No one in America goes to jail for too long a time as a result of perjury. One can always find a rouse to pretend that the perjury did not happen. And in those rare occurrences that the court acts against the perjurer, the reason is often because they cannot act against that person for any other reason.
Perjury has a loud bark, but not much of a bite in this world. Indeed lying in court has become a way of life in the modern world. No one ever seems to plead guilty for any crime. No matter the evidence against a murderer, he or she will usually plead not guilty. O. J. was not guilty and neither were the Menendez brothers, and neither is Kobe or Scott Peterson or Michael Jackson. Kenneth Lay is certainly innocent as are all the players in Halliburton and at Adelphia.
We live in a world where truth and lying are nothing but games. We do not accept the absolute of truth anymore; all is relative, so all can be innocent of crimes they have committed if we look at their actions from certain obscure angles.
It wasn’t always so. Once perjury was as awful as the crime that the perjury was used to deny. In the Torah portion that we read this week, we learn the lessons of perjury and the punishment of those who perjure. He is to be treated no differently from the man against whom he perjured himself. One who perjures himself to protect another from the death penalty will himself receive the death penalty if his perjury is uncovered.
One who perjures himself to protect another from the charge of adultery will be put to death if his perjury is uncovered.Jewish ethics strive for the truth even before they strive to bring one closer to God. Truth for us is the only basis for our faith and for our obligation to do mitzvoth, and even for our reliance on Torah. For those reasons, perjury can be a capital offense, and an offense that weakens the ethical and moral basis of all society.
It is a cancer that eats away at the fabric of American society every day. Where there is no truth, all is a lie—ethics, morals, purpose of life, patriotism and even God.