/GettyImages-680799941-5942743e3df78c537bc98afc.jpg "eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind")
And from that apex of interconnection flows ultimate compassion and the sanctification of life itself. The injunction here in parshat Mishpatim thus stands as a testimony to a state of unitary consciousness. Our own redemption comes when we recognize the metaphysical fact of unity even with our enemies. An essential step in the collection of these scattered shards is the awareness of our enmeshment with the very ones who would do us wrong. In fighting us they are trying, albiet in a deluded way, to connect back to their root, which really is within us.We cannot complete our life mission until we have collected those scattered pieces of ourselves which are embedded within our enemy. She writes that our enemies hold fallen slivers of our souls. In her invaluable book, “You Are What You Hate”, Sarah Yehudit Schneider weaves together Hasidic and Kabbalistic sources which offer a vision of a spiritually productive approach to enemies, a vision based on the notion of ultimate unity. When we are able to apprehend the truth of oneness even and especially with our foes, then we are privy to the highest and most subtle of mystical truths. Most particularly when were talking about our enemies does this unitary view-point shudder forth in its most challenging grandeur. And of course in the case in Mishpatim we are clearly dealing with foes. It's an elegant expression of the very basic fact of the oneness of all people, whether friend or foe. Thus, 'an eye for eye' can be read not as a civil law of an ancient society, but as a metaphysical law of the universe. It does not so much prescribe what should be done in a case of damage, as it describes what actually metaphysically occurs in the course of an injury. From this enlightened vantage point, the notion of 'an eye for an eye' is less of a prescription than it is a description.
When I take your eye, I am taking my own, for we are inherently intertwined. For, from the mystical perspective of ultimate unity, the injured and the injuror are in fact one and the same. An explanation based on the mystical belief in the radical oneness of all existence. I would like to offer an additional layering of explanation.
#Eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind movie
In the movie The Fiddler on the Roof Tevya sums up this Jewish sensibility when he quips, “If everyone lived by 'an eye an eye' and 'a tooth for a tooth, the world would be blind and toothless.” Indeed, according to halacha (Baba Kamma, 84a) an 'eye for an eye' comes to be understood to refer to monetary compensation for physical damages.Īnd yet the glaring question stands, if this legality was not meant to be taken literally, then why is it worded in such a potentially misleading manner? Commentators offer a rich round of rationals, each with their own beauty and merit. The sages agree that the implications of such a law are barbaric and greatly at odds with the moral endeavor of Torah. It states that if there is an injury, the penalty should be an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, wound for wound. Amongst the plethora of laws there inscribed is the well-known injunction of 'ayin tachat ayin - an eye for an eye'.
This week we read parshat Mishpatim, the parsha of “Laws”.
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