Shoftim (Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9; Isaiah 51:12-52:12) Redemption through Judgment, or Justice?

“Rise and shake yourself from the dust, Jerusalem,” says the prophet this week, poignant as rockets and responding airstrikes cease – and, too, as student life returns to these halls and to this campus. The Torah this week prescribes Shoftim ve-Shotrim, judges and officers to guide the people in right ways. Here it is all about Freshman Week volunteers welcoming newcomers into a complex and beautiful community – and, too, about a resolving on a year of communication, among ourselves and with our neighbors. A rabbinic teaching on this week’s verses about judges reaches forward in Deuteronomy, finds the cryptic divine words, “If I whet My glittering sword and My hand take hold of justice,” and interprets: God says, ‘Were I to sharpen My aspect of judgment, I would destroy My world; so My hand must take hold of justice.’ It may always be possible to find cause for harshness and retribution; it will always be necessary, for all, to seek a different remedy: It begins with awareness that, in the large picture, we share a world, and must lead toward sharing in a just society – and someday, “how beautiful on the mountains the footfalls of the messenger, announcing peace, proclaiming redemption!”