THE JEWISH EXCYCLOPEDIA
159
ACCESSORIES an
iicci'-isoiy is
In English
a person
and Anu-rican law
who, without
coMiniittina; a criniiniU acl with liis own himds. or withoiit oven being l)rescnt. aiding and alietling the eriniiniil, nevertheless shares in the guilt of the aet, in one of
two ways: either liy counseling, advising, or procuring the act to he done, in which case he is called " an acce.s.sory before the fact," and isconsiden'd fully as guilty as the i>rineipal
oll'ender,
Definition, or by shielding such olTender from l>unishiuent, after the act is committed, when till' person so shielding becomes an accessory after the fact, whose degree of guilt is lower than that of the principal. The Hibli' treats very fully of Acce.s.s(jries to oneolTen.se, that of idolatry. An individual who advise.s anotlicr to worship false gods is guilty of a substantive olTensc, and is known asnDO=seducer (Deiit. xiii. 7-12: see AiiiCTMKXT). Such sedticer is to be put to death by stoning, because "he has sought to mislead thee " (l)eut. .iii. 10, llih. 11). It is, therefore, not neces.sary that any one should have been a<tually misled, as the very attempt at seduction is punishable with death. The verses Dent. xiii. 1:5-1!* begin by asstnning that a few worthles-s men may mislead the inhabitants of ii city into idol-worshii>and command that the city be dislioyed, but say nothing about any special punishment' for the instigators. lleiicis neither the lirsl nor the second pas.s)ig(,' deals with the case of u true "accessory befon,' the fad": that is, with the one who is punished, because he has eoun.seh'd the conunission of a ciime which has been .
"
committed by others.
The .Mishimh (Sanli. vii. 10) delines the offense of a Jirivate per.son (not a jirophet) who seduces individuals (not a whole city) and sets forth the manner of |irocedure against hiin. In Deut. xiii. 8, Jleh. 9, the person sought to be seduced is commanded: "Neither shall tliine eye pity liijii, neither shall thou spare, neither shall tliou coiiceal him." Here, then, is a law declaring that to shield Biblical this class of olTenders from puinsh-
and Talmudic View.
ment is sinful. IJut one who thus becomes an acces,sory after the fad to the
olTense of shiilding cannot be punished; for the Torah proceeds in upon the person sought to be seduced thedutycjf bringing the tempter to justice: and according to the established rule (Mak. iii. 4) wherever a i)rohibilion in the Tonih is followed by the coniinan<l to do an opposite act. the prohibition carrii's no |)unishment w ith it. For Accessories before the fad to other olTenses than idolatry the written law pronounces no penalty; nor docs it anywhere say ill set terms: Do not coun.sel or procure forbidden acts to be done by others. Hence, the ne.xt verse to lay
the Scriptural ])Unislunent of death" or of forty stripes save one, can not be adjudired cviri against him who employs 11 murderer to take a man's life; for it is the foremost principle of Ihi' Talmudic criminal law that sentence of death or .stripes must not be awarded for any olTens<' not expressly dinounced in the written law. but derived from it only by cr)nslructioii or by "searching." Mow this and soini'olher principles uiKluly favoring the accused wmild. if faithfully followed in practise, lead to the inMiiunitv of the guilty, and how the rabbis of .Mishnaie iind Talmudic limes were compelled to contrive a iii-w system of procedure and of punishment by the sidi^of tlial which they taught as the truly Scriplunil .lystem, are shown under C'iiiminai, L.uv and Cimm IX
I'liocKiMiii;. in a discussion on the law of agency tind a .saying of the old sages (Kill, A,i):
r.
However,
We
here one nays to
Accents in HebrewAccident bl.s
agent
Go and UW
such a person,
the
puntsliMt>le and lie who sends bliii goi-s freu; liut tiiNcht under u tradition (rnni Hiiiifal. ihe propliet Iliiilli.-vli..si-nd>hini Ls punl.sliiiljle; for In II sani. xll.9 (iif/j 1 David inid li Ls iliou who hast lillled hiui, by the sword of
stiiycr
!.<
Sliiiiiiiii;il
l.-i
'
the children of .Annnon.' "
admitted by all that he who directs a murpunishable iii the sight of (iod; but the distinction between Shammai and the other sages is It
der
is
is
that Shammai would iiiHict the heavy punishment of death, and the others a lighter one. thouu-h this is not iiamed. L. N. 1).
ACCHO
(called also
Acco, Acre, Ptolemais,
Jean d'Acre). See Ache. ACCIDENT Term used in philosophy to express
St.
a characteristic of an object or notion which does not necessarily follow from its nature and is not essential to its concept, but is connected with the object as an unessential, seemingly, by chance or Accident, The opposite notion is thai of ihe essential, that is, anecessaiily contained characteristic, without which the object would lose its identity. That a
human
Philosophic Notion.
being
is
mortal or
"a
biped
is
necessarily contained in the notion" human being, " but to be white is only the chance or accidental characteristic of any particular human being, for negroes are also human beings. Among the Arabic and .Tcwish iihilosophers the doctrine of accidents nitnino or D'Cnn. also D'IpD. assumes special importance, i>articularlv as a proof of the existence of God (compare Munk, "Guide des Egares," i, 385, 3il8, 424; Kaufmann, "Gesch, der .Vtlributenlehre," p. 281). Descartes! Ilobbes, and Locke substitute for the term "Accident," which had been universally used in the Middle .ges, the term "modus" (= temporary condition), and this change was adopted by Spino/'a (" Kthics," part i,, detiniiion '>). The logical relation is that of subject and predicate, the metaphysical relation that of substance and .Vecidcnt (Hipoi DVy in Arabic.Jewish iihilo.sophic phra.seology ). Tli<. relation of Accident, as a chance quality," to attribute, as a permanent characteristic of 'the substance (miVil D'VSUn) has been clearly explained by Maimonides, ".Moreh ebukim,"ii. lt». .Maimonide"s distinguishes between separable and inseparable accidents,
=
mSJ
and D'p
I!nu.ior;RAriiv
mpo
mpO.
Morcli. 1.73, II. 19; Idem, Yesnde fm-7Vir(i/i. Iv. S; Idem, .UiHot ha-Hiaoauon,t9; Sehnilcdel, In Mnmitivchrifl. xlll. IN!.
—— In Law
.Mnlnionldfti,
IS
.ccident means unforeseen harm that comes to persons or things, presumably through lack of care. When the contributor to an Accident is another than thi' jierson injured, oris the owner of the things destroyed id" depreciated, there is room for litigation, w liieli. in every system of jurisprudence, is govirned by special laws. The Torah treats of the law of negligence in Ex. xxi. 28-;i(i and xxii. 4, the leading cases being those of an o.x goring a man or beast an open, unprotected pit; lire spreading to a neighbor's pmperly also, to acerlain extent, trespassing cat lie. F'or the rules of Ex. xxii. (S-14. concerning the liability of a person lawfully posse.s.sed of anothir's gooils for loss or desirudioii, see H.mi.mknts In the language of Ihe Mislinah the chiif instaniis given in Ihe Torah for a more broadly iip]ilicable law. such as those relating to the (ioitiM) Ox or those relating to any animal that iiiMicIs unusual harm, or to the open pit or any similar inanimate thing, arc called ("fathers"); other instances deriveil from these are
In daily
life,
.'i,
m3K
known
as nn!>in ("descendants"). be called "derivatives."
The
latter
may
