Tag Archive for Parshat Shoftim

Bribing the Judge

August 18, 2013 Honesty No comments
This article was constructed with the help of Rabbis Baruch Dopelt and Jay Shapiro.
 
       FAIR? IS THE GAME FAIR? ARE YOU PLAYING A FAIR GAME? HOW OBJECTIVE ARE YOU ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE? ABOUT YOURSELF? ABOUT LIFE? DID YOU EVER TAKE A BRIBE? DID YOU EVER OFFER A BRIBE?
DO YOU BELIEVE IN OUR JUDICIAL COURT SYSTEM?
DO YOU THINK IN THIS DAY AND AGE JUDGES JUDGE FAIR?
IS BRIBING THE BUYER AT WORK CONSIDERED A CRIME?
…and you shall not accept a bribe, for the bribe will blind the eyes of the wise and make just words crooked.(16:19)
We learn something fascinating in the Talmud:
Rava asked: What is the reason for the prohibition against taking bribes even if the judge is sincerely trying to render a fair judgment?
Because once a person receives a gift from somebody he establishes a bond, and the giver becomes like him, and no one ever finds fault with himself. What is the meaning of the word SHOCHAD, “BRIBE”?  SHO-HU-CHAD the recipient and the giver are like one person.” (Ketubot)  Approximately, 150 years ago lived a young Rabbi, Rav Chaim Halberstam, who auditioned for an esteem pulpit position in one particular town. In his later years, he rose to prominence by writing a master piece book called “Divrai Chaim”.
There were many notable rabbis who were vying for this position. However, one of the highly regarded and wealthy congregant who was on the board of directors took a strong liking toward the young Rabbi Halberstam and campaigned for him vigorously to win the position. The businessman was relentless in his quest to secure Rav Chaim to be” thee Rabbi” and eventually he succeeded.
However, after a few months the Rabbi was put in an awkward situation to say the least when someone approached him claiming that the same wealthy businessman who  singled handily got him the position, owed him money. He intended on taking him to Bet Din-Jewish court.
It was Rav Chaim responsibility, since he was the chief Rabbi, to customarily send a messenger to the defendant and order him to court to face charges. Although the rich businessman helped him tremendously nevertheless Rav Chaim proceeded with the necessary protocol.
The messenger, though, returned and answered the Rav with a respond of “he is too busy to come”.
The Rav sent the messenger again and that he should insist that the businessman should come right away; it’s a matter of urgency!
However, once again the response from the businessman was “I do not have time to come, my apologies.”
Rav Chaim send the messenger again with a very stern message “I am following proper protocol and asking you for the third and last time; it is in your best interest to come. If you do not honor us with your presence I would have no choice but to put you in CHEREM-banishment.
The businessman realized that Rav Chaim was dead serious in his threats, had no choice but to came to court.
Rav Chaim asked both the accuser and the businessman to rise as he read the complaint. Rabbi Halberstam then suggested a fast day for himself the accuser and the defendant and each one should pray that the outcome should be a fair one.  He then asked the businessman about the charges.
The response was “there are no charges.  Everyone looked at each other. The people in the Judge’s chambers were bewildered by the businessman’s response. “I hired this man, the accuser to voice his grievance against me to see if you will honor the Torah and hold true to the court of law or perhaps you will be weak and be too embarrassed to act with me in the proper way, because you owed me a debt of gratitude.  However, I see now that I was correct in pursuing you and insisting you to be the Rabbi. You held your grounds, were not impartial, and have proven to be the right choice. 

