In Parashat Shoftim, God briefly outlines the criminal justice system of Israel. God starts by describing how to prevent corruption. This includes the refusal of bribes. Members of the law are required to seek justice under any circumstance. Aaron and his descendants, the Levites, are assigned to rule over Israel's religious and federal practices. Later in the parashat, God declare that those who believe in magic or ghosts are a disgrace. Fortune tellers and seance goers alike are to be excommunicated from the community. All these laws were fairly non-shelaunt until the very end of Parashat Shoftim. To conclude this portion, God discusses militarily issues. God claims in order to receive the land of heritage, the Israelites must not let a soul live from a number of different tribes residing in Canaan.
Basically, God condones genocide. How could this be? The events of the Holocaust occurred less than a century ago. After the horrors Jews in Europe were forced to endure, it is inconceivable to believe God could order us to wipe out entire nations. Through a historian's eyes, the mass, Biblical murder is not as provocative as it seems. Killings like these were not considered genocide in the ancient world. If the ancient Israelites did not eliminate these nations, these enemies would have attacked us. Hindsight set aside, the ethics of how Israel went about dealing with these domains is purely despicable. In any age, the elimination of a race to prevent these peoples from leading us to abhorrent sins is ethically unacceptable. I find some of Jewish law unnecessarily strict,. like the forbidding of shaving ones sideburns, but I understand that daunting restrictions like these promote the teaching of discipline. There is no way to find a way to ethically defend this violent decree by God.
What can we do? This treacherous act was done over 3,000 years ago. It is impossible to change the past. I believe there a three steps we need to take in order to obtain full atonement over our ancestor's actions. First of all, we need to be willing to claim responsibility for the bloodshed that occurred. Hopefully, the other peoples of the world are willing to forgive us. Secondly, we need to teach about the horrors of genocide. Of all nations, Jews can empathize on the topic of genocide most often. As a generation of Holocaust survivors begins to pass on, we are responsible to tell their stories. Emotions make the Holocaust a touchy subject, but we can not let them get in the way. In my opinion, teaching youth about the Holocaust is the only way to prevent another mass extermination of the caliber. One may ask how we can educate others about genocide without experiencing the Holocaust, like our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. Promote high schools to assign their students to read books like "Night", which are banned in some districts. Parents should sit down with their child and inquire what their knowledge is on this subject. The third step of our redemption is to prevent future genocides. It boggles my mind that genocide is still occurring after the Holocaust. Teaching our children is not enough to protect another from suffering. I do not even believe sending aid is enough to accomplish such a task. Although I am guilty of not doing so myself, I insist that we need to lobby against genocide. In the 1940's, the United States of America was too finically fragile to stop the Holocaust in its tracks. It was not until 1945 when numbers like six million began to reach the American public. It makes me wonder what the numbers look like in Darfur right now.
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