Parsha for Kids: Shoftim 2023
Below is the transcript for this week’s episode of Parsha for Kids, Shoftim 2023.
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Season 5 Episode 5:
First, a correction: Last week, I misspoke and said that the Torah lists kosher birds. The Torah actually includes a list of non-kosher birds. I have fixed that mistake in last week's recording, but wanted to include that correction here, for those who heard the recording before I fixed it. Thank you to our dear listener Rena for catching this error.
TRANSITION
Hello! My name is Chana and this is Parsha for Kids. The parsha of the week is Shoftim. Shoftim means judges. While many mitzvot are discussed in this parsha, there is a special focus on the nation’s leaders. Over the course of this parsha, we will learn about judges, law enforcement officials, the priests and the king.
As you may remember, Sefer Devarim consists of Moshe’s speech to the nation just before they enter the land of Israel. It was therefore very important for everyone to be clear on how the country would run when they actually entered the land. No civilization is able to function without government. The theme of Parshat Shoftim is government- and how to govern effectively. It is also about checks and balances. Checks and balances means the limitations that are set on the people who are governing the nation to ensure they do not become too powerful or corrupt.
The parsha begins with Moshe reminding the nation that they must set up shoftim, judges, to judge the nation. These judges must act with tzedek, righteousness. They are not allowed to pervert judgment. They cannot show favoritism- not to the rich or to the poor. They are also not allowed to take bribes, which means they cannot accept any gifts from people who are involved in court cases. The concern is that the judge might appreciate the gift they were given and so might rule in favor of the person who gave them the gift even if that person shouldn’t really be the winner of the court case.
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What happens if a person commits an offense where the punishment would be death?
One example of a sin that is a death penalty offense is worshiping idols.
The Torah specifies that a person cannot be killed based on testimony offered by only one witness. There must be a minimum of two witnesses, and it would be better if there were even more than that.
Why can’t there only be one witness? There are several possibilities. First, perhaps the eyewitness is convinced they saw someone do something wrong, but in reality they were mistaken. If two people separately saw someone do something wrong, that’s more compelling. Second, perhaps a person, let’s call him Shimon, bears a grudge against another individual, Reuvenl. If so, if we would be willing to put Reuven to death based on only Shimon’s testimony, it would be easier for the person who bears a grudge to frame Reuven even though he is totally innocent. In Sefer Melachim we actually learn about a time where an evil queen named Izevel paid two witnesses to falsely testify against a man she wanted killed; it would have been even easier for her to get away with it if she only had to pay one witness.
It’s important to know that witnesses who can testify before a Jewish court, or Beit Din, are not the same as those that might be familiar to you in an American court. For example, some people may not testify in Beit Din. These include but are not limited to: a woman, a boy younger than thirteen, the age of his Bar Mitzvah, a relative of the person who is accused of committing the crime, someone who breaks Shabbat.
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Moshe was concerned about the rule of law after he died, and eventually, after Yehoshua died. If Moshe wanted an effective government to continue, and for Judaism to thrive, it had to be clear to the nation how disputes would be handled.
He therefore explained that if judges could not determine what to do in their own cities, they would need to travel to Jerusalem to consult with the higher judges there. At that time, they would need to consult with the Levites and kohanim and the judge at that time, and would need to defer to whatever they said. What they said would be the law and it would be the people’s responsibility to accept it as such.
Our Sages explain that in practice, a small city in Israel might have a Beit Din, Jewish court, with only three judges. A larger city that contained at least 120 Jews must have a Beit Din of 23 members. The Great Sanhedrin was the Highest Court of the land, similar to our Supreme Court. It was comprised of seventy judges and a nassi, president who was in charge of them. The Sanhedrin met each day in one of the rooms of the Beit Hamikdash.
But what would happen if someone would refuse to follow the judgment rendered by the leader of the day? That man would die.
This rule was very important. It prevented Judaism from falling apart. If people felt like they could always disagree with and deviate from a judge’s rule, then there would be no binding authority. Everyone would be able to do whatever they wanted, whatever seemed good in their own eyes. This would lead to chaos. And indeed, later on, during the time of Sefer Shoftim, the book of Shoftim, which is different from this week’s parsha- that is exactly what happened. Everyone started to ignore their leaders, and to do whatever they decided was right in their own eyes. This led to a decay of morals and to people doing terrible things, such as hurting women and fighting with other Jews.
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Moshe then taught the law of the king.
What do you think of when you think of a king? Perhaps you think of someone wearing a golden crown, gorgeous robes, and carrying a scepter. Or alternatively, perhaps you think of the British Monarchy. Kings are often associated with opulence, wealth and formidable power.
