על החוקים לפרטיהם, ספר ב מ״דOn the Special Laws, Book II 44
א׳
1[242] I have now discussed the five heads of the laws belonging to the first table, and all the particular enactments which may be classed under each of the five. But I must also state the penalties decreed for transgression of them.
ב׳
2[243] The result of the close affinity which the offences have to each other is that they all have a common punishment, namely, death, but there are different reasons for this punishment. We should begin with the last commandment, on the behaviour due to parents, since our discussion of it is fresh in our minds. He says “if anyone strikes his father or mother, let him be stoned.” This is quite just, for justice forbids that he should live who maltreats the authors of his life.
ג׳
3[244] But some dignitaries and legislators who had an eye to men’s opinions rather than to truth, have decreed that striking a father should be punished by cutting off the hands, a specious refinement due to their wish to win the approval of the more careless or thoughtless, who think that the parts with which the offenders have struck their parents should be amputated.
ד׳
4[245] But it is silly to visit displeasure on the servants rather than on the actual authors, for the outrage is not committed by the hands but by the persons who used their hands to commit it, and it is these persons who must be punished. Otherwise, when one man has killed another with a sword, we should cast the sword out of the land and let the murderer go free, and conversely, honour should be given, not to those who have distinguished themselves in war, but to the lifeless equipments and weapons which were the instruments of their exploits.
ה׳
5[246] In the case of the victors in the athletic contests, whether at the single or the double course or the long race or the boxing or the general contest, will they try to garland the legs and hands only and disregard the bodies of the athletes as a whole? It would surely be ridiculous to introduce such practices and give to the indispensable accompaniments the punishments or honours which should be given to the responsible persons. For similarly, in musical exhibitions, when anyone makes a highly successful performance on the flute or lyre, we do not pass him by and adjudge the laudatory announcements and honours to the instruments.
ו׳
6[247] Why then, you grand legislators, should we cut off the hands of those who strike a father? Or is your object that the offenders, besides being quite useless, may levy a tribute not annually, but daily, on those whom they have wronged, because they are unable to provide the sustenance they need. For no father is so iron-hearted as to allow his son to starve to death, particularly as his anger grows faint as time goes on.
ז׳
7[248] And even if while making no assault with his hands he uses abusive language to those to whom good words are owed as a bounden duty, or in any other way does anything to dishonour his parents, let him die. He is the common and indeed the national enemy of all. For who could find kindness from him who is not kind even to the authors of his life, through whom he has come into existence and to whom he is but a supplement?