The other night my wife told our ten year old daughter to go
to bed. Of all of our children, she tends to be the night owl. She also has the
tendency to sleep late into the morning like our twenty one year old. Well, I
had come home from a meeting, and down the stairs came our ten year old and she
proceeded to sit down with me while I watched the news and a little bit of the
baseball game. I didn’t’ think anything of it, she just sat with me. About
twenty minutes later my wife happened to walk into the family room where our
daughter and I were flipping between the news and the game. When mommy confronted our daughter, our
daughter astutely, unabashedly, calmly looked at her mother and said that when
she came down to say good night to me, the fact that I didn’t tell her to go to
sleep indicated that I said it was all right for her to stay up an extra half
hour. My jaw dropped, my eyes rolled to the back of my head. I let out an incredulous
chuckle and said “I neither said nor did such a thing, she just sat down, I
didn’t know that you had put her to bed.” My wife looked at me and looked at
our daughter and stated, “I put her to bed already, and you take put her to
bed.” I looked over at my daughter and she just smiled, like a Cheshire cat.
This week’s parsha is Shoftim. Moshe continues the repetition
of the mitzvot beginning with the reminder that Judges need to be appointed in
order to adjudicate the inevitable disagreements and misunderstandings that
occur within the realm of human interaction. Moshe reminds Bnai Yisroel that
there is no tolerance for Idolatry. Moshe then explains that God will send
prophets to Bnai Yisroel. He reminds them to establish cities of refuge for
those who have committed accidental manslaughter, the role of the King and the fact
that the King is subservient to God’s Torah.
The beginning of the Parsha contains among the most well
known Psukim, verses, in the entire Torah. After telling Bnai Yisroel to
appoint Judges, Moshe implores them to Tzedek
Tzedek Tirdof, L’Ma'an Tichyeh V’Yarashtah et HaAretz – Justice Justice shall you pursue so that you
will live and possess the Land. (Deut. 16:20). Rashi makes a comment that
he derives from the Talmudic discussion regarding the meaning of “pursuing
Justice”. Rashi comments simply Holeich Achar Beit Din (Sanhedrin 34b)-
Go to a court that is known for being
just. The Talmud actually tells us where the best courts are to be found
and who the best Judges are. Rashi and the Talmud are telling us that that the
pursuit of Justice is not just an esoteric concept. Rather, there are physical
places where one can go to get justice. In such a Court, even if the Judge
ruled against the litigant; the litigant would leave the court knowing that the
Judge knew the law, understood the facts of the case, and upheld the highest standard
of professional integrity.
As I my
daughter sat there smiling, I realized that her in her ten year old mind, she
had fulfilled the notion of Tzedek
Tzedek Tirdof. She went to one parent, and received an answer she didn’t
like. Then she went to the other parent. Granted, I didn’t’ exactly explicitly
decide anything. But from my daughter’s perspective, from a typical child’s
perspective, she didn’t exactly pursue justice. Instead she pursued the answer
she wanted. Hopefully, as she gets older she will learn to pursue Justice with
the same zeal she now pursues staying up late.
Peace,
Rav Yitz
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