During the time that Bnei Yisrael lived, in the ancient near east, this was even more intense. The kings believed they ruled because they had been appointed by their gods to do so. Their word was law. There were two different sets of rules- one for kings and one for commoners, where kings did not have to follow any rules. A king was considered above the law and thus was able to do whatever he liked. He could execute people as he liked, seize their property as he liked, and take any woman he liked to be his wife.
This was not the case for a Jewish king. Torah law constrains a Jewish king. This means that it restricts him. God wants the Jewish king to know that there is one law, and that law governs both the king and his nation. This is because God is the ultimate authority. The king and the commonfolk must all report to God. The king is not divine in his own right.
A king was forbidden to do three things.
He was not allowed to keep too many horses.
He was not allowed to collect a lot of gold and silver.
He was not allowed to have too many wives.
Our sages offer explanations for these limitations.
At that time, Egypt was famous for breeding horses. If a king needed many horses, he might send Jews to live in Egypt and provide horses to him from there. God did not want Bnei Yisrael to travel back to Egypt, since He was concerned they would learn from the culture there, which was filled with immorality. Additionally, in ancient times, the nation that had more horses had an advantage in war, because horses could pull more chariots. A war chariot was like the equivalent of a tank in those days. But God did not want Bnei Yisrael to think they were winning wars because of the horses they had. He wanted them to understand they only won because God was on their side.
In terms of treasure, when people have too much wealth, they tend to forget God. They feel proud of their gold and silver and consider themselves to have personally acquired it. Once again, God did not want the kings to forget Him.
When it comes to too many wives, marrying many wives was a diplomatic strategy that kings utilized. This was because marrying these women typically meant that one allied with the states or countries they came from, which meant these countries would support you when you went to war. However, having so many wives could turn a Jewish king’s heart away from God, since they might want to worship the idols they were raised with. Kings were supposed to marry God-fearing women.
A king also needed to write a Sefer Torah and keep it with him during the course of his kingship. He literally carried a physical reminder of God’s laws and their binding nature with him.
It’s hard to overstate how radical the law of the Jewish king was. The Jewish king and his rulership was intended to be completely different from that of the other kings of the Ancient Near East. Unlike those kings, who saw themselves as deities, a Jewish king had to constantly remember and humble himself before God.
TRANSITION
Another example of checks and balances occurs when we learn about the Levites. On the one hand, the Levites held an elite position within the nation. The kohanim, who came from the tribe of Levi, served in the Beit Hamikdash. The Levites themselves were scribes and scholars and performed in a choir at the Beit Hamikdash.
But with the Levites’ elite status came the limitation of where they lived. They were scattered throughout the land in forty-eight separate cities. Their cities were divided up within other tribes’ territory- the Levites did not have their own tribal section of land. Due to this, it was incumbent upon Bnei Yisrael to support the Levites, providing them with grain, wine and oil. The Torah also mentions that were also certain parts of animal sacrifices that were given to the kohanim, who come from the Levite tribe.
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What about other kinds of power? It’s not only a king’s power that must be limited.
Moshe discusses the practitioners of Ov and Yidoni, necromancers, and other kinds of soothsayers and sorcerers. As Jews, we are forbidden to practice these magical arts or to consult those who do practice them. We are also forbidden to try to appease gods through passing our children through the fire of Molech. There are different interpretations as to what the exact fire ritual by Molech was, but many of the interpretations involve the child being burned alive as a sacrifice to an idol.
There are multiple reasons as to why practicing witchcraft or consulting sorcerers was forbidden. One of the easiest to understand is that these people trafficked in foretelling the future. In ancient times, when life was totally unpredictable, knowing the future was an incredible gift. We live in an interconnected world where all you have to do is turn on your phone in order to learn about the weather, see the latest news headlines, and figure out the best route to work and whether there is traffic. In olden times, none of this was possible. People were desperate to know whether their crops would grow, whether their harvest would be good, whether their sick children would live, and whether war would come to their region. Those who practiced magic were either like the scammers of nowadays- providing false hope- or they told the truth, but through summoning dark forces filled with tumah, spiritual impurity.
God did not want desperate people turning to false or dark means of foretelling the future. He wanted them to trust in Him, to follow his laws so that He could reward them with blessings. But knowing that the people would need something or someone more tangible to rely upon, he assured them that He would send them a Navi, or prophet. The prophet would be able to predict the future through communing with God, and speaking with the prophet would be a legitimate avenue for Bnei Yisrael to pursue.
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Even the prophet has limits set upon his or her power. A prophet who claims to speak words God told him but in truth does not, or who speaks on behalf of idols, will be put to death.
Moshe explained to Bnei Yisrael that a prophet must be tested in order to demonstrate that he is indeed telling the truth. One way to determine this was to pay attention to their predictions of the future. If a prophet said something good would happen, but his prediction did not come true, then he is a false prophet and must be put to death.
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Are there limits set on the commonfolk as well? People who are not elite, or in leadership positions, or who have immense power?
