A discussion of Hoshen Mishpat, Even Ha'Ezer and other matters.
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 …
Continue reading “Sliding Down the Slippery Slope of Circumstantial Evidence”
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 …
Another Journal article, available, as usual, at the Internet Archive.