Shoftim 5772

This week’s parsha begins with the mitzvah (commandment) to appoint shoftim (judges) and court officers. No sooner is the mitzvah given than it is interrupted by two prohibitions against idolatry that seem to be out of place and unrelated to the opening mitzvah. “You shall not plant for yourself an ashera, [or] any tree, near the altar of the L-rd, your G-d, which you shall make for yourself. And you shall not set up for yourself a matzeva (monument), which the L-rd your G-d hates.”

Why are the prohibitions against the ashera and the matzeva given at this point in Torah?

Rav Mordechai Sabato on vbm-torah.org explains why the laws of the court are juxtaposed with the laws of the altar: “The G-d before Whom you stand, in approaching the altar, is the same G-d before Whom the judges and litigants stand… Just as we are to maintain the purity of the altar, not involving it in elements aimed at embodying G-d and corrupting our faith, so are we to take care to maintain the purity of law, not to pervert it and turn it into injustice.”

Rabbi Zelig Pliskin cites the comments of Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech Shapiro of Dinov: Whether a layperson or judge, one should not make a matzeva, a fixed decision for all cases, but rather one based on all of the unique circumstances of a situation. He notes that the Hebrew word for “situation” is matzav.

Writes Rabbi Pliskin: “What could be a mitzvah to do in one situation could be a transgression in another situation. At times a certain act could be a kiddush Hashem (sanctification of G-d’s name) and in other situations where some factors are a bit different, similar behavior would constitute a chilul Hashem (desecration of G-d’s name)…Only someone who has a grasp of the full panoramic view of Torah principles will have the necessary wisdom to judge what is the correct thing to do in every situation.The more Torah you learn, the greater will be your ability to make distinctions between different situations.”  

Rabbi Binny Freedman also derives meaning from the word matzeva, which he notes comes from the root yatzav, or standing/stable. He writes: “Too often it seems easiest to stand still, to take no risks, and to let life take charge...Too often, we prefer the simple path of the matzeva, the monument that signifies that we have arrived and would like to sit still where we are.  But to stand still in reality is to regress and lose any gains we might have achieved. And the issue is not just the realization that we are not meant to be standing still, but as much, the belief that we can change, and grow.”

It is no coincidence that this parsha always is the first one read in the month of Elul, leading up to Rosh Hashana (the Jewish New Year). Notes Rav Binny: [It is] the time of year most associated with our ability to change who we are, reassess our goals and what we hope to give to the world in the coming year.”

As parents, we must recognize that our children change and grow, and we must change and grow with them. A decision made for one child one day may not fit the same child, or another one of our children, the next day. We must distinguish ourselves from the rigid and inflexible matzeva, and make decisions that change, based on each child’s unique needs at the time.     

Rabbi Freedman’s article appears at www.isralight.org/assets/Text/RBF_shoftim05.html  

Rav Sabato’s article appears at www.vbm-torah.org/parsha.62/43shoftim.htm