Torah Emet
6-5770 Mitzvah N-64
December 27, 2009
Negative Mitzvah 64 – This is a negative commandment: Do not appoint a judge who is unsuitable.
Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “You shall not respect persons in judgment.” (Deut. 1:17). And it was explained in the Midrash Sifre that this is addressed to the man assigned to appoint judges, that he should not respect persons: He should not say, “So and So is strong” or handsome, or wise in other fields of knowledge or other areas of excellence, which are not related to the Torah and the reverent fear of Heaven (God). For a judge needs to be wise in the Torah, reverent toward Heaven, with a hatred of bribery, who subdues his evil impulse; and he should have a strong fearless heart to rescue an exploited or victimized person from the one who oppresses him. These are the noble qualities that a judge needs to have. If, however, someone appoints judges on account of other qualities, he violates this prohibition. It is in force everywhere, at every time.
The plain meaning of the verse from Deuteronomy teaches that when litigants come before a judge in court, he should not administer justice based on the different statuses of the litigants. A judge should not say, “This man is a well respected man in town, he must be right in this case, how could I even think to rule against him?” nor should a judge think, “This man is poor and the other is rich; the rich man will not miss the money and the poor man needs it so I will rule against the rich man to aid the poor one.” In both cases the judge has not acted correctly and would be basing the judicial decision on the circumstances of the litigants and not the facts of the case. Rich or poor, one must not favor one side over the other in court.
The Hafetz Hayim, however, basing his interpretation on the Sifre, sees this Mitzvah in a very different circumstance. The Sifre is a collection of Midrashim, sermons and other extra-legal stories that expand or limit the context of the verses in the Torah. The Sifre is part of the “Midrash Halacha” one of the earliest collections of interpretations of the Torah. [The parts of Midrash Halacha are: The Mechilta (on Exodus), the Sifra (on Leviticus), and the Sifre (on Numbers and Deuteronomy). It does not include Genesis because there are very few Halachot, or laws based on the verses of Genesis.] According to the Sifre, our verse in the Torah from Deuteronomy does not refer to the actions of judges but to the one who is appointing judges.
In ancient times, judges were appointed by the ruling party and were supposed to follow the demands of those who appointed them. In many cases rich men (never women) would pay to be appointed to these posts which came with easy salaries and one could “take care” of friends and punish enemies. As long as you paid your patron and did not anger him, you could be appointed for life and everyone would have to honor you or face your wrath. Another point in the ancient judicial world was that, for pagans, justice depended on the god who was behind the judge. Since the many gods often fought with each other, human justice could also reflect this disagreement and a final decision could depend on which god the judge saw as the “patron” of his court.
Justice in Judaism was a very different process. The fact that there is only one God means that there is only one law, for all the people. That law is based on the single text from that God and the judges are only responsible for upholding the law. Moses, who appointed the first judges, was looking for men who were upright and honest. Jewish literature is filled with judges who were not afraid to judge a king or a powerful man in the community. They believed that God stood behind them in justice and if someone were to subvert their rulings, then God would punish those who would defy God’s judge.
In this tension, between the Jewish version of justice and the pagan view of justice, is the core of our Mitzvah. There could be all kinds of reasons someone would want to appoint a person to be a communal judge. The Sifre tells us that there is really only one correct reason, that the person is wise in the law, hates bigotry, too honest to accept a bribe and with a pious reverence for God and Judaism. It is hard enough to weigh justice and mercy when ruling in court. To be distracted by other extraneous ideas and indebted to other people just can not be tolerated. To bring any other qualification to the table when appointing judges would be an affront to God and a violation of this Mitzvah.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
5-5770 Mitzvah N-63
Torah Emet
5-5770 Mitzvah N-63
Negative Mitzvah 63 – This is a negative commandment: Do not curse a judge.
Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “You shall not revile God.” (Exodus 22:27). (This is interpreted to mean judges.) If someone curses a judge by the Divine name or by a substitute name of God, he should receive whiplashes twice (over this prohibition) and over the prohibition not to curse a fellow Jew (Mitzvah N-45).
This verse of the Bible is also an admonition not to blaspheme Hashem. If someone blasphemed Hashem by a substitute Divine name, he would transgress a prohibition. If someone blasphemed Hashem by the Divine name itself, his punishment is stated explicitly: “And he who blasphemes the name of Hashem shall surely be put to death; the entire community shall stone him” (Lev. 24:16). This is the case if one blasphemes even if he retracts in the time it takes to say a few words. At the present time, however, when we do not judge capital cases, he is excommunicated and we keep our distance from him. It is in force everywhere, at every time for both men and women.
In Mitzvah N-45 the law noted that it is forbidden to use God’s name to curse other people. Here we raise the stakes another notch. If cursing a fellow Jew is bad, how much more sinful can it be to curse a judge. Now the curse is not directed only to an individual, but to the institution in which the judge operates. This curse is directed to the whole structure in which justice is provided in the community.
