Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello, my friends, and welcome back to this week's episode of the Practical Parasha Podcast. This is Rabbi Shlomo Cohen, and I hope you are well.
[00:00:07] Before we begin, as always, the usual Shpio.
[00:00:11] If you have any questions, comments, would like to reach out to say hello.
[00:00:17] Don't be shy. Send me the email Rabbi Shlomokon kohnmail.com I'd love to hear from you.
[00:00:24] This week's parsha is parshas.
[00:00:28] Parasha shoftim is really jam packed with mitzvos, commandments and different guidelines, how the Jewish people are, uh, to conduct themselves when they enter into the land of Israel. Just to give a quick overview of the parsha, the parsha starts off with a commandment to establish a court system that every city, not just in Yerushalayim, in Jerusalem, but every city, should have their own system of court courts and police officers to enforce the law, so that there should be a system of order and courts in every place.
[00:01:06] Parsha continues with the laws regarding an idolater, somebody who worships an idol, what we do to him, how we deal with him.
[00:01:18] We talk about the rebellious elder. If someone changes around halacha, uh, he changes around Jewish law. He perverts judgment. How we deal with him, we deal with him very strictly. There's a mitzvah in this week's Parasha to establish a king. The Jewish nation has a commandment to have a king, a leader to lead them.
[00:01:39] And the Torah delineates how the king needs to, you know, the restrictions he has that a king, it's not just he could do whatever he wants, he can't do whatever he wants. He has certain halachos and mitzvos that apply to him specifically.
[00:01:53] One of them, for example, is to write a safer Torah. He has to actually have two Sefer Torahs around his neck at all times. He has a mitzvah to read the Torah to the Jewish nation once every seven years. Certain parts of the Torah was called hakel, um, and also he has certain restrictions as well. He can't have tons of wealth. There's limits on how much wealth he could have, how much horses he could have, how many wives he could have. Right? There's certain restrictions that a king has as well, and that's put on him. In this week's Parasha, we talk about the priestly gifts that the Kohanim, the Leviim, they were the teachers, the leaders of Claudia Yisrael, the Jewish nation, and they did not receive a portion in the land of Israel. The rest of the tribes they have, uh, different pieces of land, and every family was given an allotment.
[00:02:46] But the tribe of Levi, which consists of the Kohanim and the Leviim who actually served in the Beis Hamikdash in the holy temple, they did not receive a portion of the land of Israel. And in exchange for that, the fact that they don't get a portion, the Jewish nation are to support them by giving them different parts of every animal, different ties, different, um, even, you know, as far as the wool from their animals, oil, whatever their needs are.
[00:03:14] The Torah sets up the system of the priestly gifts that would serve to support the Kohanim and the Leviim. And they were the ones, the spiritual leaders of Klal Yisrael, the spiritual fathers of the nation, the teachers, the role models, the ones who kept the flame of Torah active and alive for the entire Jewish nation. And the Jewish nation had the opportunity and the obligation to support them.
[00:03:44] In this week's Parasha, we also talk about prophecy and how Hashem, how God sends his prophets to the Jewish people, right? We know that there is a concept of prophecy, but there's certain, you know, requirements that need to be met in order for a prophet to be considered a prophet from Hashem. And this week's Parasha talks about that. And what happens if someone falsely, you know, prophesizes someone says a prophecy and it doesn't come true? What do we do to him? How do we handle that? Uh, false prophet. And the Torah tells us that as well.
[00:04:20] Additionally, we speak about the Arimikla, the cities of refuge. If somebody kill somebody by accident, there is a system set up that there were different cities throughout the land of Israel and also on the other side of the Jordan as well, that were set up as a place where this person who killed somebody by accident would be safe from any family member or anybody who would want to possibly take revenge on this person. And the idea is it's on a deeper level that this, this concept of going to a city of refuge, really, if a person killed someone by accident, uh, there's a whole tractate which deals with what's considered killing someone by accident, what's considered that there's some negligence involved. It's not something if someone, you, uh, know, a freak accident. But if there's something that there's some bit of being more careful, you should have been more careful. Obviously it came to the person. There's a reason, there's a heavenly reason for it.
