PARSHAT SHOFTIM – WHO IS JUDGING THE JUDGE?

ב”ה

Parshat Shoftim begins with a command that seems addressed to governments and courts: “Shoftim v’shotrim titein lecha b’chol she’arecha” — “You shall appoint judges and officers in all
your gates.”¹ The Torah then immediately warns: “Lo tateh mishpat, lo takir panim, v’lo tikach shochad” — “Do not distort justice, do not show favoritism, and do not take a bribe.” And it explains why: “Ki hashochad ye’aver einei chachamim” — “Because bribery blinds the eyes of the wise.”¹

There is something remarkable in those words. The Torah does not say that bribery blinds foolish people. It says:

Einei chachamim — the eyes of the wise.

A person can be intelligent, learned, sincere and convinced that he is doing what is right — and nevertheless be blind. That is perhaps one of the deepest lessons of Shoftim.

FROM RE’EH TO SHOFTIM

Last week’s parshah began: Re'eh — See. Open your eyes. See the blessing and the opposite. See what G-d places before you. Then comes Shoftim and seems to add: but be careful, because seeing
is not enough. Even when our eyes are open, what we see can be distorted.

What distorts it? Shochad — bribery.

On the simplest level, shochad means a judge receiving money or a benefit from one of the litigants. The Torah treats this with extraordinary severity: a judge may not accept a bribe even if
he intends to judge correctly. The problem is not merely that a dishonest judge may sell his verdict. The Torah understands human nature more deeply: once I receive something from you,
my relationship with you has changed, and complete objectivity becomes almost impossible.²

The Sages took the appointment of judges just as seriously. The Talmud teaches that whoever appoints an unfit judge — a dayan she’eino hagun — is as if he planted an asherah, an idolatrous
tree, beside the Altar.³ Appointing the wrong person to judge is therefore not a minor administrative mistake. The integrity of society depends upon the integrity of those administering
justice.

Mais shochad has a meaning far beyond the courtroom.

THE BRIBE INSIDE US

Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski brings a powerful teaching from Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler: we are all, in a certain sense, bribed. Not ecessarily with envelopes of money — we are bribed by our own desires. When I strongly want something to be true, I can suddenly find many intelligent arguments explaining why it really is true. When I want to do something, my mind becomes remarkably creative in explaining why it is justified. This is rationalization. And the frightening part is that we often do not experience ourselves as lying. We actually believe our own arguments.⁴

Rabbi Twerski tells the story of the tzaddik of Apt, who was judging a case and suddenly felt he had lost his objectivity. He could not understand why, so he withdrew from the case. Later he
discovered that one of the litigants had secretly placed money in his clothing. He had not even known he had received the bribe — and yet his thinking had already begun to shift. If an external
bribe can influence a person without his knowledge, Rabbi Twerski asks, how much more powerful is the bribe already inside us — the thing we desperately want?⁴

Our shochad can be money. But it can also be ego. Honor. Anger. Jealousy. Friendship. Fear. The desire to win an argument. Or simply the difficulty of saying: “Maybe I was wrong.”

Is there a defense? A chassid once asked Rabbi Yisrael of Ruzhin for a guideline to avoid faulty decisions. The Ruzhiner answered with the image of a tightrope walker: when he feels himself
pulled strongly toward one side, he deliberately leans somewhat toward the other side to regain his balance. So too, when we desperately want something, we should stop and deliberately ask:
what are the reasons not to do it? Not because every desire is wrong, but because once we strongly desire something, we are no longer impartial judges of our own case.⁴

And suddenly we can hear the opening verse of Shoftim on another level. “Shoftim v’shotrim titein lecha” — not only: appoint judges for society. But also:

Put a judge at your own gates.

Before judging somebody else, and before justifying yourself, ask: what is influencing the judge inside me?

JUSTICE IS UNIVERSAL

The judge within still needs a standard beyond himself — and here the message of Shoftim belongs to both Jews and Bnei Noach.

