Q&A: Capital Punishment Laws
Capital Punishment Laws
Question
What is the reason that a non-Jew is executed on the basis of one witness, by one judge, without prior warning, even for fetuses, and even if he only struck a Jew without killing him, and even if he merely violated one of the seven commandments incumbent on him that do not seem all that severe to the point of warranting the death penalty, such as theft? Here you can no longer say that this is like interest, where a Jew has extra rights that a non-Jew does not. Is there another reason?
Answer
Why? One could say that in principle every person ought to have been punished by death for every transgression, but Jews are treated more leniently because they are supposed to fulfill many more commandments over the course of the rest of their lives (similar to “desecrate one Sabbath for him” in a case of saving a life, where there too there is a difference between the life of a non-Jew and that of a Jew for the same reason).
I am not saying that I am happy with this Jewish law, and I also assume that when it ever becomes relevant, if ever, they will change it (or not implement it). It was created in a place and time where it was not practical. It may even be merely a declarative law (see the column that deals with such laws).
See Machaneh Chaim, Orach Chaim, part 2, siman 23, that one should distinguish between a Jew and a Noahide on the grounds that a Jew is judged by the Sanhedrin, whose power and authority are to judge God’s justice (and not like a king, to maintain the order of the world); therefore witnesses and prior warning are required so that error should not come about through them.
In contrast, a Noahide is judged in order to maintain the order of the world, and the power of the one judging him is like the power of the king in Israel, who does not judge based on witnesses and prior warning, and therefore only by the sword. See there.
https://hebrewbooks.org/788