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Drash
for Shabbat Shoftim In this week’s Torah portion, the community of Israel is poised to enter the Promised Land. God sets forth laws and procedures meant to govern the structure of the society, as well as the nation’s conduct when it is at war. These various and complex laws, covering both the secular and the Judaic, share a single objective: Justice. "Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may thrive and occupy the land that the Eternal your God is giving you." This is the precursor of all of the laws God is about to set out, among them are those that describe a system of criminal justice that bears significant similarity to the underpinnings of our secular constitution. One aspect of this system is the appointment of magistrates, whose responsibility is to govern the people with "due justice. " The magistrates are commanded to judge fairly, show no partiality, and refrain from taking bribes. The value reflected here is the vesting of power in the people. I imagine that the drafters of our United States Constitution, being religious as they were, were mindful of this passage as they considered the importance of impartiality in our criminal justice system. God tells us that once we are in the Promised Land, we are to divide the land into three cities, one of which a "City of Refuge," where someone who unintentionally takes the life of another may seek sanctuary. An alleged premeditated murderer, on the other hand, may not escape there. This person will be brought back for a thorough investigation by the magistrates, where a finding of guilt can be made only upon the testimony of at least two witnesses. The punishment for testifying falsely is the same as the punishment for the underlying offense because, according to God, perverting the truth is equally violent. The pursuit of justice is the beginning of justice. In other words, the process by which justice is pursued is tantamount to justice itself. Once again I am reminded that these values are reflected in the U.S. Constitution, certainly not a coincidence but by design. The framers of our constitution painstakingly considered due process as the central tool necessary to achieve fairness. We all hold up the American justice system as the model for the world to follow. To me it is obvious that our constitution is not the product of mere idealism but, rather, it is directly predicated upon the structure outlined here, in a document nearly 5,500 years its senior. These ideals apply to everyone, at all times. In the Torah, human justice is equated with the pursuit of "tikkun olam," making the world perfect, and so law does not exist for its own sake but as a way of demonstrating devotion to God’s will. The principle applies to any circumstance, whether to your profit or your loss, whether in word or in action, whether to Jew or non-Jew. God’s expectation is that all of us will "do justice" in every situation where we must exercise judgment, or discretion, or compromise. This is not such an unobtainable goal, for when you read the entire passage the overarching message is clear: a just outcome is most likely to follow when in the process we are truthful, responsible, and respectful. These are qualities each of us are capable of embracing in our every day lives. Shabbat Shalom.
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