Volume 29 Issue 21 24 Jul 2020 3 Av 5780

From the Head of Jewish Life

Rabbi Daniel Siegel – Head of Jewish Life

Blind justice

The phrase blind justice is well-known, as is its depiction in Lady Justice found gracing courthouses and municipal buildings around the world. Lady Justice originates in Ancient Roman art representations of Justitia (Latin – Iustitia) – the Goddess of Justice. It was not until the 16th century, however, that Lady Justice, was depicted as wearing a blindfold indicating that the scales she holds aloft can only be of true justice where non-prejudicial and non-tainted judgement has been rendered.

The call for blind justice, symbolised by Lady Justice, appears in this week’s parashah, “You shall show no partiality (literally “do not favour faces”) in judgement”. We must weigh the evidence alone without (undue) regard for the parties that appear before us. In the words of former Israeli Supreme Court judge Aharon Barak, “The judge must realise his role… impartially and objectively…Absence of bias is essential to the judicial process; hence the image of justice as blindfolded”.

Yet we might be bias in our very attempt to be impartial. In practising blind justice, we cannot allow blind justices to practise, according to Jewish law. In needing to hew solely to the dictates of law, the Jewish tradition avers that one’s physical blindness would render him incapable of rendering true blind justice based upon the evidence alone.

Yet, we find Jewish legal compendia, as early as the Talmud, noting several blind individuals serving as judges. Remarkably, Richard Bernstein, the first blind US Supreme court judge, was a Jew who won his bid for a place on the Michigan bench by campaigning under the slogan “Blind Justice”. Bernstein was arguing that perforce being dependant on his legal acumen alone he would be equal to the task of rendering true justice. Bernstein, one might say, best exemplifies the intent of the Talmudic statement “One may not judge except based on what one’s eyes see”.

As we must be blind to the blindness of capable judges lest we perpetuate the biases we seek to overcome in rendering true justice, so must we be alert against blindly upholding and applying a law that is in itself unjust. Justice must be blind but we cannot be blind to justice.