Parashas Shoftim

The Sedra this Shabbos is Parashas Shoftim . This Parsha starts out by instructing us to Appoint " Shoftim Ve Shotrim " - " Judges and Officers " in all our cities .

We are now in the month of Elul approaching the time of year When HaShem Created Creation On The 25th Of Elul . We look Toward The Coming Of HaShem and His Moshiach . May HaShem Bring On The End Of Days , as we work up toward Rosh HaShanah on the 1st of Tishrei , by blowing the Shofar every day in this month of Elul except on Shabbos .

It was also on the first of Elul that Moshe went up on Har Sinai and came down 40 days later on Yom Kippur with the Second Tablets . We also blow the Shofar this month to confuse the accusing Angel , for at this time , our minds must look toward repentance , for it was on the 1st of Tishrei That HaShem Created Adam ve Chava On Rosh HaShanah . Thank You HaShem for such a Beautiful Creation .

During This Time Period of the year , it is such a good time to teach about The End Of Days , Which Is HaShem's Wish Of Where HaShem Had Set Creation In The Beginning To Go Toward , had Adam Ve Chava not disobeyed . Had they not sinned , they would have gone into the Eternal Shabbos End Of Days straight away . May HaShem Come And Redeem us And May HaShem Then Let us step into Olam Habah The World To Come .

This Idea is seen in the Haftorah for this Sedra , which is in Yeshayahu Isaiah 51 : 12 - 52 : 12 , Where HaShem Says , " How beautiful ascending the mountains are the footsteps of the herald making heard , " Peace ! " heralding , " Good ! " making heard , " Salvation! " saying unto Zion , " Your G-D Has Reigned! " The voice of your lookouts , they have raised a voice , together they shall sing glad song , for every eye shall see when HaShem Returns To Jerusalem . Burst forth in joy , sing glad song together , O ruins of Jerusalem , For HaShem Shall Comfort His People ; He Has Redeemed Jerusalem . HaShem Has Bared His Holy Arm To the eyes of the Nations , and all the ends of the Earth shall see The Salvation Of our G-D . " How beautiful will be the time still to come , May it Come Soon in our days when all the Nations will finally see that The Jews were the ones who followed HaShem Correctly and that all will see , from all the Nations , That HaShem Has Never Given up on Israel And That HaShem Maintains His Covenant With The Jewish People of Israel , Children of Avraham and all Nations will see HaShem's Return To Yerushalayim Jerusalem , To His Jewish People And His Long Awaited True Salvation Will Shine Forth , as the Haftorah says . Such is the beautiful future of all those who keep To HaShem's Laws and Appoint " Shoftim Ve Shotrim " - " Judges and Officers " and ensure HaShem's Commandments are kept forever .

HaShem Commands us to Appoint in all our cities " Shoftim Ve Shotrim " - " Judges and Officers " and they are to Judge the people with righteous judgement . These Judges are not to pervert judgement and are not to look to the Physicality of the plaintiffs before them , not to be swayed by a person's station or status in life , not to accept bribes , for " Bribes will blind the eyes of the wise and make just words crooked , " As our Beautiful Torah From HaShem Says So Very Beautifully .

HaShem Commands That " Righteousness Righteousness shall you pursue " and our Rabbis tell us that the word " Righteousness " is repeated to remind us that we are to seek Righteous and to do that Righteousness in a Righteous way . We are not to think that negative means can be used to ensure Righteousness , but we are to , at all times , seek Righteousness using only Righteous ways and never think that underhand tactics are to be used to make Righteous ways and we are never to think ' Oh well , the end justifies the means , ' thinking that we can do wrong things to ensure a Right result . Never must we think that . Righteousness must carry all the way through , cleaning the air , pursuing Righteousness by Righteous ways and means only . We are to pursue Righteousness using Righteous Paths and Ways .

