PARASHAT SHOFTIM
Dear
Chaverim; its good to be back this week with another Parashat; challenging us
to think again the difference between what we are reading and what we are
thinking in the Torah. Shoftim seems to be about law and order and keeping
society in control, it could look like morality and defining the values of how
Jewish society is supposed to function. Really, how does this evolve into a
system, a code of ethics defining what is right or wrong, a judicial system
that is supposed to be based upon the Torah and the interpretation thereof. Let
us peek into something fascinating this week. In the portion Ch 16:18 it
says the following:
שֹׁפְטִ֣ים וְשֹֽׁטְרִ֗ים תִּֽתֶּן־לְךָ֙
בְּכָל־שְׁעָרֶ֔יךָ אֲשֶׁ֨ר יְהוָ֧ה אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ נֹתֵ֥ן לְךָ֖ לִשְׁבָטֶ֑יךָ
וְשָׁפְט֥וּ אֶת־הָעָ֖ם מִשְׁפַּט־צֶֽדֶק׃
You shall appoint magistrates and officials for
your tribes, in all the settlements that the LORD your God is giving you, and
they shall govern the people with due justice. Why do you think Moses is asking them to appoint
Judges and Law enforcers? Was it God’s intention to make this so? Not really
let me say this; Moses is telling them this because he knows how evil and
rebellious the people are, they are so stiff necked that HaShem is constantly
aggrieved trying to make them do the right things. So Shoftim should never have
been written or instructed by Moses at all – it was done because the people
were not up to the task, remember Exodus 19 where Moses is trying to deal with
the people and his father in law advices him about how to setup a judicial
system for the people….hmmmmm now it should all make sense – this is the answer
: the Judicial system and the law was setup with Moses as a result of the
spiritual state of the children of Israel, the more evil they produced the more
laws they would require to live. They were deliberate and never wanted to do or
listen to any of the instructions of what God wanted them to do. In Galatians
3:19 Rav Shaul correctly reminds those in the diaspora who are being
influenced by the Law which was derived from the Torah saying: Wherefore
then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till
the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it
was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. And Rav Shaul was warning the believers in Galatia
that trying to keep the law and finding righteousness in it was foolishness
because the perfection of it was visible to all humanity now through Yeshua.
Can a society without Justice and Law enforcement
live in peace and harmony? We are all
safe in our houses, on our roads, in our offices and everywhere we go, because
we know that the Law enforcement and Judicial system is put in place to check
and appropriate any anti-social elements that could cause disharmony and
discord among the populace. So, any country or society free and harmonious,
people living in quietness and peace would require little or no rules, laws,
and regulations for their existence. The overload and the burden of the law
comes into effect as a result when people become numerous and restless, social
fabric becomes strained due to reasons of welfare leading to violence and
crime, governments get into the act of making rules and laws to be adhered to
control a populace that is getting more and more difficult to control or
handle. There is a direct co-relation between a person in a peaceable and
harmonious state to a society he lives in perfectly reflecting the Individual.
Keeping this in mind we must come to understand the situation what Moses is
dealing with.
As an emphasis and a passioned appeal to them Moses
says the below in verse 20
צֶ֥דֶק צֶ֖דֶק תִּרְדֹּ֑ף לְמַ֤עַן תִּֽחְיֶה֙
וְיָרַשְׁתָּ֣ אֶת־הָאָ֔רֶץ אֲשֶׁר־יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ נֹתֵ֥ן לָֽךְ׃ (ס)
Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may
thrive and occupy the land that the LORD your God is giving you. How does one
pursue justice and righteousness, the word TIRDOF (comes from the word Radaf
meaning to passionately run after with abandon, in fact it is the modern Hebrew
word used for schizophrenia in Israel today? So appropriate, we as individuals
who look to HaShem for our daily sustenance and lives do we also look to him to
arbitrate our troubles, problems and wrongs, do we use the TOOL of justice to
purge ourselves from the stain of impurity caused by wrong actions and deeds.
After all God has put Justice as one of the foundation pillars of human
existence – and it is for our own very good that we should use justice to come
clean before him and be free and rid ourselves of it stench. It reminds me in
Psalms 43:1 David HaMelech says “Judge me Oh God and take up my cause with
peoples who do not practise Loving Kindness” it amazes me when I think of
it why Moses says Tzedek Tzedek Tirdoff
– Justice justice shall you pursue. ALL of us turn our face away from
righteousness and Justice and am not talking about the BIG things, it is the
small things that matter really. Both believer and unbeliever are guilt of
being indifferent to justice in our lives. Our everyday lives we area in
constant situations to be equitable and fair and adopt right and appropriate
relationships and practises, but in the pursuit of money and fame and pleasures
we trample upon people and transgress each other – there is no fairness and
brotherly love.
So how do we pursue Justice and righteousness; by
following up on loose ends and relationships, closing all the gaps and
uncomfortable situations in our lives, making amends and bringing in love
people closer together rather than separating them with mindless hate.
Supporting one another and resolving sins and transgressions between each other
– this is our sphere of rectification not God’s – unless we accomplish this in
our life God is not going to lift the spiritual impurities and curse from our
lives and we scream out as much as wen want that we are saved , or believers,
and born again and preach and speak in tongues etc…… Jesus will say to you “
Depart from me you Torah less one – I never knew you” never leave a situation
or problem unresolved, pursue it to its conclusive end and be free from its
impurities
1 Tim 6:11 “But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and pursue
after righteousness (Tzedekah), godliness (Chasidut), faith (Emunah),
love (Ahavah), patience, meekness (Anavah)” Paul is reflecting exactly what Moses is
saying in the Torah after the pursuit of Righteousness and Justice. And the beauty
of it also is that he amplifies it further taking it to another Level by saying
this in Philippians
1:11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are
by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God. The prophet
Yirmiyahu says very clearly after whom we have to model ourselves after, whose
image we need to attain and reflect as a mirror “In his days Judah shall be
saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be
called, THE LORD OUR
RIGHTEOUSNESS. Why? Because Yeshua is the embodiment of equitableness
and of balance and purity, No human can be perfect and upto the task of being
Yashar (Straight, equitable) but YESHUA was and showed us how we need to
become.
