Shoftim 2009

There was an article in today’s paper. A man who had been convicted of bombing Pan Am Flight 103, the Lockerbie bombing, was just released from prison.

Abdel Baset al-Megrahi was convicted in the year 2001, and sentenced to life in prison. He was not eligible for parole until 2028. So why was he released?

Some people say that it was because of pressure from Libya. al-Megrahi was a former Libyan intelligence officer, and President-for-life Muammar Qaddafi had lobbied intensively for his release. Relations between Libya and the West have improved dramatically over the past few years. Turning al-Megrahi over to the Scottish authorities was something the West had insisted on, if there was ever to be peace. Libya gave up her nuclear weapons, and diplomatic relations with the United States have been reestablished. Both the Obama Administration and the British Government asked that Mr. al-Megrahi not be released, but the Scottish government sent him back to Libya on their own authority. The British Foreign Secretary rejected as offensive the idea that Britain was trying to improve relations with Libya to help British companies who buy Libyan oil.

So why was Mr. al-Megrahi released? According to the authorities, he was released on grounds of compassion, since he suffers from prostate cancer. An attempt to get him released last year was rejected on the grounds that he might yet fully recover from his cancer. So perhaps we can assume that now it seems he will not.

Compassion. He was released on grounds of compassion, and yet there was no compassion shown to the 270 people who died in the Lockerbie bombing. Some of the relatives of those who died, many of whom are American, don’t feel much like showing compassion. Sure, compassion is a wonderful virtue, but so is justice. Is the release just?

The Jewish concern with justice is well known. The famous verse צדק צדק תרדף’, Justice justice shall you pursue,’ comes from this week’s Torah portion. Today’s parasha is called Shoftim, which means ‘Judges.’ As soon as we come in to the Promised Land, our first task is to appoint judges. 

But what is justice? Everyone approves of justice, in theory. But whose justice? What does it mean to be just?

By reading this week’s parasha we get a sense of what justice means in the Torah. We learn that the same law applies to the king as the the commoner. We learn that someone who injures a person by accident is not punished the same as one who injures a person on purpose. We learn that a man should not be made to fight in a war against his will. We learn that a war must not be fought unless you have given your enemy every chance to make peace. We learn that the punishment must fit the crime.

There is an interesting statement in the middle of this discussion of justice. The Torah tells us: כִּי־תָצוּר אֶל־עִיר יָמִים רַבִּים לְהִלָּחֵם עָלֶיהָ לְתָפְשָׂהּ לֹא־תַשְׁחִית אֶת־עֵצָהּ לִנְדֹּחַ עָלָיו גַּרְזֶן כִּי מִמֶּנּוּ When you besiege a city for many days in war against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees, using an ax to cut them down. The Torah goes on to say: כִּי הָאָדָם עֵץ הַשָּׂדֶה לָבֹא מִפָּנֶיךָ בַּמָּצוֹר Are the trees of the field people, that they may withdraw from you into the city?

A tree is not a person, and therefore not your enemy. But more to the point, it takes many years for a tree to grow. A tree provides food, shelter, attracts birds and animals, and keeps away the erosion of the desert. All of this can be destroyed in a moment. Should we do so?

This verse is the foundation stone for the Jewish environmental movement, about which I was planning on speaking tonight. Then I saw the article about al-Megrahi, and began to think about the tension between compassion and justice. 

But the words ,לֹא־תַשְׁחִית do not destroy, tell us something about how to live our lives. They tell us something about the nature of the world. They tell us that this world does not belong to us. We are guests here. We need to protect the environment because this is Gd’s world. We also need to pursue justice because this is Gd’s world. And we need to show compassion because this is Gd’s world. 

It may make a difference that some family members of those who died in the Lockerbie bombing have called for al-Megrahi to be released, out of compassion. It may make a difference that al-Megrabhi has always proclaimed his innocence, and that it seems that evidence that argued for his innocence may have been improperly withheld at his trial. A Scottish judicial review body has found that al-Megrahi might have been wrongfully convicted. We have been told to pursue justice perhaps because we can never know for sure if what we do really is just.

צדק צדק תרדף. Justice, justice you shall pursue. But we are also told כֹּה אָמַר יי צְבָאוֹת לֵאמֹר מִשְׁפַּט אֱמֶת שְׁפֹטוּ וְחֶסֶד וְרַחֲמִים עֲשׂוּ אִישׁ אֶת־אָחִיו Thus says the Eternal: Judge justly, and do unto your fellow with kindness, and with compassion.

It is not our world. The Scottish Justice Secretary has admitted that he is turning this case over to Gd. I pray that we never loose sight of our status as temporary guests in this world, never stop pursuing justice, and may compassion never be far from our hearts. Shabbat shalom.