[00:05:16] And he would have to run to the Orim Miklat in order to rectify his sin, to get a kapara, to get an atonement, that if this happened to this fellow, the fact that he did something out of negligence and it caused someone to die, he would have to go to the city of Refuge to stay there. And in the City of Refuge, hopefully he would realize, come to a certain sense of repentance. He would have to stay there till the death of the Cohen Gado, the death of the high priest, and hopefully this time in this city, the cities of Refuge, which many times were populated by the Kohanim and the Leviim, would have a positive effect on him to change himself for the better. Another mitzvah in this week's Parasha is the Halakhos, the laws when the Jewish nation goes out to battle. And the Parsha tells us about the Kohen mishuach Malhama, that there was a special Kohen, that the special Kohen Gadl actually, who was appointed to lead the battle.
[00:06:12] And the Torah tells us about what he would do in order to get his army and who he should pick for an army. He wasn't necessarily the strongest person, right?
[00:06:23] Some people were exempted. But the Torah tells us that it had to be someone who was not scared of sin. They only took the greatest tzadikim, the greatest righteous ones to be in the army, so that there should be no taintedness of avera of sin in the army that could cause them to lose the battle. Additionally, the Parasha speaks out for us, the overtures of peace that Kal Yisrael, the Jewish nation, have to make before they wage war, before they go out to battle.
[00:06:50] And they first have to, you know, they're going to go into the land of Israel now to take it, to conquer it. But they had to offer peace first, to offer them to surrender, to offer the nations to give up the land to the Jewish people.
[00:07:04] That was the first option. Finally, the Parasha finishes off with, uh, the mitzvah of Egla Arufa, the axed heifer, where if somebody was found dead, the city that was closest to that corpse would have to go through this whole process of bringing this Egla, uh, Arufa this calf, and they would axe the heifer. And the Torah speaks out for us that wash their hands and say these verses. And the ideas is that they're doing this as an atonement, to show that we didn't cause this, that we took care of any people who passed through our city. We made sure they had their needs because the fact that it was closest to them has some connection to them. And additionally, the Rambam explains that this was part of this mitzvah as well. Hopefully, through this whole ceremony, would make a commotion and would bring about who the actual murderer was and solve the mystery.
[00:07:58] The first idea I want to share with you today takes us to the beginning of the Parasha.
[00:08:03] The verse says, shaiftim veshaitrim titin lecha bechosha areecha asher hashem elokeha neues in lecha lishvatecha vishaphtu esaam um mishpat tzedek. Judges and officers shall you appoint in all your cities, which hashem, uh, your God gives you for your tribes. And they shall judge the people with righteousness, judgment.
[00:08:25] And the verses continue to say how a judge cannot accept bribes, and he needs to judge the people honestly and fairly.
[00:08:35] Now, if you look at the verses, the first verse starts off, shayvtem ve' shaytrem titein lecha um, judges and officers, you shall appoint for yourself that there's a mitzvah in the Torah to set up a court system. And aside from the court system, there needs to be officers, police to enforce the law. Can't be a system of anarchy. There has to be laws, and there have to be order.
[00:09:07] There's a lot to talk about here, but the first idea which I want to discuss on this verse is the fact that it's brought down from the Hasidic masters of Simcha Bonum Abshisha, that it says, shayvdim ve' sheytrim titein l' cha, that aside from the simple way of understanding the verse, that there's this mitzvah to make a court system and to enforce the law, and to not have anarchy and to have order and to have justice.
[00:09:33] How does the verse start off?
[00:09:35] It starts off, judges and police you shall place for yourself.
[00:09:41] And the idea that Rav Simcha Bonim of Shisha brings down is that before we look at others what they're doing wrong, we need to look at ourselves first.
[00:09:54] It says, shayftim vi shaitrim titen lecha, uh, judges and police you shall place for yourself.
[00:10:03] You know, it's so easy to find fault in other people. This person has this negative trait, and this person does this wrong.
[00:10:12] But what we need to do really is to look in ourselves, to appoint the judges to be the judge of ourself, to be the policeman of ourself, to look at what we're doing. Are we acting as we're supposed to be acting? Are we doing what we're supposed to be doing?
[00:10:30] Are we holding ourselves back when we should be holding ourselves back? Are we, you know, having that self control and that's one of the understandings of the verse over here that you need to appoint, uh, for yourself judges and police.
