In last week’s Torah reading, Parshat Shoftim, the Torah establishes a paradigm of justice when it declares:

וְדָרְשׁ֥וּ הַשֹּׁפְטִ֖ים הֵיטֵ֑ב וְהִנֵּ֤ה עֵֽד־שֶׁ֙קֶר֙ הָעֵ֔ד שֶׁ֖קֶר עָנָ֥ה בְאָחִֽיו׃

and (should) the judges investigate thoroughly and behold the one who testified is a false witness, having testified falsely against his brethren, 

וַעֲשִׂ֣יתֶם ל֔וֹ כַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר זָמַ֖ם לַעֲשׂ֣וֹת לְאָחִ֑יו וּבִֽעַרְתָּ֥ הָרָ֖ע מִקִּרְבֶּֽךָ׃

You shall do to him as he had plotted to have done to his brethren. Thus you will eliminate evil from your midst;

Devarim/Deuteronomy 19:18-19

Hence, if an innocent defendant would have been punished by lashes, the perjuring witness gets a lashing. If the innocent defendant would have been executed, their accuser would be executed in an identical manner. This would indeed be a most effective deterrent to offering false testimony.

Who can argue with the appropriateness of consigning a perjuring witness to a fate identical to the one which the falsely accused would have met had the malicious testimony stood unchallenged?

But then we come to this week’s parsha, Ki Tetze, and we find a glaring example of the Torah violating this very principle in the case of a bridegroom who has buyer’s remorse and therefore accuses his newlywed bride of having been a non-virgin.

 כִּֽי־יִקַּ֥ח אִ֖ישׁ אִשָּׁ֑ה........

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