“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind,” attributed to Gandhi and often accompanied with his picture, has attained the cultural currency of an indisputably wise pronouncement. Appearing on sweatshirts, bumper stickers, and countless posters, the pronouncement seems to be Gandhi’s retort to what is by implication the harsh, futile, destructive Old Testament injunction to render justice by taking “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” and “life for life.”
What is a suitable Jewish response to Gandhi’s apparent repudiation of this cornerstone principle in our foundational text? Do we reject the “eye for an eye” principle of the Hebrew Bible as barbaric and outdated? Or can we find a way of rationalizing it?
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