The WALK FOR EVERYONE – Hope for Life, Peace & Contentment
Chapter 12 Justice -Parashat #48 – Shoftim Deu 16:18-21:9
Righteousness, righteousness shall you pursue – Deu 16:20
“It is not enough to seek righteousness; it must be done through honest means; the Torah does not condone the pursuit of a holy end through improper means.” [11.1025]
It is a Hebraic literary construct to repeat a verb to place emphasis and express importance. “If one believes in a God who is all-powerful and all-just, one cannot believe that this world, in which evil far too often triumphs, is the only arena in which human life exists. For if this existence were the final word, and God permits evil to win, then it cannot be that God is good. Thus, when someone says he or she believes in God but not in afterlife, it would seem that either they have not thought the issue through, or that they don’t believe in God, or the divine being in whom they believe is amoral or immoral” [Joseph Telushkin quoted in 21.252]
“Pursuing justice is a positive commandment, requiring positive action. It is not enough to refrain from doing harm or wronging others. Rather, God commands us to actively pursue justice, to engage in social work, to give charity, to go out of our way to help those in our communities…The Jewish love of law, love of justice, is thus rooted in love of God…the pursuit of justice does not exist for its own sake, but rather stems from love of God and of the Law God commanded.” [21.262 & 265]
As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said: ‘It’s not power that matters, but the fight for justice and freedom.’ (*1) “Justice and Mercy are not opposites in Hebrew but are bonded together in a singe word tzedek or tzedakah….Why then is justice so central to Judaism? Because it is impartial. Law as envisaged by the Torah makes no distinction between rich and poor, powerful and powerless, home born or stranger. Equality before the law is the translation into human terms of equality before G-d. Time and again the Torah insists that justice is not a human artifact. ‘Fear no one, for judgment belongs to G-d.’ Because it belongs to G-d, it must never be compromised – by fear, bribery, or favoritism. It is an inescapable duty, an inalienable right.”(*2) “The law, as it were, lays down a minimum threshold; this we must do. But the moral life aspires to more than simply doing what we must.” (*3)
Commandments
1 Deu 16:18 Appoint judges in all your cities.
2 Deu 17:6 & Deu 19:15 By the testimony of two or three witnesses shall a matter be judged
3 Deu 17:12 Do not be willful.
4 Deu 18:1-8 Care for those that serve G-d and the congregation, i.e according to the Torah and the unadulterated Word of G-d.
5 Deu 18:9 You shall not plant for yourselves an idolatrous tree or pillar. Do not commit what is evil in the eyes of G-d: you shall not pass your son or daughter through the fire; do not consult a sangoma –those that practice divination – an astrologer, one who reads omens, a sorcerer; an animal charmer; one who consults the dead, witchdoctors, or oji board, etc.
6 Deu 18:9 A murderer shall be punished.
7 Deu 19:14 You shall not move a boundary of your fellow.
8 Deu 20:19 When at war, you shall not destroy trees; especially fruit trees.
9 Deu 21:1-9 An unsolved murder must be investigated, &
10 Deu 21:1-9 Be hospital to strangers.
Comments regarding the above commandments
[1] Deu 16:18 The Hebrew word used in this verse is not ‘cities’ but ‘gates’ As the Sages said: a verse can have 70 meanings. Here the word ‘gates’ can also refer to ‘our gates’: eyes, ears, heart and even gonads. Therefore, guard your eyes from what they should not observe; guard your ears from what is not according to Torah principles. Therefore, keep your heart pure – as we are instructed in parashat Kodoshim: ‘You shall be holy, for holy am I, יהוה your God.” [Leviticus 19:2, repeated in 20:7 & 20:26]
[2] Deu 17:6 & Deu 19:15 This principle in fact also applies to the Scriptures. One must be careful not to base a Biblical principle on just one verse or phrase.
[3] Deu 17:12 Do not be willful. It is interesting to see which words are synonyms for willfulness: obstinacy, unyielding temper, stubbornness, obduracy, hardness, intransigent, stiff neck, no compromise; zealotry, intolerance & fanaticism. But, do not make the mistake to think that Judaism or a Jew cannot have spiritual and intellectual courage or that Judaism is static. As the Midrash Tanhuma states: To rebuild a shattered world, Heaven is telling you to go ahead. You do not wait for permission.