HaShem Instructs us to appoint Judges in every city That HaShem Gives us and there are to be a minimum of 3 Judges in civil matters and 23 Judges in capital cases . There must always be an odd number so that there can never be a tie in judgement . The Judges , when they Judge , as our Rabbonim say , are to realize that they stand In HaShem's Stead and are thus to imagine that above their heads is a sword and below them is Gehinnom and that they are to Judge very carefully , fully and properly and honestly . Such is to be the case with each city That HaShem Gives us , for each Tribe . All Capital Courts are to answer to the Head Sanhedrin that consisted of 71 members ( like the 70 elders That HaShem Had Moshe choose and Moshe made up the 71 - Chabad source ) .

Judges are to be fair and not look to the status of a man's standing in the community . All are equal . Dovid Ha Melech was so kind , that when a very poor litigant had to pay , he would afterwards take him aside and assist him , giving him the money he needed to pay his judgement , if this was a genuine poor person , but still he would Judge ever fairly . Witnesses too were tested , to make sure that they were honest witnesses and a witness who would lie to condemn another person wrongly , would receive the same punishment as the one he was trying to falsely condemn would have received , had this false witness's testimony been accepted .

Shlomo HaMelech , when he would go to Judge , would have six steps going up to his Judging seat and as he would walk up each step , he would recite aloud , The Torah Injunctions That HaShem Gave for a Righteous Judge . At times he would have a sword brought into the Court where he sat and it would be there to remind him of the weight that would be upon his head , that he must judge honestly , righteously and fairly , According To HaShem's Dictates . At times , he would keep this sword across his lap and hold the handle with one hand and the sword blade with the other , to keep him alert to the sharp end that is like the sensitivity he must display in judging . Near him , would be A Scroll Of The Torah , which would at times be in his hands , to remind him Of The Holiness Of HaShem , For Whom , he was standing For . Dovid Hamelech , when he would go out on his horse , would always carry a Torah Scroll on him , so as to carry HaShem With him wherever he went . Such was also the Torah Law .

HaShem Commands That also " Shotrim " - " Officers " be appointed , to ensure that the Laws are kept .

HaShem Commands us never to plant an idolatrous tree ( which is what the nations who worshiped idols used to put near their places of idol worship ) , or any tree near The Altar Of HaShem and so , no tree was ever to be found in the vicinity of The Holy Temples . Nor are we ever to put up a pillar there , as the nations who worshiped their idols would put , for they would pour their idol worshiping pagan libations on it . So we were forbidden to put such things .

HaShem Instructs That when we bring an Offering to HaShem , it is not to have a blemish , for this is an abomination To HaShem . HaShem Makes Clear , the punishment of anyone who is an idol worshiper , which is Evil In The Eyes Of HaShem . By the testimony of two or three witnesses , shall such an idol worshiper be put to death , the hands of the witnesses who witnessed the idol worship act , shall be the first to take action against the idol worshiper who has been judged so and then the hands of the entire people afterwards to also carry out the punishment , for we are to destroy the evil from our midst .

Each Jew is to stand up in this World , even if they stand alone and work to correct the wrongs they are shown . Each Jew , is to stand up and teach the World around them of The Oneness Of HaShem and of the correct Torah Path Of HaShem . Should a matter come that needs a Pasken - a Jewish religious Decision given from a Rabbinical authority or Rabbinic Judge , we are to go to the Kohanim , Levites , or the Judge who will be in our days and get Judgement from them . Whatever the Head Beth Din Tells us in our day , in that generation in which we are living , we are to abide by It . We see here , How HaShem Has Given Over to our Rabbinic Heads and Dayanim , the power to make rulings And By And According To HaShem , we are to listen to them , to those who are of our Jewish Court Beth Din . HaShem Has Authorized them to give Pasken - Decision on Torah Law , in our time . We are not , in any way to deviate from what they tell us , for to disobey them , is directly Forbidden By HaShem Himself , Who Gave This Very Law In Torah Directly In This Parsha - Devarim 17 : 8 - 13 . The Gemorrah ( as told by Ramban ) talks of a case with Rabbi Gamliel and Rabbi Yehoshuah , where Rabbi Gamliel gives a Pasken on the date of Yom Kippur and Rabbi Yehoshuah disagreed and said that it was on the next day . Seeing as Rabbi Gamliel was the head , Rabbi Yehoshuah had to listen to him and so , when Rabbi Gamliel asked him to come the next day and carry his walking stick , something that would be forbidden on Yom Kippur and remember that Rabbi Yehoshuah thought that the next day was Yom Kippur , nevertheless , Rabbi Yehoshuah was a strict Torah Following Jew and so , he put his own feelings aside and did as Rabbi Gamliel Instructed him . Such Is The Holy Torah As Commanded By G-D Himself In This Sedra , that we are to listen to the Torah Leaders of our time - our Head Rabbis and Beth Din .

