Parshas shoftim

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Yosef Kapuler

Parshas shoftim

1st verse says "judges and law enforcement put in all your gates".. On a personal level, Your gates are the entry ways through which you interact with the world: eyes,ears,mouth... Torah advises to ascertain if only 'productive' comings and goings are 'passing through your gates', in and out... To enhance growth physically and spiritually..

18. You shall set up judges and law enforcement officials for yourself in all your cities that the Lord, your God, is giving you, for your tribes, and they shall judge the people [with] righteous judgment.

יח. שֹׁפְטִים וְשֹׁטְרִים תִּתֶּן לְךָ בְּכָל שְׁעָרֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר יְ־הֹוָ־ה אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לְךָ לִשְׁבָטֶיךָ וְשָׁפְטוּ אֶת הָעָם מִשְׁפַּט צֶדֶק:

       Rashi:

Judges and law-enforcement officials: Heb. שֹׁפְטִים וְשֹׁטְרִים. שֹׁפְטִים are judges who decide the verdict, and שֹׁטְרִים are those who chastise the people in compliance with their order, (who strike and bind [not found in early editions]) with rods and straps, until he [the guilty party] accepts the judge’s verdict.		שופטים ושוטרים: שופטים, דיינים הפוסקים את הדין. ושוטרים, הרודין את העם אחר מצותם. שמכין וכופתין במקל וברצועה עד שיקבל עליו את דין השופט:
in all your cities: Heb. בְּכָל-שְׁעָרֶיךָ‏, in every city.		בכל שעריך: בכל עיר ועיר:
for your tribes: [This phrase] refers back to “You shall set up… for yourself.” Thus, the understanding of the verse is “You shall set up judges and law-enforcement officials for yourself, for your tribes, in all your cities that the Lord, your God, is giving you.”		לשבטיך: מוסב על תתן לך. שופטים ושוטרים תתן לך לשבטיך בכל שעריך אשר ה' אלהיך נותן לך:
for your tribes: This teaches us that judges must be appointed for every tribe, and for every city. — [Sifrei, San. 16b]		לשבטיך: מלמד שמושיבין דיינין לכל שבט ושבט ובכל עיר ועיר:
and they shall judge the people [with] righteous judgment: Appoint judges who are expert and righteous so that they will judge justly. — [from Sifrei]		ושפטו את העם וגו': מנה דיינין מומחים וצדיקים לשפוט צדק:

[משה קורת'ה‎]

Thanks Yosef, you posted this as a reply. I deleted it and made a new topic out of it and added some rashi.

I am finding this interesting, because we're talking about a group of people that are largely rattled, in that they have been recently freed from slavery and a long exodus where lots of people died (and were born) were led to a land, taken away... These people don't really have any self identity and at this point, they are probably happy to just not be slaves. Now, we're talking about setting up a society and legal system. So in this parsha, when we talk about  such a system with  שופטים ושוטרים we're talk about police and judges. My question is, how can one be an expert judge as rashi says, since no one has any real prior experience and we're building a society from scratch ?

[yosef]

The quick answer is: see parshas Yitro. Right after the Torah was given, courts were organized for groups of 1000, 100 and 10's.. Different ranking judges were active the entire 40 years period in the dessert.all heeding ultimately to Moshe (ur name :-) ).. Who heard directly from G-d

"Good friends and deeds, with prayer and smiles, make for a life of miracles!"

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From: משה קורת'ה <noc...@gmail.com>

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Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2012 18:17:17 -0700 (PDT)

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Subject: [lilmod-lcoolam] Re: Parshas shoftim

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