Q&A: Between Justice and Morality
Between Justice and Morality
Question
Hello to Rabbi Michael Abraham, may he live long and well.
Is justice part of the moral system? Seemingly it sometimes overrides it; in the name of justice one sometimes has to do bad things to bad people. So justice is a different value from morality. The question is whether it is superior to it. If so, then there is some logic to the Left opposing the death penalty for terrorists.
By the way, if justice and morality are separate, and justice overrides morality, that could explain "immoral" commandments such as the eradication of Amalek: the command of the Holy One, blessed be He, reflects a value higher than morality (it seems to me the Rabbi once said something similar as well).
Answer
I don't see a difference between justice and morality. And I also don't see a connection between those two and the question of the death penalty for terrorists, or between the Left and the Right.
As for what I said, see Column 15 (it deals with Jewish law and morality, or religious values and moral values).