In a recent column in The New York Times ( "Motherlode," August 9, 2012), KJ Dell’Antonia writes: “To the best of my recollection, when I did something wrong as a child, my parents blamed me. When my children do something wrong, I blame myself. A good parent would have taught them better. In our determination to be the very best we can be, we’ve created a catch: when our children fail, we fail.” The Torah concurs: “Parents shall not be put to death for children, nor children be put to death for parents: a person shall be put to death only for his own crime.” (Deuteronomy 24:16) Leaving aside the question of capital punishment, which the Torah most certainly finds legitimate and the rabbis make impossible to exact, the Bible and the Jewish tradition we have inherited teaches that an individual is responsible for his or her own crimes, sins and mistakes. In the ancient Near East family members were sometimes punished for the crimes of others. In other words if a
"From the place where we are right flowers will never grow in the spring." Yehuda Amichai