רפואה מן התורה
Healing from the Torah
Parashat Shoftim
Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9
By Rabbi Adam Ruditsky
By Rabbi Adam Ruditsky
This week as we walk toward Rosh Hashanah we reflect on the idea of echud (אִחוּד), or reunion. As we journey to the Holidays we are supposed to self-prepare and reevaluate, recognizing that our inner spiritual being is often broken from our outer humanity so we seek refuah, a healing of self, our connection to God and of course our relationships with others. As such, in the Haftorah for this week’s parsha we read, אָנֹכִי אָנֹכִי הוּא, מְנַחֶמְכֶם;
,
“I, even I, am God that comforts you." The Jewish commentator
Ibn Ezra writes of this verse, “It is generally believed that Israel is here
addressed; but I think, that the prophet speaks to his own soul, in a
prophetical spirit; That is, the prophet is addressed by God.” The prophetic words the prophet takes unto
himself that come from God “will be made as
grass,” words that are like “a
consuming fire” according to Ibn Ezra. Along those lines Rabbi Simon Jacobson writes, “A new Divine power enters into your life,
this power is not a mortal one; it is Divine, and it gives you the ability to
experience a deep calm – being at peace with your center.”
The grass that was like “a consuming
fire” is like the Divine that speaks to the inner being, bringing echud. Entering Canaan for Israel asked that they seek echud with their better selves for the sake of their unity in new land, just like the High Holiday season asks us to
listen to and consider what we might what normally not hear.
Our spiritual self is connected to the fourth chakra, called Tiferet, which means splendor and has divine attributes with corresponding emotional attributes in the human soul. That attribute is tied into how we conduct ourselves, which is why in the morning we pray,הרינ מקבל עלי מצות הברא והאבת לרעך כמוך, “I hereby accept upon myself the command of my Creator, love your neighbor as yourself,” speaking to our intent to be and do. Off all the commands that a person is to adhere to it is how to treat others. When looking at this week’s parsha Moses clearly envisioned a community that would hold to certain spiritual foundational truths going into the land that in particular would dictate how they would act toward each other. We see this right form the get go about the judges and officers (שֹׁפְטִים וְשֹׁטְרִים, shoftim v’shotrim), leaders who were to be for the people. This is followed by the words, צֶדֶק צֶדֶק, תִּרְדֹּף (Tezdek, Tezdek, tirdof), “Justice, justice you will follow, that you may live, and inherit the land which the LORD your God gives you.” Outward behavior must seek echud with the inner person, the action of Israel’s leaders were held to a higher standard. While Rashi teaches that these leaders are to reflect “a reliable court” that is made up of “honest judges” who would be for “sufficient merit to keep Israel in life and to settle them in security in their land,” Ibn Ezra seems more concerned about the men themselves. In this case justice is mentioned twice because “whether it be to one’s gain, or to one’s loss,” it’s about how a person relates to justice “time after time” throughout their entire life, it’s about character.
Regarding the King who would be chosen from his own people to rule, it says about him, “write for himself two copies of this Torah (אֶת-מִשְׁנֵה הַתּוֹרָה, lit. a “repeating of Torah”), which is before the priests who are Levites.” Talk about the mixing of church and state, not in America. I guess when you are a Theocracy with one religious belief as opposed to a Democracy with many views you can get away with that! But for Torah, it was about the Kings inner convictions and outer behavior, so we learn from Rashi “that one (scroll) is placed in his (i.e. the King) treasury and the other (scroll) goes out and comes in with him (i.e. a small scroll which he carries everywhere with him).” But this is supposed to be from the start, so when it says in Deuteronomy 17:18, “and when he sits upon his throne,” Ibn Ezra comments by saying that is “at the beginning of his reign.” For Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch this was exactly the case with the king, so by writing his own scrolls from the beginning he proclaimed that he was not above the law, the law being “the unalterable rule of conduct for his life.”
As Israel was about to enter the land Moses wanted to remind them that their future king would need to balance the relationship of freedom and authority, but not a freedom to do what is wished because of some misplaced sense of authority, but an authority to make sure people lived in the freedom from Egypt that was also theirs. In fact, for Moses, the way the people were treated by their leaders, by the King, Prophets, and Priests, had everything to do with their freedom to be and give their very best. When Moses taught in Deuteronomy 18:1, “The Priests, the Levites, even all the tribe of Levi, will have no portion nor inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings of the LORD made by fire …” he must have known the nature of people in general. In the same way that the people were to be led by Priests and Levites of the highest ethical standards the Priests and Levites were dependent on the good will of the people in order to eat. So let’s entertain this question; if the Priests and Levites were not good to the people were the people absolved from needing to bring their sacrifices so those same Priests and Levites could eat? Well no, because their sacrifices were much more than food for their leaders, but it illuminates the human condition that Moses met more than once as he traveled with the wilderness generation, that condition that speaks to the problem of a broken community.