[00:10:45] Really I think this leads to a bigger picture. You know, when we drive on the road, we don't want to speed.
[00:10:53] And it's not necessarily we agree to the speed limit because we think that's correct. It's because we have the fear that we don't want to get a ticket.
[00:11:03] Right? Sure, I guess we're not gonna go crazy, but we'll go over the speed limit.
[00:11:07] It's not that we believe that the 70 mile speed limit is the uh, you know, truly correct.
[00:11:14] We just don't want to get a ticket.
[00:11:16] Sure. We want to be safe, but we'll go a little bit over, right. If we know there's no policeman around and if there's no police or there's no laws or people enforcing it, a lot of the laws that we have, we won't feel a need to fulfill them.
[00:11:34] Now what I think an understanding of this verse that Rabsim chabunim is teaching us is that aside from looking at ourselves first before we even, God forbid, look at another person, right.
[00:11:47] Besides for looking at ourselves first before we look at another person regarding our own faults and what we do and what we should be doing, that's for sure, we should look at ourselves. But I think there's an idea here that we have to be in control of ourselves ultimately, right? Sure we need to have encouragement and sure we need to have fear of doing something wrong. But ultimately it's us who decides if we're going to have the will and determination and the, you know, the ability to do the right thing.
[00:12:21] Because doing the right thing is just as right when there's a thousand people around and no one around.
[00:12:29] That what Hashem expects from m us, what g d expects from us to do is the same action when there's everybody's looking and nobody's looking.
[00:12:39] So what that means is that we have to make ourselves judges and we have to make ourselves policemen in order to get our, you know, have that ability to have the willpower to do the right thing even when no one's around. That's, I think, part of this understanding of shoifetim v' shaytim ti' n l' uh cha that judges and police you shall place for yourself. That we need to be those judges and police. We need to have that ability the self control and that self determination to make the right choices. Another understanding regarding these verses and really how this parsha segues talks about the judges and we talk about the mitzvah to establish a king and there's mitzvahs for the kohanim, the priests, and we talk about a navi, talk about the prophets.
[00:13:27] It's not necessarily talking about things that affect the regular Jew. You would think, right?
[00:13:36] So I saw this, Sforno explains on this, that this, this whole segue that after the last parshios, the last Torah portions, which discussed mitzvos, mitzvos which discussed mitzvahs that didn't do with the entire nation.
[00:13:53] We specifically talk about mitzvos that are dealing with the judges and the officers and the kings and the kohanim and the Leviim and all the leaders, the prophets, everybody, all the people who are the leaders.
[00:14:09] Because the way that the leaders are in the nation, that's how the nation is going to conduct themselves.
[00:14:17] There's a concept in the business world, it's called everything trickles down from the top, that when someone is in charge of a entity or a corporation, the way that they conduct themselves is really the way that, uh, the enterprise, the company will function.
[00:14:36] And I've seen this myself firsthand. When people who are in charge act like their hair is on fire, everyone runs around panicking. But when people are calm and confident and give people the time of day, the company runs as such.
[00:14:53] And it's not just how a person conducts themselves, but the way they act, the way that a leader acts, the way that he treats other people, that's the way the company, the organization, the nation will be as well.
[00:15:13] So in the Jewish nation, Jewish people, the mitzvahs here, there's civically, there's a focus on the leaders of Claudia Yisrael, the leaders of the Jewish nation, that they need to conduct themselves with the highest standards.
[00:15:28] They have to be honest, they can't accept bribery, they have to be straight, they can't do false prophecy. The king has to be, you know, there's so many, you know, rules and regulations for the leaders as well, because the way that they conduct themselves, the nation will follow suit. I think the lesson here is so, you know, so self evident because we're all leaders. End of the day.
[00:15:52] Sure, not all of us are CEOs of corporations, but we all are part of our families. We all have friends and we all, in different ways, we're all leaders. People are looking to us for advice, for direction, you know, on really, on how to act. And we may not even know that people are looking to us.
[00:16:13] So that the way that we conduct ourselves, with honesty, with, you know, doing the right thing, following the Torah, living by example, is going to have an effect on everyone around us. That's a fact.
[00:16:28] We might not realize it, but it's true.
