By Rachel Sacks

Summary

Lots of purity laws. Some sacrificial laws. Laws about when and how to celebrate certain holidays—such as Shabbat and Shavuot. The son of an Israelite woman is condemned to death by stoning since he declares G-D’s name in vain. More criminal acts are listed that are to be responded to with the death penalty.

The Issue with Stoning

Growing up in the Jewish community, I’ve been taught from a fairly young age that one of our Jewish values is to frown upon public humiliation. The Talmud speaks of this regarding the story of Tamar and Judah back in Genesis 38. To summarize (though I highly recommend reading the chapter—it’s a really fascinating read!), Tamar marries Judah’s first son and the son dies, so she marries the second son and the second son also dies. To her dismay, she is never given Judah’s third son (she doesn’t seem like bad luck or anything), and is angered that Judah, by refraining from allowing her to marry his son, is taking away her opportunity to become pregnant. To resolve the issue, Tamar dresses like a prostitute and Judah—not recognizing his daughter-in law—sleeps with her. Upon learning months later that Tamar acted as a hooker, Judah orders that Tamar be burned. While she is being brought out to be burned, Tamar sends a message to Judah, saying, “I am with a child by the man to whom these [his seal, staff, and cord that he’d given her as payment for sex] belong.” Understanding that it is he who has impregnated Tamar, Judah then declares that he wronged Tamar by not giving her his final son to marry, and she no longer faces the prospect of being burned.

The Talmud likes to focus on Tamar’s avoidance of humiliating Judah in public. According to what I’ve translated from Rashi (a commentator), he comments “Even though they were bringing [Tamar] to be burned, she didn’t cry out to them, ‘I had sexual relations with Judah,’ rather she went with

a note to him [which said], ‘To whom these

belong, I am pregnant, and if he admits it, then he admits it.” In other words, it is better to be burned (and the text goes on to say it is best to kill yourself and fall onto a fiery furnace) than to humiliate another person in public. Just as Tamar put herself at risk of dying rather than humiliating Judah in public, so we should try as hard as possible to avoid causing public humiliation as well.

So, according to the Talmud, we do look down upon public humiliation. Why then—and now I’m finally getting back to our parasha—is stoning permitted all throughout the Tanakh? Stoning—and yes, other forms of punishment as well—is particularly brutal not only because of the pain, but also because of the humiliation involved. There isn’t just one guy throwing stones at you over and over again, oh no, instead “the whole community shall stone him” (Leviticus 24:16). So here’s my question: Why is humiliation permitted as a punishment? I find it even ironic that such a form of execution be allowed, when the Rabbis deem that the remedy for causing public humiliation is death itself! Personally, I speculate that promoting people to humiliate in one situation increases the chances that they’ll do so in another. So I’m confused, does Judaism really frown upon public humiliation?

Case in Point: When I brought this question to a rabbi at my school, I was simply given the answer that promoting humiliation in one case is the law, and that’s that. I don’t accept that solution. I don’t feel that we should promote humiliation as a form of punishment, and I also don’t feel that we should risk our

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