My weekly parashah lectures and halachah column for this past פרשת ויקרא discuss the acceptability (or lack thereof) of circumstantial evidence in halachic civil and criminal procedure. A central source is Rambam’s adamant insistence that anything short of eyewitness testimony is absolutely unacceptable in capital cases: המצווה המשלימה ר”צ האזהרה שהזהרנו מלהוציא לפועל את העונשים […]
Tag Archives: capital punishment
Sotah and the Fifth Amendment
This past Shabbas, I noticed an utterly astounding passage in Abravanel’s commentary to the Parshah. The context is a Sotah whom we successfully pressure into confessing her guilt prior to the erasure of the Divine name; the standard view, implied by the Mishnah and Rambam’s codification thereof, is that the consequences to her are limited […]
By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed
Another Journal article, available, as usual, at the Internet Archive.