[00:16:33] So the Parsha here is really, there's this focus on the leaders because. And specifically, uh, right after we have all these mitzvahs that deal with the nation as a whole, because they're both tied together. The nation in a whole, the nation as a whole.
[00:16:47] And the leaders of the Jewish people are one and the same.
[00:16:52] Meaning the way that the nation will be is the way that the leaders conduct themselves. That if the leaders are role models and they lead in the proper way and the people have what to look up to, the nation will be on a higher standard. Sure, you might have individuals, but there's a general sense of wanting to do the right thing, pointing yourself in the correct direction. And when you do that, you're going to get to the correct place.
[00:17:18] Just to talk about this idea a little bit more, there's specifically a mitzvah to establish a court system in every city that a person might think to themselves civically after the last Parasha where there's a mitzvah of going up to Shalayim, going to Jerusalem three times a year, person might think to themselves, uh, I go to Jerusalem three times a year where I, uh, you know, where they see the Shechina, they see the Divine Presence by the Beis Hamikdash in the Holy Temple. That's enough for me. I'm good to go now.
[00:17:49] The rest of the year, I'll manage.
[00:17:51] The mitzvah of setting up a court system is specifically given here right after the mitzvah of being, of going up for the three pilgrimages every year to teach us that that's not enough.
[00:18:05] Person can't just have that inspiration for the three times a year going to Yerushalayim and then expect to do the right thing the rest of the year and not have any questions and know what to do for all the rest of the time.
[00:18:18] We need to have a court system, a system, a place where you could ask in every city.
[00:18:24] And I think the lesson here for us is very simple, that, you know, persons shouldn't just, you need to have people to ask, you need to have resources, you need to be part of a community. You shouldn't just think, ah, uh, I do my, you know, I go to my synagogue A few times a year or I, uh, just go on Shabbos. You need to actively be part of a shul, you need to be actively part of a community in order to keep yourself connected in the best way possible, that you're going to always do the right thing, God willing. Because not having that strong connection on a daily basis is not going to be enough to keep. To keep us on the straight and narrow throughout the year. Because once you're not connected, there's only that three times a year. Like you're going up to Shalayim three times a year.
[00:19:10] There's so much time in between there where there's questions of what to do, of how to conduct yourself and do I do the right thing or the wrong thing. But if a person is connected on a daily basis and in his city, there's resources for him, there's things he's part of. He has a rabbi to ask, he's part of a community, he's gonna do the right thing more times than not.
[00:19:30] The next idea I want to share with you takes us to the next paragraph in this week's Torah portion. After talking how we must establish courts and honest judges, and he can't take bribery, the Torah has a prohibition of planting an Asherah tree.
[00:19:48] Now, what's an Asherah tree? An Asherah tree is this type of tree that was planted in ancient times that was worshiped as an idol, that they would worship this tree. And the point is that there is a prohibition to planting this Asherah tree which is connected to idol worship. Now, the Talmud tells us something very interesting.
[00:20:15] It says in Tractate Sanhedrin Omar Shlokish Mesh Lakish says, if anyone appoints an unqualified judge over the community, Kiilu noiteya ashera b' y Israel. It's as if he planted an Asherah tree in Israel, as it stated, judges and officers you shall appoint for yourself.
[00:20:48] And near to that it is written, you shall not plant for yourself an Asherah of any tree.
[00:20:53] So we see from that, and it continues, the verse Amirah Ravashi says, ubun welcome shi' ishtamit' um gham. And if one appoints an unqualified judge in a locale where there are scholars, Kilun Natu Eitzal Mizbek. It's as if he planted this Asherah tree near the altar, as it says Shanemir Eitzal, as it's stated in the conclusion of the latter verse, near the altar of Hashem, your God.
[00:21:18] So we see very clearly from the Talmud that Judging, you know, an unqualified judge is like a person planted an asherah tree. And even more than that, it could be like he planted it near the altar, right? Planting an idol near the altar of, uh, Hashem.
[00:21:38] Now, that's the fact that they're next to each other. But the question is, what's the deeper connection? We know that they're next to each other.
