An Eye for an Eye
One of the worst injuries one can sustain is the loss of an eye. Our vision has been clouded, jaded and distorted in exile. G-d promises us that He will give us an eye that sees in place of our injured vision.
Biblical Vengeance?
“Biblical vengeance” is the phrase many have used to characterize the punishment of “an eye for an eye,” that appears in this week’s Torah portion.
In truth, Jewish law never interpreted this statement literally. The Talmud goes to great lengths to demonstrate that the meaning of these words is “the value of an eye for an eye.” The punishment for injuring another person is always a financial one. The perpetrator of the injury must make financial restitution for all of the monetary losses that were incurred by the loss of the eye or any other limb or organ.
This premise, however, raises two questions:
First, if the Torah really meant that the attacker should pay with his money and not with his eye, why didn’t the Torah say so explicitly? Why did the Torah use an expression that can be— and has often—been misconstrued?
Second, how can we assign a monetary value to a person’s limb? Does it not trivialize the victim’s suffering when he or she is told that they will be given money in lieu of their limb?
Cathartic Power of Empathy
Maimonides addressed this issue is his Mishneh Torah. Here is what he says with some embellishment drawn from Chassidic sources.
The first premise is that the Torah does not believe in punishment for the sake of punishment. The objective of punishment is for the person to cleanse his/her soul while they make restitution to the victim. Any type of punishment that serves only the purpose of getting even is inconsistent with the Jewish value system and can certainly not be ascribed to G-d who is the epitome of kindness and compassion.
This premise, however, seems to be contradicted by many Biblical verses where it is stated that G-d will avenge the crime. In other places it speaks of the courts avenging the crime. How can we reconcile vengeance with atonement?
In truth, the most effective way one can atone for a sin s/he has committed is to experience the damaging effects of his/her actions. For example, to atone for the sin of hurting another person, one has to feel the pain and suffering they caused their victim. When a person empathizes with his or her victim, he or she can express genuine remorse for having caused this pain. The pain the perpetrator will endure, coupled with the feeling of contrition that it engenders, erases any and every trace of the crime from his or her soul.
It follows then that for the crime of taking out someone’s eye, for example, the only way that the perpetrator’s sins can be erased is through his own eye being removed. However, G-d in His infinite mercy commuted this harsh, but necessary, sentence of losing an eye, to a financial one. This means that by paying for the financial losses for the loss of an eye, one is not paying for the eye that was injured. Rather s/he is really paying a ransom for one’s own eye.
When the criminal realizes that s/he is redeeming his/her own eye it sends a sharp message as to the seriousness of the crime. It will have the effect of jolting the perpetrator into feeling empathy for the pain they caused others.
This is why the Torah states “an eye for an eye,” even though it means financial compensation. By using this stark language, the Torah underscores that the only way that one can truly atone for this heinous crime is to empathize with the victim. This is the Torah’s way of saying to the perpetrator: “Imagine that G-d would not have commuted the sentence and your eye would have been taken out? How would you feel? Well, realize now that this is what you did to the other person.”
When the person realizes the seriousness of the crime and empathizes with the pain he caused and expresses remorse, then, and only then, could the stain and stigma of the crime be removed. Hence even the mention of vengeance is meant to serve as a jolting reminder as to what damage the perpetrator has caused.
G-d gives us “An eye for an Eye”
Our sages tell us that G-d observes His own commandments. The exile that we have been enduring for thousands of years denied us our “eye,” our ability to see G-d’s presence in this world. With the absence of perfect eyesight, it is sometimes hard for us to see the needs of others as well. Frequently, we deny ourselves the things that our souls need, because we have lost the spiritual vision that would have enabled us to see the spiritual dimension of life.
G-d Himself, the Talmud declares, “expresses regret every day for having caused this exile.” G-d also empathizes with our suffering as the Psalmist says: “I am with him in his distress.” And as Rashi explained, the reason for G-d having revealed Himself to Moses in a thorn bush was to express how He too was suffering due to the suffering of Israel.
G-d has also promised us that He will make restitution by giving us an “eye for an eye.” Instead of the “injured” eye of exile—where we cannot see G-d’s overt presence—G-d will give us an eye that can see.
When will we get our vision back? This will happen; the prophets of old predicted during the Messianic Age, at which time they prophesied, “For they shall see [G-d] eye to eye when the L-rd returns to Zion” (Isaiah 52:8) and “The glory of the L-rd shall be revealed and together all flesh shall see that the mouth of G- d has spoken.” (Isaiah 40:5)
To hasten this new age of overt G-dliness, we should do our part to open up our own eyes to see the presence of G-d in our lives and to live our lives inspired by this realization.
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Mishpatim by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
