There are passages in the Torah that are very clear and hardly need to be interpreted in the light of our times. It should be enough to read them over and over again, yearning for them to be grasped and to take a prominent place in collective behavior, especially among those whom we, the citizens, choose or who are chosen to represent us for a period of time.
Shabbat Shoftim always falls right at the beginning of the month of Elul, a period in the Hebrew calendar during which we are called to be fully aware that every day we are writing the book of our lives with our choices, actions, and inactions. This week's Torah portion instructs us to pursue justice, and it doesn’t seem to be speaking only to judges, lawyers, jurists, and prosecutors. It speaks to all of us.
Pursuing justice and actively participating in the preservation of a just society, one governed by judgment and ethical discernment, is everyone's responsibility.
“Tzedek, Tzedek Tirdof, Lemaan Tichye… Justice, Justice, you shall pursue, so that you may live and possess the land that the Lord your God is giving you.”
It seems that the Torah wants to warn us that justice will not come on its own; we must go out, seek it, chase it, and make it present in our lives. And as I have already said, it is not just legal or social justice. There is what we might call historical justice, which could refer to the justice that the people of Israel deserve concerning the Land of Israel as the place in the world of the Jewish People.
Justice for the thousands of families who cannot live their lives in peace, not only in Israel but also in different places around the world, where someone decides they have the right to do what they believe is just, trampling over human lives, entire peoples, and millennia-old histories to impose their own laws.
Justice concerning the lies circulating worldwide in a relentless campaign aimed at convincing those who, instead of informing themselves, are swayed by populist proclamations that seek only to sow hatred by exploiting ignorance.
The most important transgression or crime mentioned in this first section of the Parashah is bribery, as it deprives the justice system of its most important principle: that we are all equal before the law. No one is immune to judgment and punishment, whether it is the prime minister or an ordinary employee.
It is not enough to support justice; we must pursue it, seek it with all that we are, and develop a sense of resistance to chase after it, standing up whenever necessary for its full implementation. Only with equitable justice can we aspire to reach our highest aspirations as individuals, as a society, as a People, and as a Nation.
The pursuit of justice and equity is always a necessary condition for inheriting the land and for life itself. The representatives of the people, if they truly are such, are obligated to act with justice and fairness, safeguarding the equality of rights and the law for every citizen, preserving the separation of powers within the State, to prevent excessive and abusive concentration, confronting autocracy or the covert (or not so covert) intention to establish a fundamentalist regime that limits rights and subverts the principles of the Foundational Covenant.
May this month of Elul, the month of Jeshbon Hanefesh, of soul-searching, inspire us to commit to standing up against injustice, united against lies, and unafraid to be who we are.
May the State of Israel put aside personal agendas and may the spirit of Parshat Shoftim inspire everyone and especially the government representatives seated in the Knesset, to abandon discriminatory, misogynistic, and undemocratic attitudes in order to restore the welfare and equality that the majority of its inhabitants aspire to and that Jews around the world wish to continue viewing with pride.
May this war end as soon as possible with the return of the hostages to their families and homes, and the normalization of life, without attacks, without missiles, without bombs.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Gustavo Geier