Perjurers’ punishment leads to guidance on being present

Shoftim
Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9
Isaiah 51:12-52:12

Last summer, flight attendant Steven Slater made himself an instant folk hero when he responded to a rude passenger by unleashing a stream of invective over the PA system as the plane sat on the runway, taking two beers for the road and deploying the emergency slide. In the subsequent groundswell of popular support for Slater and his actions, the theme expressed over and over again by supporters was that they shared his sense of justice.

Of course, there is more than one side to the story, but there is something that draws people toward seeing others get their “just deserts.” The satisfaction of seeing evildoers hoisted with their own petard is a major theme in fairy tales and films. This theme is also discussed in this week’s Torah portion.

In Chapter 19, the Torah describes what are called “zommemin” witnesses, conniving individuals found to have committed perjury while testifying about a crime. The Torah is very clear about their punishment: “You shall do to him as he plotted to do to his brother.” Thus, if the punishment resulting from their testimony would have been a death sentence, these witnesses are themselves put to death. If the witnesses falsely testify that A owes B $100, then the witnesses themselves have to pay $100.  And so on.

On the surface it seems very simple; they attempted to bring harm to an innocent person through their perjury, and so they suffer from their own iniquity. Yet a further look reveals a critical and confusing detail: This law only applies to a limited subset of false witnesses. “Zommemin” are people who could never have even known what they testify to have seen, because we can prove that they were somewhere else at the time. They are different from garden-variety false witnesses who simply lie about what they saw. (Those people are also held accountable, but not by having the punishment turned around onto them.) Being “zommemin” is not about lying regarding what you saw, it is about testifying when you were never there to see it in the first place.

What makes this particularly puzzling is that “zommemin” witnesses might even be making an assertion that is factually true! Still, the punishment they tried to impose is meted out to them. What we care about in this case is not whether they were correct, but whether they were there in the first place.  Why?

I believe that a seemingly unrelated talmudic passage may offer an approach here. In Tractate Ketubot (62B), the Talmud suggests that in general a person would rather be married to someone who spends regular time at home and makes less money (in this case a donkey driver) than someone who spends little time at home and makes a better living (a camel driver). Or to quote Woody Allen, “90 percent of life is just showing up.” Perhaps the Torah imposes a severe penalty only upon those who incriminate others through lying about their whereabouts to teach us an important lesson:  In life, one of the most important things you can do is to be present.

This is certainly true for witnessing a crime. The standard false witness may be lying, but at least he was there. This is essential in other areas of life as well. Many times, we think we are running late or  not feeling our best, so we tell ourselves that there is no point in showing up for a class or visiting a friend in need. But this is premised on a tempting misconception: If we can’t do it perfectly then we should skip it until next time. In its insistence on presence, the Torah tells us to show up anyway, because there is great value in that too, both personally and communally.

 In this age of smartphones, we think we can do everything remotely, including parenting and friendship and religious life.  But that isn’t true. Even if we’re not at our best, it makes a difference that we are there.

Rabbi Judah Dardik is the spiritual leader at Orthodox Beth Jacob in Oakland. He can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).