Torture: Do we do that? (Bava Batra 167a)

Oddly, one of the things that I love about the Jewish tradition is when there is a contradiction within our textual tradition. We are told to "love our neighbor as ourselves" (Lev. 19) but then we have countless examples of Rabbis who don't do this. We are told to be environmental stewards but also are told to "fill the earth and subdue it" (Gen. 1:28). 

I've always been taught (and strongly believe) that we Jews shouldn't condone torture, and that our sources are unapologetic about this. Groups like the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and the Shalom Center are very vocal about Guantanamo Bay and prisoner treatment.

Oddly our Aggadic texts don't always conform to the statements of these groups. In today's Daf we read about Abaye torturing of a suspected criminal. Here is the case:


There was a certain man who was owed money by two brothers (for simplicity sake, let's call him Jerry). As proof of this the brothers gave him a document on which it was written "the portion of land of Reuven and Shimon, brothers, is sold to you." In Aramaic the word "brothers" is Achei. Now it happens that Reuven and Shimon had a brother who was (sadly) named Achei.  Knowing that if he inserted the word "and" into the document he could get 1.5 times the money from the family Jerry jumped at the opportunity. He added the word and changed the document to "the portion of land of Reuven and Shimon and Achei is sold to you."

When he came to collect from the (now) three brothers Abaye noticed how squished the word "and" appeared. Abaye bound him up to a post and essentially tortured him until he confessed (this is the reading of Artscroll, informed by hundreds of years of tradition). In the end, Abaye is the hero. Torture worked and justice was fulfilled.

The reason I love this story is because it goes against everything that I was taught. The thing I love about being a liberal Jew is that very often, its hard to find an objectively right answer in our texts. At times like these, we are reminded of Rabbi Ben Bag Bag who implored us to keep turning the Torah because "all is in it." And it is precisely this act of wrestling with our textual traditions that make study so powerful.

I encourage everyone to continue wrestling by visiting the Religious Action Center, Rabbis for Human Rights, or by reading the Reform Movement's official position on Torture. We don't have to read our text the same way as they do we you can NEVER stop turning them!