HaShem Then Foretells That the time will come that we will look around at the other Nations and see that they have a king and we will request that we too should have a king also . This Prophecy From HaShem did take place later on in years , at the time of the Prophet Shmuel , where our people requested to have a king . Shmuel was unhappy with us , for we Jews are not like the other nations that have a human king , For HaShem Is our King . HaShem Also Instructs us On How this king is to be . The king of Israel must be a Jew . He cannot be a foreign man who is not our brother . He may not have too many horses for himself , for at the time , the most prestigious horses were from Egypt And HaShem Did Not Want us to return that way . The buyer of the horses , would have to travel there and may want to settle and this was forbidden for a Jew . The Jewish King was not to have too many wives , who will turn his heart astray and the Jewish King was not to increase silver or gold for himself . Saldy , Shlomo Ha Melech did increase horses and wives . His reasons may have been to mean well , But HaShem Knows Best . Shlomo , being very wise , reasoned that to keep good relations with Egypt and to increase his wives , as daughters of kings of foreign lands , it would help keep the peace with those foreign lands . But HaShem Is Wiser and even though Shlomo felt that he would not be swayed by their foreign ways and hoped his wisdom would be enough to keep himself holy , he erred , For HaShem Knows All . If only he had listened to HaShem . So very sorry that he did not . The foreign wives brought idol worship into Israel and even though he personally did not worship their deities , the very fact that he allowed it in , was written as if he had participated in letting them be . His very own first wife was an Egyptian princess who , even though she converted , she still retained within herself the vileness of the idol worshiping ways of idolatry . In fact , when it came to the opening of the Temple that King Solomon had led to be built , his own egyptian born wife had given him something to drink that cast a very deep sleep on the king , who had at the time chosen to stop drinking wine till the inauguration of the Temple and this was the first time he again had started wine , on his wedding night and so , when she had gotten him asleep , she hung a large black top cloth above the bed with jewels that appeared like stars and so , when he , in his semi-drugged state , partly woke up and she persuaded him that it was still dark and night-time and so he went back to sleep , while the Kohanim awaited him to come and open the Temple , for the keys to the Temple , he always kept close to him due to his Love For HaShem and thus this time he had left it , like other times , under his pillow . When , after they waited and waited and still he never arrived , they knew that something must be wrong , but seeing as he was the king , they could not disturb him themselves and so , they called his Mother Bas-sheva , to call her son the King and she came and woke him up . King Shlomo , though he was wise , did not foresee What HaShem Sees and so , HaShem's Laws Are Always There For our protection and must always be obeyed and listened to .

Our Jewish history and sources tell many beautiful and interesting happenings of Shlomo Hamelech . One being the story of how Shlomo Ha Melech sent Benayahu , his very close friend to go and bring Ashmedai - Asmodeas , the son of Lilith and Samael , both not good Angels , before Shlomo , so as to tell the whereabouts of the Shamir Worm , so that it could be used to cut the stones for the building of the Temple , for no iron implement was permitted on It . The story concludes , with how Ashmedai , managed to eventually remove Shlomo Ha Melech from the city and how Ashmedai , the prince of Shaidim demons , changed his form into that of the king and took his place for three years and the real King Solomon , he put far away and no matter how many times the real King Solomon told people he was the real king , people never believed him . He eventually made his way to the City and told the Kohanim and those that were in charge of the king's affairs , to check the feet of the false king , who hadn't uncovered them to anybody for a long time , for the feet of demons are not like ours , and sure enough , so was Ashmedai exposed and held , swearing vengeance on Solomon for centuries , after Ashmedai , in the form of Solomon , had shown a worship of idols , to make it appear to have been the king , may Ashmedai and his ilk , be forever removed and wiped away from existence . It Is Always Best To listen To HaShem and not our own wants and thoughts , for though we may mean well , HaShem Sees And Knows All .

