"No Jew would vote to send a defendant to the gas chamber."
Fascinating. Kinda makes you want to go read Eichmann in Jerusalem, doesn't it?
I feel like there's more to say about this, but I'm not sure what. I do remember reading somewhere that although the Torah mandates the death penalty for all sorts of crimes (dishonoring one's parents, for example -- we'd all be dead), the rabbis of the Talmudic era, bless their hairsplitting hearts, made the evidentiary burdens so great it was practically impossible to get a conviction.
A couple months ago -- I think it was just before the Ten Plagues -- BB and I started reading the weekly Torah and Haftarah portions together, and we're both thoroughly hooked. We start Leviticus this week, so we have an uplifting discussion of all sorts of "abominations" to look forward to.
Oh, and I finally found out why you're not supposed to wear a mixture of wool and linen (one of those laws the liberal goyim, and some non-Orthodox Jews, like to cite to show the absurdity of proscriptions on same-sex snuggling). It's because the priestly garments, and the hangings in the Holy of Holies, were made of such a mixture -- so the idea is that what's set aside as holy should not be used for everyday stuff. Sounds a lot less silly when you put it that way, to me at least.