Menachem Mendel Bluming Muses: Gun Control



Lately mass shootings have becoming painfully common. Everyone has an idea but meanwhile the carnage continues unabated in places of worship and places of work etc.

Does the Torah give us guidance as to what we need to do to address this?

In what must surely be one of the most enigmatic passages of the entire Torah, we read the section of egla arufa. An unidentified corpse is found abandoned in a remote location with no  clues available to help identity the murderer or the victim. The leading
Rabbis and sages of the Jewish people gather at the site where the body
was found to undergo a public cleansing ritual. As part of the ceremony,
the Rabbis formally announce that they are personally innocent of the
crime; our hands did not spill this blood, nor did our eyes see this
crime (Shoftim 21:7).

Almost all the Biblical commentators question the need for such a
declaration by the sages. In the words of Rashi: would it enter one’s
mind that the elders of the court are murderers?! We’re talking about the
best and brightest men that our nation can produce. Head Justices of the
High Court, men of distinction and paragons of virtue. Would anyone even
suspect these moral giants of stooping to murder?

Obviously there is a subtext to their statement. The egla arufa ceremony
was a public expiation of sin on behalf of the community. A blatant
murder has been committed, an innocent man cruelly slaughtered and in
many ways we are all partially guilty. How could such a heinous crime
have been allowed to happen?

As representatives of the community, the elders were declaring that they
had not neglected the needs of individuals. As Rashi’s explains,
they were declaring: We did not see him and let him depart without food
or escort which could have indirectly caused his death, abandoning him
to the murderers and robbers.

What an amazing perspective on the relationship between criminal
behaviour and society. Obviously, the murderer is primarily guilty and
every effort must be made to prevent future crime and punish the
perpetrators.  However, society as a whole still bears indirect
responsibility to the victim. How can we allow unchecked violence to
defile our streets? How is it possible that a person can lie dead and no
one even recognizes him? What kind of society have we descended to where
blatant criminality goes unpunished?

Our leaders are accountable for the functionality of society and when
systems break down they must be prepared to take personal
responsibility. Unless they can honestly state that they have fulfilled
their mandate to order and direct the public in the ways of Torah then
there is indeed blood on their hands.

Spiritually as well. You might be universally feted for your intellectual brilliance and
knowledge, you might have won fame and fortune for your ability to
minister to those who flock to you, yet that’s not enough. You have no
right to stay safely within your comfort zone and ignore those whose
lives and souls are in peril. You have a religious, ethical and moral
responsibility to pick yourself up, head off into the outback and help
lead them back to safety.

So who takes responsibility for mass shootings? The leaders of organizations of governments and of communities, schools and families. That’s where it starts. Where have WE gone wrong as a society.

Menachem Mendel Bluming and Rabbi Greenbaum

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