Q:
Why is death prescribed as the Torah’s punishment for a navi sheker, a false prophet? Shouldn’t we just help him seek mental health guidance?
A:
So a navi sheker we should send to a psychologist and they’ll discuss his issues?! No, no. Often it’s the psychologists themselves who deserve to be sentenced for the damage they cause. Unless it’s a frum Jew and he’s trying to make a parnasa. Then you can go and give him a chance to collect some money from the insurance companies and the government.
In Torah you have to know that there are no bluffs. Rehabilitation of a criminal, when the Torah says that he deserves to be killed, is just a bluff. Help that is offered to criminals instead of giving them what they deserve is just a ploy. It’s a trick, a ruse, to avoid the punishment that they deserve to get. Like a wise man once said, “The best assurance that the criminal won’t kill again, the best rehabilitation, is the electric chair.” You know, that when you put him to death, then you can be sure he won’t do it again.
The death penalty is a tremendous gift that Hashem has given to mankind. That we have the right to kill people who do certain terrible things is a gift from Hashem. And by not utilizing that, we are the criminals. We are sinning against mankind and against Hashem.
It says, שופך דם האדם – “If you shed the blood of a man, then באדם דמו ישפך – by man his blood should be shed” (Bereishis 9:6). By man! People should shed his blood. It’s a chiyuv, an obligation. And I’m not talking about only among Jews. For the bnei Noach too. It’s a chiyuv for the bnei Noach to kill murderers. And when they don’t, they are sinning against the law of the Torah that says openly that a ben Noach must fulfill the death penalty for murderers. And if they don’t do that, then they are sinning, and they deserve a great punishment for ignoring the word of Hashem.
TAPE # E-191