Q. What does Jewish tradition teach us about racial profiling?
A. As we explained last week, profiling -- racial or otherwise
-- involves singling out people for suspicion based on
characteristics that are statistically correlated with
wrongdoing but don't have any inherent connection. We gave the
example that most crimes are committed by young men, but being a
young man doesn't "cause" a person to commit a crime. There is a
remarkable story in the Talmud which, it seems to me, bears very
directly on the profiling question. The story is about Rebbe
Elazar the son of Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai. Rebbe Shimon bar
Yochai is widely recognized as one of the greatest rabbinical
scholars and leaders in all of Jewish history, and the stature
of his son Elazar is only slightly below. Yet the Talmud tells
of an astonishing second career imposed on him in his later
years: Rebbe Elazar the son of Rebbe Shimon encountered a
certain inspector whose job was to catch thieves. He asked him,
how are you able to overcome them -- ar