For the Jewish people, Shoftim establishes a detailed Torah system of judges and courts. The Rebbe explains that a Jewish judge has a mission far beyond maintaining civil order. Quoting the
Rambam regarding the supreme Torah court, he describes the Sages as “the interpreters of the Oral Torah,” “the pillars of practical law,” from whom Torah law and justice emanate to all Israel.⁵ Jewish justice is therefore bound to Torah itself.

But the obligation of justice is also universal. One of the Seven Noahide Laws is Dinim — the obligation to establish a system of justice. The Rambam rules that Bnei Noach are commanded to
appoint judges to administer their laws and uphold the other Noahide commandments.⁶ The Rebbe draws the distinction precisely: the special role of Jewish judges includes being entrusted with the wisdom and interpretation of Torah Shebe’al Peh, but the fundamental responsibility to enforce justice is incumbent upon the judges of the other nations as well.⁵

Jews and Bnei Noach have different commandments and different missions, but there is a shared Divine principle: G-d wants a world of justice. A society cannot call itself just simply because it has courts. The courts themselves must be just.

Power cannot determine truth.
Money cannot purchase truth.
Friendship cannot change truth.
And personal interest must not be allowed to redefine truth.

BUT JUSTICE ALSO NEEDS EMPATHY

Now the Rebbe takes us one step deeper. The same parshah discusses the arei miklat, the cities of refuge, and the Rebbe asks: why were judges appointed wherever Jews lived, even outside Eretz Yisrael, while the cities of refuge were established specifically in Eretz Yisrael?⁷

He answers with the teaching of Pirkei Avot: “Al tadin et chaveircha ad shetagia limkomo” — “Do not judge your fellow until you have reached his place.”⁸ A judge cannot sit removed from a person’s reality and assume that he fully understands him. He must know not only what this person did, but what his situation was, what pressures surrounded him, what world he was living in. Judges therefore had to understand the environment of those standing before them — not merely the action, but the circumstances that brought the person to it.⁷

Here we discover a fascinating balance. Shochad teaches: do not become too close — if personal benefit connects you improperly to one side, you lose objectivity. But “do not judge until you reach
his place” teaches: do not remain too far away either — if you cannot understand another person’s world, something essential is missing from your judgment.

A true Torah judge therefore needs two qualities simultaneously: objectivity without coldness, and empathy without bias.

THE MITTELER REBBE

The Rebbe illustrates this with a remarkable story. A person once entered the Mitteler Rebbe, Rabbi DovBer of Lubavitch, and asked for help correcting a particularly degrading wrongdoing. The Mitteler Rebbe interrupted his private audiences for some time. He later explained that before he could truly help another person correct his failing, he needed to discover within himself some
analogous quality — even if it existed on an infinitely more refined level. Only then could he genuinely understand the person standing before him.⁷

This is an extraordinary standard. The Torah does not tell us never to judge — the entire parshah is called Shoftim, Judges! We must distinguish between right and wrong. But before I condemn
another human being, I have to ask: have I reached his place? Can I recognize some trace of his struggle inside myself?

AND THEN COMES ELUL

Shoftim is always read around the beginning of Elul. Just as the city of refuge provided a refuge in space, the Rebbe teaches, Elul provides a refuge in time: a period in which a person can step
away from the patterns of the past, examine himself and dedicate himself to a different future.⁷

Now the entire message comes together. During Elul we all become judges. But whom should we judge first?

Ourselves.

And when judging ourselves, Shoftim gives us two warnings.
First: beware of shochad. Do not allow ego and desire to convince you that everything you do must automatically be right. Have the courage to ask: maybe I am wrong.

Second: do not turn self-judgment into despair. The purpose of the judges, the officers and the cities of refuge is ultimately not revenge but refinement, atonement and return — allowing a
person to regain his closeness to G-d.⁷ So the question of Elul is not “How terrible was I?” The question is: “Where have I been less than I could be — and where do I go from here?”