“Most Talmudic scholars don’t realize that the authors whose ideas they teach would turn in their graves if they knew their opinions were being taught as dogmas that cannot be challenged. They wanted their ideas tested, discussed, thought through, reformulated and even rejected, with the understanding that no final conclusions have ever been reached, could be reached or even should be reached. They realized that matters of faith should remain fluid, not static. Halacha is the practical upshot of living by unfinalized beliefs while remaining in theological suspense. Only in this way can Judaism avoid becoming paralyzed by its awe of a rigid tradition or, conversely, evaporate into a utopian reverie…… What today’s Judaism desperately needs is verbal critics who could spread and energize its great message. It needs spiritual Einsteins, Freuds and Pasteurs who can demonstrate its untapped possibilities and undeveloped grandeur. Judaism should be challenged by new Spinozas and Nietzsches; by remorseless atheists who would scare the hell out of our rabbis, who would in turn be forced into thinking bold ideas.
“The time has come to deal with the real issues and not hide behind excuses that ultimately will turn Judaism into a sham. Our thinking is behind the times, and that is something we can no longer afford. Judaism is about bold ideas. Its goal is not to find the truth, but to inspire us to honestly search for it.” (*4)
“The Rebbe [Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson 1902-1994] wanted us to see the unity that lies behind the apparent diversity of existence. Listening to his expositions, we move beneath the surface of conflict and come to see that disagreement between the great sages is no more and no less than a difference of perspectives on a single Divine reality.” [34.XI]
[4] Deu 18:1-8 It is necessary here to add “, i.e according to the Torah and the unadulterated Word of G-d.” especially because of those mega churches that are so fashionable in the US whose pastors solicit large contributions and even insist on having Jet airplanes for their needs. The ‘word’ that are preached in very many churches today distort not even the message of Yeshua, but totally ignore the Hebrew roots of the faith and worse still, totally negate the application of Torah.
[5] Deu 18:9 Today even it is especially necessary to mention these idolatrous habits that are again so much in fashion. There are also all over the world primitive nations that have and keep these ancient practices. Likewise is the horrific Islamic tradition of sacrificing and abuse of children to wear explosive belts & jackets.
Communicating with the dead by going to the graves of great Rabbi’s leaves a big question mark to this practice. Is the fact that we do not know the burial place of Moses an important message to us regarding revering the graves of great Sages? (*5)
[6] Deu 18:9 “ Tzedek (justice) is a key word in the book of Devarim ….The distribution of the word tzedek and its derivate, tzedakah, in the Five Books of Moses is anything but random. It is overwhelmingly concentrated on the first and last books – Genesis (where it appears 16 times) and Deuteronomy (18 times). In Exodus it occurs only four times, and in Leviticus five. All but one of these are concentrated in two chapters: Exodus 23 (where three of the four occurrences are in two verses, 23:7-8), and Leviticus 19 (where all five incidences are in chapter 19). In Numbers, the word does not appear at all.
“ This distribution is one of many indications that the Chumash is constructed as a chiasmus, a literary unit of the form ABCBA. Here’s (an example of) the structure:
“A: Genesis – the pre-history of Israel (the distant past). B: Exodus – the journey from Egypt to Mount Sinai. C: Leviticus – the code of holiness. B: Numbers – the journey from Mount Sinai to the banks of the Jordan. A: Deuteronomy – the post-history of Israel (the distant future)…..
“What does it mean? Tzedek/tzedakah is almost impossible to translate, because of its many shadings of meaning: justice, charity, righteousness, integrity, equity, fairness, and innocence. It certainly means more than strictly legal justice, for which the Bible uses words like mishpat and din. …..The late Aryeh Kaplan translated tzedakah in Deuteronomy 24 as “charitable merit.” It is best rendered as “the right and decent thing to do” or “justice tempered by compassion.”…
“Why then is justice so central to Judaism? Because it is impartial. Law as envisaged by the Torah makes no distinction between rich and poor, powerful and powerless, home born or stranger. Equality before the law is the translation into human terms of equality before G-d. Time and again the Torah insists that justice is not a human artifact. “Fear no one, for judgment belongs to G-d.” Because it belongs to G-d, it must never be compromised – by fear, bribery, or favoritism. It is an inescapable duty, an inalienable right.
“Judaism is a religion of love: “You shall love the Lord your G-d”; “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”; “You shall love the stranger.” But it is also a religion of justice, for without justice, love corrupts. (Who would not bend the rules, if he could, to favor those he loves?)
