Murder Is Still Murder

I've been seeing flurry of communication lately about Sharia, Islamic Law. There are all kinds of articles and absurdities floating around. One in particular caught my attention; it concerned Muslim men being allowed to kill their wives. I'm sure that this is now being hotly debated among Muslims. There was a FB posting about a Muslim man using this as a defense for killing his wife. This may be true, maybe not, but I wouldn't put it past a number of people who think like this.

On the radio this morning, they were mentioning that the "Shoe Bomber" was protesting his conviction, because Islamic Law gave him permission to blow up the plane. He further stated that when his shoes failed to explode that meant that it was not his, or the others on the planes time to die. A meme (belief) like that pretty well justifies about everything, doesn’t it. By the way, it isn’t found only in Islam.

I ask, who is this, who are these people who set themselves up as judges of Life and Death? From where do they get their values? Jewish Sages understood the importance of the governments and laws in the countries where they lived. In the Mishnah, Rabbinic Scripture, it says to acknowledge the civil laws where they live otherwise, "A man shall eat his neighbor up alive."

There must be a Common Set of Values to which the members of a Community adhere -- otherwise those people would simply be a bunch of individuals living in Chaos! America was conceived as a country of Laws, created BY THE PEOPLE AND FOR THE PEOPLE FOR THE COMMON GOOD (we call it TOV)! Life for every person is to be protected and preserved. The Common Good of all people is to help their lives more functional and increase their quality of life. LIFE COMES FIRST. This message is reflected in the words of the Torah, it was taught by Jesus, and in the basic ideas of the Founders of this nation.

 If you live in this country, and you are a Muslim – a member of any other religion -- and you murder your wife -- or anyone else who you deem not worthy to live – YOU ARE A MURDERER!!!

Can you image the state of Chaos that would exist in America if every sect of Judaism, all 40,000 Christian denomination and sub-denominations, and members of every other religion – all tried to eliminate everyone that didn’t agree with their BS (Belief Systems)? The Founders had to deal with a mini-version of this in the thirteen colonies – and they realized the religions would never provide a common foundation for all Americans. The last thing they wanted to do was repeat the situation that took place when Roman Emperor Constantine used the judicial and military power of the Empire to back the Church.

The American legal system evolved and made it possible for citizens to practice whatever their required, understanding that there would probably always be disagreements and conflicts between them. It is clear that many of them, however, have beliefs, doctrines and laws that are also found in the Common Ideas and Values that are America’s Founding Ideas and Values. The hope is that Americans will draw on what they share in common.

In the “Ten Sayings” (Ten Commandments) it definitely states, "Lo Tirtzach" - Never Murder (not kill)! Human life is sacred – every human life. The Torah also states – “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man.” It is between these two instructions that every generation must find a way to live.

The Torah taught another lesson to a man that was contemplating committing the first murder in recorded in the Torah. Religion also played a major role in igniting that man’s anger to the point that he wanted to murder his brother – he thought God liked his brother’s offering more than his.

God gave him some instructions for dealing with that situation – “If you do TOV, shall you not be accepted? If you do not do TOV, sin will be crouched at the door and its desire will be for you. You shall rule over him (by doing TOV).

Obviously, if people’s thoughts, words and acts focus on protecting life, preserving life, making life more functional and increasing the quality of life – they won’t be murdering anyone and no one will be murdering them! The opposite condition exists if people choose to do RA (the opposite of TOV).

There is an old rabbinic saying – acts of TOV produce more TOV and acts of RA produce more RA. Humans are like trees and their actions are like the seeds of a tree.

What kind of seeds do we want the trees in our orchard -- America – to produce? We can be sure of one thing – whatever our trees produce is what we will have to eat. Which fruit will we choose – TOV or RA?

Do TOV Choose Life!

Rabbi Jeffrey Leynor

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