Shoftim

Big Idea:  Impartial justice is an important value in the Torah


The first two verses of this parasha explain how judges are to be selected and how they are to judge - they are not to show favoritism, they are to be righteous themselves so they judge justly, they are not to take bribes.  And then, in verse 20, one of the most quoted phrases in the Torah:

Tzedek tzedek tirdof

Justice, justice shall you pursue

According to Rashi, this is a commandment to 'seek out a good court', and, if we read the rest of the verse, this is so "that you may live and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you."

Impartial justice is clearly important in the Torah.  We already read in Leviticus 19:15:

'Do not pervert justice; 

do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, 

but judge your neighbor fairly

Elena Kagan was just confirmed to the Supreme Court of the United States.  During the hearings which preceded her confirmation she was asked many questions.  A number of articles suggested questions she might have been asked.

• The Heritage Foundation suggested these
• The Christian Science Monitor proposed these
• Ralph Nader had these
• The American Humanist Association asked these questions

At the Learning Blog of the NYTimes there is a list of the questions about her confirmation hearings.  They are based on the related article here which describes some of the things she actually said.

An interesting article in Tablet Magazine by David Sarna examines Kagan's answers from the perspective of Jewish attitudes toward justice, particularly the use of precedent.  

If you were on the committee considering Elena Kagan for Justice of the Supreme Court, what questions would you have asked her based on what you learned in this week's Torah portion?

Big Idea:  We all have an obligation to preserve the natural world.  This concept is known in Hebrew as "Bal Tashchit"

Verse 19 in chapter 20 reads as follows:

When you besiege a city a long time in order to conquer it, don't destroy the trees by cutting them down, You can eat the fruit from them, but don't cut them down, 'ki ha-adam etz hasadeh, lavo mipanecha bamatzor'.

The phrase ki ha-adam etz hasadeh... is usually translated as a question:  Is the tree of the field 'man' who should be beseiged by you?  But some prefer to look at it differently, as you can read here in a lesson from Nechama Leibowitz.

You might also be interested in reading an article about weddings that discusses this issue (well, it doesn't exactly say Bal Tashchit, but you'll see the connection when you read it 

Va'Era

This parasha (summary here at My Jewish Learning, full text here at Mechon Mamre) continues the drama of liberation from Egypt.  Most of us are familiar with the story line, having heard it many times as children and as adults either in studying Torah or in celebrating Pesach around a seder table.
I have a few questions for you to think about:

• Moshe is 80 years old when this part of the story begins.  I wonder, in today's society, when things change at a greater rate than ever before in history (as this story, Old Fogies in their 20's , shows quite dramatically) how do we relate to our elders?  In what ways is it possible to respect the wisdom of age while at the same time valuing the importance of change?
• Does it matter to you that there may be a natural explanation for the plagues, as explained here in an article entitled "A Skeptic's Guide to Passover", by Michael Lukas published in Slate last spring?
• What if there is a scientific explanation?
• What if there isn't?
• Is there a relationship between the way we remember the story of Hanukkah and the way we remember the exodus from Egypt?  Can you compare and contrast these two stories in terms of the role of God, in terms of miracles, in terms of how we celebrate?
• How can you reconcile the idea of Free Will, a basic understanding of Judaism, with the story of how God "hardened Paro's heart" in this parasha?
• There is a traditional saying in Hebrew:  "One mitzvah leads to another, one sin leads to another."  How might this apply to Paro's actions?
• If Paro didn't have a choice about his actions, should he have been punished?
• Is there a  traditional Jewish attitude toward people who are oppressed?  Toward slavery?  There were Jewish slaveholders in this country before the Civil War, as you can read in this article from JewishEncyclopedia.com.
• How does it make you feel to know there were Jewish slaveholders?
• Why do you think Jews who lived in the north were mostly opposed to slavery, while those who lived in the south mostly supported it?
• Do Jews have any special responsibility to confront injustice in the world?
• If you answered yes, explain why you think so.
• If you answered no, explain why you think not.
• Do you think that the Hebrews who were living in Egypt in slavery thought about leaving before Moshe and Aharon came to talk to Paro?  Why?
• Why do you think God insisted on so many plagues?  Couldn't God have rescued the Jews more quickly and without so many bells and whistles?

What are the big ideas you think we can learn from this parasha?

To Save One Life

Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, has donated $1,000,000 to HIAS, the organization which helped him and his family leave the Soviet Union and settle in the United States. He has said that without their help he could never have achieved what he has.

