This week's Parsha discusses the laws concerning murderers. The Torah states that we must not allow a murderer to get off free because doing so is considered to be "flattering the land". Rashi explains that flattering in this context means to bring "guilt" upon the land. It is quite puzzling that the Torah uses the word "flattering" in order to convey "guilt".
Rabbi Moshe Feinstein Zt"l explains this oddity with an insight on how the Torah understands murder and how the secular world understands it. He explains that the secular world understands murder as the destruction of human civilization. As such, they believe that there is room for discussion or negotiation as to what bears greater importance to human civilization. On the other hand, the Torah views murder as the destruction of a human being. It is for this reason that the Torah respects the life of even a single human being at great expense, even if the individual is elderly, and even a very short life span. Hence, one who violates murder or supports murderers according to the Torah's definition of the matter is giving undue respect to the civilization of the land, which is a form of flattery.
In this week's journal we will focus on the difference between the Torah's view on capital punishment versus the secular world's view.
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