JUDGES AND OFFICIALS YOU ARE TO PROVIDE FOR

YOURSELVES, WITHIN ALL YOUR GATES THAT THE LORD YOUR GOD IS GIVING YOU, FOR

YOUR TRIBAL-DISTRICTS;

THEY ARE TO

JUDGE THE PEOPLE WITH EQUITABLE JUSTICE.

YOU ARE NOT TO CAST ASIDE A

CASE FOR JUDGMENT.

YOU ARE NOT TO SPECIALLY RECOGNIZE ANYONE'S FACE,

AND YOU ARE NOT TO TAKE A BRIBE –

FOR A BRIBE BLINDS THE EYES OF THE WISE,

AND TWISTS THE WORDS OF THE EQUITABLE.

EQUITY, EQUITY YOU ARE TO

PURSUE,

IN ORDER THAT YOU MAY LIVE

AND POSSESS THE LAND THAT THE LORD YOUR GOD IS GIVING YOU.

(Devarim 16:18-20)

"Judges and officials are you to provide for yourselves within

all your gates" – in every city.

"For

your tribal districts" – Even if all in the city are of one family,

appoint judges.

"They

are to judge the people with equitable justice"

– This is to teach us

that both parties are treated equitably/charitably (As noted in earlier issues of "Shabbat Shalom",

'tsedakah" – commonly translated "charity", is

related to "tsedek"¸– "justice". In the

Bible, "tsedakah" means "justice". In

post-Biblical sources, it came to mean "charity".) the party favored by the verdict receives

that which belongs to him, and the party found against is relieved of stolen

property in his possession.

Another exposition: "Equitable

justice" –

when they [the judges] judge equitably, they are giving charity to people and

saving them from misfortune, as is written (Psalms

85) "Truth sprouts from

the earth" – when a truthful verdict sprouts from the earth,

justice is viewed from heaven, The Holy One, Blessed Be He acts charitably with

people and saves them from misfortune and from suffering, and goodness comes

into the world.

                                                                                                 (Tanchuma,

Shofetim 6)

"Equity, equity are you to pursue" – one ['equity'] for law-based verdict and

one for compromise. An example? Two boats alongside each other on the river. If

both try to pass together, both sink; one after the other, both pass. And so

with two camels alongside each other ascending the hill-paths of Beth Horon. If

both try to go up together, both fall; one following the other, both go up. How

unloaded one grants right of way to the loaded one. If one is closer to its

destination than the other, let the closer one grant right of way to the

distant one. If they were equidistant, impose a compromise, and let one

reimburse the other.

                                                                                                 (Bavli,

Sanhedrin 32b)

OCCUPATION

AND DESTRUCTION

Elimelech Horovitz

One

of the Torah's laws pertaining to the military is the prohibition against

destruction of fruit trees. "When you besiege a town for many days,

you in a siege?" It is puzzling that the halachic literature which

purports to guide the religious soldier hardly refers to this subject. In "Hilchot

Tsava" by Rabbi Zecharia ben Shelomo (5761), which received the

approval of important scholars (among them three former Chief Rabbis), the

prohibition "Bal Tashchit" – "You shall not

destroy" – appears only in that section which deals with "Purity

of the Camp"; there is no reference whatever to the problem which – to

our sorrow – has become most actual for the soldiers of Tzahal and their

commanders during the past few years (see, for example, Amira Hess's report in

Haaretz 1/8/03): under what conditions is it permissible to destroy "the

enemy's" trees, and what should the religious soldier do if and when he is

ordered to destroy fruit trees.

In "Laws

of Kings" (6:8) Rambam rules: "One may not cut down

fruit trees which are outside the city… as is written, "You are not

to bring ruin upon its trees", and whoever fells fruit trees is

to be flogged." The emphasis upon the location of those protected trees is

explained by Rashbam in his explication of the above-quoted verse: "It

you are not to cut down" – that particular fruit tree which does not provide strength and

fortification for the inhabitants of the city, such as trees far from the city…

but the tree of the field to which people can come to for protection from you

during the siege, that tree may you fell, those that are near the city whose

inhabitants are fleeing you." (See

also Hizkuni, loc. sit.). Even

though the Torah expressly states "Only that tree which you

know not to be a food tree, that one shall you destroy and chop down" (Ibid., 20), most commentators

understood that this was said in order to determine an order of priorities, as

the Ramban writes: "to tell us that trees which bear no fruit are felled

before those which bear fruit".

