Anyone who kills a person is to be put to death as a murderer only on the testimony of witnesses. But no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness. – Numbers 35:30

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 28, 2012): Numbers 35

Can you remember what you saw yesterday? Or even what you did yesterday? It seems like such a simple question, but I am always amazed at how quickly the days fade in our memory. Even yesterday seems to be so far away. I can remember things that impressed me or special events from a long while in the past. I can remember afternoons at the Dairy Queen in July with my 100 year old Grandmother, and I remember the Bat Mitzvah of a friend that I attended last Saturday – but yesterday is already fading in my recollection. And the truth is that it has to be something pretty important for me to really remember.

So those police shows where the suspect gets dragged into the Police Station and asked “What were you doing last Tuesday?” kind of scare me. I am sure that I could figure it out, but I doubt I would be able to remember at the Police Station in the pressure of the moment – and then when I finally remembered they would probably just accuse me of making up an alibi and lock me away. But in the real life, that is the way that our memory often works. Our brains seem to make some decisions without us even realizing it on what it considers important to remember – and what is routine. And it is only the things that our brains file away as important that we remember easily.

And our memory problems do not end there. I can also remember things that never really happened. When we tell a story enough times some of the details seem to become clearer, but actually it is often our incredible brains filling in the gaps of the story, making the story seem even more real. But the fill is not real – we just made up some of the details to give the story life. And all of this we do unconsciously.

But the phenomenon does not end there. The tricks our brains can play on us continue. And that is the reason why eyewitness testimony is one of the worst pieces of evidence for any crime. And the reason why God instructed that no one should be put to death on circumstantial evidence, or even on the witness of a single eyewitness. It really was not that one eye witness could not be trusted (although sometimes that is the case), but rather just the fragility of the eyewitness process.

It is also the reason why, for the most important decisions of life, we really need to base them on something more than just what it is that we see.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Numbers 36