Shabbat Parashat Shoftim - 5784

Shabbat Parashat Shoftim - 5784

Rabbi Hal Miller

  Judges and officers you shall appoint in all your cities/gates, which Hashem

  your God gives you, for your tribes, and they shall judge the people with

  righteous judgment.  [Devarim 16:18]

The word sh'arecha, translated above as "cities/gates" could mean either. In many

instances, which translation one uses would not make a difference, but here it does. The

word ir means city, arecha means your cities. Shar means gate or marketplace, and

sh'arecha means your gates or your marketplaces. What is the Torah teaching here?

First, does it even make a difference? In those days, most towns or cities had a

place known as a gate, where the judges and leaders would sit so people could

bring them issues for resolution. But our verse may mean more than this.

The Gemora [Yoma 11a] defines b'sh'arecha as "on your gates", a reference to the

mezuzah, and applies it to gates of the city, courtyards, houses, or even provinces.

Sanhedrin 16b applies it also as a synonym for "your cities". But, citing Sifrei, Rashi

is concerned that the word here cannot be so defined as it makes no sense to place

judges in every house and courtyard. Therefore, in our verse it must mean cities.

Many other commentators agree to this, such as Rambam, Ramban, Rav Soloveitchik

and Sforno. But Rav Hirsch and Rav Chaim Vital agree with Yoma that it means gates.

Rashi explains it means in each and every city within the land they inherit, each tribe

must appoint judges and officers. Or HaChayim reads it differently, that each city in

the entire land must have judges, and in addition, each tribe must have judges that

will both cover the nonincorporated areas and act as a standardizing body over the

lower level judges of the cities in their tribal area, then there is a Great Sanhedrin that

acts to standardize across the tribes. There is also a division this way by subject matter,

where city judges resolve certain cases, and other cases are passed to the tribal court.

Rambam understands the verse that the sanctity of a city within the land is only complete

when the court system is in place, and since cities outside the land do not have that

sanctity, no judges are appointed under our verse, rather they are required under the

verse, "you shall do what is proper and good in the eyes of God" (Devarim 6:18). Ramban

expands based on Makkot [7a] that judges are required outside the land in every province

but not every city.

If we read the "for your tribes" phrase as do Rashi and Rambam, that the verse is telling

tribes to do this appointing, then we have to ask about judgment outside of cities, where

a large percentage of the population lived. If we read it as Or HaChayim, this problem is

answered, that the verse is commanding two sets of appointments, and Ramban seems

to agree regarding "every province". Some do read Rashi as requiring exactly this, but

with his usual brevity, it is not clear.

How does this answer the question of cities versus gates? Gates is both more expansive

and more restrictive, in that as noted, there are many places called a gate, but that many

small cities may not have a gate at all. Cities is both more expansive and more restrictive

in that it covers those small cities without gates, but seems to limit the judges to just one

set per city rather than at each gate in it. Gate, in the form of marketplace, may occur

outside of cities, thus covering some of the provincial agricultural areas, where city does

not do so.

Rav Chaim Vital suggests another reason to use the word gates. He says that every

person has multiple gates through which external influences enter his body, listing the

various senses. To protect himself a man must establish judges and officers over his own

gates to control which external influences he listens to and which he rejects.