The Death of Osama Bin Laden

           Osama Bin Laden is the paradigm of ultimate evil, in many ways worse than Hitler, Stalin, Mao or other mass murderers because he attempted to justify his actions as being sanctioned by God. 

He is also a good bellwether as to your position of the use of state sanctioned killings.  If you are opposed to the use of the death penalty for Bin Laden, then I can respect you as a principled opponent of capital punishment.  I may disagree with you, but I understand where you are coming from.  If you approve of the killing of Bin Laden, as I do, then you are saying that some actions justify society’s use of capital punishment.  The discussion then moves to what actions and under what circumstances should society pursue the ultimate penalty and that is a discussion in which reasonable persons can engage.  It really opens up the door for the death penalty to be used in many other circumstances.

            Biblical Judaism clearly sanctions the death penalty.  There are multiple methods of executing criminals found in the Hebrew Bible – stoning, burning and hanging.  Rabbinic Judaism is clearly more ambivalent about the use of capital punishment.  There are discussions of capital punishment, but an argument could be made that these discussions were merely academic, much like the discussions of sacrifices.  Moreover, in Mishnah Makkhot 1:10,  it provides, “A Sanhedrin that executes once in seven years, is called murderous.  Rabbi Eliezer b. Azariah says once in seventy years.  Rabbi Tarfon and Rabbi Akiva say:  Had we been members of a Sanhedrin, no person would ever be put to death.  Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel remarked:  They would also multiply murderers in Israel.” 

The Rabbis had deep hesitations as to the use of the death penalty.  Rabbi Shimon ben Gamaliel ends this Mishnah with a note of caution.  The Rabbinic tendency to be overly lenient on executing murderers can take its toll on society.  In his opinion, the attitudes of the other Rabbis can cause an increase in the numbers of murderers.  The State of Israel has reflected this ambivalence.  In its history, the only trial that has resulted in capital punishment was that of Adolph Eichmann.  There have been, however, targeted killings of terrorists, much like the Navy Seals did with Bin Laden.

           I do, however, feel a sense of equivocation at all the celebrations going on.  I watched with morbid curiosity as people gathered outside the White House, in Times Square and at Ground Zero.  What was the cause of all the hooting and hollering?  Just like a John Wayne movie, the good guys came and finally got the ultimate bad guy.  There is a big sense of kicking some terrorist butt and that is satisfying to all who seek to live in a civilized society. 

However, killing Bin Laden does not change the fact that a cousin of mine who for many years sat at the same Seder table is no longer with us; that his children have had to grow up without their father; that his wife has had to spend the last decade without the love of her life.  I then multiply that sense of loss by 3000 other stories and I do not see Bin Laden’s death as a cause to celebrate.  There is a satisfaction in his death that many describe as a sense of closure.  I see it as justice, pure and simple.

            I can only imagine what it might be like when Bin Laden meets his Maker.  I suspect God would be telling him that Bin Laden could not have been more wrong in thinking that he was doing God’s will.  God was never with Bin Laden; God was with New York’s Bravest and New York’s Finest (the New York City Fire and Police Departments) who rushed into those burning buildings to try to save lives.  The murder of God’s children, purportedly in God’s name, is an act that not even God can forgive.  Now let Bin Laden deal with that for all eternity; for that would be Bin Laden's Hell.  May he rot in it!

(c) 2011 Douglas J. Workman