The Big Picture

How does the Decalogue serve as a Community Code of Conduct?

Abraham Joshua Heschel answered this question in his seminal work The Prophets. In addressing Hebrew Bible Prophets’ role, he explains the Community Code of Conduct’s nature. His words also bring to light a modern problem. Societal concerns have become distorted and contorted.

The End Goal

Heschel’s brilliant summation of the Prophet’s perspective: “Above all, the prophets remind us of the moral state of the people: Few are guilty, but all are responsible. If we admit that the individual is in some measure conditioned or affected by the spirit of society, an individual’s crime discloses society’s corruption. In a community not indifferent to suffering, uncompromisingly impatient with cruelty and falsehood, continually concerned for God and every man, crime would be infrequent rather than common.” Heschel, The Prophets, at P. 19.

A Community Code of Conduct’s end goal, as Heschel expressed, is diminishing criminality. This end goal is, however, confounded, in modernity. Heschel’s observation of indifference has taken on a different form. Suffering, cruelty and falsehood have become fungible ideas; the concepts have been corrupted. As a result, aberrant behavior is not only being tolerated, it is celebrated.

The Fungibility of Ideas

Current events show that humanity is compromised with respect to appropriately identifying and applying the concepts suffering, cruelty and falsehood. A controversial murder trial evidences this failure. A mother accused of murdering her three young children has set the United States ablaze with controversy.

Suffering

Who suffers? Should it be the criminal, the killer, or the victims, those killed?

According to many accounts, the mother who killed her three children was the one that many found as suffering. The children’s suffering was not a paramount concern for many. Before the case was rule as a mistrial, there were inclinations that justice was not to be served for the children. The mother, who killed her children, was likely to be found not guilty.

The mother was hoisted onto the mantle for suffering for a variety of reasons: the alleged post-partum psychosis, post-partum depression, alleged medical mismanagement, and post event suicide attempt that left her paralyzed. This suffering defeated justice for three murdered children and their suffering.

The Mother’s suffering overrode any of the three children’s suffering when they were strangled to death by her with exercise bands. The children, who were killed in a planned and timely act according to the trial, to many, were mere props. Their killer mother, due to her many supporters, is ascending to sainthood. She has become an icon. Infanticide is on the road to normalization.

Cruelty

For many trial onlookers, the children’s strangulation is not viewed the true act of cruelty. The cruelty, in this instance, was the institution of motherhood, the medical profession, the pharmaceutical industry, the husband, and the children. Biology is cruel. Medical care is cruel. Medications are cruel. Husbands are cruel. Children are cruel.

Falsehood

For some trial followers, in order to avoid ascribing the concept of cruelty onto the killer, they have created a falsehood. They falsely accused her husband of murdering the children. This is a wholly baseless allegation. The mother, in order to pursue her not guilty by reason of mental defect defense, admitted to killing her children. Despite this admission, some people still believe that the husband did it.

Conclusion

Heschel’s passage explains how a Community Code of Conduct operates. Every single crime matters! There is no tolerance for bad acts becoming commonplace. The end goal being a safer society.

In antiquity, the Hebrew Prophets who decried these small immoral acts. It is the diminutive violations that must take precedence to prevent immorality to metastasize. The Prophets’ heightened sensitivity provided a pathway towards making better communities for all to live and enjoy.

This direction, however, is subject to corruption. Concepts such as suffering, cruelty and falsehood can be distorted and misdirected. As a result of misapplying these important terms, there is a risk of societal deterioration. Thus, it is incumbent that society dictate exactly as to what the concepts suffering, cruelty, and falsehood mean. The Decalogue’s words: “You shall not murder” carry with them moral currency.

Be well!!

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