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it is day number 317 of our daily study
of
RA and in the three chapters ofday study
track of M we're continuing
in chapters 13 14 and 15 or mitz today
negative commandment
294 is the prohibition against punishing
someone who was coerced to sin where do
we learn this from we learned this from
the verse
which is in English Deuteronomy
2226 where it says to the
maiden do not do a thing what's it
talking about it's talking about a case
where a man violates a betrothed Maiden
in which case it's an act of adultery
and it would normally incur the death
penalty for both of them but she was not
willing therefore or the the attacker is
going to be executed she is not to be
harmed in any way it is not her fault
she is a victim and from this we learn
that we do not punish a victim if a
victim was victimized by being forced to
go along with an act which is sinful
they are not culpable and they are not
to be punished in any way negative
commandment
290 is the
prohibition against rendering a verdict
based on circumstantial evidence
everything in Jewish court is based on
eyewitnesses there have to be two
witnesses the witnesses have to have
seen the crime at the same time and in
fact there's another step which is
called HRA which means warning where
they warned the one who is committing
the crime and he heard the warning he
rejected the warning he said I
understand what you're telling me and
I'm going to going to do it anyway that
is how convictions are arrived at in
Jewish Court not circumstantial evidence
so for instance the archetypical case is
that somebody's chasing another person
wielding a weapon a knife and they run
into a house and um then there's
screaming that's heard and then um the
person who's watching all this walks
into the house he sees one person
standing with a bloody knife the other
person lying there dead bleeding oh it's
obvious there's no other explanation
other than this guy killed that guy well
perhaps it is very very logical to
conclude that but that is not how
convictions are arrived at in Torah law
it's dismissed it's dismissed now the
ram discusses this and
explains why it's dismissed and there
are different approach approaches to
explaining why Torah law is so Ironclad
about having eyewitness testimony theam
explains like this he says that when it
comes to circumstantial evidence there's
a big Spectrum a big range of
circumstances some where it's really
really really highly probable that what
what it looks like is exactly what it is
but then there are situations where it's
kind of it could go either way kind of
looks like this is what it is but who's
to say and then there are situations On
The Other Extreme which are totally
flimsy where maybe there's a theory it
could go that way but you know who who's
to know so the ram says in order to
avoid any of that the Torah just draws a
very very firm line and says no
circumstantial evidence at all in other
words it's a slippery slope this is how
the ramam explains it it's a slippery
slope so we just completely stay away
from it we don't even go there at all
even even in cases where it's pretty
evident that what it looks like is
exactly what it is okay those are our
mits for today we will see you for more
tomorrow God willing
