Reflections from Rabbi Ellis

 Shoftim is the fifth Parsha in the book of Devarim. It is the second Parsha in which Moshe lays out his vision for what life will look like for the Children of Israel in the land of Israel. This week’s Parsha reminds me of the books I used to read as a child that described how ideal cities work. Each member of society provides service and products that they exchange harmoniously with other members of their community.

Moshe starts the Parsha by explaining how the Children of Israel will have judges in each city, with a police force to keep order and carry out the decisions of the judiciary. Moshe then proceeds to introduce the role of the king, for the first time in the whole Torah, and delineate his role and restrictions. The king must have a Sefer Torah that he learns from everyday, and he is limited in the amount of personal wealth and power he can acquire. Moshe then proceeds to limit the property rights of the priests. The last of the national offices that Moshe gives us instructions about is the prophets, Moshe warns us about the dangers of false profits Moshe commands us to test each prophet and to follow them only if their predictions come true.

One of the general rules of reading the Torah is that order matters. The order of words, verses and subjects tells us, amongst other things, about their relative importance. Thus, according to our Parsha judges and a justice system are more important to society and the Jewish community than political leadership. In fact, if you pay attention to the specific language, we are commanded to place judges over our society, while a king is not incumbent, we elect one only if we want one. It is clear from the text that the judges serve not at the will of the political class but rather at the will of the people. The judges answer to society not to the king.

Moshe notably places restrictions on both the king and the priestly class regarding their possessions. This is a position unique in the ancient world, nowhere else in the ancient world do we see the position of the king and priest so severely restricted. In fact, the Torah makes clear that the situation in Egypt was exactly the opposite.

At the end of Breishit, the first book of the Torah, the only people left owning land in Egypt after years of famine were the king and the priests. This is the situation that leads directly into the enslavement of the Children of Israel. The Torah clearly illustrates how concentrating power into the hands of the political and religious leadership, no matter how enlightened that leadership, will ultimately end up enslaving the people that are supposed to be served by that power.

This week Moshe makes clear that the only way we can have a society that serves all its members is through a foundation of justice, that political leadership needs to be a choice of the people and that the religious authorities need to be more interested in the spiritual well being of those they serve than they are with their own material status.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Yehoshua Ellis