The Torah's ethos of punishment

This write-up highlights the Torah's philosophy to punishment, namely, that its aim is to provide justice, rehabilitation and prevention—not dehumanization and debasement. 

In two places, both in Ki Seitzei, the Torah discusses a reality where the demands of justice require a corporal response and yet in both places emphasizes the need to preserve human dignity and that the punishment not spill over into unnecessary degradation and the stripping away of the offender's humanity. 

In both cases the Torah employs a word root that bespeaks dishonor and ignominy—קל(ל)ה—to describe the debasement it seeks to avoid.

The first (Devarim 21:22-23) centers on where a person need be hung (either as deterrence [Chazal]), or to kill him [e.g., Qumran text, Peshitta]), with the Torah cautioning that it not be overdone, as that will result in unnecessarily mortifying debasement—כִּי קִלְלַת אֱלֹהִים תָּלוּי (,הגר"א דברים כ"א:כ"ג: כי קללת אלהים תלוי – אלהים הוא להפליג הדבר כמו הררי אל שלהבת יה וכן כאן פירושו בזיון גדול מופלג מאוד והוא בזיון התליה כי קללה הוא לשון בזיון בכל מקום.).

The second (ibid 25:2-3) is where a person is determined to be liable for lashes with the Torah specifying that it not be overdone as that will result in your brother's debasement—וְנִקְלָה אָחִיךָ לְעֵינֶיךָ  (תרגום אונקלוס, דברים כ"ה:ג': אַרְבְּעִין יַלְקֵינֵיהּ לָא יוֹסֵיף דִּלְמָא יוֹסֵיף לְאַלְקָיוּתֵיהּ עַל אִלֵּין מַחָא רַבָּא וְיֵיקַל אֲחוּךְ לְעֵינָךְ.). 

The Torah articulates the idea that punishment is not a tool to obliterate a person's basic respect and humanity but rather to serve justice, rehabilitate the offender and prevent others from engaging in similar behavior.

It is expressing the concept that punishment be executed in as dignified a manner as possible. 

Utmost care need be taken, especially when justice mandates someone's whipping/hanging, that it be administered with discernment and not result in the person's humanity being devalued.

(Chazal even read into the verse that should the prescribed lashes cause the person to be overly embarrassed, that the whipping be prematurely terminated: ספרי דברים, כ"ה:ג': ונקלה אחיך לעיניך – מיכן אמרו נתקלקל בין ברעי בין במים פטור, emphasizing the Torah's concern for human dignity—even a sinner's)

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