Emor: Leviticus 21.1-24.23
This is the Torah portion which contains the famous
"lex talionis", the law of retaliation, in Lev. 21:17 to 20. Leviticus 20 reads "fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth..." These verses have often been cited as proof of the brutal nature of the Judaism of the Tanach.
Not often is it discussed that these verses were a limitation on the revenge an injured individual could take on the person who caused the injury.
In Genesis 4:23-24, Lamech, Noah's father, says, "I have slain a man for wounding me, and a lad for bruising me.
If Cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold." Before the flood revenge was the law of humanity.
We have archeological evidence also, The Code of Hammurabi specifies that, in certain cases, a man's family may be killed for an injury he inflicted on a member of another family.
If a man built a house, sold it
to a family with children and then the house collapsed, killing the residents' son, the builder's son would be killed in retaliation.
In its original intent the law of retaliation is a limitation on revenge, not an incitement to it.
Later Rabbinic Judaism abolished such physical retaliation completely and instituted monetary damages in their place.
Rabbi Steve Forstein