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A Journal of Jewish Responsibility Control Us we dare not tolerate conditions which brutalize and Sh'ma dehumanize. But humanness means the power to control conditions rather than letting conditions a journal of Jewish responsibility control us. Humanness demands individual responsibility 1/20, NOVEMBER 19,1971 The truth of the matter is that millions upon mil- lions of men, women, and children of all races and creeds have suffered privation, prejudice, pogroms, and poverty. There are countless people who faced the same conditions that were the lot of those who are convicted criminals. These include millions of black people. They did not end up as felons and ac- cused murderers—but as productive, law-abiding members of our society. The difference between those who allow conditions to make them criminals and those who are able to overcome the conditions under which they live must lie—at least in part—in Thoughts about thoughts about attica-1 the inner assumption of responsibility. The lack of such sense leads to criminality and self-destruction. Seymour Siegel The thrust of the argument of many who write and speak on the matter is that if the conditions are bad The prisons and the prisoners of our country have enough, then what happens, however heinous, is to suddenly become one of the prime challenges to our be attributed to the deficiencies of our society consciences. Some have known for a long time that rather than to deficiencies of will and character, lt our correctional institutions have not corrected and seems to me that this attitude represents the ulti- that our prisons were schools for crime. Now the mate in dehumanization. lt denies to man that which whole country is aware of what is happening on the is most uniquely his—his freedom and therefore his other side of the prison walls. The plea of the incar- responsibility. cerated to be treated like men rather than like a breed less than human comes with special merit and By all means let us reform our prisons. They are a poignancy and with a urgency which cannot be national disgrace. Let us humanize and speed up our system of justice. Let us improve our society where ignored. it desperately needs improvement—but let us educate However, much that has been written about the our young and ourselves to recognize our own hu- prisons and the inmate population has been dehu- manness and our own responsibility. manizing to the prisoners—even where there was ostensible defense of the prisoner's manhood. The idea that a man who has a long record of crime is in jail because of his "race" or because he is Thoughts about thoughts about attica-2 "poor" or because of his "political beliefs" is ulti- Haskel Lookstein mately demeaning to those who are seemingly being defended. Writers and columnists seek, as they say, Concerning Attica, Mr. Agnew said, "To compare to go beyond the surface of the facts and to pene- the loss of life by those who violate the society's trate to the "core" of what is wrong with our law with a loss of life of those whose job it is to up- prisons. This penetration usually means shifting the hold it,, represents not simply an assault on human responsibility from the individual criminal to sensibility, but an insult to reason." "society" or to his "environment." This attempt to assign greater or lesser weight to the What is overlooked is that our true humanity con- lives of guards and prisoners has been repudiated by sists in our assumption of individtud responsibility. many. But the fundamental idea came into our cul- True, there are mitigating circumstances; true, that ture from rabbinic Judaism. Its view is best seen in 153 the Talmud's frequent and varied affirmation that mentals of Torah (Chapter 5, law 5), when he says every life has infinite value and that, therefore, no that even if one of the group was a convict liable to preference can be established for one life over the death penalty, one may not allow the group to another. surrender him to the heathens although his surrender would save all the rest. The mathematics of infinite value This infinity of value is ennunciated by the Talmud The conclusion of Jewish law is thus quite clear. No first with regard not to the individual life itself but human life is to be preferred to any other, nor may to the ramifications of that life. Thus the Mishna in many lives be preferred to one even when our sur- Sanhedrin, Chapter 4, states that "whoever destroys face observations of the one life tell us that it is one life is considered by the Torah as if he had de- depraved and devoid of worth. This determination is stroyed an entire world." The Talmudic conclusion simply beyond our scope. Only God may make such is derived from the fact that from one man—Adam— judgments. a world population emerged. When man begins to pick and choose between lives This is of more than demographic significance. It that have infinite value, then all life loses its sanctity. means that the death of a man is not to be viewed Jews understand this lesson better than most. Only a solely from the perspective of that man but as an act short time ago our lives were assigned a value inferior with ramifications for a world of lives—the man's to that of pure Aryans. Ultimately, 6,000,000 of us family who sustain the loss and children and descen- died from such weighing of the worth of various lives. dants who never come into being because of the loss. Is the death of a guard a greater source of pain to Sh'ma his mother than is the death of a prisoner? Do the orphans and widows suffer more when their dead a journal of Jewish responsibility fathers and husbands were "law upholders" rather than "law violators"? And as far as generations yet Editor Eugene B. Borowitz unborn are concerned, are we to mourn their non- Assts. to Editor Mark S. and Zola Colub existence more or less depending on the pedigree of Copy Sylvia Seldin their potential progenitors? It would be well to re- Art Al Lorenz member that this country was founded and devel- Records Alicia Seeger oped by people, a significant percentage of whom Production EW. Taylor Co. "violated society's law" or were the descendants of Contributing Editors Graenum Berger, such violators. Emil Fackenheim, Harry Gersh, Irving Greenberg, Arthur Hertzberg, Norman Lamm, The moral implication of all this is that every life has Richard Levy, Henry Schwarzschild, Steven infinite value. It follows that one infinity is not Schwarzschild, Seymour Siegel, Judd Teller, worth more than another. Albert Vorspan, Elie Wiesel, Arnold Wolf, Only god may judge the infinite Michael Wyschogrod. But the Talmud goes still further and considers the Sh'ma welcomes articles from diverse points of view. limitless value of life also in terms of the life itself, . Hence articles present only the author's, not the regardless of ramifications. This value is implicit in a editors', views. poignant practical decision recorded in the Jerusalem We print typos that do not obscrue the meaning. Talmud (Terumah 8:4). "If a group of heathens ap- proach a body of Jews and say: 'Give us one of your Sh'ma is published bi-weekly, except June, July and number that we may kill him, and if not we will kill August, by Sh'ma, Inc. Publication address, Room 1006, 1261 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10001. Editorial you all,' all must submit to death rather than sur- address, Box 959, Ansonia Station, New York, N.Y. 10023. render one of their number." In mathematical terms Subscription $10.00 for 2 years in U.S.A. and Canada, the Talmud is here affirming that one infinity is not Institutional bulk (10 or more issues) $2.50 each. Single worth less than many infinities. issue 500, sixteen-page issues $1.00. Application to mail at second class postage rates is pending at New York, Maimonides, in his code of law, extends this princi- N.Y. Copyright 1971 by Sh'ma, Inc. ple further, in a section dealing with the Funda- 1/20, November 19,1971 154 Power and reality in conservative judaism Chancellor; he had worked hard to get the job; he Eugene B. Borowitz wanted it; he felt he deserved it. The trouble was that a good part of the rabbinate and the faculty did During the past six months, I interviewed a dozen not want him in the position. men in preparation for this article. They were un- No one to whom I spoke could, or, perhaps, would animous only on one matter: Dr. Louis Finkelstein pinpoint the objection to Mandelbaum. It is clear would not resign as Chancellor of the Jewish Theo- that the contrast to Finkelstein, as belittling as that logical Seminary of America—which he then pro- would be to anyone, played a major role in it. Yet ceeded to do. Such was the wisdom of those with though every man spoke of his personal liking for proximity to power—or such, at least, was what they Mandelbaum it became clear that, ultimately, their were willing to share. I claim little more infallibility objection to his being Chancellor was a personal one. for my own, second-level analysis. That may be only subjective; it was nonetheless a On the surface the present political situation seemed political reality. So already when Mandelbaum was to center about the succession to Finkelstein's leader- appointed President of the Seminary in 1966, two ship.
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