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The Role Of Capital Punishment In Judaism

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The right to life is a privilege that all humans have, but this right has become a topic of disagreement and in many situations people feel that it is acceptable to take this right away from another person. Either by capital punishment or by abortions we find ourselves in the position where others are dictating the outcome of another person’s life. These two topics have brought a great deal debates, new ruling and changes in the law. The controversy that surrounds them are driven by the strong opinions and in many case the emotional feeling people have about them. Play a major driving force in the disagreement in this two topics are the different religious beliefs. In many ways both the Roman Catholic and Jewish faith views on these two …show more content…

It is very interesting that this idea is supported in Judaism because there are over thirty accounts of capital punishment in the Old Testament. There are also very well known quotes from the Old Testament on capital punishment such as “a life for a life, an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth”(Deuteronomy 19:21), and “A man who spills human blood, should have his blood spilled” (Genesis 9:6). Although the Jewish and Roman Catholic views are very similar to one another, the one thing that makes these two views different is that the Jewish faith says that the death penalty should exist. Steven Davidoff stated supports this when he stated, “The Jewish view on the death penalty is that it should exist but it should never be used” (Davidoff 93). This is a very interesting statement because what it is telling us is that the Jewish faith believes that the death penalty should be used as a deterrent. This idea is a great way to look at capital punishment because if the idea of death being a punishment is enforce many criminals are more likely to think twice before committing a serious crime. Despite the current view on capital punishment, in early Jewish Law the idea of the death penalty was supported, but this was due to the fact that other laws and Israel traditions at the time clashed. Forming the theory that a select few crimes should be punishable by death. Although it was supported under Jewish Law it was a very rare occurrence mainly because of the fact that there were many requirements that needed to be proven before the punishment can be

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