Shoftim

Leonie Lewis is Director of the Jewish Volunteering Network; she is also consultant to the Responsibility Unit at the London School for Jewish Studies. She is particularly interested in faith, young people and community development issues, and holds several voluntary positions in the community.

The Sidra of Shoftim deals with the challenges of maintaining law and order necessary for a civilized society and focuses on the inherent values of justice, translated as righteousness - tzedakah. The Sidra describes how local judges and officers were to be appointed in every city, and emphasises how justice was to be administered righteously and impartially - a judge was strictly forbidden to show bias or accept a bribe. The Rambam, Maimonides, sums up the seven qualifications of an authentic judge: wisdom, humility, reverence for God, disdain of gain, love of truth, love for his fellow man and a good reputation.

We learn from Shoftim that performing deeds of justice is perhaps one of the most important obligations that Judaism imposes on the Jew, a view later reinforced in the Talmud which taught that Tzedakah is equal to all the other commandments combined.

The essence in this Sidra is on emphasising justice, an this has subsequently affected Jewish legislation. For example the English word charity comes from the Latin caritas, meaning from the heart, and implying a voluntary act. The word for charity in Hebrew is tzedakah which is simply the feminine form of the Hebrew word for justice, tzedek.

In Jewish law one who does not give charity is not just uncharitable but unjust as well!! So, Jewish courts have no compunctions for compelling people of means to give tzedakah.

Indeed the word tzedek is repeated twice in the Sidra. In verse 20 it says: "Justice – Justice you shall pursue, stressing the importance of even handed justice to all, whether in word or action, whether to a Jew or non-Jew." The pursuit of justice was a necessary requisite if the people of Israel were to live peaceably and flourish in the Land of Israel. Ibn Ezra commented that justice was mentioned twice in order to emphasise its importance. Another of our sages suggests that the word justice is repeated twice to demonstrate that a just verdict benefits all parties. It prevents one from losing what is rightfully his and it prevents the other from the sin of possessing that to which he is not entitled. If you followed this Torah injunction to pursue justice, what would you lose in your life? What would you gain?

There are, in fact, only two Torah commands with the injunction to pursue. "Seek peace and pursue it" and "Justice, justice shall you pursue"; perhaps demonstrating that in any society, peace and justice are never self evident, and our role is their constant pursuit.

What is so central about justice is that we cannot thrive without it. Justice demands that every person, regardless of nationality, ethnicity, religion, righteous or wicked, rich or poor, be treated with fairness. To have a society of peace and justice remains critical today. Rabbi Simeon Ben Gamliel used to say that the world endures by three things, by truth, justice and peace, as it is says in Zachariah (Chapter 8 verse 16), "Execute the judgement of truth & peace in your gates."