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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
[should the two cases be resolved]? If one is loaded and one is not loaded, the
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)
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,
waging war against it, to seize it: you are not to bring ruin on its trees, by
swinging away with an ax against them, for from them you eat, it you are not to
cut down-for are the trees of the field human beings, (able) to come against
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
(16th 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 19th 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
"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)
"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
Among You One Having His Son or His Daughter Cross through Fire, an Augurer of
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
are coming to possess: to sorcerers and augurers do they hearken, but you - not
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 -
Conditional upon Popular Consent, an Absolute Mitzvah, or an Undesirable
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
be like all the other nations: Let our king rule over us and go out at our head
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)
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 17th 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)
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