• Table For Five

Why is the word “justice” invoked twice?

Table for Five: Shoftim

In partnership with the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles

Edited by Nina Litvak & Salvador Litvak, the Accidental Talmudist

Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may live and possess the land the Lord, your God, is giving you.  – Deuteronomy 16:20

Dr. Sheila Tuller Keiter
Shalhevet Teacher, Bnai David Judea Scholar

Although I am a recovered lawyer, I cannot help but wax jurisprudential. From the U.S. Constitution – to “establish Justice” – to Superman’s “truth, justice, and the American way,” we treasure justice. Our verse mandates justice so affirmatively, it invokes “justice” twice.

Ah, but here’s the rub. Perfect societal justice is impossible. Laws that protect one class of citizens may come at the expense of another. Consider sentencing laws that must balance protecting society from criminal predation with the potential for offender rehabilitation. Societies must choose laws that will best serve justice, knowing that no law will assure universal fairness. As such, the verse does not command we establish justice, only that we “pursue” it. Perfect justice can never be attained, only pursued.

But fret not. The previous two verses explain how to pursue justice: through an accessible and impartial justice system. The Torah instructs Israel to institute local courts open to the needs of all. It further instructs judges not to pervert justice via favoritism and bribery. Justice is not about predetermined outcomes but about accessibility and fairness of the process.

Perhaps our verse’s most instructive words are “that you may live.” The pursuit of justice must make life livable. We cannot possibly correct every instance of perceived harm, but we can make life more tenable by providing a justice system that allows people to settle their differences civilly, without violence, and with clear expectations of procedural fairness. Let us fight for justice, justice, and the Torah way.

Rabbi Eva Robbins
Co-Rabbi Nvay Shalom, Faculty AJRCA

Why does the word Tzedek appear twice and what does it have to do with living and possessing the land? The Parshah opens referring to judges, who will judge with “Mishpat Tzedek,” righteousness. These two words are co-mingled, yet they mean different things. A judge applies the ‘letter of the law,’ to bring justice to the world where a guilty person pays a price for a hurtful deed. But applying righteousness calls for the application of the ‘spirit of the law,’ grace and compassion, the human element that Judaism so values, it is emphasized by these words appearing twice.

In our tradition Joseph is called the ‘righteous one,’ the Tzadik, for he had an opportunity to punish his brothers, rightfully, for the evil they did to him when he was exiled from his family, thrown into the darkness alone, to suffer degradation. Yet, when facing them, his grace rose and he forgives them. He understood the ‘extenuating circumstances,’ “Gd, meant it for good!” In order for the people to live and hold on to the land, they too must live a life of ‘tzedek,’ righteous behavior; in their personal life, ‘Tzedek,’ and in their business dealings, ‘Tzedek”. When we add the letter ‘hay,’ it becomes Tz’dakah, gifts and care for those in need. As we watch the destruction of justice and righteousness in our own country, Torah is here to remind us of its early roots as the foundation Gd gave us to live and flourish in the land.

Rabbi Chaim Tureff
Rav Beit Sefer at Pressman Academy and Author of “Recovery in the Torah”

If you look at many Jewish Organizations that deal with helping other people, they love to use the beginning of this pasuk, Tzedek, Tzedek, Tirdof. It’s an elixir to all the world’s issues. A sort of blanket statement for everything from civil rights to poverty and everything in between. But looking at the commentators, it’s much deeper than a generalization to search for what we perceive is right. Many people and organizations use righteous indignation as a way to prove their morality and justness. Righteous indignation is a reactive feeling of moral outrage and anger triggered by a perceived unfairness, injustice, or wicked act. R’ Simhah Bunim of Pshischa understands the pasuk in a way that maybe should shift our perspective as a society. “With justice, you shall pursue justice. Even the pursuit of justice must employ only just means, and not falsehood.” Unfortunately, we live in a society that has one right, whatever that right is. If you are not in complete agreement, then you are wrong and called some sort of ism that litters our society. If we are able to advocate for Justice while seeing the person across from us is probably doing to the same thing, we can understand where each person comes from and have a true understanding of what Hashem wants; a just society where everyone is created in god’s image and we don’t just haphazardly see others who don’t agree with us as Crooked Hillary’s or deplorables.

Rabbi Avraham Greenstein
AJRCA Professor of Hebrew

This verse contains several subversions of conventional expectations. Whereas the Hebrew verb for pursuit (redof) is most often employed to describe pursuit with violent intent, here it is used to express the imperative of seeking peace through justice. The people of Israel are taught that their true right to the land is not seized through the pursuit of adversaries, but earned through the pursuit of righteousness. Accordingly, it is noteworthy in this verse that the land is given by God rather than taken by Man.

What follows is that we don’t possess the land except in our responsibility of promoting justice within it, of tending to its society and people. Our sages understand this verse to mean that we have to go out of our way to find expert judges to appoint, even if that means traveling long distances to track down worthy and wise candidates. The pursuit of justice is not abstract or aspirational. It is practical and foundational. It requires taking literal steps as well as figurative ones. In order to live in the land, we must put in place systems that guarantee justice in that land. We have to follow the teachers of justice and the teachings of justice to become people of justice.

A Midrashic reading of Isaiah 1:21 equates the absence of justice to the absence of the divine presence. When we behave justly, we reinvite the divine into our lives, and we truly live. We dwell in peace and divine peace dwells in us.

Lori Shapiro
Rabbi/Open Temple

With the backdrop of The Odyssey upon us, this year’s reading of Shoftim is dedicated to the High Priest Hilkiah who, we are told, presented the “lost book” of Deuteronomy to King Josiah in the 7th century BCE, concurrent to the time The Odyssey was written. In that ancient world, Justice was determined by the “Gods” (as verse, 21 reminds us, referencing “Asherot” or “Tree Gods”).

How radical is it to imagine that beyond the waters of the Aegean Sea, and past the divine punishment of Zeus’ blinding of Cyclops as direct acts of cosmic justice, an innovation of Torah emerged so distinctly different in its act of justice that it needed to be stated twice?

Stated once, Justice is the word of the philosophers, the existential question of the ancients like an echo that is never answered: “What is justice?” asked Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. But “Justice Justice” is Torah’s question. The repetition is an emphasis reminding us of this world (and our moral turpitude), as the second justice appears extending beyond our human blindness, revealing a path to our moral rectitude. Justice is found not in the human realm, but in the realm of the Eternal.

Hilkiah and Josiah were known for an ancient reformation of Judaism. Just as they brought us the ancient innovations and persistence of Torah so we “may thrive and occupy the land,” we again find ourselves in a time to hearken the echoes of these words. Will we follow false Gods and suffer from our own blindness? Or will we hearken the voice whispering to us Justice…Justice?

With thanks to Dr. Sheila Tuller Keiter, Rabbi Chaim Tureff, Rabbi Lori Shapiro, Rabbi Eva Robbins, and Rabbi Avraham Greenstein.

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