Dear Friends;
I hope that you’ll enjoy the following Parsha summary followed by a Dvar Torah;
” Parsha in a Nutshell “
Moshe instructs the people of Israel to appoint judges and law-enforcement officers in every city.
A minimum of two credible witnesses is required for conviction and punishment.
A Jewish king may only have possessions and symbols of power adequate for the honor of his office, but not for self glorification.
Hashem promises the Jewish people that he will send them prophets to guide them, and Moshe explains how a genuine prophet may be distinguished from a false one.
The Parsha includes the prohibitions against idolatry and sorcery; guidelines for the creation of “cities of refuge” for the inadvertent murderer. Also set forth are many of the rules of war: the exemption from battle for one who has just built a home, planted a vineyard, married, or is “afraid and soft-hearted”; the requirement to offer terms of peace before attacking a city.
If a corpse is found between cities, the elders of the nearest city must take a heifer, slaughter it, and wash their hands over it, saying that they are not guilty of the death.
“ Dvar Torah “
The foundation of civilization is based on justice! No civilized society can survive without a judiciary system, and a set of law and order. And Judaism cannot agree more with this system. This week’s parsha starts off by telling us to appoint judges and lawmakers for ourselves. It continues by telling us the famous quote, “tzedek, tzedek, tirdof”….. “Justice, Justice, you shall pursue”……. But a better translation is: “Righteousness, Righteousness, you shall pursue”….. The Chachamim are puzzled by the repetition of word “righteousness”. Why does the Torah need to repeat it twice? Rabbi Frand explains that “The pursuit OF righteousness must also be pursued WITH righteousness”. We are not merely being taught to run AFTER justice. We are told to run AFTER justice WITH justice, which means that a person can only be trialed in a righteous way. That’s why the torah continues to explain that in order to pursue justice, we have to appoint righteous judges. A judge cannot take a bribe. A judge cannot take the side of the weak or the powerful, since the Torah says that a judge cannot show favoritism towards a widow or an orphan, nor towards wealthy and powerful. Indeed, a judge has to be totally unbiased and try his best to make a fair judgment.
In western societies’ court of law, where there is a dispute between two parties, the judge has to determine who is right and who is wrong; who has to be rewarded and who has to be punished. The judge’s main role is to find who is guilty and who is innocent. The judge has the full authority to make this decision. In a Jewish court of law, however, the judge has a different role. His role is not to just find the guilty party and punish him, but rather, his main role is to give the accused a fair trial — a trial which is based on fairness and righteousness. Indeed the Torah sets down numerous rules and regulations which delimit the judge’s power to judge, and ensure that when he does judge, he does so with utmost caution and sensitivity.
To get a better understanding of what it means by a fair trial, we can look at a criminal law discussion in the Talmud known as the “indefensible criminal” laws. The Talmud says: In the time of Beit Hamikdash, under the Jewish law, capital crimes were tried by a tribunal of 23 judges called a “Minor Sanhedrin.” After hearing the testimony of the witnesses, the judges themselves would split into two groups: those inclined to argue for the defense of the accused would serve as his “defense team” and seek to convince their colleagues of his innocence; and those inclined to convict him would serve as prosecutors making the case for his guilt. Then the judges would vote. A majority of one was sufficient to set him free, while a majority of two was necessary to convict.
But what happens if all the twenty-three judges form an initial opinion of guilt?! What if the evidence is so compelling and the crime so horrifying that not a single member of the tribunal chooses to argue in the accused’s favor? In such a case, says the Talmud, the accused cannot be convicted and this court is disqualified from making a judgement!
But you may ask why?! If all the evidence is against the accused, he should surely be found guilty, wouldn’t you say so?! Why on earth is the court disqualified from convicting him?!
The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains the rationale behind this law as follows: No man is so utterly evil that there is nothing to be said in his defense. There is always some explanation, some justification, some perspective from which the underlying goodness of his soul can be glimpsed. This does not mean that he is going to be found innocent, in the legal sense, by a court of law. But if not a single member of the court perceives the “innocent side” of the person standing accused before them, this court then obviously has very little understanding of who he is and what he has done. Such a court has disqualified itself from passing judgment on him. The Lubavitcher Rebbe therefore says that you cannot judge a person until you see something good in that person! Justice has to be done with righteousness, and righteousness is achieved when you can see the good in everybody!
Yes my friends, in order to judge a person, we need to hear something good about him first! That’s why the Torah is so much against “Lashon Hara”, evil speech or slander. Because when you hear something evil about someone, you immediately become judgmental. But you can not judge him, because you haven’t heard anything in his defense yet! Judging people is one of the most difficult tasks and that’s why the Torah has asked us to appoint professional judges who are righteous and know how to judge fairly. Us, the ordinary people, are not here to judge other people —– we are here to love them!
As we are approaching the “Yamim Noraim”, the days of repentance and judgement, there is no need to be so much afraid, since we know that we are being judged by the fairest Judge of all, the G-d Almighty himself. And we are quite confident that Hashem won’t judge us, until he sees something good in us first!
Shabbat Shalom & Regards;
Martin