What purpose do rules serve? Why have them? What consequences should be in place when they are not followed? As I read this week’s parashah, I noticed categories of rules that I offer below with examples. I am sure other people have identified more exhaustive lists and more precise category names. I welcome comments that identify scholarly work on the topic. Here are the six categories I identified with examples for each and a few examples that clearly fall into multiple categories, of which there are many more. Fairness really runs through nearly all. These are: Deterrence, Restitution Empathy, Fairness, Refresh, peoplehood/loyalty/memory
In a school when a student violates a school value, we think about these dimensions of rules and consequences. Many times, when a student has received a consequence, one staff member will come up to me and say they thought the punishment was too harsh because of the student’s unique circumstances and the troubles s/he faces in their home life and another staff member will come up to me and ask why was the consequence not more severe since so many students saw what happened and might think it’s not such a big deal. The first staff member is calling for a greater measure of empathy, and the second staff member is calling for a stronger deterrent. Most of the time, our job is to consider all of the elements and try to balance them.
Context affects choices. When a school is in chaos and the restoration of order and clear boundaries and trust are needed, the need for deterrence may be weighed more heavily. In such cases, having empathy for the many members of the community indirectly affected by a violation may outweigh empathy for the offender. Almost always, a healing process that includes restitution and re-commitment to a willingness to abide by the school’s values is part of the process. For most students, the conflict resolution process generates empathy and serves as a far stronger deterrent than the consequence, but the consequence often serves as an important marker of seriousness.
I notice also that there are at least five types of people this set of rules expresses empathy for – the victim, the offender, the stranger, the enemy, the weak.
Here are categories and examples:
| Deterrence | Restitution | Empathy/Compassion | Fairness | Refresh | Peoplehood/loyalty/memory |
| He who fatally strikes a man shall be put to death. 12 14 When a man schemes against another and kills him treacherously, you shall take him from My very altar to be put to death. 15 He who strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death. 16 He who kidnaps a man — whether he has sold him or is still holding him — shall be put to death. 17 He who insults his father or his mother shall be put to death
23 But if other damage ensues, the penalty shall be life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. |
18 When men quarrel and one strikes the other with stone or fist, and he does not die but has to take to his bed — 19 if he then gets up and walks outdoors upon his staff, the assailant shall go unpunished, except that he must pay for his idleness and his cure. 20 When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod, and he dies there and then, he must be avenged. 21 But if he survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, since he is the other’s property.
22 When men fight, and one of them pushes a pregnant woman and a miscarriage results, but no other damage ensues, the one responsible shall be fined according as the woman’s husband may exact from him, the payment to be based on reckoning |
13 If he did not do it by design, but it came about by an act of God, I will assign you a place to which he can flee.9 You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt.
4 When you encounter your enemy’s ox or ass wandering, you must take it back to him. 5 When you see the ass of your enemy lying under its burden and would refrain from raising it, you must nevertheless raise it with him. You shall not ill-treat any widow or orphan.
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6 You shall not subvert the rights of your needy in their disputes. 7 Keep far from a false charge; do not bring death on those who are innocent and in the right, for I will not acquit the wrongdoer. 8 Do not take bribes, for bribes blind the clear-sighted and upset the pleas of those who are in the right.1 You must not carry false rumors; you shall not join hands with the guilty to act as a malicious witness: 2 You shall neither side with the mighty to do wrong — you shall not give perverse testimony in a dispute so as to pervert it in favor of the mighty — 3 nor shall you show deference to a poor man in his dispute.
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When you acquire a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years; in the seventh year he shall go free, without payment. (and Empathy)
10 Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield; 11 but in the seventh you shall let it rest and lie fallow. Let the needy among your people eat of it, and what they leave let the wild beasts eat. You shall do the same with your vineyards and your olive groves.12 Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor, in order that your ox and your ass may rest, and that your bondman and the stranger may be refreshed. (and peoplehood)
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14 Three times a year you shall hold a festival for Me: 15 You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread — eating unleavened bread for seven days as I have commanded you — at the set time in the month of Abib, for in it you went forth from Egypt; and none shall appear before Me empty-handed; 16 and the Feast of the Harvest, of the first fruits of your work, of what you sow in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in the results of your work from the field. 17 Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Sovereign, the Lord.18 You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with anything leavened; and the fat of My festal offering shall not be left lying until morning.
19 The choice first fruits of your soil you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
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| 26 When a man strikes the eye of his slave, male or female, and destroys it, he shall let him go free on account of his eye. 27 If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he shall let him go free on account of his tooth. (Deterrence, Empathy, Restitution and Fairness) 28When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox is not to be punished. . 29 If, however, that ox has been in the habit of goring, and its owner, though warned, has failed to guard it, and it kills a man or a woman — the ox shall be stoned and its owner, too, shall be put to death. 30 If ransom is laid upon him, he must pay whatever is laid upon him to redeem his life. (Deterrence, Restitution and Fairness) | |||||