That message belongs to every human being. For the Jew: to live more deeply according to Torah and mitzvot. For the Ben Noach: to deepen his relationship with G-d through the Seven Noahide
Laws and his mission to help build a moral and G-dly world.

And for all of us:

Before judging the world, appoint a judge within yourself.
Before believing everything you see, ask whether your vision has been bribed.
Before condemning another person, try to reach his place.
And after discovering something that must change, do not remain trapped in yesterday.
Enter the refuge of Elul. Change direction. And move forward.

Then we can fulfill the great command:

“Tzedek, tzedek tirdof.”
“Justice, justice shall you pursue.”⁹

Not only justice in our courts. Justice in our societies. Justice in our relationships. Justice in the way we see others. And perhaps most difficult of all — justice in the way we see ourselves.

Shabbat Shalom.

By Rabbi Avriel Rabenou, MSc. MBA

Sources et notes

1 Devarim 16:18–19. The opening verses of Parshat Shoftim: the mitzvah to appoint shoftim v’shotrim and the prohibitions against distorting justice, showing favoritism and accepting shochad. See also Rashi to Devarim 16:19 regarding the prohibition of accepting a bribe even in order to render a true judgment.
2 Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer, “Bribes, Gifts and Flattery — Laws of Bribery for Judges and Beyond,” Dinonline, September 7, 2016. Detailed discussion of shochad, including monetary and non-monetary benefits, the psychological effect of a bribe and the exceptional stringency with which halachah treats the prohibition.
3 Talmud, Sanhedrin 7b (Reish Lakish): whoever appoints an unfit judge, a dayan she’eino hagun, is as if he planted an asherah in Israel — derived from the juxtaposition of Devarim 16:18 (appointing judges) and 16:21 (the prohibition of planting an asherah beside the Altar). See also Rashi and Ba’al HaTurim to Devarim 16:21. Cited and explained by Rabbi Joshua B. Gordon, Life Lessons from the Parshah: Shoftim —
Blueprint for a Divine Society.
4 Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski, “The Search for Truth,” TorahWeb, Parshat Balak, 2010. Drawing on Rabbi
Eliyahu E. Dessler, Michtav MeEliyahu (“The Perspective of Truth”), Rabbi Twerski develops the idea that personal desires function like an internal bribe, producing rationalization and self-deception. The stories of the tzaddik of Apt and Rabbi Yisrael of Ruzhin appear there. See also Rabbi Twerski’s “Beware Your Mind!,” TorahWeb, Parshat Shoftim, 2010, where the Ruzhiner’s tightrope image is applied directly to Elul
and the daily cheshbon hanefesh.
5 Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, “Shoftim: The Gift of Justice,” based on Likkutei Sichos, Vol. XXIX, pp. 95–99. The Rebbe analyzes the unique function of Jewish judges and quotes Rambam, Hilchot Mamrim, describing the Supreme Beit Din as the interpreters of Torah Shebe’al Peh and pillars of practical halachah. The Rebbe contrasts this unique Torah role with the universal responsibility of the judges of the nations to enforce justice.
6 Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Melachim U’Milchamot 9:14. Regarding the Noahide mitzvah of Dinim and the obligation to establish judges and courts.
7 Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Torah Studies: Shoftim, adapted from the Rebbe’s
talks by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Kehot Publication Society (presented on Chabad.org as “The Judge and the
Refugee”). The Rebbe connects judges, cities of refuge and Elul; explains the need to understand the environment of the person being judged; relates the story of the Mitteler Rebbe; and develops the concept of Elul as a refuge in time.
8 Pirkei Avot 2:4: “Al tadin et chaveircha ad shetagia limkomo” — “Do not judge your fellow until you have reached his place.”
9 Devarim 16:20: “Tzedek, tzedek tirdof” — “Justice, justice shall you pursue.”

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