January 2005 Peace, Quietness, And Confidence Forever By Rabbi Alvin Kass In an age replete with plea bargaining, reduced sentences and liberal parole policies, we would do well to remember the injunction of Judaism: tsedek, tzedek tirdof (Deut. 16:20). Indeed, our tradition places justice at the top of the list of indispensable ingredients for civilized living. To be sure, the practice of justice does not preclude compassion and mercy. For this reason, in the story of Creation, God is denominated as Adonai Elohim, two terms which respectively describe God in His aspect of loving Father and Judge. Accordingly, if God were to manifest Himself exclusively in the guise of Judge, then man would have to be destroyed because of his perversity and wickedness. On the other hand, if God were to manifest Himself solely in the capacity of loving Father, evil would run rampant. Both elements are necessary, but the right proportion of each is absolutely crucial. Too strict a standard of justice would cause the destruction of the world because of human weakness. Yet, too much forgiveness would result in irresponsibility as people would assume that it makes no difference how immorally they behave since forgiveness and absolution are always there but for the asking. Unfortunately, the prevalent trend among human beings in their emulation of God as Judge is to emphasize excessively the dimension of mercy at the expense of the demands of justice. We are paying the price of this tendency with extraordinarily high rates of recidivism among criminal offenders. Two thousand years ago the Sages of the Talmud declared that the world stands on three pillars: Truth, Justice, and Peace. These phenomena, moreover, are interrelated. Peace can come into the world only when there are Justice and Truth. How many wars can be attributed to the denial of justice as well as the perversion of justice? Judaism has been criticized from time to time for its emphasis upon justice with the concomitant structure of Law. Why not, for example, stress love rather than justice? In the day-to-day affairs of men it is fine to preach love, and we should; but love cannot be evoked upon demand. People have their likes and dislikes, sometimes for good reasons and sometimes not. However, even if we cannot love everyone, we ought at least to treat everyone fairly, justly, and squarely. It may be unrealistic to expect every man to love every other human, but it is certainly not beyond the realm of the possible to expect that we refrain from hurting others even if we don't love them. The prophet Isaiah promised that the effect of practicing Justice would be "peace, quietness, and confidence forever" (Isaiah 32:17). You can't ask for much better than that!