in a hortatory setting.

The religious goal was the creation of a“holy nation.” Social goals also emerge from the legislation and its provisions for pun­ishment. Let us begin with the most serious offenses, murder and manslaughter, which although rare, arouse strong emotions, we will then turn to other crimes.

The biblical legislation sought to prevent human vengeance and to channel matters into the hands of the law. Murder was dif­ferentiated from accidental killing and so were the punishments. The cities of refuge provided a safe haven for the innocent, although we know nothing about the way in which they func­tioned, and they were not replicated in any form in later Jewish history. Murder was severely punished through the death penalty, which was carried out by the courts or by the relatives of the vic­tim, so Cain in Genesis was free to be killed by anyone who felt that the blood of Abel needed to be avenged.? This citation came from an era in which the court system was not sufficiently strong to carry out penalties and this method of justice was condemned. Blasphemy also carried the death penalty, as did misappropriation of divine property(i.e. something declared herem)."! The death Penalty was invoked for many crimes, though not for crimes against property as in many non-Jewish jurisdictions until the Nineteenth century.’2 Executions were carried out through various Means with stoning used most frequently, followed by fire. Hang­Ing was not a method of execution although a corpse might have been hung in order to shame the individual or to warn others.’

The death penalty could be invoked against an entire com­Munity if it was involved in apostasy; the city was then totally