In

the Ramban's opinion, this mitzvah is related to those earlier mitzvoth

in our parasha which emphasize the importance of trust in God during war: "For

the combatants destroy the city and the countryside around it, perhaps thereby

they will overcome it… but you shall not do so, to destroy it; you shall put

trust in Hashem, that He deliver it into your hands." Rabbi Ovadia Seforno

(16^th cent.) writes in a similar vein: "True, felling of trees for

destructive purposes alone is done by armies in order to cause damage, when

they are not certain of victory… but you are certain to conquer the land and

settle it, you are not to destroy food-bearing trees." This utilitarian

approach, i.e., you may not cut down the trees because you may need their fruit

after the war, did not find favor in the eyes of the 19^th cent

scholar, Shmuel David Lutzzato (Shadal). In his opinion, "Not for this was

the Torah given, to teach men self-serving accounting. On the contrary, for

this was it given: to strengthen in our hearts compassion and pardon, even when

they are detrimental to our benefit" – a worthy message for every man (and

woman) of war.

In

the specific case of the prohibition against destruction of trees, Shadal

suggests "that the principle of the mitzvah is that one should not

destroy the tree after having eaten of its fruit… in order to distance man

from ingratitude, to habituate him to love that which is good to him and not to

discard it once he cannot hope for any more benefit." If

so, this mitzvah also carries a social message for the Jewish state regarding

allocation of resources to the weak sectors, such as the handicapped and the

aged – that we not discard them when we can not longer derive "any more

benefit" from them.

Prof.

Elimech Horovitz, member of the OzVeshalom – Netivot Shalom, lectures in the

Department of Jewish History in Bar-Ilan University

The

Conditions and the Mission of the Liberation from Egypt

"Purge

your people" this refers to the

living, "that you redeemed", these are the deceased; teaching

us that the deceased also are in need of expiation. Thus we learn that the sin

of one who sheds blood is reckoned back to those who exited Egypt.

"That you redeemed" – this is the

condition for our redemption, that there be no murderers among us.            

 (Sifri, Parashat Shofetim, Piska

210)

And

Chazal explained that this teaches that we were redeemed upon this condition,

that there not be found – in any and all generations – those who spill blood.

Now that murderers exist among us, it is revealed retroactively that those who

exited Egypt were not deserving of redemption, and that all the miracles

performed on their behalf were unnecessary, and because of this sin, the guilt

returns to those who left Egypt whom we now know to have been undeserving; if

they were deserving, their merit would have saved their descendents, and they

are in need of atonement…

 (Malbin's

Commentary on the Sifri)

On

War and Peace: Ethical and Ideological Aspects

"To

wage war against it" – but not to starve it and not to cause it

to thirst and not to kill it with disease.

"You

are to call out to it in terms of peace" – Great is peace, for

even the dead are in need of peace; great is peace, for even in Israel's wars

they need peace; great is peace, for even the celestial beings need peace, as

is written, "He who makes peace in his Heights" (Job 25); great

is peace for with it we conclude the priestly benediction, and Moshe, too,

loved peace, as is written, "Now I sent messengers from the Wilderness

of Kedemot… words of peace" (Devarim 2:26).

 (Sifri, Parashat Shofetim, Piska 199)

Tikkun of the Individual and of Society

…

We learn in the Mishna, composed about 1,500 years after the issuance of the mitzvah

of the Egla Arufa [Decapitated Calf]: "With the increase of

murderers, the [law of] the Egla Arufa was nullified." This

ceremony has meaning in a society to which murder is abhorrent and aberrant. In

a society which is essentially immoral and murder is frequent, there is no

purpose in pretending that we are shocked by a murder which we have failed to

solve. This ceremony in such a society is tinged with hypocrisy. Society must

be cleansed of the prevalence of daily murders, and only then will there be

reason for reaction to atypical cases with a ceremony of atonement.

 (From Prof. Y. Leibowitz, Remarks

on the Weekly Portion, pp. 122-123)

"You Are Not to Raise Yourself a

Standing Stone Such As the Lord Your God Hates" – You Are Not to Bow

to Stones

The

standing stone [matsevah] referred to by the Torah is a construction in

which all gather, even

to worship the Lord, for this was the custom of

idolaters, as is written, "You are not to raise yourself a standing

stone" and

whoever raises a standing stone is to be flogged, and similarly with the

decorated stone mentioned in the Torah, even

though one bow on it to God, he is to be flogged, as is

written, "A decorated stone you are not to place in your land, to

prostrate yourselves to it", because this was the custom of the

idolaters, to place a stone before the worshipped object and to prostrate one's

self upon it. Therefore, this is not to be done before God…

(Rambam,

Mishneh Torah, Laws of Idolatry, 6:6)

"There Is Not to Found

Augury, etc." Don't Believe in Nonsense.