[00:21:46] So it could be compared to one another having a proper judge or improper judge, and the commandment or the prohibition of not having an ashera, this type of tree is near each other. But what's the deeper meaning here? Why is it that the judge is like this asherah tree? He's like this idol, this tree that's compared to an idol. Reph Chaim of Brisk explains on this that normally when it comes to idol worship, it's very clear what's wrong with it. Person is worshiping an idol, right? A person sees a statue or an idol, he thinks it's a God. It has no power.
[00:22:24] It's just a statue, and a person is worshiping it as if it's a God. We see very clearly what the issue is that and the prohibition that's involved with it. But when someone plants a tree, you know, doesn't seem like they're doing anything wrong. This specific tree looks very nice. It's green, it gives you shade.
[00:22:44] It's very pretty.
[00:22:46] You don't see anything wrong with it. Doesn't seem bad at all. No evil intentions.
[00:22:52] And the lesson here is that a person, when, uh, a person is an unqualified judge and they're appointed so everything looks hunky dory. He looks like a rabbi. He has a nice big beard. You know, he knows what to say. He knows how to speak very well.
[00:23:08] But no one sees under, you know, the COVID that he's really unqualified. Just because he has the beard or he has the looks and he has a speech, he really doesn't have the knowledge or the prerequisites to be a, uh, judge, to judge properly. No one sees it.
[00:23:24] And when there's a danger that is unseen, it's more dangerous than the danger that is seen.
[00:23:33] A person could have take a poison.
[00:23:37] A person could take a poison put into the most beautiful and most tasty food. It can be colorless and odorless, but the food can be deadly. Even though it's beautiful, looks good, it smells good, and it probably tastes good too.
[00:23:54] It just has death in it because there's this poison in there that's way more dangerous than a bottle of bleach, because the bottle of bleach has markers on there. Everyone knows you can't drink the bleach, right? It has warnings.
[00:24:13] So when there's this ashera tree, it's this hidden danger lurking. That's the similar. That's the comparison to, uh, an unqualified judge who is appointed because the damage can be done is far worse than what Than a damage, than a danger that is recognizable.
[00:24:33] And the lesson Robbie Pliskin brings down is that we need to be able to be discerning people.
[00:24:39] We can't just, you know, take everything for granted. You know, not to say that we shouldn't believe everybody, but the point is we need to be able to have an eye to see, you know, which things can cause a risk to us or not.
[00:24:56] And more specifically, when it comes to our spiritual lives, to our neshama, certain things can be. Seem to be great inventions for humanity, but really there is danger lurking inside. And, you know, the first thing that comes to my mind is really smartphones and the Internet, when these things were invented, it's like, amazing, and people love them. And there's a lot of good that goes on the Internet, right? This podcast, you're listening to it right now through the Internet.
[00:25:22] Smartphones helps make our lives easier. But I feel like nowadays especially there's this big movement nowadays where schools are banning smartphones, people are giving up their smartphones.
[00:25:35] There's a certain hidden, lurking danger within them that people didn't realize originally. They thought it was all great, no problems. And you think about social media as well. And a lot of the problems of social media, the people who created it, they withheld the issues. They knew about it. They didn't want to tell people. They themselves don't use it. Right? Everyone says, oh, it's great that social media could do so much good with it. And now people are realizing the danger that that lurks behind it, how much damage it does and can do. And I'm not saying here we should all throw away our, uh, get rid of our Internet or our smartphones again. But the point is we have to be able to discern a danger. We have to listen to our chachamim, to the sages who tell us, you have to use these things in the proper way. It could be a weapon if not used in the proper way for the Internet, filters for our, uh, phones, making sure it's also proper filters just to use it in a proper way and constructive way, that it shouldn't be able to cause harm to us. That's a lesson we see from the juxtaposition of the Asherah to the unqualified judge. That's why, like a judge who's unqualified is compared to the Asherah, because of the danger lurking that's not recognizable. And we have to make sure be careful to have that careful eye to look through things, to see how it's going to affect us in the proper way, that it shouldn't affect us negatively. And also to listen to our leaders who are out for our best benefit and the benefit of Klal Yisrael, the Jewish nation, to make sure we do the right thing. So with that, I'm going to finish for today's podcast. I hope you all enjoyed. If you have any questions, comments, or would like to reach out, feel free to send me an email at rabbi shlomo kon kohnmail.com have a great day.
