shoftim
A Home Of Our Own: From Soweto To The Suburbs
The prohibition against encroaching on your neighbor's land teaches us that our own expansion and success must not compromise the success of others.
Balance Of Power
The Torah takes care to limit the power of both the kingship and the priesthood, the formal institutions of leadership and governance in ancient Israel.
Justice, Justice You Shall Pursue
Justice, expressed in Parashat Shoftim, is one of the eternal religious obligations of Judaism.
To Be Holy For God You Have To Be Wholly For God
The commandment to be wholehearted with God requires us to devote our entire beings sincerely to God.
Justice And Communal Responsibility
The instructions to pursue justice and practice communal responsibility should motivate us to constantly improve our efforts to alleviate the crises that affect our people.
Parashat Shoftim: Summary
Moses reviews for the Israelites their system of justice, the rules of kingship, their relationship to idolatrous nations, and the rules of doing battle.
Wary Of War
The understanding that Israelite troops were addressed on two different occasions before they entered war reflects the idea that our reactions to war often depend on its imminence.
The Emergence Of Environmentalism
From the commandment not to cut down trees in war, we derive the prohibition against the careless destruction of nature.
Interpretive Independence
The Torah expects us to be our own autonomous interpreters of divine will, turning to Jewish legal experts only when we reach our limits of understanding.