Listen to this morning's class, "Torah of Heaven in this World," here.
Follow along with the sources here.
For further learning:
1) Listen to "R. Yosef Karo & The Ways of Halakhah" here.
2) Listen to "Can Dreams Determine Halakhah?" here.
Showing posts with label Shofetim. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shofetim. Show all posts
Sunday, September 4, 2022
Sunday, August 23, 2020
Parashat Shofetim: Walking
Walking
Thoughts on Parashat Shofetim 2020
Click here to view as PDF
Over the course of
the several years which I spent living in Israel, I developed a passion for two
activities: learning and walking. In the two years following high school and
two more after marriage, I spent the vast majority of my time poring over the
many biblical and rabbinic texts of our tradition. During the “in between”
time, however, I would take walks. Sometimes I had a destination in mind – the
thirty-minute route from home to yeshiva and back, for example. But oftentimes
I didn’t. Walking was my way of “airing out.” It was my brief respite from the
walls of the bet midrash; my engagement with the sacred air of Jerusalem.
The Torah hints at
a particular significance to walking in many different contexts.
In Parashat
Shofetim, Moshe mentions the Cohen’s future words of inspiration to the
people before leaving for war:
“Hear,
Yisrael, you are approaching the battle today against your enemies…Do not fear
and do not quake…For Hashem your God, is the One who walks with you, to
fight for you with your enemies, to save you. (Devarim 20:4)
He will tell the
soldiers that God’s security will extend beyond “being present with you” to
“walking with you.” Indeed, the first discernable involvement of God with the
world took place after Adam and Hava ate from the Ess HaDa’at: “And they
heard the sound of Hashem the God walking about in the garden in the
evening breeze” (Bereshit 3:8).
Am Yisrael was likewise instructed to
follow in God’s ways by means of a figurative “walking.” It is a verb repeated
in Sefer Devarim in many contexts, most famously in “After Hashem your
God you shall walk” (Devarim 13:5) and “God will set you up for Him as a
holy people…when you keep the command of Hashem your God and walk in His
ways” (Devarim 28:9). By doing so, the nation will follow in the ways of
Noah, who “walked with God” (Bereshit 6:9) and Avraham, who was instructed to
“Walk in my presence and be blameless” (Bereshit 17:1).
“Walking,” then,
describes God’s presence with us in this world, which we are instructed to
follow. It is, in fact, the central aspect of the covenant which God presented
to us: “If you walk to my laws…I will walk in your midst”
(VaYikra 26:3, 12). And it is no wonder, then, that we refer to the expansive
realm of Jewish law as that of “walking,” or halakhah!
But why walking? If
the underlying concept in these various situations is the state of “presence”
or “action” of us with God or God with us, then the Torah could have used words
that more clearly portray that meaning. Why is “walking” the chosen verb for
the ideal way in which Am Yisrael and God share together in a
relationship?
Reflecting back upon
the unique intersection of walking with the years of significant growth in my
life, I sense a certain appropriateness. As we set out on a walk, we enter into
a realm of transition. It’s the stage of “in between” – which comes after the
place of beginning and before that of ending. “I love to travel, but hate to
arrive,” Albert Einstein once said, in appreciation of this realm.[1]
Friedrich Nietzche likewise reveled in his feeling as a “wanderer on the earth
– though not as a traveler to a final destination.”[2]
Walking represents not a place of “being,” but one of “becoming.” It is the
time which is underlain by possibility and rich in opportunity.
We could never imagine describing God as a being who is “set in stone.” Though his perfection is unmovable, His engagement with the world is constantly developing. Much as Adam and Hava heard the vibrancy of His “footsteps” long ago, so too did our forefathers on the battlegrounds of war. And so too must we, in the relationship we will develop with Him over the course of our lives. But that relationship, of course, is reciprocal. Sitting back and awaiting His presence is futile. We can only hear His footsteps of involvement along the trails of a walk. We will only recognize God as our source of developing life when we set out to develop our life.
Tuesday, August 14, 2018
Parashat Shofetim: Be Clear!
Be Clear!