“It is also a religion of compassion, for without compassion law itself can generate inequity. Justice plus compassion equals tzedek, the first precondition of a decent society.” (*6)
“the Holy One’s purpose in calling Abraham was to establish through him a nation characterized by righteousness and justice. In fact, Genesis 18:19 clearly states that it is through these two virtues that the Holy One will be able to cause Am Yisrael to be a blessing to all the nations of the earth!” (*7)
[7] Deu 19:14 Again, we are not to just take this commandment on the peshat – literal– level i.e just regarding boundaries between properties. “Let’s spend a moment…looking at some of the boundaries and borders of Jewish life. We too, have neighbors. Some are friends and some are foreign…Many are exposed to cultures, lifestyles, business environments that are very different to our own….The answer is that we need landmarks. We, too, [all believers] require boundaries and borders to help us draw the lines between being good neighbors, sociable colleagues and losing our own traditions. Otherwise, we become the same as everyone else on the block or at work.” [33.213] We run the risk then of not being the light to others that G-d expects us to be.
“In spiritual application, the sages also consider the phrase ‘she’archa’ [i.e. translated here as “your gates” (second person singular)], to refer to an individual’s sensory organs – his or her eyes, ears, nose and mouth. These organs, after all, serve as the “gates” through which we take in information from the outside environment and respond to it. Hence, this directive is applied spiritually by the sages to mean that every person should consider himself or herself “a city in microcosm,” and should appoint forces of moderation, self-restraint, and to control what his/her eyes look at, what voices his/her ears hear, and what goes into, as well as what issues forth from, one’s mouth.” (*8)
[9 & 10] Deu 21:1-9 In a previous chapter, Chapter 3, I wrote about the eglah arufah commandment and ceremony. Another example where one needs to understand the historical and cultural context as well as keeping in mind the overall tone and principles of Torah, is the law concerning the ‘unsolved murder of a stranger’. [Read Deuteronomy 21:1-9] A stranger is found murdered in a field. The elders and judges of the closest towns then have to measure the distance to each town to see which is nearest. The elders of the latter town “shall take a heifer, with which no work has been done, which has not pulled with a yoke…” and sacrifice it in a valley which cannot be worked or sown. The meaning of this strange ancient ceremony is to repent for the inhospitality of the inhabitants of the town that obviously did not offer the stranger a place to stay or food, nor accompanied him on his way. The mitzvah is therefore to be hospitable to strangers. A commentary also noted that this ceremony will attract a crowd and possibly lead to the murderer’s identity.
What we learn from the narrative
If you know, really know the Bible, you will know that G-d is a G-d of Justice. Even though, because of His enduring loving kindness (Chesed) and grace (Chanan – see Gen 6:8; Ex 33:19; Ps 9:14; Ps 86:6;), He is a G-d of righteousness and will not leave those that have sinned and not have made teshuvah unpunished. When the Messiah comes, he will not be a ‘kind uncle handing out sweets’, He will come with a sword to judge for G-d. (*9). G-d will keep His promises as is referred to numerous times in these parshot: He will keep his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and keep His promise to Israel to return the Jews to their land. “יהוה your God, will bring back your captivity and have mercy upon you, and He will return and gather you in from all the peoples to which יהוה your God, has scattered you. “ [see Deu 30:1-6] as we saw happened 1948!
The fact that Israel was not allowed to slaughter a kosher animal with a blemish, is not just underlining the principle of giving G-d our King the best, but is also a shadow image of the sacrifice of Yeshua ben Josef. These commandments also only apply to the land of Israel and when the Temple stood.
“By describing the death penalty as destruction of evil from the midst of the nation, the Torah clarifies its purpose: The death penalty is not revenge against a criminal; it is needed to purge the national psyche of an evil that can infect others if it is left unchecked.” [11.1027] By using the tern dead man, in Deu 17:6 the Torah implies that even if the court cannot act because the guilty party was not properly warned or his sin was not witnessed, he is still considered a dead man because God will punish him. [11.1026] In Proverbs 21:3 we read: To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to יהוה than sacrifice.