Yes.
Moshe reviews the laws of the Arei Miklat, cities of refuge, in this parsha. He focuses on the Goel HaDam, blood redeemer. A Goel Hadam is permitted to race after the person who accidentally killed his family member. This is allowed because the Goel HaDam acts while “his heart is hot,” meaning while he is overtaken by passion and the loss of his relative.
But this is different from a murder committed in cold blood. In that scenario, someone hates someone else and deliberately plots that person’s death. That is not a crime committed to avenge a murder, but a premeditated crime, and it must be treated very differently. Someone who commits that kind of murder is not permitted to stay in the Ir Miklat, and indeed, is put to death.
These laws are important so as to abolish the shedding of innocent blood in Israel.
Additionally, the commonfolk are forbidden to move their neighbor’s landmarks (giving more property to themselves in the process). They are forbidden to serve as false witnesses. And if any of them DO serve as false witnesses and are found out, they are punished. How are they punished? They receive the exact punishment the person they testified against would have received if the false witnesses had succeeded in their plot. This is midah kneged middah, measure for measure. (If any of you have read the fairy tale The Goose Girl, this trope occurs there as well.)
TRANSITION
Last but not least, there are limits set on war. These include who may fight in a war and how to wage a war.
There are two different kinds of war. One is a war to expand territory, milchemet rishus. The other is a war commanded by God in order to conquer Eretz Yisrael, or to defeat Amalek, or in self defense, a milchemet mitzvah. Everyone must go to war in a milchemet mitzvah. But there are certain groups that did not need to go to war during a milchemet rishus. These included:
Someone who had built a new home but had not yet moved in
Someone who had planted a vineyard and had not yet eaten of its fruit
Someone who is betrothed to a woman but had not yet married her- he was told to go home and marry her
Someone who was frightened
There are several reasons offered as to why these groups were permitted to go home. It could be that really God wanted people who were too scared to fight to go home. However, these individuals would be too embarrassed to leave if they were the only ones told to go home. By offering other reasons that someone might be leaving the war effort, such as someone having built a new home but not having lived in it yet, these scared people could leave without being embarrassed that they were too afraid.
The other possibility is that God wants us to enjoy the world He made for us. He wants people to have the opportunity to enjoy their new home, their vineyard and wine and their new bride. Before someone risks his life and dies, let them first have an opportunity to enjoy their life.
TRANSITION
When it comes to waging a milchemes reshus, one should begin the war by proposing peace to the people who live in that city. If they agree to live under Bnei Yisrael’s rule and follow their laws, then do not kill them.
Additionally, if one does besiege a city, one is not permitted to engage in wholesale destruction. One is forbidden to destroy fruit trees, for example. These trees provide good for humanity- fruit that people can benefit from- and it is not their fault that you are besieging the city where they have been planted.
TRANSITION
The last law in this parsha is called Egla Arufah. Like we mentioned earlier, God hoped for a day where no innocent people would be slain or murdered.
So what would happen if a person was found dead in a field, and it was not known who killed him? Nowadays, this sounds like the opening of a detective story.
In those times, the elders and judges needed to go out and measure the distance of the cities that were closest to the corpse. When they have determined which city was closest to the corpse, they would travel to an empty valley that has hard soil that has never been plowed and never produced crops. They would then take an Eglah, a calf, that had never done work, worn a yoke or pulled a plow, and break its neck.
This calf has its entire future stolen from him. It has no opportunity to do work, to mature and grow up, to start a family. It is symbolic of the future that has been stolen from the murdered man. The fact that it is killed in this arid valley is also symbolic. It is a wasteland, demonstrative of the way the murderer has wasted the victim’s life.
The elders must declare, “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see this crime.” What they mean by this is that they offered this stranger food and drink and accompanied him on his way when he left.. Thus he did not need to steal food, which might cause someone to kill him.
The kohanim must ask God to forgive all of Bnei Yisrael for the murder.
The valley must remain a wasteland forever. When people pass through it, they will remember how terrible a sin murder is.
Since many people gathered to watch the calf be killed, the murder was publicized. Everyone would talk about it. Perhaps this would lead to the discovery of the murderer. If the murderer was found after the Eglah Arufa ritual, and there were witnesses who had seen him commit the crime, he was still put to death.
TRANSITION
So here’s what we learned this week!
This parsha focuses on leadership, government, and systems of checks and balances. In Judaism, no one is above the law. Not even the king.
If two witnesses testify against someone and are found out, they receive the punishment they were trying to cause the other person to suffer.
God wants to make sure that Bnei Yisrael understands the importance of life, and therefore focuses on how important it is to limit murder, and to strive for a world where innocents are not murdered.
If you have any questions or comments on this week’s episode, please email me at parsha4kids@gmail.com. That’s parsha the number 4 kids at gmail.com. Good Shabbos.