Hello Everyone,
last week we began our discussion series on the subject of the Jewish System of Justice. We saw that the Jewish/Halachic system of justice demands a very high standard of evidence . Guilty verdicts may not be passed on the basis of circumstantial evidence no matter how closely such evidence approaches absolute certainty. The Rambam wrote that it would be better to acquit one thousand murderers than to convict one innocent person of this crime.
It is the Rambam himself who acknowledged that this system of justice can lead to a breakdown of society with murderers going unpunished. The Rambam wrote that there is a second system of justice. If a murder is committed by a person who cannot be convicted by the “ideal” system of Halachic justice, the courts can sentence him to death anyway. The Rambam explains that murder is the crime which attacks society and a society must protect itself.
The Rambam limits this “extra-judicial” punishment to the crime of murder. Today we will see that the great Spanish commentator, Rabbeinu Nissim presents a very different perspective on the ideal Jewish system of justice.