All these things are lies and falsehood, and with them the ancient

idolaters misled the nations of the lands into following them, and it is not

proper that Israel, who are very wise, should be attracted by these forms of

foolishness; they should not even consider that they may have some substance,

as is written, "There is no divination in Yaakov, and no augury in

Israel", and it is written, "For these nations that you

thus has the Lord your God made you!" Whoever believes in all

these things and their likes, thinking that they are true and are items of

wisdom, but that the Torah forbade them, is but one of the fools and the

ignorant… but those who possess wisdom and whose ideas are whole know with

clear proof that all these things which

the Torah forbade are not things of wisdom, but are empty and insubstantial, attracting

those lacking in intelligence who abandoned all paths of truth because of them.

. And this is why the Torah, when admonishing against all these forms of

nonsense, said "Wholehearted shall you be with the Lord your God".

 (Rambam, Mishneh Torah, "Laws of

Idolatry" 11:16)

The Appointment of Kings –

Compromise?

"Should you say: I will

set over me a king" – R' Nehorai said: This verse speaks in deprecation of Israel, for it is

written, "For it is not you that they have rejected: it is Me they have

rejected as their king" (I Samuel 8:7).

Said R' Yehudah: Is it not a mitzvah

to request a king, as is written, "Set, yes, set over you a king

that the Lord your God chooses, etc." Why were they punished in the

days of Shmuel? Because they asked prematurely. "Like

all the nations around me" – Said R' Nehorai they asked for a

king only to impose upon them idol worship, as is written, "that we may

and fight our battles"

(I Samuel 8:19).

 (Sifri, Shofetim, Piska 156)

"I will set over me a

king like all the nations that are around me"– The reign will

belong to him and to his descendents, not as with the judges. The judge alone

would rule, but not his descendents after him. Upon entering the Land, Israel

was commanded to appoint a judge to reign in this fashion (only for his

lifetime), as is written, "That the assembly of God not be like sheep

that have no shepherd." That the king resembles kings of the

nations – he and his seed holding on to the kingship – is repulsive in God's

eyes, but He commanded us that when the people become adamant in their demand

for this kind of ruler, they should choose only a legitimate person, to be

selected by God.

 (Seforno, Devarim 17:14)

And it appears that because forms of national leadership differ, some

nations being led by a monarch, some being run according to the will of the

public and their representatives, some nations cannot tolerate monarchy, and

for some a nation without a king is like a ship without a captain… forms of

government cannot be determined by divine decree, by a mitzvat a-sey,

because matters of public leadership touch upon life-threatening issues, and

these take precedence over mitzvoth a-sey, over positive commandments…

therefore, it is not possible to command the appointment of a king as long as

there is no national consensus to tolerate the yoke of monarchy.

 (From Netziv's commentary Haamek Davar)

Elul – I Am My Beloved's and My Beloved

Is Mine

At the beginning of Elul the weekly portion beginning, "Judges

and officers you are to provide for yourselves, within all your gates" (Devarim 16:18)

is read, for the starting point of teshuva [repentance] and its

essential purpose is that the man doing teshuva must station an officer

and judge at all of his gates, meaning the senses, such as those of the eyes,

ears, nose, mouth, which are the gates that the Creator, blessed be his name,

opened in man for his use.

(Bene

Yisakhar, p. 19 in Shocken English edition)

I read in the Pirkei d'Rebbe Eliezer (Chap. 46) – Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korcha said:

Moshe spent forty days on the mountain, reading the law of Torah during the

day, learning the oral law by night. After forty days he took the tablets and

descended to the encampment. On the 17^th of Tammuz, he broke the

tablets and killed the sinners of Israel, and spent forty days in the

encampment until he had burned the calf and pulverized it to dust, and he wiped

out idolatry from Israel, and arranged each tribe in its place. On the New Moon

of Elul, The Holy One, Blessed Be He, said to him: "Ascend the mountain

to me", and a shofar was sounded throughout the camp-

for Moshe had gone up the mountain—that they not slide again into idolatry, and

The Holy One, Blessed Be He, was elevated in that sounding of the shofar, as is

written, "God ascends midst acclamation; the Lord, to the blasts of the

horn" (Psalm

47:6). And the Rabbis established that the shofar be sounded on

the New Moon of Elul every year.

 (Ramban, Shemot 33:7)

Editorial Board: Pinchas

Leiser (Editor), Miriam Fine (Coordinator), Itzhak Frankenthal and Dr. Menachem Klein

Translation: Kadish

Goldberg

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