Capital Punishment and the Talmud

The starting point for this line of thought could be almost any one of the Torah passages that prescribe the death penalty for some infraction against people or God. It is well-known that Torah, especially Leviticus, has many such "eye-for-an-eye" prescriptions, and these are still often thrown in the teeth of Jews as showing that Judaism is "anti-human" or some similar bigoted bilge. The irony is, of course, that the Rabbis who were the founders of what became mainstream Judaism were perfectly well aware how anachronistic such laws were, and even of how anachronistic the Temple sacrifices themselves were, by the time of the Roman occupation, and their major concern was how to reinterpret these and other laws in a way that did not negate them, but adapted them to a more "modern" era. The effort to continue such interpretation is, of course, on-going. Judaism could probably not survive without such continual growth and adaptation to an ever-changing world.

f any of these (382). The Gemara surrounding this passage deal with the issue of whether the death penalty is enjoined for violation of all of these mitzvoth. Earlier in Sanhedrin 56a the following is said: Our Rabbis taught [concerning "Any man that curseth his God, shall bear his sin;" Lev. 24:15], What is taught by the expression "Any man"? The inclusion of heathens, to whom blasphemy is prohibited just as to Israelites; and they are executed by decapitation; for every death penalty decreed for the sons of Noah is only by decapitation. On this Schachter makes the following annotation: The only place where death is explicitly decreed for non-Israelites is in Gen. IX,6: Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. It is a general law, applicable to all, having been given in the pre-Abrahamic era; his blood shall be shed must refer to the sword, the only [legal form of] death whereby blood is shed (380). However, the Gemara then continues with a technical discussion of exactly what constitutes blasphemy in this context. Quoting the same verse from Leviticus (24:15), it asks, "Why is this written? Has it not already been stated, `And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death'?