Parshat Shoftim
by Rabbi Avi Billet
There is a common theme that appears a number of times in our parsha. The phrase ובערת הרע, which we will now see presented three times, also appeared once in Re’eh, and will appear 5 times in next week’s Torah portion.
“If a man or woman turns away from God and starts to worship something [such as] the sun or the moon, etc” you are to do an investigation and if they are guilty, they are to be executed publicly וּבִֽעַרְתָּ֥ הָרָ֖ע מִקִּרְבֶּֽךָ: (17:7) [translation: you shall eradicate the evil from among you]
“If there is a dispute about the law, it should be brought to the judges, leaders, and kohanim of that generation” who will tell you what to do. You should follow them. BUT a person who purposefully does not follow them is to die, וּבִֽעַרְתָּ֥ הָרָ֖ע מִיִּשְׂרָאֵֽל: (17:12) [translation: you shall eradicate the evil from Israel]. This is followed by וְכָל־הָעָ֖ם יִשְׁמְע֣וּ וְיִרָ֑אוּ וְלֹ֥א יְזִיד֖וּן עֽוֹד [and all the nation will hear and be afraid and won’t do such things purposefully any more]
“If a false witness comes along… an investigation should be done… and you are to do to the false witness what he intended to have done… וּבִֽעַרְתָּ֥ הָרָ֖ע מִקִּרְבֶּֽךָ:” (19:16-19) And then וְהַנִּשְׁאָרִ֖ים יִשְׁמְע֣וּ וְיִרָ֑אוּ וְלֹֽא־יֹסִ֨פוּ לַעֲשׂ֜וֹת ע֗וֹד כַּדָּבָ֥ר הָרָ֛ע הַזֶּ֖ה בְּקִרְבֶּֽךָ [And all the remaining people will hear and be afraid, and will not continue to do this terrible thing among you]
And finally, the last segment of the parsha deals with the unfortunate and tragic tale of Eglah Arufah, when a murder victim is discovered on the outskirts of a city, and the local court and elders need to undergo a ritual declaring their blamelessness over the poor victim’s fate. The last verse of the parsha states “וְאַתָּ֗ה תְּבַעֵ֛ר הַדָּ֥ם הַנָּקִ֖י מִקִּרְבֶּ֑ךָ כִּֽי־תַעֲשֶׂ֥ה הַיָּשָׁ֖ר בְּעֵינֵ֥י יְקֹוָֽק” [and you shall eradicate the [guilt of] the innocent blood from among you, as you do what is right in God’s eyes.] (21:9) [The corrective for innocent blood also appears in the context of the blood-relative taking vengeance for an accidental murder]
To summarize, the repercussions to those who commit idolatry, who purposefully ignore the ruling of judges, and who are evil (false) witnesses is extreme, justified in the directive to eradicate evil. When an unsolved murder comes our way we are to do an unprecedented action to indicate we have nothing to do with purported evil, and we are to aim for a kind of atonement for our city.
When one looks at these examples, one is hard pressed to find relevance at least in some of these cases. When was the last time someone you know turned to idolatry and tried to take you along for the ride? When was the last time an unsolved murder victim was found on the outskirts of the city? How often do we even hear of rulings of the a Bet Din which is binding on anyone other than those involved in the case? For most halakhich questions we have, we ask our personal rabbi (whoever that may be and however we define that on a personal level) and we typically follow the answer given to us. (While certainly people can (and sometimes do) give false testimony in court, there are perjury laws in this country and everywhere, and it is not advisable in court or in Bet Din to tell anything but “the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”)
And yet, there remains a striking relevance to these passages due to their charge to us of eradicating evil, which is nonetheless difficult for many to quantify, due to fear.
Fear is one of the more powerful emotions that can completely overtake individuals, squash rational thought and reasonable conversation, causing sensible people to, in a manner of speaking, “lose their minds.”
FDR famously said at his first inaugural address, which was during the difficult period of the Depression, “So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyses needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” Regardless of what one things of the 32nd President, there is much psychological truth in this statement, and how fear is paralyzing, and how evil cannot be allowed to overtake our interests and our spirit.
It is not so much that the guilty parties mentioned above share a common theme in their evil or their deceit, as much as their conduct is destructive to the fabric of society. Sometimes they prey on fear (which is another topic raised in the parsha, with several mitzvos being dedicated to diviners, sorcerers, and those who practice witchcraft), and sometimes they simply don’t care about the social order, and what is for the good of society.
Any kind of innovation in society is surely subject to scrutiny and debate, and it is not a simple matter for any individuals or groups to decide what is best for “Everyone” – but what is best for everyone is the kinds of things that everyone indicates they are on board with as being good for them. To bring some social examples, once upon a time people bathed far less frequently than we do now. Once upon a time (and I know this from listening to old-time radio “Lux-soap” commercials from the ‘40s) “B.O.” was something peopled contended with, while the advent of deodorant (in the ‘50s) helped very much in masking that concern. When the car was first invented (with all of its problems in the early days) there were people who argued it would never replace the horse and buggy. Bringing the “outhouse” indoors was surely met with much skepticism. When people see something is good, they vote with their pocketbooks, and when they see it is bad, they vote with their feet.
But in our times, society turns with the loudest voices – which often enough are media and those who control the media. Reasonable opposition, caution, valid opinions are marginalized or even sacrificed on the altar of an unelected (and sometimes an elected!) ruling class who are not interested in debates, who change the subject when challenged, who don’t take questions because they don’t have good answers, who deflect and who put down those who want better answers.
This too is evil, in a shinier form, presented in a costume of “we know better than you” and “you go back to your corner and do what you are told.”
The examples with which we opened demonstrate individuals engaged in behavior that destroys the social fabric – murder, tampering or falsifying evidence, causing people to turn from God, and ignoring the best and brightest who are charged with teaching God’s Torah in the most pure form (if the best and brightest can’t answer questions, then they don’t have the Divine Authority the Torah gives to those who can).
Our task is to not be afraid to have the opinions we have, and to go back to a time when people were not punished, berated, socially ostracized for having counter opinions. God did not make a world in which people may only have one shared collective opinion (see: Dispersion at Tower of Babel), or are so robotic that they have NO opinion, and merely repeat what someone else has said.
It is to our benefit to eradicate evil, so we can live the kinds of lives which aren’t distracted by a Godless world and a perspective that seeks to enslave the mind. Service of God requires a mind free of outside influence, a mind filled with Torah knowledge, knowing the truth of God’s existence, and of our requirements and responsibilities in enhancing our relationships with man and with God. When the evil is eradicated and taken away from having influence over us, and we are no longer controlled by fear, we can truly achieve our potential.
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