Torture, Terrorism, and the Halakhah 15
by seeing”), and it prohibits persons from engaging in verbal activity that damages the reputation of others(lashon hara; rekhilut,; hamotzi shem ra), even though the latter may not be actionable in court." From such details it would be possible to derive the existence of what, in practical terms, would amount to a right to privacy, a reasonable expectation that others will leave one alone in one’s own domain or personal sphere of activity.” It is therefore appropriate to speak of civil and political“rights” in the halakhah, so long as we understand them as obligations to respect and to protect the vital interests of each individual.
3. Finally, this task is of special urgency to us as liberal Jews , particularly to those of us engaged in the study and development of liberal halakhah. Our task is to demonstrate in fact what we know to be true: that Jewish law is at bottom progressive and dynamic,“ethical in its very essence,”’’ a discourse that possesses sufficient resources to speak to every issue of religious practice in a sufficient and satisfying way. We are committed to the proposition that Jewish law does provide guidance on matters such as this and that this guidance can reflect the liberal and progressive values that characterize our
What remains is to act on that commitment. The goal is to formulate an understanding of our ethical responsibilities to our nation and to the world community under the very difficult challenges posed by the growth of international terrorism. How does Jewish law, as we understand it, teach us to balance the conflicting demands of liberty and security? I don’t pretend to offer here a systematic answer to that question. Much work, involving a thorough and precise study of the sources, remains to be done. This essay is intended rather as a decidedly preliminary sketch of one of the major issues.
That issue is torture, one of the most pressing and perplexing difficulties raised by the conflict I refer to here. It may happen-- how frequently is difficult to say, since governments understandably do not keep good records on this-- that security forces will arrest a person who may possess information deemed vital to public safety. Perhaps he is a member of a terrorist group; perhaps he has come into contact with the members of such a group. The police want the information that he has