Q&A: Violating God’s Command vs. Violating the Law
Violating God’s Command vs. Violating the Law
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I’ve seen you say in several places that there’s no reason to view an atheist or a secular person as someone who is violating the Torah’s command, since they are not doing so out of rebellion and with the knowledge that it is forbidden to desecrate the Sabbath and the like, but rather because that is what they think. And it seems from your words that this exempts them from punishment, even though they are still violating Torah prohibitions, simply because that is what they think, and therefore there is no basis for blaming them.
My question is: according to this, why is it דווקא in matters related to halakhic prohibitions that one can say there is no point in punishing them, or that they cannot be punished, whereas when it comes to the laws of a state, no one would ever think to exempt a person from punishment for breaking the law just because, in his view, that law need not be observed? Such a claim certainly would not be accepted in a normal court in a properly run country. So why, with Torah prohibitions (and religious prohibitions in general), can such a claim be made about a person who does not believe, such that there is no point at all in punishing him? (And by violating a state law I mean a law that would not significantly undermine the public order of the state, but still must be obeyed.)
Answer
For some reason I seem to remember that I already answered this.
There is no such thing as a law that does not undermine the order if violated. You don’t legislate such a law. That is precisely an indication of the difference between law and Jewish law.
The law has other considerations for why to punish: deterrence, preserving order, and so on. First of all, these are consequentialist considerations. By contrast, in Jewish law the question is whether you essentially deserve punishment, and that depends on culpability. If you do not know, then there is no culpability on you. The question of consequences is a different question, and it is not what determines matters in Jewish law (also because the laws of Jewish law are not intended specifically to prevent harms and consequences, certainly not in our ordinary world).