Shabbos Parashas Shoftim - 5778

Shabbos Parashas Shoftim - 5778

Rabbi Hal Miller

You shall surely set over yourself a king whom Hashem your God shall choose,

from among your brethren shall you set a king over yourself. [Devarim 17:15]

Rav Soloveitchik translated the word shoftim as ruler, not as a courtroom judge,

although there could be double duty involved. The shoftim of the era following

Yehoshua were like kings, the prophets like priests, and the primary courtroom

operations were the rabbis of the Sanhedrin or similar. So when our verse

tells us to appoint a king, exactly what does it mean? In the first verse of

our portion this week, the Torah says, "Shoftim and shotrim you shall appoint",

which is typically translated as judges and officers. This would support the Rav,

but the next verse says that they "shall judge the people with righteous judgment"

which on the surface seems to argue against him.

Further, the verse prior to ours says, "When you come to the land that Hashem

your God gives you and possess it and settle in it, and you will say, 'I will set a

king over myself like all the nations that are around me'." This applies numerous

conditions to the commandment about appointing a king. Most commentators

arrive at the view of Abarbanel that this commandment might be equated to

tzitzis on a four-cornered garment--there is no command to wear such a garment,

but if we choose to wear one, the command to put fringes on the corners comes

into play. Here, if the nation did not ask for a king, there would be no command

to appoint one, only permission to do so.

Ramban holds that our verse sets up municipal courts, and that the Sanhedrin

handles religious matters. He finds that each tribe had a 'supreme civil court',

that ruled over lower civil courts within the tribe. This combination was the local

civil governing body, which matches up with the "judges and officers" phrase of

the earlier verse. But then, how does a king fit in? We could perhaps assume

that the role of the king was merely that of keeping peace and consistency as

between the tribes, but that does not fit with the historical application.

Historically, the role played by the king and his administration matches up well

with the role set up by the beginning of our parsha. Kings ran the national

government, led in wars, led the system of civil law, all the things that Rav

Soloveitchik would point to for a shofet. Moshe fit that role. Yehoshua fit that

role. Those who followed fit that role. When the people asked Shmuel the

prophet to appoint a king, Shmuel refused initially, although his reason for

refusal is subject to debate, still the nation continued to operate because

there was a system of shoftim doing exactly the same role. The big difference

was the title of king, which is what the surrounding nations called it.

Did we need a king? Obviously not, and thus both Shmuel and God were upset

with the people for demanding one. Did we need a shofet? Yes, and the command

in the Torah for us to appoint them is not conditional. Where the verse says,

"they shall judge the people with righteous judgment", perhaps we need to read it,

"they shall rule the people with righteous judgment".