Most of us owe our existence in one way or another to the help of others. Tennessee Williams, in A Streetcar Named Desire, had his character say, "I have always relied on the kindness of strangers." As Jews we have other foundations for our obligation to help others - whether they are strangers or friends.

Here are some suggestions for learning more about how and why Jewish organizations helped Sergey Brin and his family, along with countless others.

Big Ideas:

• All Jews are responsible for one another - Kol Yisrael arevim zeh bazeh
• Help those who need help - Ozer dalim
• Do not stand by when others are threatened - Al ta-amod al dam re'acha
• You must redeem the hostage - Pidyon sh'vuyim
• You must pursue justice - Tsedek, tsedek tirdof

Essential Questions:

• What is HIAS?
• How did your family come to live in the United States?
• Why do so many hospitals have Jewish names?
• What programs does your local Jewish Federation Agency support?

Learning Activities:

Use the following websites to find out more about HIAS, Jewish Federations, and other agencies supported or founded largely through Jewish donations:

• HIAS
• UJC
• AJWS
• Jewish Hospital Movement

Assessment Activities:

• Find out if anyone in your family has benefited from any of the above organizations. Create a presentation that explains how.
• Choose one or more of the Big Ideas and explain how it influences or has influenced one or more of the agencies or organizations you learned about
• Find out what agencies/groups/organizations there are in your community that help others. Choose one or more and explain which of the Big Ideas they illustrate.
• Pick one of the Big Ideas and plan a way in which you can help support it in your own community

More on Revenge after the Shoah

Last night I saw a preview of a new play by Daniel Goldfarb - "The Retributionists". The story is loosely based on history - you can read the background at this article in the Jewish Week.

Truth behind the story of "The Retributionists".

(excerpt below from 8/25/09 Jewish Week)

"Cohen’s book “The Avengers: A Jewish War Story” tells a revenge tale more fully, while also noting the consequences: Jewish acts of vengeance made Zionists uneasy since they knew it would hurt the cause of statehood. He focuses on partisans Abba Kovner, Ruzka Korczak and Vitna Kempner as they escape from the Vilna ghetto and form a paramilitary group that fought alongside the Lithuanian and Russian armies. After the war, several wanted to take justice into their own hands and formed a Nazi-hunting group called Nokmim, Hebrew for “the avengers.”

The group planned to poison the water supply of several German towns, but was thwarted by someone suspected of being a Zionist informant. Kovner was arrested by the British military before the plan went through, but the group’s backup plan eventually succeeded: a partisan disguised as a baker snuck into a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp where he rubbed arsenic on 3,000 loaves of bread. He then fled, anxiously awaiting the result. It remains unknown how many died, but The Associated Press reported days later, on April 26, 1946, that “nineteen hundred German prisoners of war were poisoned by arsenic in their bread early this week in a United States camp and all are ‘seriously ill.’”

You may want to examine this incident in more detail with your high school students.

One can also see this play through the lens of today's world - a world in which some people wish to right what they understand as historical wrongs through revenge against those they hold responsible, others seek to look ahead to plan positively for the future.

Big Idea:

• After the Shoah ended, those who survived had differing responses to the tragedy.
• The world continues to be a place in which some groups suffer at the hands of others.
• We face a challenge in deciding on appropriate responses to wrongdoing.

Essential Questions:

• What does Jewish wisdom tell us about response to evil?
• What does Jewish wisdom teach us about punishment of wrongdoers?
• What can we do about injustice in the world today that is aligned to Jewish thought?

Activities for Learning:

• Read about Jewish social action here
• Mazon, a group dedicated to fighting hunger in the world, has the following list of text sources on its website. Incidentally, the website also has quotations from every parashah along with suggestions for social action projects associated with each.
• www.islamtoday.com is a site you may or may not want to visit. It includes an article about a joint Jewish/Moslem effort to fight anti-semitism and Islamophobia.
• There was a symposium in 2005 entitled "Freeing the Captives; The Jewish Response to Human Trafficking. After reading the brochure, you or your students may want to contact one or more of the presenters for more information about this massive problem.
• There are many Jewish organizations devoted to fighting injustice. Teams of students may research some of them: American Jewish World Service, Jewish Funds for Justice, The Jewish Service Corps, Hazon, Tzedek, Mechon Hadar, Uri L'Tzedek.
• On1Foot is "an open-source online database of Jewish texts on social justice." It is a wonderful resource for planning learning.
• Create with your students a plan for activities in pursuit of social justice in your community. Research needs, available services, population, etc. and decide how your efforts can be most productive. Be sure to include study of texts in planning and executing your activities.