       To be a judge and perform your duties correctly is not a simple task. Many times judges are faced with bribes, and have to carefully dance around the temptation of accepting it.
       This lesson can be applied instantaneously in our everyday life. We too are judges and have to make decisions on a daily basis. Some of those decisions are not only daily business decisions but also deeply philosophical religious ones whose outcome are affecting our lives at present and will affect the lives of our children.
Evil holds the biggest poker chip, the biggest bribe of all and that is the notion that we are free to do whatever we want in this life. Evil would like us to believe we don’t have to answer to anyone.
        A precious psalm that was created by Adam, the first man, and is recited at the Friday night Shabbat services Mizmor shir l’yom hashabat, has a profound line pertaining to our subject matter:
“Mah gadelu ma’secha HASHEM, me’d ameku machshehvotecha”
How great are your deeds G-d, exceedingly profound are your thoughts.
What thoughts is Adam taking about that is profound?
       Let us not forget, Adam said this just hours after sinning. He was licking his wounds, resting. This praise was said, while under the protection of the Shabbat.
It’s a bittersweet statement:
Adam was impressed by the thought put in and the clever way G-d was able to use evil to create a self deception in man that he should wonder if G-d exists and if the Torah is true.
IT’S SO OBVIOUS OF G-D POWER, JUST LOOK AROUND!! and yet there’s is a mechanism in us to doubt.
G-d gave evil a weapon. The ability to bribe man that if he denies him he can be free to do whatever he pleases.
That is the ultimate bribe we have to reject.
Decisions for a judge can be difficult.
These are a few pitfalls one might face. Although it seems obvious, it’s very prevalent.
*He must not be sympathetic with a poor person just because the other party is rich
*He should not favor the rich, and say I’ll declare him victorious just not to embarrass him and in private I will tell him he should really compensate the other party
*He should not hear one testimony with the other not present. Human nature is one favors the undisputed first testimony he hears.
ONE HAS TO REALIZE A VERY IMPORTANT LESSON ABOUT MAN
       Rabbi Shmuel Shtrasson, otherwise known as the RASHASH, who has a commentary on the Talmud, once lend a large amount of money to an individual. The loan was for 6 months. The man promptly came to re-pay the loan when it was due, however, Rav Shmuel who was known to delve deeply and entrance himself in his studies, received the money for the loan while he was very involved in his learning. He forgetfully placed it in one of his books after the individual left. The man didn’t want to disturb the Rabbi studying so he did not ask him for a signature that he returned the money.
        A few days later Rav Shmuel looks at his ledger and realizes that this person did not repay the loan. However, the person said he returned the money a few days ago when the Rav approached him. “I don’t remember you doing so” the Rabbi said. For the next week, he searched all over his house but no envelope with the money was found.
       The Rabbi had no choice but to take this man to Bet Din.
In front of Bet Din the man swears that he returned the money. Yet there was no document to prove the money was returned.
       Rabbi Shtrassonn rationalized since this person, who was a trusted upstanding citizen, would swear under oath that he returned the money, then it must be that he did. So in court the Rav forgave the loan. Nevertheless when the towns people got word that the Rabbi forgave the loan even though there was no evidence that he returned the money, they rationalized that this man was dishonest in dealing with the Rav. Soon the entire town knew about this incident; people did not want to do business with him; his business plummeted where he had no choice but to close up shop. His reputation was ruined. Nobody wanted to marry his children. The rabbi’s plea to the townspeople to let the incident pass was to no avail. The person was forced to move out of town.
       One day The Rabbi was cleaning for Pesach and low and be hold he finds the envelope with the money in the book. He immediately locates the person and pleads to him to move back. “I’ll make an announcement that I found the money” the Rabbi said. The person replied “they’ll never believe you. You’ll be looked upon as a tzadik trying one last ditch effort to rectify the situation.”
       The Rabbi thought and came up with a solution. “If our children agree I would like to have my child marry yours. This is the only way the world would realize that you gave back the loan. They would say he would never give his child to marry his if there was any sort of ill feelings.
       There is a very valuable lesson we learn from this story. People, even the smartest and most prominent, make mistakes. No one is immune from forgetfulness or from reading a person incorrectly; we are human after all.
To whom does the negative commandment of bribery apply to?
        In my old industry bribery was not only random it was mandatory. The buyers of companies, banking officials, post office workers would all get compensated, some very nicely, at the end of the year.
 Is that considered a bribe?
       Although bribing some of the mentioned above is not considered the negative commandment of bribery, some may argue that it is considered though as steeling. This is because the buyer might buy a better deal from another vender, yet due to your nice gift, they’re buying from you. They are not supplying the best product for their company.
 The negative commandment of bribery is only when bribing Judges.
       It seems like G-d passes  down a big responsibility to the leaders and Judges of his Jewish people. They have to act in a dignified manor because they become a representative of HIM. They  have to earn the respect of the people. In essence when one bribes a judge he becomes an extension of the one who gave the bribe as we mentioned earlier. In other words he, the one who bribes, is judging himself. This is unfair and it makes a mockery of the judicial system. G-d is embarrassed of an unfair court because it demeans his authority; it demeans justice. without justice society inevitably will break down.
       So what starts with a  mere small payoff to the judge can lead to severe ramifications  down the road

The Danger of Hope and its Desires

August 4, 2013 MUSSAR HASKEL/ A Lesson No comments

 

   “YOU WILL EAT THE MANN WHICH YOU AND YOUR FATHERS NEVER TASTED” (Devarim8:3).  Many things have been revealed to Avraham, our forefather, about the future. “I will make you into a great nation”, G-d proclaimed. Indeed, from his genealogy sprouted out the chosen people, the Jews. Avraham was the first Jew and G-d mapped out the blueprint for the future generations. However, there is one bit of information that was not revealed to our great forefather, Avraham. If Avraham googled MANN, the heavenly food, nothing would come up but a Jamaican calling his fellow. MANN was given to the Jews while they were in the desert. Whatever one desired, the MANN would taste like that food. Steak, spaghetti, pastrami on rye and even osh palow, the Jews would enjoy through tasting the MANN. So, if it was so special, why wasn’t it revealed to Avraham?

