Shabbos Parashas Shoftim - 5779

Shabbos Parashas Shoftim - 5779

Rabbi Hal Miller

Judges and officers shall you appoint for yourself in all your cities that Hashem

your God gives you, for your tribes [Devarim 16:18]

We probably gloss over this verse without thinking much about it, but a deeper look

leaves us wondering, who is being commanded here, and what are they being

commanded to do?

Shoftim is usually translated as judges, but can mean leaders in a political sense.

Rashi says, "those who pass judgment." Ramban wonders why the Torah would

command this here, as we were already commanded to appoint judges in Shemos.

Sforno says it should be read here as leaders of the people.

Shotrim are usually officers. We were not previously given such a command, so this

part is new. Rashi and others explain it as executioners, the ones who implement the

judgments of the shoftim. Onkelos calls it avengers, Ibn Ezra says regional governors.

The entire verse is written in the singular. One would think that a command to the

people at large would be written in the plural, that it would devolve upon each person,

but here it appears to Sefer HaChinuch that the command is only upon the community

as a whole. Rav Hirsch reads it as a commandment to the Sanhedrin as a whole to

appoint themselves to the role of judging the people.

B'chol she'a'reicha literally means "in all your gates", in the singular, referring to the

gates of cities. Most commentators understand it to mean "in all your cities", and most

limit application of the commandment to cities in the land of Israel. Rav Chaim Vital

explains that man goes through gates of personal growth, and our verse commands

us to set up ways for us to guard ourselves as we proceed on that path.

L'shvateicha is singular for "for your tribe", again confusing the issue of who this is

being commanded to. Many commentators ask what it adds, since it seems to be

superfluous. Rashi's explanation, followed by many, is that "we are to establish judges

and officers for each and every tribe in each and every city." Ramban disagrees,

noting that in nearly all cities, there is only one tribe, and the need for such a

commandment just for two tribes in Yerushalayim is questionable. Ramban thinks that

this instead sets up a two-tiered system of justice, where each city has courts of first

jurisdiction, and where an appeal needs to be made, each region, meaning tribal

inheritance area, has an appellate court made up of the greatest jurists of the entire

tribe. Rav Hirsch follows this line of thinking.

Rav Moshe Feinstein has a different take on the verse. He reads it, instead of "appoint

for yourself judges", as "appoint yourself as judges", which seems to support Rav

Hirsch. Rav Moshe says that this means that "every man is obligated to study the entire

Torah to the point that his opinions on all matters are reliable and that he is worthy of

being a judge and a teacher of Torah." He points out that there is no command to

become rich in order to expand on the mitzva of tzedakah, nor a commandment to

learn medicine to treat the ill, although one who does then has obligations. Here, all

are obilgated to appoint judges, thus to learn Torah.