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July ~ August 2006

Dear friends,

On June 16, 2005 Federal Judge William Sessions sentenced Donald Fell of Rutland, Vermont to be executed for the abduction and killing of Theresa King. This is the first person sentenced to death in Vermont in almost fifty years and is based upon the federal death statutes, as Vermont has long since abolished capital punishment.

As a leader of our spiritual community, I feel that such an event should neither go unnoticed nor uncommented upon. I recognize that within our community and within the larger community, there are differences of opinion as to the death penalty, but surely we all agree that such a serious event should cause us all to pause, to think, to search our hearts minds and souls, to argue and wrestle with our neighbors and friends, as this is no small matter.

 This photo is by Dror Poleg, unrelated to BAJC, and viewable at: www.flickr.com

In a few short months, we enter into the High Holiday season. We relearn how we need to reflect and atone on Yom Kippur and that before we ask God directly for forgiveness, we must ask forgiveness from all those we have wronged. Almost weekly we read in the newspapers of innocent people being freed, having their innocence finally proved through the modern miracle of DNA analysis, unavailable at time of conviction. The government often pays large sums to try to recompense for years spent wrongly in jail, often on death row. We can try, no matter how inadequately, to ask for forgiveness from those wrongly imprisoned; we cannot ask for forgiveness from those we have wrongly executed. Who had the wrong skin color; who had mental illness; who were the wrong gender or age; who had an inadequate attorney or a judge or jury with an agenda.

We are responsible for how we punish. To punish for protection and deterrence may be just; to execute for revenge is not. From those executed “according to the rules,” we cannot ask forgiveness for the act of killing for revenge. It has been our Jewish tradition for uncounted generations that only God has the right to take life. Our Rabbis used text and analysis to prevent the use of capital punishment. Our leaders have stated that capital punishment is contrary to the basic tenets of our faith.

We are instructed by God that “You shall be holy because I the Lord your God am holy.” We are challenged to try to reach beyond our human limitations and to find the divine within ourselves and around us. The struggle to be holy illuminates our lives. It allows us to build this world, not destroy it. It allows us to heal, not harm. And it commands us not to have the blood of revenge on our hands.

B’Shalom,
Paul