Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Nugget #93 – Mitzvot: Judgment and mercy


Judgment is meant to identify precisely what needs to be corrected.  It’s meant to identify error in the offender’s judgment.  They are meant to be tools to isolate the ego and its selfishness that often lifts its ugly head unnoticed by the individual and even the community.  By doing so it puts boundaries on how far the individual can go before it violates another’s right to individuality.

Mercy is meant to show compassion to the offender.  Sin in Hebrew is Chatah.  This simply means error.  This excludes premeditated acts or when a person is committing an error then realizes they are in error but continues anyway (These are high handed sins).  Compassion is shown to the offender since they error out of being unaware of what happened.  Mercy is meant to preserve the ability for a person to change by correcting their action.  However, as indicated above.  Chatah/Error is for those sins done as a mistake.  Judgment/discernment is necessary to separate those people from those that commit High Handed Sin who do deserve to be heavy punished.

The balancing point is justice.  Justice is about just behavior and respect for others.  It is meant to facilitate and permit reform.  Justice is meant to give room for a person or people an opportunity to consciously change for the better, even with help and assistance.  Thus Mercy give the room for change and Judgment gives the precise formula to facilitate change.  It aims for the root of the problem so that a proper, long lasting change will be achievable.

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