No More Torture

When my sister was about four or five years old, she had long, thick, blonde, curly hair that hung down almost to her waist. Every morning, as my mother brushed her hair (that was in the days when one brushed out curly hair), my sister would cry out in pain: “You’re torturing me! You’re torturing me!” Eventually, my mother could no longer bear to cause my sister such pain (nor could she bear to hear my sister scream every morning), and she cut my sister’s hair to her shoulders.

As Jews, we are no strangers to torture and pain.

From Biblical times through modern times, we have experienced brutality at the hands of others over and over again.

We need not go any further than this week’s Torah portion, Vayeshev (Genesis 37:1-40:23). In the portion for this week, Joseph’s brothers – who despise him for his boastful, arrogant ways and for his favored-son status, torture him by throwing him into a pit (Gen. 37:24) and Joseph is afflicted by not knowing what his fate will be. The brothers’ initial plan was to kill him and be rid of him once and for all. However, they then decide to sell Joseph to a traveling band of Ishmaelites who eventually take Joseph to Egypt.

Afterwards, the brothers torment and torture their father, Jacob, as a punishment for favoring one son over all the others. They take Joseph’s special ornamented tunic that Jacob gave to Joseph, tear it, smear it with blood and tell Jacob that Joseph was killed by a wild beast. Jacob is heart-broken and unconsolable with grief.

There are many other instances in the Hebrew Bible of individuals being tortured, either physically or emotionally. Samson, by the Philistines (Judges 16: 21-25), Job, and so many others.

And we are all too aware of the suffering we endured at the hands of our enemies throughout history: by the Egyptians, the Amalekites, the Romans, the Crusaders, the Spaniards during the Inquisition…the Nazis…the list is too long to enumerate.

Yes – we are no strangers to torture and torment. Why am I speaking of torture now?

end-torture_20120626083213Because the United States Senate Intelligence Committee is poised to release its landmark 6000-page report about the CIA’s use of torture post 9/11.

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D. California), who spear-headed this Committee, said: “The use of torture has been a stain on our values and our history. We need to show that we are a just and a lawful society.”

The report is complex and complicated, and the Committee spent over five years reading and analyzing over 6.3 million pages of information. Some of the conclusions the Committee reached are:

  • The CIA used “Enhanced Interrogation” which means that they used multiple forms of torture;
  • Human rights investigators found 54 countries who cooperated with the CIA in various ways in renditions, detentions, interrogations and torture;
  • Torture was not an effective means of obtaining desired results;
  • The CIA mis-led the White House, Congress and other agencies about what they were doing;
  • The CIA cites Israeli Supreme Court rulings as justification for their work. However, the Israeli Supreme Court, in a landmark 1999 decision, banned many of the 1987 torture recommendations referred to in the document. (The Israeli Supreme Court ruled that it is unlawful to torture the suspect even when we know that a terrorist act is about to take place).

Judaism has much to teach us now about the use of torture as a form of punishment. In our Jewish tradition, we need to balance the values of treating all humans as being created “b’tzelem Elohim” – in the image of God with the need for protecting ourselves and taking care of our security and safety.

Sometimes, balancing these two values simultaneously might seem antithetical, contradictory and impossible. How can we treat someone with dignity and respect if they have vowed to commit a heinous crime against humanity?

In 2005, the Central Conference of American Rabbis (the Reform Rabbis’ body) issued an explanation and statement that elucidates the complexities surrounding this issue quite clearly. This was after 9/11 and after George W. Bush started to imprison people in Guantanamo Bay. The statement rings true especially now, in light of the Senate Intelligence Committee report.

CCAR Resolution on The Use of Torture or Lesser Forms of Coercion to Obtain Information from Prisoners adopted by the Central Conference of American Rabbis in 2005.

The United States should be a model of a “just and lawful society”. 

We should read the Senate Intelligence Committee report carefully and take heed to what Senator Dianne Feinstein has to say.

As we are taught in our Pledge of Allegiance: …”with liberty and justice for all.”