A Message for Parashat Shofetim 2016
Click here to view as PDF
לֹא תַטֶּה מִשְׁפָּט לֹא תַכִּיר
פָּנִים וְלֹא תִקַּח שֹׁחַד כִּי הַשֹּׁחַד יְעַוֵּר עֵינֵי
חֲכָמִים וִיסַלֵּף דִּבְרֵי צַדִּיקִם.
You shall not skew
judgment. You shall recognize no face and no bribe shall you take, for a bribe
blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the innocent. (Devarim 16:19)
וְאַתָּה תְּבַעֵר הַדָּם הַנָּקִי מִקִּרְבֶּךָ כִּי תַעֲשֶׂה הַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינֵי ה'.
…You shall root out
the innocent blood from your midst, for you shall do what is straight in God’s
eyes. (Devarim 21:9)
Parashat
Shofetim is
bookended by the theme of “straightness.” It begins with the warnings of skewed
judgment and concludes with the hope that all will “do what is straight in
God’s eyes.” In the interim statements of Moshe, he warned twice not to “swerve
right or left,” which effectively established “straightness” as a dominant
theme of the parashah.
It is easy
to describe the concept of an unbending direction in the context of actual
locations or coordinates. I can demonstrate the definition by walking in a
direct line from one end of the room to the other or by using a ruler to draw a
line from one point to another. Defining straightness of character, however, is
difficult. Although we may intuit the “straight” approach in any given
situation, the Torah’s demand of a systematic implementation of “straightness”
runs the risks of vagueness and ambiguity.
It is in
light of this particular difficulty that we may appreciate the deliberate
context of each mention of “straightness” in Parashat Shofetim.
The
unswerving justice demanded of the judges at the onset of the parashah takes
form through the practical injunction against accepting bribes. Moshe perhaps
anticipated confusion surrounding his ambiguous demand of “you shall not skew
judgment,” and immediately followed it with a clear path to
implementation.
The judges
thus received practical and concrete directions for the task of “straightness.”
But what about the nation? What is their practical approach to keeping straight
on their march through life? “According to the teaching that they instruct you
and according to the judgment that they say to you, you shall do, you shall not
swerve from the word that they tell you right or left” (17:12). Describing the
future court and law systems, Moshe instructed the nation to listen to the
rulings of the judges. By cautioning against “swerving right or left” from
their rulings, Moshe was perhaps hinting that therein lay the practical
directive to “being straight.”
Advising
the nation to heed the words of its judges and leaders assumes that the
guidance of those individuals will represent matters that are “straight in
God’s eyes.” How, though, can we rule out the possibility of corruption in the
leadership? Prefacing the demand that the king not “swerve from what he is
commanded right or left” (17:20), Moshe provided specific instructions: “Only
let him not get himself many horses…And let him not get himself many wives,
that his heart not swerve, and let him not get himself too much silver and
gold…He shall write for himself a copy of this teaching in a book…And it shall
be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life…” (17:16-19).
Moshe thus marked the path to straight leadership with precise guidelines and
instructions.
Moshe did
not just demand “straightness.” He purposefully and consistently gave clear and
concrete instructions for its implementation.
We spend
the months and days surrounding the Yamim Noraim in intense
self-introspection. The unfortunate tendency of many during this period,
however, is to commit to vague acceptances of “changing their ways” or “doing
what is right.” Repentance that is pronounced by undefined terms such as these
runs the acute risk of losing a well-intentioned change to confusion and
misunderstanding.
Ha-Rambam
therefore mandated that one clearly articulate and utter his every particular
wrongdoing through verbal confession (Hil. Teshuvah 1:1). He further avoided
the prescription of mere “thoughts of repentance” during the days interlaying
Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, and instead described the customary acts “to give
profusely to charity, perform many good deeds, and be occupied with missvot…to
a greater extent than during the remainder of the year” (Hil. Teshuvah 3:4).
Concrete perceptions and deeds are necessary for an enduring repentance.
Moshe’s message in Parashat Shofetim
must guide us on our path to repentance. It must caution us from the
generalities, vagueness and ambiguities associated with character refinement
and lead us instead toward real and specific thoughts and actions.
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