Rav Henoch Leibowitz z’l answers, if it was revealed to Avraham, then, when G-d would offer it to the Israelites in the desert years later, the Jews would have replied “Nah, we ate this already in Egypt and rejected it. We shared this MANN with the Egyptians”. Just like the Jews were mistaken, where their recollection of events were not very accurate, when they complained to Moshe “you brought us here to the desert to die with no food. We ate fish in Egypt and it was so good..bla bla bla.” They never ate fish in Egypt. The Egyptians didn’t give them straw for work, why would they give them fish?” Rashi, the mainstream commentary in the Torah, was in wonderment; he couldn’t believe the audacity of their complaint. If G-d would have revealed to Avraham about the MANN, then years later, the Jews in the desert would have been familiar with the concept and passed it over as nothing special, “We ate it already in Egypt”. Why would they say they ate MANN in Egypt when they didn’t?  Were they lying because they didn’t want to accept G-d’s kindness?

Apparently, they really thought they ate MANN in Egypt. How could they make such a mistake? They were considered one of the smartest generations in the history of the world. Rav Henoch teaches us a startling concept in human nature. If the Israelites, who were still in Egypt, would have heard that they would be eating MANN in the future, in the desert, they would have experienced such pleasure from imagining and dreaming of what it would be like, because the nature of man is to have pleasure now for something he knows he will get later. Therefore since they were getting the MANN – imaginary pleasure – through their longing desires and hope, there was that mistaken strong possibility after many years that they would believe they actually really did eat it in Egypt.

We learn that when the mind projects strong hope, many years later, the memory of hope which one projected might translate as something that actually happened. How scary is that? This is the reason the MANN wasn’t disclosed to Avraham because his descendants would have rejected something really special.

The mind is a very tricky component and one has to differentiate between strong hope, desire, and accuracy of what actually happened.

Your Actions May Come Back to Haunt You

August 1, 2013 Responsibility No comments
   

           Don’t we all hate when we hear “I told you so.” It seems like before we take action, we have to think twice, for the same stick we kick tends to boomerang back and hit us in the head.

 

There is a very interesting and famous story that happened to one of the greatest kings of Israel, Shaul. The Gemara describes Shaul as a tragic figure. This was a person who didn’t want the kingdom because of his modesty. One may question his decisions during his reign; however, who are we to judge? We have to ask ourselves would anybody else have been able to handle the events and the curve balls differently.

We read in this week’s Parsha, one must exile the Ca’anites, the inhabitants of the land of Israel because they would make bad neighbors. This message is repeated constantly in the previous parshiot. The Canaanim were steeped in many heathen practices in which the Jews were commanded to destroy and to stay away. One of their practices involved Necromancy – bringing up a dead person through evil powers, whose voice seems to emulate from the necromancer’s armpits or other parts of the body. Although authentic, however, it was done through the negative forces.
King Shaul removed all Ov and Yidoni – magicians – from the land, since the Torah forbids one to consult them. In the third year of his reign, a very large army of Pelishtim gathered against the Jews. Shaul was very unsure how to proceed. Had his teacher, the Prophet, Shmuel, been alive, he would have almost certainly seeked his advice. Unable to consult the Kohanim who would have used the urim vatumim (the letters of the high priest’s breastplate that conveyed divine answers), Shaul was ashamed of having exterminated Nov, a city of Kohanim, who sheltered his nemesis, David and his army. Therefore he had to resort to other measures. “Do you know whether any medium remains in the land who can conjure up the dead with the rite of Ov?” he asked. Apparently, Shaul was desperate. He resembled a king who ordered all cocks and hens in his kingdom slaughtered and later demands, “Is there a rooster to wake me up in the morning?” Nevertheless, they revealed that such a woman exists in a place called Ain Dor. In disguise, Shaul went to her and asked her to conjure up a spirit for him; she refused. She was afraid such a deed might be reported to the king. However, Shaul assured her everything will be okay and persuaded her to do as he says. “Bring me Shmuel, the master of the prophets.” The woman practiced the usual rights. She burned incense and pronounced certain incantations and WALLA – Shmuel the Prophet appeared! However, something unusual about the apparition caused her to scream. A spirit that was raised by an Ov – sorcerer with the power of evil – would appear upside down, since the nature of its return contradicts the way of G-d’s holy creation. For a king, though, the dead would appear standing on his feet. Therefore, Shmuel appeared in his proper position in honor of Shaul. She then realized who her client was. Shaul was unable to see the apparition, although he heard its voice, it was visible to the Ov – sorcerer – alone.
Shmuel now spoke to Shaul and revealed the future to him. Although he seemed agitated as to why he roused him, where Shaul apologized. Shmuel prophesized “G-d has departed from you. The time will come when He is fulfilling his word to tear down the kingdom from you and to give it to David. He is punishing you for disobeying His commandment to eradicate Amalek.” Shmuel continues, “G-d will deliver the Jewish army into the hands of the Pelishtim and you and your sons will die. However, you’re going into battle despite the knowledge you will fall, will atone for you having destroyed Nov. You will enter a compartment of Gan Eden.”
Seized with fear of this revelation. Shaul regained his composure a bit later and told no one of the prophecy. It takes courage to go to war knowing, very well, that one will soon die.
Shmuel’s Prophecy was fulfilled; the Jews were defeated and Shaul and his three sons perished in battle.