Having compassion on the wicked

Zacarias Moussaoui, the "20th bomber" of the World Trade Center attack, was sentenced today by a US jury to life in prison. An article in the NY Times brought responses from family members of those who had been killed in the World Trade Center attack.

There were those who agreed with the sentence:

Marian Fontana, whose husband, Dave, a firefighter, died that day, did not testify, but she said she thought the verdict was correct.

"I think if I indulged in hate, I would be similar to him," Ms. Fontana said. "I do not believe in the death penalty. I am just glad he will be spending the rest of his life in jail."

And there were those who didn't:

Yet others, like Debra Burlingame, whose brother, Charles, was the pilot of the plane that hit the Pentagon, said they were terribly disappointed that Mr. Moussaoui would go on living.

"I totally accept and respect the jury's verdict," Ms. Burlingame said. "But I think it is very dangerous to show compassion to the cruel because they will bring cruelty to the compassionate."

The discussion of the proper treatment of violent and cruel people is not new. In fact, the quote above is a well known maxim in Jewish culture, though it took me a bit of time to locate its origin. It appears in at least two Jewish sources, both of whom quote it from Rabbi Yehoshua Ben-Levi, a Jewish scholar who lived in the land of Israel around 250 CE.

It is brought in the conext of a biblical story about King Saul. The Bible relates to us the story of King Saul, who was commanded to kill Agag, the Amalekite king. Saul refrained from doing so because he took pity on him. However, despite being so compassionate, he later on killed off Nov, an entire city of priests, out of simple rage. This brings up the question of whether he was truly compassionate to begin with, or whether he was compassionate in the begining and changed later on..

The more well known form of the maxim is from a compilation called Yalkut Shimoni (Samuel 1, 121), circa 12th century:

He who is compassionate to the cruel, in the end becomes cruel to the compassionate.

A variation on that can be found in Midrash Shmuel (Samuel exegesis, 18), circa 4-5th century:

He who is compassionate to the cruel is destined to die by the sword.

There are two different ideas expressed here. The first talks about the person who means well because he has a very abstract ideal of what compassion is. However, it is not enough to have ideals, but to know how to apply them in practice. He does not know who to be compassionate to and who doesn't deserve pity. A truly compassionate person will know when it is wrong to be compassionate. One who is compassionate towards wicked people, is truely cruel and has lost his moral compass.

The second quote adds an important point. A person who had mercy on the violent, will himself fall to the hands of violence.