If a man shall have committed a sin whose judgment is death…his body shall not remain for the night on the gallows…for a hanging body is a curse of G-d.[2]
Just how is the display of an executed criminal a “curse of G-d?” Yes, we are familiar with the midrash about the king’s brother who is executed. We get that there is tragedy in the tzelem Elokim being desecrated. But how does desecration of His image turn into a curse?
Rambam[3] writes about the extra-judicial powers of the king. He may execute criminals who don’t meet court requirements for a capital verdict. He may execute multiple wrongdoers on a single day. And he may have their bodies hang in display for long periods of time.
I’ve wondered about this ruling, in light of the gemara’s[4] discussion about Shaul’s sons, whom Dovid had executed for their complicity in the destruction of the city of Nov and its impact upon the Givonim. The latter refused to be appeased by anything they were offered. They wanted only blood. Dovid was forced to comply, and had their bodies hanged for months. The gemara asks how this was permissible, in light of our pasuk, which prohibits such display.
It occurred to me that there is a fundamental difference between crimes committed against the crown, and those against Hashem. The former, called lese majeste, are truly offenses against the monarch. Some are direct assaults on his power (as in high treason). Others are affronts to his role as protector of the public welfare and good. Either way, they impact him. The Torah authorizes him to take extra-legal measures to strengthen his authority. Those include the provision that he may allow the long-term display of those he has executed, as a way of restoring public respect for himself and his government.
None of this applies to HKBH. No offense against His law can have the slightest impact upon Him. Mortal Man can do nothing to diminish His perfection. Furthermore, when He punishes, it is never out of vindictiveness. When He acts against a sinner, it is always in order for the evildoer to mend his ways, while he still has an opportunity in his time on earth. (Even when He does that, Chazal describe Him as feeling the pain inflicted on that person as His own!)
This all changes when a sinner is executed by a beis din for a violation of halacha. Those executed achieve atonement through their punishment.[5] They can no longer be tools teaching a lesson through the display of their bodies. Having passed from this world, they are no longer bound by the mitzvos of the Torah,[6] and so have no responsibility to teach the living at the cost of their continued humiliation!
The license given to the monarch is quite different. Despite Hashem’s love for the live sinner, He grants the king the right to execute people to repair tears in the fabric of the realm. If the Torah allows their lives to be taken from them in support of this, Rambam reasons, it also allows the humiliation of their remains after execution.
It is crucial to keep these realms separate – offenses against G-d and against Man. When a person is executed by a beis din, it is for violating Hashem’s law. If his body remains on display, it gives the impression of being similar to violating the king’s law and office. It seems to declare that Hashem is Himself offended, lessened, diminished by Man’s actions, which is blasphemous. The body, then, must be quickly cut down. Leaving it up is indeed a curse of G-d!
Dovid’s situation was unusual. The execution of Shaul’s sons was definitely extra-legal. Yet, it was not for a sin against the crown. Dovid was ordered to proceed with the executions because of the aveirah to Hashem, not to himself. Thus, the gemara was correct in questioning why their bodies remained hanging.
Similarly, after the evil Jezebel was killed, King Yehu instructed that her body (or what was left of it after dogs devoured most of it) be brought to burial because “she was the daughter of a king.”[7] Why did he need an excuse, as it were, to have her buried.
According to our approach, Yehu was really saying that it was his prerogative to leave her unburied. Jezebel had not rebelled or sinned against him. He had her defenestrated to avenge Hashem’s honor for all her horrible crimes, not for his. Thus, she was more similar to those executed by the beis din for their aveiros, and required speedy burial.
- Adapted from Divrei Shaul, by Rav Yosef Shaul Nathanson, the Shoel U-Meishiv ↑
- Devarim 21:22-23 ↑
- Melachim 3:10 ↑
- Yevamos 79a ↑
- Sanhedrin 43b ↑
- Shabbos 30b ↑
- 2Melachim 9:34 ↑