Don’t judge a book by its cover.  Don’t be so judgmental.  Judge fairly.  Ladies and gents, here comes the judge…

The name of the this week’s parsha (Torah portion) is called Judges (or Shoftim in Hebrew), and it is a seemingly haphazard, hodgepodge, patchwork parsha.  Let’s see what kind of theme we can find in it!

It starts out talking about appointing judges and how they should be honest.  It then talks about idolatry and how to find someone guilty and how the guilty are killed.  Next we veer to the situation where the local judge cannot make a decision, and the case gets sent to the temple where the priest and the judges there will decide the case.

We then jump to a discussion of kingship and the obligations of the king.  On the heels of the kingly discussion, we talk about the inheritance of the priesthood (what do they eat if they aren’t inheriting land?).

Another jump lands us in the world of divination, or specifically what types of divination and magic god does not like, and not to do them.  After all, when you have prophets, who needs divination?  After this we talk about the cities that murderers can go to take refuge, with the caveat that an intentional murderer will not be allowed to stay there.

Next is a quick hop to talk about boundary preservation and witnesses and how to handle false testimony.  Then we are off to war which includes the de-listing of folk who just built a house, or planted a vineyard or are about to be married, or are just plain afraid to fight.  And of course we are warned not to destroy fruit bearing trees when besieging a city, and that you have to ask the city to surrender, and what to do if they say yes, or if they say no.

And lastly, we talk about what happens when a corpse is found outside of town.

At first glance, it really doesn’t appear that there is anything connected here.  However, reading just under the surface, I noticed a couple of things:  The theme that is running thru this parsha is one of justice, and how to treat people.  The judging has to be fair and unbiased.  When it is not a simple case, the case gets sent to the judges and the priests at the temple.  Why there?  Because if the case is not simple, it not only has legal ramifications, but spiritual ones as well, and haShem (god) appointed the priests as the spiritual caretakers of the people.  We see this in verse 21:5 (of Devarim/Deuteronomy), near the end of the parsha, where we are told that the priests are entrusted to decide all disputes and all plagues.  A plague comes when the people really mess up and piss off god.  Or it could be an individual who gets Tzaara, which was talked about a while ago.  So, why is the priest included?  Because our tradition is a spiritually based tradition, so pure reasoning of laws and the physical evidence is not enough; the soul of a person also has to be looked at.  This is the purpose of the priest, just as the former is the purpose of the judge.  Hence, both are needed.

Now, we come to the king.  It might seem odd, to bring up the concept of a king, except for two things.  One is that we see the definition of a king:  he is someone the people put over themselves.  The second is that he is chosen by haShem.  Again, a mixing of the spiritual (haShem), and the physical (the people).  And what is the job of the king?  He is not a judge; he has to obey the Torah just like everybody else.  This is why we are told he needs to write his own and constantly study it:  his job is to present the ideal way of being a Jew to the people, and also to represent the Jewish people in interactions with the other nations of the world.  To do both, he had better know his stuff…I mean the Torah, inside and out!

Now when we come to war.  We again find the priest and the judge (though this time he is called a policeman).  The priest gives the spiritual (don’t worry if the enemy looks bigger and tougher, we have haShem on our side and haShem is the one that will take out the enemy).  The policeman then gives the rules:  these are the people who are free to go:  new home owners, new planters of vineyards, newlyweds, etc.  Only after this do we see commanders getting appointed.  This repeats the pattern with the commanders filling the roll of king for the army.

So, what do we see in all this?  We see that when we are in the promised land, when we have reached the goals of who we want to be, we need to judge people in an unbiased way, looking not only at their physical deeds, but also at who they are/where they are at (the spiritual parts of them).  We also need to raise up that part of us that really epitomizes who we are in order to keep ourselves in line and to show the world who we really are.  This is what the parsha is telling us to do, when we attain the rewards of our hard work of improving ourselves.

I bless all of you to be willing to see people for who they are, and to be able to reveal the highest parts of yourself to the world, and that you also live up to those standards of who you now are.

Shavuah tov, have a good week

About the Author

Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.