I just cannot see not saying the following although I really seek to avoid being political when I write. Still, as I have watched the current climate of our country I am grieved over the fact that our government repeatedly calls the opposing partly a problem who seeks to undermine our way of life, a real us and them mentality In my view, and I believe this is also based on the values of Torah, the government has the express responsibility to unite (echud) the people despite our diversity instead of having the intent to conquer. I am not going to comment on this policy or that one, you decide that for yourself, but our leaders have failed to unite our diversity regardless of big or small differences, and that is not good for any of us. But that also does not give us as people license to sacrifice our better-selves either on the altar of anger or revenge. It is important that we symbolically each carry two Torah scrolls, one that we keep at home (hearts and minds) and the other that we take on the road each day to guide us. Echud is an ongoing and purposely sought after reunion of body and spirit that is part of our ascent toward Rosh Hashanah, even more so as we enter the month of Elul.
Our spiritual self is connected to the fourth chakra, called Tiferet, which means splendor and has divine attributes with corresponding emotional attributes in the human soul. That attribute is tied into how we conduct ourselves, which is why in the morning we pray,הרינ מקבל עלי מצות הברא והאבת לרעך כמוך, “I hereby accept upon myself the command of my Creator, love your neighbor as yourself,” speaking to our intent to be and do. Off all the commands that a person is to adhere to it is how to treat others. When looking at this week’s parsha Moses clearly envisioned a community that would hold to certain spiritual foundational truths going into the land that in particular would dictate how they would act toward each other. We see this right form the get go about the judges and officers (שֹׁפְטִים וְשֹׁטְרִים, shoftim v’shotrim), leaders who were to be for the people. This is followed by the words, צֶדֶק צֶדֶק, תִּרְדֹּף (Tezdek, Tezdek, tirdof), “Justice, justice you will follow, that you may live, and inherit the land which the LORD your God gives you.” Outward behavior must seek echud with the inner person, the action of Israel’s leaders were held to a higher standard. While Rashi teaches that these leaders are to reflect “a reliable court” that is made up of “honest judges” who would be for “sufficient merit to keep Israel in life and to settle them in security in their land,” Ibn Ezra seems more concerned about the men themselves. In this case justice is mentioned twice because “whether it be to one’s gain, or to one’s loss,” it’s about how a person relates to justice “time after time” throughout their entire life, it’s about character.
Regarding the King who would be chosen from his own people to rule, it says about him, “write for himself two copies of this Torah (אֶת-מִשְׁנֵה הַתּוֹרָה, lit. a “repeating of Torah”), which is before the priests who are Levites.” Talk about the mixing of church and state, not in America. I guess when you are a Theocracy with one religious belief as opposed to a Democracy with many views you can get away with that! But for Torah, it was about the Kings inner convictions and outer behavior, so we learn from Rashi “that one (scroll) is placed in his (i.e. the King) treasury and the other (scroll) goes out and comes in with him (i.e. a small scroll which he carries everywhere with him).” But this is supposed to be from the start, so when it says in Deuteronomy 17:18, “and when he sits upon his throne,” Ibn Ezra comments by saying that is “at the beginning of his reign.” For Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch this was exactly the case with the king, so by writing his own scrolls from the beginning he proclaimed that he was not above the law, the law being “the unalterable rule of conduct for his life.”
As Israel was about to enter the land Moses wanted to remind them that their future king would need to balance the relationship of freedom and authority, but not a freedom to do what is wished because of some misplaced sense of authority, but an authority to make sure people lived in the freedom from Egypt that was also theirs. In fact, for Moses, the way the people were treated by their leaders, by the King, Prophets, and Priests, had everything to do with their freedom to be and give their very best. When Moses taught in Deuteronomy 18:1, “The Priests, the Levites, even all the tribe of Levi, will have no portion nor inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings of the LORD made by fire …” he must have known the nature of people in general. In the same way that the people were to be led by Priests and Levites of the highest ethical standards the Priests and Levites were dependent on the good will of the people in order to eat. So let’s entertain this question; if the Priests and Levites were not good to the people were the people absolved from needing to bring their sacrifices so those same Priests and Levites could eat? Well no, because their sacrifices were much more than food for their leaders, but it illuminates the human condition that Moses met more than once as he traveled with the wilderness generation, that condition that speaks to the problem of a broken community.
I just cannot see not saying the following although I really seek to avoid being political when I write. Still, as I have watched the current climate of our country I am grieved over the fact that our government repeatedly calls the opposing partly a problem who seeks to undermine our way of life, a real us and them mentality In my view, and I believe this is also based on the values of Torah, the government has the express responsibility to unite (echud) the people despite our diversity instead of having the intent to conquer. I am not going to comment on this policy or that one, you decide that for yourself, but our leaders have failed to unite our diversity regardless of big or small differences, and that is not good for any of us. But that also does not give us as people license to sacrifice our better-selves either on the altar of anger or revenge. It is important that we symbolically each carry two Torah scrolls, one that we keep at home (hearts and minds) and the other that we take on the road each day to guide us. Echud is an ongoing and purposely sought after reunion of body and spirit that is part of our ascent toward Rosh Hashanah, even more so as we enter the month of Elul.
Shabbat Shalom
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