Dina de’Malchuta Dina
Rabbi Gary S. Creditor
June 12, 2002

While that which I am about to relate is not a perfect match to the larger issue I shall address, it is close enough for me to use as an illustration.

In my first pulpit after my ordination I was informed that it was possible that children in a family in my congregation were being abused. The alleged perpetrators who were Jewish were neither clergy nor school personnel. But I as the Rabbi had immediate knowledge of the allegation. In fact, I was the first person to whom the informant turned. I was very young. Menachem was a year old. What was I supposed to do? Back then this issue made the back pages and not the front ones. My natural inclination was to “rush like the cavalry” and “save” the children. My second response was complete fear of the unknown. Lastly, I was smart enough to realize that I didn’t know anything about these matters and that I could only make things worse. My deeper perplexity was enmeshed in the following questions:

What was I supposed to do as a Rabbi?

What was my obligation under Jewish law?

Did my title “Rabbi” make any obligation to civil law?

Did my title “Rabbi” give me any immunity from action by civil law?

Was I just supposed to worry about myself and remain silent, play dumb?

With the phrase “hear no evil, see no evil…” and do nothing?

I felt that I was awfully young to be saddled with such a terrible situation. In these days I have remembered the dilemma of my youthful ministry. It is painfully similar to that which has confronted the Church leadership and led to these disastrous results.

First let me explain two terms. Civil law is juxtaposed to religious/ritual law. Civil law includes criminal law. Civil law is any non-Jewish law. We call it “the law of the land” or “dina de’Malchuta.” The other term, in church lexicon is Canon Law. We refer to ours as Jewish Law. That can either be Biblical, d’oraitta, or Rabbinic, d’rabbanan. Jewish Rabbinic law continues to develop to this very day, encompassing all current issues. There are significant differences in how Judaism and the Catholic Church interact with “the law of the land.” This will indicate how and why I dealt with my dilemma.

Articulated through Jewish law, Judaism holds that the fundamental commandment – mitzvah – is pikuach nefesh – saving a life. This commandment overrides every ritual commandment. I/we are commanded to violate Shabbat, to violate even Yom Kippur, in order to save a life. In Judaism there is no ritual shield to restrain or inhibit my/our actions from saving a life. For all of us who are parents, from the first moment we see our newborn to the last breathe within us, protecting them from harm is the first and supreme law to which we respond. The unique, distinct and most honored part of being a Rabbi is to see your children as “our children.” As precious as they are to you, they are to us. As much as I would protect mine, I would protect yours. I was right in my initial impulse. My blood curdled when I was first informed. I wanted to protect those children, as I wanted to protect Menachem. I can’t fathom any person in position of responsibility, and particularly those in positions of religious leadership, who could see the world in any other way. Pikuach nefesh is the supreme mitzvah. Protecting children is the supreme of the supreme. That a person in any level of religious leadership could harm a child or enable others to do so, from a Jewish moral and legal perspective, is incomprehensible.

I will say that I did not rush to that house and bang on the door. The fear of not knowing what I was doing and the fear of being prosecuted for false accusations stopped me in my tracks. But I did know something else. I understood that my Rabbinic position obligated me as a Rabbi to turn to the civil authorities, to the police, for this was a matter of a crime. This is learned from the Rabbinic dictum: “dina de’Malchuta dina,” “the law of the land is the law.”  

For nearly two thousand years Jewish law and Jewish societal norms developed as we were a minority living in the larger context of the Diaspora. Every country, every local ruler, had their own laws. How were we to live under two law codes that could differ, often significantly? What were we to do? Our sages decided that our obligation to the “king’s law” extends not only to Jewish kings, but to non-Jewish monarchs as well. We learn in the Torah about of Noah that all humanity was commanded to institute justice, and that is done through the establishment of laws. Thus, the law code of the United States should be/must be observed because it fulfills God’s command in the Torah. As a Rabbi our Judaism teaches that I am under the law and not outside it. While simplistic, in its succinctness, this statement as it applies to my topic tonight, is true. Rabbi Zevi Hirsch Chajes developed the position that we must obey the edicts of a non-Jewish monarch because otherwise anarchy would be widespread, endangering all society. If we claimed exclusion from observing the laws of the United States because of our religious law, we would all be threatened. In light of ongoing developments in the Catholic Church, we can see how perceptive Rabbi Chajes was. Let me summarize: I as a Rabbi, this synagogue as a synagogue and all who work in it, cannot claim to hide behind our faith in silence when knowledgeable about a crime. Judaism commands us as it commands every citizen, to enable the protection of society by doing what is proper, by going to the police.

A recent article in the New York Times raised another angle to explain Church silence. If a Church official would have to call the police when they might know of a crime it would compromise the ability of the Church to dispense forgiveness allow the sinner to repent and find salvation. This is a matter of canon law. Our Jewish position is quite different. Salvation comes from God in His own time and way. Repentance is received when I atone, acknowledging my sin and changing my ways. When I sin against God, I acknowledge to Him my sin and ask Him to forgive me. When I sin against a human being, I have to ask that person to forgive me and not God. Only then and by them can I be forgiven. Repentance is first a process by human beings with human beings. Only secondly is it between human beings and God. Salvation is found in my being a better human being and making this a better world. As a Rabbi I don’t dispense anything. I too, have to ask God. I too, have to ask others. You don’t confess to me and I don’t confess to you. We all have to do this to improve ourselves and the world. Judaism teaches culpability for crime. There is a whole structure of punishments to fit the crime. Punishment is meted out to punish the wrong doer and also as expiation, to cleanse the land that has been wronged. Our country is in need of great cleansing from these sins.

So what did I do so long ago that I remember it as yesterday? I went to the public school where the children were enrolled and spoke to principal and told him what I knew and who told me. He had the staff, the legal protection, the county services and the police to utilize and do what needed to be done in a proper and legal manner. I did not hide behind our faith. I didn’t try to find otherworldly salvation. I tried to save two children from earthly, bodily harm. And in short time they were taken from their parents. Having left that community long ago I do not know the postscript to that story. Perhaps it is better that way. I hope that all who are ever privy to such knowledge will realize and accept our values that the protection of human beings is a primary mitzvah and protection of children is the choicest of that.

May proper justice be meted out to all who harmed the children under their care and influence.

May expiation for sin be done through punishment.

If beyond the reach of the law, may the conscience bother all those who, in silence, enabled these sins to continue.

May God admonish them at night.

May those harmed know true healing from a loving God.

Amen.