SEPARATING THE ADULT FROM ADULTERY
unambiguous message about the values of Jewish society and the critical interest of the body politic in embracing certain behaviors and rejecting others. Overblown punishments are threatened to communicate just how menacing a particular infraction is seen to be to the welfare of Jewish civilization. Once the punishment has been stated, enforcement methods become a lesser issue; breaking the law and inviting the predetermined wrath of society—even if empirically that wrath almost never comes—is sufficiently distasteful to most people to make the educational arm of the law powerful, indeed. Although it is true, then, that the particular penalties mentioned may not, in and of themselves, be convincing deterrents to adulterous behavior, if the societal message of disapproval of adultery that inheres in them makes some reconsider their actions, such sanctions would fulfill a most useful purpose. In practice, of course, liberal Jewish communities should opt to require a sincere
process of teshuvah as their primary vehicle toward rehabilitation from adultery. But this will not address those cases in which the guilty party refuses to do teshuvah, nor does it obviate the vital significance of accountability that clearly stated penalties could convey to society as a whole.”
If such sanctions are to be valuable educational tools, however, then those charged with teaching them have to be credible role models. It is for precisely this reason that rabbinic adultery is such a serious matter, for whereas rabbis are not considered“holier” than other Jews , their role as educational specialists in Jewish law gives their actions increased weight in response to the law. When a rabbi commits classic adultery, consequently, the primary outcome, as always, is a heinous disloyalty to God and spouse. But additionally, and just as importantly, by demonstrating that a teacher of the law believes that potential penalties and community stan
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