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August 4, 2000/3 Av 5760, Vol. 52, No.47
Tisha B'Av sheds light on justice
Torah Study
RABBI SHLOMO RISKIN
Devarim/Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22
The portion of Devarim, the introductory parsha of the fifth of the Five Books, falls on the Sabbath immediately preceding the solemn fast day of Tisha B'Av, that commemorates the final destruction of the Second Temple and the inevitable exile that ensued.
The portion of Devarim opens with Moses' addressing the nation on the bank of the Jordan. We are given time and place and topography, with the place-names spelled out.
Moses reminds the people of God's words at Horeb regarding the route they would be taking toward the promised land, and the boundaries of that land: "See, I place the land at your disposal. Go, take possession of the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to assign to them and to their heirs after them." (Deuteronomy 1:8)
After this introduction, the text suddenly and inexplicably leaves the subject of land. Moses complains that he "cannot bear the burden of you (the people of Israel) by myself" (Deuteronomy 1:9) and addresses the subject of judges and justice.
"Hear out your fellow men, and decide justly between any man and a fellow Israelite or a stranger. You shall not be partial in judgment: hear out low and high alike. Fear no man, for judgment is God's." (Deuteronomy 1:16-17)
And then, what follows these verses is a flashback to the issue of possessing the land, with the words almost an exact parallel of the beginning of Devarim: "Go up, take possession, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, promised you. Fear not and be not dismayed." (Deuteronomy 1:21)
Why does the Torah, in the midst of the command to conquer the land, suddenly shift strategies and discuss judges and justice? And why does the passage concerning "justice" include the first word - eicha - that opens the Scroll of Lamentations, the contemplative, melancholy section of the Torah associated with Tisha B'Av?
The centrality of this passage in Judaism is attested to by the fact that Maimonides chose to cite it as the conclusion of the last of his great works at the end of his life, the Guide for the Perplexed. This message, teaches Maimonides, is the quintessence of Judaism.
Working our way backwards from the Guide to the Perplexed to the sequence in the portion about judges and justice wedged in between the two exhortations to possess the land, the message is indubitably clear: "Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may thrive and occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you." (Deuteronomy 16:20).
Only if we establish a just society can we expect to inherit - and continue to possess - the Promised Land. Oppression can only lead to destruction, exile and mourning. What God wants is benevolence, justice and righteousness.
Now we can understand even more clearly the first Rashi in Genesis that asks why the Torah begins with the creation of the world when it should have started with the creation of the Jewish people in the month of Nissan, the date of the Exodus from Egypt. Rashi's prophetic explanation is that if the nations of the world will accuse Israel of having stolen the land of Israel from the seven nations, the answer we must give is that "all the earth belongs to God; the Lord created it and doles it out to whom is yashar in God's eyes." (Rashi, Genesis 1:1)
Yashar is usually translated to mean that God the Creator can dispense the land to whichever nation God wishes, but the Hebrew word yashar actually means righteous or just.
Rashi is therefore informing us, in his first commentary, that built into the very fabric and rules of creation is that the Almighty will grant us sovereignty over Israel only if our righteous and just acts make us worthy of having sovereignty.
Jerusalem is the City of Righteousness - "Righteousness, righteousness shall you pursue that you may thrive and occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you." Our right to Israel is not so much a promise as it is a challenge.
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is the spiritual leader of Efrat, Israel.
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