The Book and the Sword

Parshas Shoftim

“Appoint judges and police for yourselves in all your cities” (16:18). Why does the Torah insert the word “lecha” (for yourselves)? This is similar to what G-d told Avraham, “Lech lecha – Go for yourself” from your land (Bereishis 12:1), which as Rashi explains, means for your own sake and for your own benefit. But if I am an honest citizen and don’t tangle with people or with the authorities, why is the appointment of judges and police of benefit to me? The answer is that a system of law and order benefits society as a whole because without it, it comes down to might is right. As it says in Avos (1:2), “Pray for the welfare of the government because if people did not fear it, a person would swallow his fellow alive.”

Furthermore, our lock on the land of Israel depends on strict adherence to the system of justice laid out for us in the Torah. “Justice only justice you shall pursue so that you may live and inherit the land which G-d gives you” (16:20). The land of Israel is not a self-sufficient land. It has no natural sources of water. It is parched desert. “The land which you are about to conquer is not like Egypt, where you could plant your seed and irrigate by yourself just like a vegetable garden. The land you are occupying is a land of mountains and valleys which can be irrigated only by rain. It is therefore a land constantly under G-d’s scrutiny; the eyes of G-d are on it at all times, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year” (11:10-12). It will rain in Israel only if we acknowledge the source of rain, like Adam HaRishon who understood that he had to pray for rain before it would come down (Rashi, Bereishis 2:6). The price we pay for rain is adherence to justice. Without justice, there is no rain and without rain there is no land. That is why the blessing “restore our judges of old” in the Shemoneh Esrei comes before the blessing of “and to Jerusalem Your city may You return.” G-d will not remain with or return to a lawless land. Or as Yeshayahu put it in one sentence (1:27), a sentence engraved on the walls of the courts in Israel today, “Zion will be redeemed with judgment and those that return to her with righteousness.”

You should not plant for yourselves an idolatrous tree, any tree near the altar of G-d (16:21). That a tree worshipped as an idol should not be planted near the altar is an understandable prohibition. But what is wrong with beautifying the temple mount with other trees in the spirit of “this is my G-d and I will beautify him” (Shemos 15:2)? The altar was not there to administer plastic surgery to disfigured souls. There is no repentance without vidui, confession. The altar was there to remind us that but for the grace of G-d, it would be us going up in smoke, not the animal that G-d allowed us to sacrifice in our place. Blood and body parts are not a pretty sight to behold. They are the results of our transgressions. It would be dishonest to adorn the area in which they are exposed in their entire candor with cosmetic window dressing.

That is also why the Korban Minchas Choteh, the sinner’s Mincha offering, was not brought with oil which symbolizes light and incense which symbolizes a positive aura. When a person who has given in to his or her animal instincts wishes to bring a sacrifice to atone for such conduct, the sacrifice itself and the location in which it is brought should be as basic and unadorned as the instincts he or she gave in to.

“If there shall be a matter too difficult to judge, you shall come to the judges that shall be in your days and they should render the judgment” (17:9). The Torah is talking here about matters that had to be escalated all the way up to the highest judicial authority, the Sanhedrin of 71 judges in the Liskhas Hagazis, inside the Temple. But why does the Torah spend words on saying that you should go to the Sanhedrin who will be there in your days? Clearly one would not be going to judges of previous generations. You can only go to the judges of you own generation. The message the Torah is giving us here is that the power of deciding the halacha is not vested in the person who believes he is the greatest talmid chacham, like the zaken mamreh (17:12) or even in the person who claims he has received a different answer from a tradition passed down to him. The final authority to decide a halachic matter rests with the judges appointed to their positions at the time of the case in hand, even if they are not as learned as the judges of the past and even if the decision they arrive at through their own thought process is against the tradition of a great talmid chacham who is not appointed to the bench.

It could be that the decision is wrong and that the judge of your time erred. But that is the power G-d gives to the judiciary of each generation. Sometimes G-d wants the “wrong decision” because that happens to be the right decision for that time. We cannot change His Torah, but He can, and that is the way he does it, by allowing a judge to err, because that is the outcome He wants, as it says, “He turns wise men backward and makes their knowledge foolish” (Yeshayahu 44:25). That is how the Gemara explains the “wrong” yet right decision of Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakai to ask Vespasian to spare Yavneh and its sages instead of asking him to save Jerusalem (Gittin 56b).

The purpose of the king is to uphold our constitution, which is the Torah. That is why he must write for himself his own copy of the sefer Torah and carry it with him all the days of his life (17:17-20). He may not accumulate many horses so as not to bring the people back to Egypt to get more horses (17:17). What is the connection between these two admonitions that should guide the king? It is that he should understand that our power as a nation comes from our adherence to the Torah not from military supremacy symbolized by the horses of Egypt which were the most powerful engines of war of the time. “Some trust in their chariots and some trust in their horses, but we call on the name of G-d Our Lord” (Tehillim 20:5). Or as King David famously said when confronting Goliath, “You come against me with a sword, a spear and a javelin, but I come against you in the name of G-d” (Shmuel I 17:45).