Drash on Parashat Shoftim 2024

Cantor Michel Laloum

Temple Beth Israel

“Tsedek, Tsedek tirdoff” – “Justice, justice shall you pursue” (Deuteronomy 16:11)

This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Shoftim – literally “judges” opens with the requirement to “appoint judges and officials . . . to govern the people with due justice. You shall not judge unfairly” (Deut 18:18).

Throughout Jewish writings and history, justice is seen as an eternal religious obligation, central to Jewish identity and practice. The Talmud, Midrash and Jewish literature, extend this throughout history:

• Proverbs 21:3 which emphasises that “To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to God than sacrifice”.
• Psalm 82:3 Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute,”.
• Isaiah 1:17 “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, and please the widow’s cause,” (Isaiah 1:17)

The late American Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg famously framed a copy of Deuteronomy 16:11 “Tsedek, Tsedek tirdoff” – “Justice, justice shall you pursue” and displayed it in her office.

Jewish tradition is that there is no such thing as unnecessary repetition, and that the word ‘justice’ is intentionally repeated to teach us that the pursuit of justice is not only the responsibility of our judges, but also of each and every one of us.

Justice must be administered equally to the rich as to the poor, without favouritism or corruption. Crimes must be meticulously investigated and evidence thoroughly examined, with a minimum of two credible witnesses being required for conviction and punishment.

Miscarriages of justice, the corruption of judges or the justice system, and the distorted use or abuse of the justice system are anathema to Jewish law and tradition.  The Torah is clear that the pursuit of justice cannot be agenda driven, yet the need to articulate this thousands of years ago, reflects that justice was all too often distorted throughout history.

Which brings us to today, when the Israel that we have known is troubled and political machinations are undermining the rule of law and tenets of equal justice. Parashat Shoftim states clearly the rules of war: the destruction of food trees in captured cities is forbidden – it is permissible to eat of them but not cut them down.  Yet radical settler groups go into Arab villages and olive groves and deliberately destroy olive groves, agriculture and terrorise the inhabitants.

As I write, the government is again seeking to challenge the independence and powers of the Supreme Court, despite the opposition a huge portion of the population, who protested and continue to protest their democratic institutions being undermined.

With the Supreme Court being politicised, is it any surprise when the International Criminal Court is weaponised? When it is used to cast Israel and Hamas in the same tainted light?  It is not that Israel should not be held to high standards in how it is conducting this war but that the same standards are not applied to other countries, including some of Israel’s close allies, in the prosecution of war.

With the terrible discovery and recovery of six deceased hostages – Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Ori Danino – in a tunnel under the city of Rafah this week, the urgency of the need for a hostage deal is again pushed to the headlines.

These young people are reported to have been murdered by their captors shortly before the IDF found them – information that likely compounds the grief of their families, knowing how long they have suffered in captivity, only to be murdered now.

In the Shulkhan Arukh, Rabbi Yosef Karo, stated unequivocally: “Every moment that one delays in ransoming Jewish captives… is equivalent to spilling blood” (Yoreh Day’ah, 252: 3).

While Jewish law is clear on the obligation to redeem hostages, there is much nuance in what this means throughout the various commentaries and Torah.  The Torah focuses on the redemption through military means but medieval Jewish law commentators talked of ransoming them.  The commentaries even go so far as to establish a hierarchy of captives, with a greater emphasis on freeing female captives first, due to the additional threat of sexual violence.

While all are in agreement that hostages must be rescued, as far back as the 13th Century, there was concern over the ‘price’.  Maharam of Rothenburg in Germany was kidnapped for ransom but refused to allow his community to pay the exorbitant ransom demanded because it would incentivise them to take more hostages.

And so, Israel is faced with an impossible calculation: balancing the lives of 107 hostages and the future generations that would be lost if these hostages are killed, against the future possibility that:

1. Such exchanges encourage further hostage taking, and
2. Many of the 1,027 security prisoners exchanged for Gilad Shalit have played key roles in the Oct 7th attack – up to and including Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

And while these calculations continue to be made while negotiations proceed with a reluctant Hamas we are left to wonder:  Where is the justice in any of this?

Where is the justice for the murdered from Oct 7th, or for the

hostages?
Where is the justice for Jewish students who are harassed and made to feel ‘other’ at universities in our cities where we were fortunate enough to be free to be openly Jewish without fear?

Where is the justice for Jewish businesses being vandalised and boycotted for no reason other than they are run by Jews?

Where is the justice for Palestinians whose safety and homes are targeted by zealots who do not fear repercussions?

And while the world’s attention is focused on Israel – where is the justice for the innocents in Ukraine or even for the Russians being conscripted into a war they did not seek?

We may not be able to finish the work, but we must pursue it – justice has meaning only when it is applied equally, blindly and consistently for everyone.

We pray for the hostages. We pray that negotiations will be undertaken in earnest to bring them home and to bring peace to their families.