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Shoftim Torah Introduction 5773

Shoftim covers many sub-topics of Justice, from fair judges to distinguishing between murder and manslaughter to dealing with an unsolved death. We may not be able to enforce these laws under current conditions, but studying them should be high on our to-do list. One that stands out and which we can and must obey as individuals is the mitzvah of being an eid – a witness.

Being a witness, providing faithful and true testimony concerning any matter which the court needs to cover, is not just a “good thing to do.” If you can testify, you must. If you testify falsely, you will be punished exactly as the one whom you falsely accused would have been if your scheme had succeeded. Witness testimony, as imperfect as we know it to be, is the foundation of Jewish law. We may prefer impartial DNA or a well-constructed circumstantial case, but Torah says, for capital cases, at least two witnesses must testify under rigorous examination.

Justice is not the result of a computer analysis of data but the emerging property of a community of people who see it as their personal responsibility to ensure that we achieve it. Justice abdicated to test tubes and inductive reasoning alone is justice divorced from humanity, from the people who need it. We cannot create a perfect system of justice and then step away. Justice will always demand that we step forward.