Justice with compassion

B”H

In the middle of the Great Depression, New York City mayor, Fiorello LaGuardia, (whose mother was Jewish which in effect made him Jewish) strived to live with the people. It was not unusual for him to ride with the firefighters, raid with the police, or take field trips with orphans. On a bitterly cold night in January of 1935, the mayor turned up at a night court that served the poorest ward of the city. LaGuardia dismissed the judge for the evening and took over the bench himself. Within a few minutes, a tattered old woman was brought before him, charged with stealing a loaf of bread. She told the mayor that her daughter’s husband had left, her daughter was sick, and her two grandchildren were starving.

However, the shopkeeper, from whom the bread was stolen, refused to drop the charges. “It’s a real bad neighborhood, your Honor,” the man told the mayor. “She’s got to be punished to teach other people around here a lesson.”

LaGuardia sighed. He turned to the woman and said, “I’ve got to punish you. The law makes no exceptions. Ten dollars or ten days in jail.” But even as he pronounced sentence, the mayor was already reaching into his pocket. He extracted a bill and tossed it into his famous hat, saying, “Here is the ten dollar fine which I now remit; and furthermore I am going to fine everyone in this courtroom fifty cents for living in a town where a person has to steal bread so that her grandchildren can eat. Mr. Baliff, collect the fines and give them to the defendant.”

The following day, New York City newspapers reported that $47.50 was turned over to a bewildered woman who had stolen a loaf of bread to feed her starving grandchildren. Fifty cents of that amount was contributed by the grocery store owner himself, while some seventy petty criminals, people with traffic violations, and New York City policemen, each of whom had just paid fifty cents for the privilege of doing so, gave the mayor a standing ovation.

 This weeks Parsha starts off with the words

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The Torah conveys to us that it when the Jews enter the Land of Israel, they should appoint Judges and Police in all their cities to enforce the law. We know that any society without proper law enforcement is a society of anarchy. However, judging too strictly without taking into consideration the circumstances of the crime also leads to unbearable outcomes.  

Rabbi Dessler in his book Strive for Truth explains that as human beings, our nature is to judge every new person that we meet. All of us have a type of barometer in our psyche that reacts sensitively when we interact with people. Upon meeting an individual the "like or dislike" barometer either leans towards the negative or the positive. A compliment, smile, or any sense of positive energy will move the ticker to the positive. On the other hand, negative behavior, or even a slightly negative comment, pushes the psyche barometer into the negative.

Chasidus takes this issue one step deeper. Chasidus explains that sometimes one of our Jewish brethren can do something that makes us feel violated, cheated, or wronged in some way or another. Our natural response is to exact complete justice and demand punishment and retribution to the strictest letter of the law. We should stop and ask ourselves if we know all the facts of the predicament this person was in at the time that he hurt you? Do we know what issues he was dealing with at home or at work? Do we know his upbringing and the traumas that he had to deal with? 

When we suspend our judgments on others and we allow feelings of mercy and compassion to be reflected in our judgments, we will usually find a solution that not only holds up the letter of the law but even includes the possibility of transforming a negative situation into a positive one. 

In addition, when we actively practice positive judgmentalism in our daily interactions with people, we will undoubtedly enjoy a life of substantially improved health and serenity as well.

Have a wonderful Shabbos!

Yitzchak Friedman.