You should notice that Yeshua (Jesus) is saying, "You have heard it being said," and not "You have seen it written." Here, he is speaking to the common Israeli (villager) and not to the Scribes or Pharisees. The later were the readers and tellers, but the first were their hearers. What follows is a mix of these identities... both eye and tooth are special tools of reader and teller. Yet Yeshua is asking the hearers to imagine they are the Scribes. They must imagine they have lost their eye and tooth to an angry hand.

    The Law found in Exodus 21:24 did not say "Eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth." In the Hebrew, it is written as "Eye under eye, tooth under tooth." The words are inviting you to compare the values of things lost and things offered (object beneath object), and instructing you that a fair value should be offered for compensation against any offense.

    If you harm the eye of a Scribe, then you have harmed his entire family. Therefore you have a responsibility to provide another means for the Scribe to gain money for his family's needs. If there is no other means, then the entire burden should fall upon you.

    Yeshua (Jesus) is entreating us to explore the deeper dimensions of the Law... If it is your eye that is lost, do not take advantage of the Law by using it to get a revenge. If you are struck on the left cheek, then turn your right face to the striker also. This is saying... Do not be quick to claim your rights by the Law. For the Law of "Eye under eye" is an instruction to the offender. It is telling the offender to subject his recompense to the total impact of the offense. It is not in any way telling the victim what his rights are.

    The instruction to the victim is found in Leviticus 19:18, "Love your neighbor, and do not turn anyone away when they are asking anything from you." This "asking" is not always done verbally, but also through deeds and action... and these deeds may be either good or bad. Because of this, Yeshua (Jesus) added... "Love your enemy also."

    For both neighbor and evildoer are each expressions from the same root word, Ra-au. This root, in simple terms, implies "to be hungry." As such it makes Leviticus 19:18 a law directed to the victim. It is saying, "Notice the offender's hunger, and not their actions." Likewise, this second law is not a law directed to the offender. As the victim cannot say "You owe me an eye's worth of service for how you hurt me!" So the offender cannot assume that this law is saying that he has the right to ask for anything he wants.

    The purpose of both laws is to turn hearts to hearts. The victim is to look at the offender... "You are brutish, but you have suffered tragedy to the point you are desperate to succeed. Your own hurts have made you calloused toward the needs of others. But if I had lived your life, I don't know that I would be so different."

    Then the offender is to look at his victim... "I have hurt you for my own profit. I viewed you as a thing, and not as a person. But I have realized how ugly this is. I am sorry, and my sorrow will be expressed by my replacing what I have stolen. I will work for you as though I am you. Eye as eye, and tooth as tooth... until I have satisfied you, and regained my own respect within our community."

    In each case Yeshua (Jesus) is exploring the fullness of the Law, and explaining how the Law must be used. Doing so, he is being very careful to not modify it in any way. Rather, he is magnifying its functionality.
  

    Baruch Hashem.