ABSTRACT
Hannah Arendt’s book is about justice. The agony of Miss Arendt’s book is precisely that she takes her stand so unyieldingly on the side of disinterested justice, and that she judges both Nazi and Jew. But abstract justice, as the Talmudic wisdom knew, is sometimes too “strong” a yardstick to judge the world. Even for Miss Arendt, though the trial by the canons of justice should have dealt with an individual, Eiehmann was historically a “new type of criminal”—one who upsets “the assumption current in all modern legal systems that intent to do wrong is necessary for the commission of a crime.” The Israelis intended to try Eiehmann not as a person, but as a symbol. In the Talmudic haggadah, there is a homiletic story, the “alphabet of creation.” The question is: why did God begin the world with the letter “B”? The letter Beth stands for Baruch, which means blessing, and “blessed be the Lord forever.”.