We can see why a person might want to curse a judge. After all, if a ruling does not go the way we would like it to go, we might get angry, not at ourselves for errors we may have committed, but blaming the judge for not understanding our case well enough to rule the way we wanted him or her to rule. Being a judge does not imply that you will win any popularity contests, rather, more often than not, both sides will be unhappy with your rulings and say nasty things about you and the whole legal system.
Anger is one thing, cursing is another. Words have power, and if we are not careful, our words could be twisted by someone else and much harm can befall the judge or other judges who get swept up in our curse. Getting mad and saying things you might regret is bad, but it is criminal if our words go on to bring harm, through our actions or through the actions of one who hears our curse. King David says a few ill chosen words against King Saul’s heir Ishboshet, and a well meaning soldier takes that to mean the young man should be assassinated. We have to watch our words.
The Torah equates judges with God. One of the words used, “elohim”, could refer to either God or judges. If our verse from Exodus is taken in a literal way, it refers to cursing God, which would be a capital offence.
The issue of substitute names of God was raised in Mitzvah N-45. It refers to any name that is usually associated with God. It can be a distinctly Jewish name for God or a common name for God used by non-Jews. Using a substitute name is punished by whiplashes, but using one of the direct names of God makes one liable for death by stoning.
The Hafetz Hayim understands that Jewish courts do not impose the death penalty anymore. The Rabbis made a series of rulings that make it difficult, if not impossible, to get a conviction in a capital case. He rules, therefore, that while we do not put the one who blasphemes God to death, we do remove him from our community. The blasphemer’s attitude to God can not exist in a community of faith. It is not so much that we wish to censer his words; rather, he undermines the very heart of what the community believes in and can no longer be allowed to spread his blasphemy to others. He must be avoided by all who are faithful to God.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
4-5770 Mitzvah 62
Torah Emet
4-5770 Mitzvah 62
Negative Mitzvah 62 – This is a negative commandment: Do not harden your heart and do not shut your hand toward a poor Jew.
Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your needy brother.” (Deut. 15:7). [http://toratemetlessons.blogspot.com/2006/12/09-5767-mitzvah-38.html]. It is in force everywhere, at every time for both men and women.
In the positive Mitzvah, the Hafetz Hayim writes at length about the many different ways the Torah tells us that we need to be responsible for the poor in our community. He tell us there (you can look it up in the Archives on
There are many reasons that we might fail in our obligation to the poor. We might think that the person is not really poor; we think he is guilty of trying to make his money by scamming those of us who take our Tzedakah seriously. Perhaps we have already given many times in recent days. Maybe we had a bad month and we are worried about our family income. Maybe we are not feeling very generous this week. As far as this commandment is concerned, there is no excuse for closing our hand to those who are in need. It is not just a positive commandment; there is also a negative commandment that tells us that we have sinned if we close our hand to the poor.
The Mitzvah only mentions poor Jews and we do have an obligation to Jews who are in need before those who are not Jewish. We can fulfill this part of the Mitzvah through our contributions to the Jewish Federation. Still, we should support all the poor in our community if, for no other reason, for the sake of peace. We can fulfill this part of the Mitzvah through our contributions to the
Sunday, December 6, 2009
3-5770 Mitzvah 61
Torah Emet
3-5770 Mitzvah 61
Negative Mitzvah 61 – This is a negative commandment: Do not withhold from its owner an object taken in pledge, at the time that he needs it.
Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “you shall not sleep with his pledge.” (Deut. 24:12). Which means: do not go to sleep while his pledged object is with you (see positive commandment #63) http://toratemetlessons.blogspot.com/2007/06/29-5767-mitzvah-63.html . It is in force everywhere, at every time for both men and women.
The above link has my comments on the positive side of this Mitzvah. It is a positive Mitzvah to return an object, given as a pledge on a loan, if the object is something a person needs for his daily life or to make a living. It can include clothing, tools of his trade, bedding, or kitchen utensils. Most times a person will pawn something that he doesn’t need but which has a value if it were to be sold. The borrower might not want to sell it for sentimental reasons or that market for the item may not be favorable at the time the borrower needs the money. In this case, the pawned object stays with the lender until the loan is paid.
But if the object is something that is vital to the borrower for his daily life or to earn a living, he may need that object to earn what is needed to pay back the loan. Jewish law commands us to give him the object when he needs it and he will return it when he is finished. We should return his tools in the morning when he goes to work and he will return them at the end of the day. We can hold his bedding by day but we need to return it to him each evening before he goes to sleep.
It is a positive Mitzvah to return to the borrower such necessary objects. It is a negative Mitzvah not to return them. This is how seriously Judaism takes this part of Jewish law. This law had to be stated both as a positive Mitzvah as well as a negative Mitzvah. It is not just a nice thing to return the object. It is not just a “charitable” act on the part of the lender. It is a requirement of the law to act in a moral way and there will be punishment if we refuse to do what is right. We are not dealing with rich people needing to raise some capital to cash in on some investment. We are dealing here with poor people who are taking a loan in desperate financial times. We must take care not to create for them impossible situations or embarrassing moments lest God, who watches out for the poor, the orphan and the widow, will take up their case and act against the heartless lender who causes these defenseless people such pain.
In Judaism we do not say “business is business.” We conduct our business practices with humanity and morality.
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