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March 2, 2007
Dignity is everything
Jewish law forbids the humiliation of friends.
VERONIKA STEWART
Of the crime of humiliation in Jewish law, "Each human being
has something about them that is unassailable, that cannot be attacked
by another human being," said a Boston rabbi speaking to an
audience at Schara Tzedeck Synagogue last Friday.
"There is a piece of privacy about you that I cannot touch,"
Rabbi Joseph Polak explained. "When I step into the space that
I call human dignity, I have to step very lightly."
The Holocaust survivor and director of the Florence and Chafetz
Hillel House at Boston University has written extensively on Jewish
law, Jewish memory and Jewish values.
Hosted by Schara Tzedeck as part of their Shabbat Scholar lecture
series, Polak spoke extensively on degradation and humiliation and
when it is necessary to reimburse a victim whom you have humiliated.
"Where I have embarrassed you in front of others, I am legally
liable," Polak explained. This, he said, is among the worst
offences in Jewish law, and is no different than if a butcher were
to chop off your fingers.
He went on to describe the crime of humiliation as a fourth cause
for which Jewish people should martyr themselves, along with adultery,
murder and the worship of false gods. "It is a fourth on the
three," he said. Citing the Talmud, he added: "It is better
for a person to throw themselves into a fiery furnace than to embarrass
a friend in public."
Although that's an action Polak said may be a bit extreme in modern
times, he noted that respect for the dignity of Jews and gentiles
alike, young or old, dead or alive, is of the utmost importance
in Jewish law.
Even though Polak admitted that dignity is an intangible concept
that cannot be quantified, he said it is equal in worth to one's
physical self. "It is no different than your finger or your
toe," he said.
Polak went on to discuss certain circumstances where the law may
be a bit fuzzy. For instance, he said, if someone were to insult
another when he or she is asleep in front of others, even though
the victim of the insult did not hear it, that person is still required
to reimburse the other.
He also said that if you say something that you don't realize is
insulting, you are liable to the person you have insulted. He said,
in this way, the Talmud tries to distinguish whether the person
is insulted from whether the insult has been made.
Similarly, Polak said that if a blind person has never seen the
person they insult, they, too, are liable. Also, if you insult someone
who is deaf, Jewish law says you must pay them.
Where Jewish law may be more lenient on insulting the dignity of
another is when it comes to insulting nudists, a topic discussed
during the lecture. Polak said that because nudists have already
given up their dignity by choosing to be naked, they are not entitled
to compensation.
He also spoke on the circumstances in Jewish law surrounding those
sentenced to death. As an example, he cited the instance of a man
who was murdered after he'd been sentenced to death, on his way
to the place where he was to be killed. In this case, Polak said
Jewish law considers the man already dead, so his murderer would
not be punished.
He also said that if a pregnant woman were to commit a crime punishable
by death, both she and her unborn child would be killed. After the
lecture, the audience was free to ask questions, and one audience
member asked what some of the differences were between halachah
(Jewish law) and sharia (Muslim) law. If the same circumstance
involving a pregnant woman were to occur under sharia law, the woman
would not be executed until she had given birth to the child and
weaned it for 24 months, a fact Polak said he learned from an expert
colleague in sharia law.
Veronika Stewart is a Vancouver freelance writer.
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