No Agent for Sin

If you ask, or hire someone, commit a crime, and the “agent” does so, you would be guilty of a crime in the U.S.  

The Talmud, however, says that “there is no agent for a matter of sin”, meaning that the you (the sender) are not guilty. The reason is, because you can tell the agent “the words of the master and the words of the student, who should you listen to?”. You, therefore, cannot be prosecuted in the human court, only G-d can and will hold you accountable.

There are many legal theories that explain this law, we will offer a possible philosophical explanation on why the Torah does not simply legislate that it’s a crime to ask someone to commit a crime. Would a law like that not be beneficial to eliminating crime?

The answer is no. For nothing is more powerful then to tell the criminal: you are on your own, no one else will be held accountable for helping you sin, it's your responsibility to “listen to the words of the master”. Prosecuting the sender would send a message to the broader society that the criminal is not entirely guilty since the blame is shared with someone else. From a philosophical point of you, the moment you say that the sender is also guilty, you are shifting some of the blame off the criminal.

The Torah therefore chooses to look a person in the eye and say: just know that whatever you do is entirely on your shoulders, no shifting the blame or holding others responsible for your actions.