Q&A: Two Witnesses
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This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Two Witnesses
Question
Hello, honorable Rabbi,
First of all, thank you for the answers.
I wanted to ask: after all, according to Torah law, testimony is valid only on the basis of two witnesses. Likewise, a person cannot incriminate himself, and a person is not deemed credible about himself, and so on.
Doesn’t this approach encourage crime and moral corruption, since it becomes much harder to prove crimes?
Nathan
Answer
See Ran, Homilies 11. He explains there that Jewish law is not intended to achieve social order. That is the king’s role. The same applies to the laws of punishment in Jewish law. And even in the absence of a king, when there is an offender, he will be dealt with extra-legally.
See here on the site my article on Jewish law as Hebrew law: