Popular Sins

Popular sins — wrongs done because the crowd is doing them — are addressed directly in the law of the covenant. The standing rule is that a multitude going the wrong way does not license the individual to follow, and that majority pressure inside a legal proceeding does not excuse perverted testimony.

The Law Against Following the Crowd

Set among the regulations on justice in the Book of the Covenant, the prohibition is double — once for moral conduct, once for the courtroom: "You will not follow a multitude to do evil; neither will you speak in a cause to turn aside after a multitude to pervert [justice]:" (Ex 23:2). The first clause forbids joining the many in evil action; the second forbids letting the weight of the many bend one's speech in a legal cause. Numbers do not change the verdict on a deed, and numbers do not change what a witness owes the truth.