An Open Letter to University Presidents
4 min read
Something interesting happens when the offender and the offended meet.
Jewish law is structured so no one is totally sheltered from the underbelly of society, the people on the fringes, the “have-nots," even criminals.
Nowhere is this clearer than the case of the Hebrew indentured servant, in Hebrew the eved Ivri. You become an indentured servant if you are a thief and can’t return or repay the worth of the stolen item. There are no jails in Judaism. Instead, the court “sells” the services of the thief to a “master.”
By and large it is affluent families who can afford a servant. Ironically, the thief now lives among the very self-made people who have played by the rules and educated themselves in a trade or business, to guarantee they will never be in need. The uninformed eye might think this is highly risky to the family or cruelly shaming and denigrating to the hired thief living among snobby spoiled children. But this is not the end of the story.
On closer examination, a very different picture emerges. The master is required to treat the thief as if he were part of his own family. The thief sits at the same table and eats the same food as the master. The master must support the thief’s entire family and must pay him a generous severance when his servitude expires. If there is one pillow in the house the master must give it to the servant before himself. Indeed, the Talmud says, “He who acquires a servant, has acquired a master.”
And what does the thief see? He sees a functional family with good role models he never had. He gains skills, experience, advice and guidance. He hears pearls of wisdom that parents share with children in hundreds of discussions around the daily dinner table. Wisdom about work, perseverance, money management, honesty, respect, patience, goals, social skills, being true to oneself, and, most important of all, pride in what they’ve achieved and who they are.
The thief thereby learns the means and emotional capital to achieve financial security and thrive successfully in a lawful way.
Not only does this rehabilitate the thief, it rehabilitates society as well.
But that’s still not the end of the story. What does the master’s family see? For the first time, this privileged family sees how the other half of society lives, without the advantages, opportunities, and sheer luck that the affluent family took for granted, until the thief “educated” them. They learn that the roles could have been the other way around, and that fortunes indeed often become reversed. They learn that in some sense, society has failed this individual. They feel empathy and a new sense of obligation toward the thief’s betterment.
In the process, not only does this rehabilitate the thief, it rehabilitates society as well. We can’t jail our way to a civil society. What we sweep under the rug comes back to haunt us.
This dynamic yields a valuable lesson as we prepare for the High Holidays and we reflect on our interpersonal relationships. Can we stop before we cut someone out of our life for a “crime” we feel they committed against us? Can we understand the vulnerable impulse that led them to that low point? And, even harder, can we become self-aware of our own equally vulnerable impulse, of our own overreaction to their offense?
If it's too hard to understand, can we at least admit we don't understand and ask, “What did you mean to say?” Can we at least want to understand?
In the game of life, there is no "go to jail." We can't avoid those who hurt us. When we try to cut them out of our lives, we drag families and friends into tension, spawning generations of estrangement for reasons no one recalls.
This New Year, may the thief and the master, the offender and the offended, meet up and learn from each other. And as they gaze upon each other, may they both see in each other what could have been, and what yet could be, to seek to understand and to reconcile.
The more important point is cutting people out of your life.
What happens if the crime isn't just theft? What if it's rape and/or murder, even manslaughter? The no jails idea is a form of restorative justice for an offense against property. And that's probably far better than prison. But I would be concerned about a murderer being "punished" by becoming an Indentured servant.
Annie...Descendent of Emma Lazarus--of "Give me your tired, your poor..." fame.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/a-torah-perspective-on-incarceration-as-a-modality-of-punishment-and-rehabilitation
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cities_of_Refuge
https://www.chabad.org/therebbe/article_cdo/aid/2513281/jewish/Prison-and-Reform-A-Torah-View.htm
I knew that there were cities separated for people who had commit manslaughter.
I spent a little time today researching to straighten out my thoughts.
I guess I must disagree with the idea that capital punishment is more humane.
It seems disgraceful to me to toady to ancient view, having made history more holy in one's mind that it deserves.
Once a jury Judge and Co.plainants have executed an innocent person then they must all remove themselves to the separate town?
I find the idea of no jails in Judaism fascinating, but it leads to many questions: What if the family that was robbed doesn't have room in their house for an extra person? How does it work if a thief robs from multiple families before being caught? And what if a male thief robs from a single woman or widow?
Also a general comment: It's not only the "have-nots" who commit crimes; people with money commit crimes too. And the victims are not always "privileged".
The victim doesn't "buy" the thief. He is sold to someone who can afford a servant and that money is used to reimburse him.
Great!
Unfortunately - over the history of this POLLYANNA CONCEPT APPROACH. This has rarely produced the desired results. Recidivism - and new crimes being committed - is still rampant.
Recidivism is rampant in our modern society because we jail offenders, where they are in the company of others like themselves, so there is not way for them to learn any better way of living. Torah is not Pollyannaish at all; it is based on the Creator's intimate knowledge of the human psyche (no kidding, He created it!) so the plan for rehabilitation is the only one to work.