Further
in Deuteronomy 19:1-4 and in Numbers 35 20-25 HaShem instructs
Moses the following keeping mind the aspect of LOVING KINDNESS (CHESED) so that
the aggrieved family member in his hotness and ill temper does not go ahead and
perform avengement.
שָׁל֥וֹשׁ עָרִ֖ים תַּבְדִּ֣יל לָ֑ךְ בְּת֣וֹךְ
אַרְצְךָ֔ אֲשֶׁר֙ יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ נֹתֵ֥ן לְךָ֖ לְרִשְׁתָּֽהּ׃ תָּכִ֣ין לְךָ֮
הַדֶּרֶךְ֒ וְשִׁלַּשְׁתָּ֙ אֶת־גְּב֣וּל אַרְצְךָ֔ אֲשֶׁ֥ר יַנְחִֽילְךָ֖ יְהוָ֣ה
אֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ וְהָיָ֕ה לָנ֥וּס שָׁ֖מָּה כָּל־רֹצֵֽחַ׃ וְהִצִּ֨ילוּ הָעֵדָ֜ה
אֶת־הָרֹצֵ֗חַ מִיַּד֮ גֹּאֵ֣ל הַדָּם֒ וְהֵשִׁ֤יבוּ אֹתוֹ֙ הָֽעֵדָ֔ה אֶל־עִ֥יר
מִקְלָט֖וֹ אֲשֶׁר־נָ֣ס שָׁ֑מָּה וְיָ֣שַׁב בָּ֗הּ עַד־מוֹת֙ הַכֹּהֵ֣ן הַגָּדֹ֔ל
אֲשֶׁר־מָשַׁ֥ח אֹת֖וֹ בְּשֶׁ֥מֶן הַקֹּֽדֶשׁ׃
You shall set aside three cities in the land that
the LORD your God is giving you to possess.
You shall survey the distances and divide into
three parts the territory of the country that the LORD your God has allotted to
you, so that any man slayer may have a place to flee to. The assembly shall
protect the man slayer from the blood-avenger, and the assembly shall restore
him to the city of refuge to which he fled, and there he shall remain until the
death of the high priest who was anointed with the sacred oil. This is Loving
kindness for Unintentional Sins, murder is wrong and taking a life is
unacceptable – but when it is not intentional and not pre-meditated God looks
at it very differently. Pursuing justice also required tremendous Intellectual
abilities and empathy to judge correctly between person to person. There is
something interesting in this verse in Number 35 – because It involves the
Kohen HaGadol and as long as he is alive and during his tenure the accused
remains in the sanctuary city, once he is Dead the accused is able to return
back to his normal Life. Now sanctuary cities in modern context will be a
prison type of setting but much free for a person to lead a normal life because
it was an unintentional sin. But the Justice of God says the sin must be paid –
someone must bear the sin, and if your reading this properly it is the Kohen
HaGadol who bears the sin. The ages of Israel say that THE Kohen has taken upon
himself the Sin because he has not performed the Duty of his office properly.
By not doing his job properly and in purity calamities and accidents and sin
abounds within society – it is a direct co-relation of the job of the High
Priest and the unwanted happenings amongst the people. In other words, I am
saying the Kohen HaGadol takes upon himself the sin of the people.
The
reason a person who is grafted in and who has sought to place himself under the
כנפי השכינה, the protective wings of G’d’s
presence, a גר צדק is that he has
acquired the trepidation for this attribute of Justice which we normally refer
to as יראת שמים, “awe of heaven.” In Romans
14:17 Paul says “For the Kingdom of God is not Food and drink but Righteousness
and peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit” which is the wings of the Divine
presence. As we see in this weeks torah portion Moses instructs them to setup
the judicial system and the law enforcement because they were not walking in
accordance with the golden rule of being under the Divine presence and neither
were they internalizing the Torah to
keep it the way God wanted them too. Whereas that perfection was left open and
incomplete
The
completion of the Torah and the righteousness that was given to Moses was
finally realized by Yeshua after he utilized the Torah to perfection – that is
Jeremiah calls him “The Lord our Righteousness” It is very difficult to
understand these verses in the right context however we are really blessed to
be learning all this now – by Gods immense blessings. Shoftim as I said looks
very mundane and Judicial and strict and seemingly harsh and rightly so, in
reading out of context we will completely miss the point of what Moses is
pleading and passionately telling the children of Israel.
Infact let me say this – the WALK of the New Testament is a very high level walk with the Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit – we should never take it for granted or make light of it, neither should we be thinking of it different form the Torah that God gave Moses at Mount Sinai – it is the same except that it was not perfected and utilized in the Old testament because Humanity was imperfect and did not have the merit to utilize it to its full potential. The written Law fell short of helping humanity to redeem itself and rectify the fallen state that he is in, this is what RAv Shaul refers to in Romans 7:14 for he says “ For we know that the Law is spiritual , yet I am flesh and carnal sold under sin” and in verse 11 he says also “ Wherfore the law is Holy and the commandments Holy and just and good “ but we are bad and evil, therefore it was imperative that Yeshua come and deliver us form this state we are in.
So chaverim have a wonderful sabbath
and God bless you abundantly, till next week Shalom!
No comments:
Post a Comment