Be Judgeable! ‘Put judges and police in all your cities to ensure fair judgement!’ This directive is addressed to us, not the government. We too are responsible for ensuring justice. How!? The Netziv explains that city leaders must oversee the courts to be sure they are doing their job impartially. Judges need to scrutinized too!!!! [This is a fantastic concept!! Oh, that it were done!!] (By who? With what system and authority? Probably by the representative of the people, and where is the mandate for this? Right here, in this pasuk.) We explained it a bit differently. Often litigants in Beis Din circumvent and do not fulfill the court decision when it’s to their detriment. Scandalous, yes, but common enough. The result is that Beis Din becomes reluctant to even issue a decisive p’sak, because they will have merely made enemies, yet without achieving justice. For example, a friend took a debtor of his to Bes Din. The man freely admitted he owed the money, but claimed to be too poor to pay. My friend requested that Beis Din decide what the debtor was required to do under the circumstances – curtail his spending, perhaps sell his house, maybe take other steps. Beis Din flatly refused. Why? They felt they would not be listened to in any case. Why make enemies? Our mandate here is to empower Beis Din. How? By submitting to their verdict! |
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Hands Clean? Beis Din wash their hands on the Eglah Arufa proclaiming “Our hands have not spilled this blood” (Beis Din are referring to themselves here, and not representing the people; on the contrary, it is assumed that the real murderer does live in town, and his hands are dirty – filthy red.) Beis Din are mandated to provide for wayfarers, and proclaim publicly that they indeed fulfilled their duties to this victim. Indeed, perhaps the very thought that they may one day need to proclaim that they have done their job, may spur Beis Din to truly care for the wayfarers! This is important musser for us: Why does the Torah consider the elders responsible if they sent off a traveler without supplies? Because they had the power to help, and did not. Not helping means carrying the guilt of the crime, being an accessory to manslaughter. When we see a situation that we can help out with, we need to do so. If not, our hands hold guilt… |
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Scott Free We send certain soldiers away from the battlefront; he who built a house but did not yet live there, he who planted a vineyard but did not eat from it, and he who betrothed a woman but did not yet take her. Why? Rashi explains that it would be a source of angst if they die in war. So instead we send the guy with four kids depending on him?! That’s okay?! Why do these people get special consideration? War hurts, bringing loss and pain. That’s given. We want to make sure that it does not cause trauma as well. Some things not only hurt, but also tug at hearts. I know of things not all that indescribably sad, yet they pain, and constrict my heart, each time I think of them. Things of many years ago, and yet my heart still squeezes. Most pathetic is missed potential or opportunity. This hurts deepest. The four yesomim will be taken care of; money will be raised and tutors hired, and the widow will yet remarry. But let people not be traumatized with the pathos of a bridegroom, never given a chance… |
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Infallibility Of The Sages The Torah makes a big issue of the errant sage who defies the supreme Beis Din. He is executed, and we gather the entire nation to gather round to take note. Is it because we worry that other sages will follow suit and defy Beis Din too? The Ran explains that we are not concerned about other sages. We are concerned about Joe Average, that he understand the supremacy of the sages. People naturally hate authority. What is as liberating as “I am beholden to no man!”? Human nature is to try doing one’s own thing, not to bow to Chazal. We need to watch out for this tendency. We do not believe in the infallibility of Bet Din. They too err. They try hard, and are wiser than some of us, and are also careful to use a broad consensus of seventy two sages. Yet for all that, they are only human. Perhaps we may recognize a specific case they have erred in. Could happen. Hashem instructs us to listen, even when we think they are wrong; when they tell us that right is left. Because it’s far more profitable to follow sages, who make an occasional mistake, than follow our own opinions and err – left, right, and center. (Sefer HaChinuch) The Chinuch expands this mitzvah, (which technically relates specifically to the Beis Din HaGodol, the Beis Din in the Beis Hamikdash who were ultimate arbitrators of Jewish law,) to Torah leaders of our day. Today too, we hear voices criticizing Rabbinical decisions, especially in public policy. However, mature people realize that someone’s gotta lead. Anarchy is aimless. And that our leaders ought to be guided by Torah. Our Gedolim are not infallible, but are the best leaders we have. Hashem would rather we follow these leaders, although they occasionally err, than we do our own thing, and err more than occasionally… |
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Your Tree Feelings Rashi explains that we may not cut down the trees around the city we lay siege to because “Is this tree a person who can hide in his walled city, enduring hunger and thirst from fear of you; why cut him down?” Is the suffering of the besieged relevant here? Why bring it in? Chizkuni; Rashi’s point is; Why torture the poor tree with hunger and thirst by cutting it down?! Don’t you feel for it?! Fascinating! Here is reference to a relationship between man and tree, and trees who suffer pain, and man’s responsibility to living flora!! |
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Partners In Crime A murderer needs an ecosystem. He needs a wife to return to at night, accomplices that help him commit the act, and help cover his tracks, people to advise him, schools to accept his kids which will also not teach them to hate him, and so on. A murderer does not does develop, nor operate, in a vacuum. Perhaps this is meant with the last words in the parsha: “and you will rid the [crime of] innocent blood when you do what is upright in Hashem’s eyes” If we will be truly upright in all parts of our lives, murderers could not exist among us. They would find no place or sympathy, no kindred spirit, nor hideout. The same idea is probably true of most crime, whether private or government; we tolerate and collude with it, and this allows for it. Would we be completely upright, sin would melt away… Perhaps next time someone is caught with a crime, let us take a look inwards – how can I discourage this behavior in those around me? |
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Receiving The Trust The Torah teaches us that after Hashem destroys the nations that we come to inherit, and we settle into their lands and houses, we are to set aside three cities for refuge, where someone who kills by accident can find safety. Why is this mitzvah dependent on our settling down into the houses of the nations we come to inherit? What indeed is the concept of inheritance? Is it merely a cover for saying that Israel was predestined to the Jewish Nation, and they will live there, or is it more? Perhaps the concept of inheritance is where the land s being given over, as it were, from one watch to another. The second watch does not merely move into the land and dwell there, but rather takes over the position of the first one, even living in the former’s house. When we inherit the land, that means to become its carer and tender. Then, and only then, are we required to separate the three cities of refuge. For the cities of refuge are more than just care for accidental killers. Rather, as the Torah states “and innocent blood shall not be shed in the Land Hashem has given to you as an inheritance, and blood shall be a stain upon you”. This confers responsibility for bloodshed not happening in the land, a responsibility for the Land itself – as the Pasuk says “for blood perverts the Land” (Bamidbar 35:33). When we turn keepers, we are tasked with the Land’s upkeep. And we need to know that we are keepers in this Land…. |