Judaism and the "right to stand your ground"

The George Zimmerman verdict is
Scary: opens door to vigilantes,
to becoming the wild west all over.
Whether or not jury was right there’s no just result

“right to stand your ground”

If you think about it, any time 2 people believe they have a "right to stand their ground," you end up with escalating conflict. When I imagine what happened that night (and I admit this is my own imaginative reconstruction), I imagine 2 people each thinking they are just standing their ground. Zimmerman, believing he had a right to protect his community against someone he thought seemed suspicious, even if only because of the color of his skin and his clothing style. And Martin, believing he had a right to protect himself against someone who seemed to be stalking him

When 2 people stand their ground, you have a stand off where only 1 person can win
There’s always a loser,
Since nobody wants to lose, so each person raises the stakes--there is a mutual escalation.
In this case, the stakes were raised so high that at least according to zimmerman’s testimony, only 1 of them would come out alive
Nobody felt an obligation to stand down, to de-escalate,
to walk away, which was what the dispatcher had told Zimmerman to do
It was a tragic inability to de-escalate
This is the problem with the whole attitude of "standing your ground."

“Standing your ground” is not a jewish value
Talmud: Jerusalem destroyed because people insisted on their legal rights—
let’s say shimon owed rubin 10 zuz, but shimon only had 9
so rubin insisted on the full 10 zuz
Rubin wouldn’t compromise.
Rubin was right halachically—but he was wrong because he wouldn’t compromise
And for this Jerusalem was destroyed

In jewish court proceedings, too, the court is instructed to try to negotiate a settlement first
And only then to adjudicate
The whole idea of a settlement is that it’s not necessarily what the halacha calls for
It’s about making peace between the two sides
Because the world survives through peace, not through who’s wight or wrong

Any of us who are married or have been know this
How long would a marriage survive if spouses stood their ground
If spouses always insisted on having their way?

Here at FJC, we are trying to build a spiritual community
It’s a lot like a mixed marriage—we’ve got traditionalist and progressive jews
Which creates a beautiful challenge
the rules we davven by, whether we have a mechitza or not,
Are far less important than how we treat each other,
Whether we care for each other, and treat each other respectfully.

Any win-lose struggle is really a lose-lose struggle
Any time we have a conflict and one sides wins, really both sides lose.

May we all learn
To be more gentle, more understanding, and willing to always seek compromise, to find solutions by which everyone comes out feeling good about what we are building together.

Zimmerman's acquittal in the eyes of the Talmud

I was shocked by outcome of Zimmerman trial
And signed petitions to eric holder to prosecute Zimmerman for civil rights violation
Shocking that Zimmerman profiled Trayvon Martin for being black in florida
Stalked him in his car, somehow provoked him,
And got away with killing him
It is a scary porecedent.
One wonders: does this open the door to a wild west mentality?
If someone stalks me, and I defend myself, can they then shoot me and claim self defense?
But I want to discuss a jewish perspective on the verdict per se
Even if Zimmerman’s actions were horrible
Which they were
Was the jury right to acquit, from a jewish perspective?
Was justice served?

In its discussion of court procedures for capital crimes, the Talmud institutes very careful procedures to make sure there is absolute proof of the crime. The Torah requires two witnesses, and the Talmud require that they both warn the criminal and unambiguously witness the act.
Sanh 37b:
It has been taught: R. Simeon b. Shatah said: May I never see comfort6 if I did not see a man pursuing his fellow into a ruin, and when I ran after him and saw him, sword in hand with blood dripping from it, and the murdered man writhing, I exclaimed to him: Wicked man, who slew this man? It is either you or I!7 But what can I do, since thy blood [i.e., life] does not rest in my hands, for it is written in the Torah, At the mouth of two witnesses etc., shall he that is to die be put to death?8 May he who knows one's thoughts exact vengeance from him who slew his fellow! It is related that before they moved from the place a serpent came and bit him [the murderer] so that he died.

The court procedure was so biased against false conviction that
Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah states: [Executing more than] one person in 70 years [would be considered a murderous court]. Rabbi Tarfon and Rabbi Akiva state: “If we had been members of the Sanhedrin, no defendant would ever have been executed.” [Makkot 1:10]
To which of course R Shimon b Gamliel responds:
Rabbi Shimon ben Gamaliel responds, “they would have been increasing the murderers in Israel.”
But the halacha is that we are careful about this procedure, because it is better to let someone go than to punish someone who’s innocent
In fact, the judges on a bet din are instructed to look for reasons to acquit.
Pesachim 12a:—cannot convict person if there’s any doubt they are equivalent
Cites Num 35:25: “the congregation shall deliver”
Rashi: we look for a reason to acquit
From a utilitarian perspective: it’s better to convict people even if you’re not 100% sure
This is Shimon ben Gamliel’s argument:
We would be a safer society if courts could convict people like Zimmerman
It would send the message: you can’t be a vigilante
But from a moral perspective, our own moral integrity as a society comes first
The ends don’t justify the means
Courts need to make sure they don’t punish innocent people
Or they themselves are acting immorally
our own moral integrity limits what we can do to protect public safety
The Zimmerman trial shows our society has problems
The possibility that someone could think it’s okay to assault and kill someone for appearing suspicious, based on racial stereotypes
That we have vigilantes driving around on town watch acting without regard for the law
But it also shows our justice system can work
People can be acquitted if there’s just a possibility of being innocent

On a personal level, when we are judging others’ motives
And tempted to condemn them, to judge them negatively,
We should always look for a tzad zechut, a way to view their actions positively
And through this, preserve peace in our communities and families.

Imagine that you are trying to davven, on a beautiful sunny day in Jerusalem, singing the hallel with your full heart. Add to the scene that you are standing next to a restroom and surrounded by ultraorthodox Jews blowing whistles, throwing eggs at you, and calling you "zonah" (whore), "naziyah" (nazi) and "pritzit" (lascivious), and a blaring PA system trying to drown out your voice. I was terribly saddened by what the Women of the Wall went through this month, in their fight to allow pluralistic worship at the kotel, our peoples’ holiest site. Surrounded by crowds of yelling, whistling ultraorthodox Jews, kept in the back of the plaza by the bathrooms by the police.
Isaiah (56:7) says “my house shall be a house of prayer for all people.” That house is the Temple. What will it look like, when Indians and Native Americans and Christians and Muslims come? What prayer will be said there—one prayer, or a beautiful rainbow of prayers and voices, representing the multiplicity of beautiful human approaches to spirituality? Will the third Temple be an ultraorthodox shtibl, or will it be a mansion, allowing for all ethnicities, allowing for chanting and yoga, allowing for people who call God “Allah” or “Brahman” or “Love”?
It is sad that even segments of the Jewish people are unable to access our holiest site. The women of the wall represent most of the Jewish people, since orthodoxy is really a minority worldwide and a majority in Israel only because they are state funded. But this loud minority is keeping the wall hostage, preventing other Jews from davenning there.
This is particularly apropos in this period before Tisha B’Av, a holiday that marks the destruction of the Second Temple due to sinat hinam, causeless hatred among Jews. When one Jews tries to prevent another Jew from davenning, it is a hateful act, it is sinat hinam. When one Jew calls another Jew’s sincere spiritual expression “childish provocation,” as did Hillel Halkin, it is stupidity, judgmentalism, and sinat hinam.
I pray for the day when people will no longer judge each other’s spirituality, but can celebrate each other. I pray for the day when all peoples’ sincere attempts to bring kedusha into the world are honored and celebrated. I pray for the day when the kotel, the western wall, is truly liberated, is truly a house of prayer for all of us. And until that day, “over these I weep.”