A lesson that one would wish all leaders of countries would take to heart we read in Deu17:15-20. This is that the King or President or Prime Minister is to write two copies of the Torah for himself, and he or she is to read from it “all the days of his life, so that he will learn to fear יהוה, his God, to observe all the words of this Torah and these decrees, to perform them, so that his heart does not become haughty over his brethren and not turn from the commandment right or left”! The king is warned not to let his heart go astray because of women and riches. Unfortunately history records that exactly the opposite has been the case. For example, after Ceausescu, the communist Romanian president’s murder by his countrymen in 1989, it was discovered that his bathroom’s utilities were made of gold. This was also discovered in some African countries after the overthrow of their despotic heads of state. (*10)
In Deu 18:15 we read: “A prophet from your midst, from your brethren, like me, shall HASHEM, your God, establish for you – to him shall you hearken.” Therefore one need to ask which prophet shared the following experiences or incidents and associations: As a young child had to be hidden from oppressing authorities; after his birth young boys under the age of two, were killed; was a shepherd; sat by a well where woman came to draw water; he left his abode and returned; came out of Egypt; what he spoke he said was told to him by G-d; a miracle concerning leprosy is associated with him; the number 3 is associated with him and a sign. The gematria of the soresh of Moses’s wife’s name Ziporah /צפר ‘s equals 370 and this number also is the same as that for: ‘this is messiah’; he rode on a donkey; witnessed the suffering of his fellow countrymen; first public miracle of water turned to red colour; moved the waters of the sea; was referred to as being a snare; was a priest; selected 70 men to be spoke persons; sent out 12 men; promised miraculous water; his authority was challenged by his fellowmen; pleaded for Israel and blessed people; ascended and was expected to descended; immersed his brother and others in water; numerous miracles are associated with him; etc. [Read also the so called’Jewish Riddle’ in Prov 30:4]
Deu 20:1 instructs the soldiers of Israel when they go out to fight, and see a mighty army, more numerous than them, to trust G-d and not to fear: ‘you shall not fear them, for יהוה your God, is with you’ and the Kohen shall speak to them. I remember clearly how during the 2014 war with Gaza, the soldiers asked the Rabbi’s to pray for them and bless them before they go in to battle. As verse 4 reads: ‘For יהוה your God, is the One Who goes with you, to fight for you with your enemies, to save you’ (*11)
Israel is also instructed to first ask for peace, before they go into battle. We also read in Deuteronomy that a soldier that has just gotten married, built a house or planted a vineyard need not go into battle, as well as those that are fearful and fainthearted. Notice also that they were instructed not to cut down fruit trees – a law that still applies today in Israel.
Israel was told to eradicate their enemies so that they ‘they will not teach [them] to act according to all their abominations that they performed for their gods’ [Deu 20:18] We know that they unfortunately did not do this and this is one of the reasons that they were eventually exiled from the land.
FOOTNOTES
*1 Quoted in The Gardens Shmooze, Cape Town Hebrew Congregation, 10 Ja 1015.
*2 Jonathan Sacks. Pursuing Justice. The Jewish Press .com. 27 Aug 2014.
*3 Jonathan Sacks. The Right and the Good. Covenant & Conversation 5775. 30 July 2015.
*4 Rabbi Dr Nathan Lopes Cardozo. Judaism: Thinking Big. The Times of Israel. 3-5-2015
*5 Read for example the following article regarding the ostentatious veneration of Rabbi Simon ben Yochai’s grave site, which maintains that all is based on a scribal error: Jameel@Muqata, LafgBaOmer-One Big Mistake, Jewish Press.com. 27 April 2013; As well as: Donny Fuchs. The Cult of Uman. Jewish Press.com. 8 Sep 2014; Donny Fuchs. Talking to the Dead. Jewish Press.com 17 Aug 2014.
*6 Jonathan Sacks. Pursuing Justice. Jewish Press.com. 27 August 2014.
*7 Tony Robinson. Shoftim. Parshat HaShuvua. Restoration of Torah Ministries.
*8 Bill Bullock. Responsible Kingdom Administration. Rabisson@cableone.net
*9 Read Malachi 3:1-6
*10 The previous despicable and contemptible president of the Republic of South Africa, Zuma, built himself and his numerous wives a palatial homestead in Zululand at the estimated cost of more than the millions the UK annually give South Africa. Its estimated that Zuma’s rule cost the country R1 trillion; and much more was defrauded under his rule.
*11 Google ‘miracles during Israel’s wars’ to read of many miraculous occurrences that are told, and available to watch on the internet.