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Doctors in agreement. (iStock)
Too often, religious Jews follow Jewish law while ignoring values that emerge from Jewish law. The coronavirus crisis has demonstrated this in new and distressing ways.
The talmudic Rav Kahana asserted (Sanhedrin 17a) that a defendant in a capital case who was convicted with the unanimous assent of the court is not put to death. This is also established as the normative halacha (Rambam Hilchot Sanhedrin 9:1, as explained by Aruch HaShulchan Choshen Mishpat 18:7). Commentators explain this seemingly strange law in different ways. However, one common thread, indicated by the Gemara itself, is that a unanimous verdict is an indication that there has not