How many
times have you heard the expression “the end justifies the means”? Usually it is invoked to justify some harm,
either inadvertent or deliberate, done as ‘collateral damage’ when seeking some
allegedly good end. I say allegedly, because
this week’s Torah portion instructs us very explicitly to employ no unjust
means in the pursuit of justice.
In the third verse of our portion,
Deuteronomy 16:20, we read the famous pronouncement: Tzedek, tzedek tirdof, lema’an tichyeh
veyerashta et-ha’aretz asher Adonai Eloheicha notein lach. “Justice, justice, you shall pursue, so
that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you.”
The Rabbis are mostly in agreement as
to why the word “justice’ is repeated in the verse. They believe it means that you must pursue
Justice, justly. In other words, there
is no “end justifies the means.” When
pursuing a good end, you must use good means. Full stop.
Any evil caused either deliberately or inadvertently in the pursuit of a
good end is, well, evil.
Dennis Prager, one of my favourite
commentators on contemporary life, points out that the vast majority of evil in
the world, is done by people whose intentions are good, not evil. Think about it. There are enough people of truly ill will
around. But so much damage to others is
done with good intentions.
For example, many political ideologies are well-intentioned, but bring
about pain and suffering. Take
communism, for example. It sounded
noble, didn’t it? Workers of the world
uniting to take control of the fruits of their own labour. From each according to his abilities, to
each according to his needs. Pretty
utopian. Hint: any ideology that sounds utopian, is virtually
guaranteed to bring about evil.
Why? Because utopia is so eagerly
sought, so good, that those trying to bring it about will look beyond
any suffering their actions cause.
Because after all, it’s suffering caused in the pursuit of good. So look at the millions upon millions
displaced and even slaughtered in pursuit of imposing utopian communism upon
the Soviet Union and the various ‘Peoples’ Republics’ around the world.
Now communism might sound like a bad example because it is an extreme
case. So let’s look at something less
totalitarian, at various anti-poverty programs that have been tried in various
places in the world. Who can argue with
the sentiment of lifting one’s brother out of poverty? So in 1964, President Johnson in the USA
signed into law the act that came to be known as ‘The Great Society.’ It was an omnibus menu of anti-poverty
programs. It did not eradicate poverty,
or even put a dent in it. But it did
lead to what many consider the destruction of the working poor family,
especially among black Americans. In
country after country where anti-poverty programs are instituted, the result is
the weakening and even destruction of family life.
Look at religious groups which, in
support of the goal of creating a society infused by obedience to God, impose
violence and pain. Such evil
consequences are found in varying measures, from the Westboro Baptist Church
interrupting funerals to demonstrate for their brand of morality, to Al Qaeda
jihadists hijacking airliners and killing thousands. Speak to any of the perpetrators, and they
would have told you that they were working to bring about paradise on
earth. At what cost ‘paradise’?
War is probably the ultimate evil to
impose on the world. And the Torah has a
lot to say about it. It prescribes
conditions under which it is permissible to go to war: the so-called ‘just war’ test or in Latin, Jus
ad Bellum. And it also prescribes
way that war fighters must work to ameliorate the effects of their
actions. In Latin, these ‘laws of war’
are called Jus in Bello. In
Hebrew, they are called, Tohar Haneshek, meaning ‘Purity in Arms.’
It’s easy to find examples of
permitted and forbidden behavior in war, since another round of fighting in
Gaza has just concluded. From the Torah
to the Geneva Conventions, war fighters are forbidden to deliberately endanger
civilian populations in order to hide their whereabouts or shelter their
means. The first time we heard the term
‘human shields’ used in this context was in 1990, when Saddam Hussein used
foreigners caught in Iraq during the build-up toward Operation Desert Storm, in
that capacity. Saddam very infamously
gathered them, ostentatiously chaining them to likely coalition targets and
daring President Bush to endanger the innocents. And of course, Hamas has bought into Saddam’s
playbook in a big way, hiding missile launchers and munitions storage, not to
mention Command, Control, and Communications installations, in
hospitals, schools, and mosques. The
more the Israeli Defence Forces tried to take out these installations with a
minimum of collateral damage, the deeper Hamas buried these targets into
civilian installations, cynically causing their citizens to be killed in
pursuit of making the Israelis look like Jack the Ripper. The sad thing is that much of the world’s
press bought right into it.
The duplicitous endangering of
civilians by Hamas is a prime example of the ends never justifying the
means. Of course Hamas wants to
neutralize the Israeli Army and end the so-called Blockade. But to employ evil effect to do so, makes
them…evil.
You can see how, over and over again,
people who have allegedly good intentions, who desire a good end, will use evil
means. From suicide bombers to religious
zealots, from politicians wanting to save the poor, or the environment, or just
save us from ourselves, to a certain congregation’s president who tells her
members, in effect, “Yes, we stole your temple…but we did it to save it from
ruin.” In so doing, she and her
board…ruined it.
But the Torah already laid down the
ground rules millennia ago. You cannot
employ evil to achieve good means. No
matter how lofty the goal, you cannot employ means that cause pain and
suffering. Or other bad effect. You cannot justify bad actions in pursuit of
something that is supposed to be good.
Because in the end, you will seldom end up achieving anything that is
good. Pursue Justice, Justly. The means is as important as the end. Shabbat shalom.
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