“See – I have placed before you today life and good, and death and evil…and you will choose life so you will live.” Deut 30:15,19 Even if you made bad choices yesterday, you still get to choose life TODAY. http://torah.org/learning/kolhakollel/5765/netzavim.html

The above is the most recent in a series of brief daily messages I have published to Facebook and Twitter, in a modest effort to use the newest communications media to inspire. If the project works well through Yom Kippur, I might just keep it up throughout the year. Please don’t “join” either service for the sake of these messages, but for those that do, please ‘friend’ or ‘follow’ me as appropriate:

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Good Shabbos!
Rabbi Yaakov Menken
Director, Project Genesis – Torah.org

In this week’s Torah reading, Parshas Shoftim in Deuteronomy, Israel is commanded to have judges and officers, those who maintain both justice and order. A judge in particular is required to be entirely unbiased, and not to accept ‘Shochad’, usually translated as bribery.

The Torah warns us that “bribery blinds the eyes of the wise, and perverts the words of the righteous.” [Deut. 16:19] G-d is not talking about a corrupt person here, He is talking about the “wise” and the “righteous”!

The Talmud tells us that the ‘bribery’ discussed also goes well beyond passing money to the judge and back-room deals. In one case discussed in the Talmud, two litigants are sent to a noted sage for arbitration. One of them recognizes the judge and asks, “didn’t you stay in my hotel?”

The Rabbi answered, “yes I did, and now I can’t judge your case!”

Having previously conducted a commercial transaction, with no ulterior motive or quid pro quo, isn’t something we would understand as ‘bribery’ at all. But the scholarly Rabbi correctly understood that even this was enough to create a small connection, and perhaps was enough to intimidate the other party.

Like most other Orthodox Jews, I am troubled by the judge’s actions in the trial of Shalom Rubashkin. There are all sorts of things that can be said to justify her behavior, or chalk it up to a judge with a long history of apparent favoritism towards the prosecution. But having been so intensely involved with the planning of the immigration raid upon the Postville plant — which, in the end, had no direct relationship to the misreporting of which Rubashkin was guilty — certainly gives the appearance of a previous connection to the prosecution and bias against the defendant. The fact that she failed to disclose this, and it only came to light after suing the government to provide information about the raid, is entirely inexcusable and unseemly. Our Sages knew well that no matter what decision might be arrived at in a truly unbiased fashion, justice must not merely be done cleanly — it has to look and smell clean as well.

“You are children of G-d, your Master. You should not cut yourselves nor make a baldness between your eyes for the dead” (Deut. 14:1, Portion of Re’eh). No doubt that knowing we are children of G-d, that we can relate to Him as a child relates to a father, is fundamental to our service of G-d. What’s odd is that G-d informs us of this intimate relationship as part of His lesson about excessive mourning for the deceased. What’s the message there?

When faced with a tragic loss, especially of someone or something that we had grown to depend on, it’s natural to think “What’s going to be? How will life go on?” There’s a loss of security, a deep sense of loneliness. G-d says, “You are my children. I am your Father. The one who is closest to you is still here and He’s not going anywhere.” What a comforting thought! But it doesn’t end there. If you really think about what this means you can live life as a different person. Life with the All Powerful at your side, with you through EVERY challenge, is a life infused with the strength of the Divine; where there are no limits (Based on Nesivos Shalom & Seforno Deut 14:1)

Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Mordechai Dixler
Program Director, Project Genesis/Torah.org