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Parshat Shoftim
1998
No Justice, No Peace
Deuteronomy 16:18-22
18 Judges and officials you are to provide for yourselves, within all your gates that YHWH your God is giving you, for your tribal-districts; they are to judge the people (with) equitable justice.
19 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'.
20 Equity, equity (Tzedek, Tzedek) you are to pursue,
in order that you may live
and possess the land that YHWH your God is giving you!
21 You are not to plant yourself an Ashera ( A tree associated with idolatry) (or) any-kind of tree-structure beside the slaughter-site of YHWH your God that you make yourself;
22 and you are not to raise yourself a standing-stone (such) as YHWH your God hates.
Your Torah Navigator
1. Moshe is now instructing the people that it is up to them to have judges and officials in place. Read each verse and ask the question: To whom is Moshe speaking? Sometimes he is addressing the people and sometimes he seems to be addressing the judges. Sometimes it could be both. If we say he is addressing the judges, the verses mean one thing. If we say he is addressing the people the verses may mean something else altogehter, experiment and see how you can conjure up different meanings by changing who the subject is.
2. The verse "equity, equity (Tzedek, Tzedek) you are to pursue, in order that you may live and possess the land that YHWH your God is giving you!" is often translated as "Justice, justice shall you pursue..." Have you heard the verse before? How have you heard the phrase used? In this context who is being told to pursue justice? The judges or the people?
3. One of the midrashic ways of reading is to take a verse and to totally remove it from its context and view the verse independent of its context. If you take the verse "Equity, equity (Tzedek, Tzedek) shall you pursue..." and remove it from its context what does it mean to you?
The verse states, "The verse "equity, equity (Tzedek, Tzedek) you are to pursue, in order that you may live and possess the land that YHWH your God is giving you!" What is the connection between equity (Tzedek) and living and possessing the land"?
Is everyone affected by inequity? Even if you are not the one who suffers injustice, how does injustice affect your living on the land?
If we live in a land of corrupt judges, does that mean the people themselves are corrupt? Does the Torah think that the judges are truly representative of the people? Do you?
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