HaShem Continues To Explain That a Jewish King must write for himself two copies of The Torah for himself and read it all the days of his life and keep it on him , so as to keep Close To and to be Forever Reviewing HaShem's Laws And Fear HaShem And Keep HaShem's Laws , Decrees And Ordinances and also that he not become haughty and think he is over his brethren , but rather to remain forever humble .

HaShem's Holy Torah Then Talks of the Priestly Gifts And Torah Tells of not following false prophets , idols , idol worshiping ways , ways of the other nations who follow deities and man made sacrifices as deities or to burn the children to molech , divinations , fortune telling , astrology , omens ( lucky times ) or sorcery , animal charmers , or one who inquires of the ov or yidoni ( bones of a dead bird that the Nations used to place in their mouths and in a state of part consciousness , would speak things or omens ) , or one who consults the dead , for such vile things are abominations To HaShem .

HaShem Instructs That He Will Send us Holy Prophets That Carry His Word . We are to hearken to them . But HaShem Warns that a man or any creation , who claims to be divine , is an abomination Of HaShem . A man , who preaches anything other than HaShem's Laws , yet makes out he speaks in HaShem's Name , or makes out he is divine , HaShem Says , " I will exact it from him , " a man that dares to speak in HaShem's Name , yet changes even a single Law Of G-D , or who makes out the Laws Of G-D no longer apply , Chas Ve Shalom , or makes new ways or laws That G-D Never Gave In His Torah , or who speaks in the name of foreign idols , or in the name of anything pagan , or in the name of any other belief , that deceitfully tries to take away from The Oneness Of G-D , or from the fact That G-D Is Not And Never Will Be A human or come in human form ( Numbers 23:19 ; Hosea 11:9 for G-D Is The One And Only Saviour and is not and will never come as a man - Hosea 13:4 ) , HaShem Will Cause that false prophet or person to die . HaShem Tells us That we will know that false prophet is false , when that prophet makes a prediction and it does not come about exactly as that individual says it will , being able to be verified in the lifetime of those who hear it , to know whether it came true or not , so as to take it seriously or not . Such a prophet who is false in this way , is a definite word ( and proof ) , That HaShem Has Not Spoken Through this individual , for that prophet false , spoke with wilfulness and so , we must not fear the words of him . So Speaks HaShem .

HaShem Then Discusses the Cities of Refuge and the unintentional murderer who is to flee there . Roads to these cities always had to be kept smooth and accessible and well sign-posted , so as to allow the person who is sent there , to get there easily and be in less danger from the ' Goel Ha Dam ' - ' The Redeemer of the Blood , ' the family member of the unintentionally murdered party , who may decide to chase the unintentional murderer . If there was no family member who would be in this role of the ' Goel Ha Dam , ' then the Courts would appoint one . But for an intentional murderer , we are not to pity him , but to Judge him and kill him and destroy the evil from our midst .

We are to preserve the boundaries of our fellow , which was actually not kept during the time of Noach , which was one of the reasons for the Mabul Flood , where people would encroach on their neighbour's property and that encroachment would be just small enough , to be below the amount that made it a crime in those days , but it was actually still a theft . A crime is a crime , whether big or small . Conspiring witnesses to a case would be punished with the punishment being that they would be ordered to see right , the one they conspired about , a life for life , tooth for tooth , hand for hand , foot for foot as the Court Judges , either Capital Punishment , or Civil Reimbursement .

HaShem Teaches what we are to do when we go to war , how we must always first give overtures of peace and offer the enemy the opportunity to be at peace with us and live under The Laws Of HaShem , in our domain . A Kohein anointed for Battle - Mashuach Milchama must be appointed who is to talk to the people before the battle . Then the " Shotrim " - " Officers " are to ask who of those going out to battle has either built a new house and has not yet inaugurated it , who has planted a vineyard and not yet redeemed it , who has betrothed a woman and not yet married her and who is fearful or fainthearted , let these return home and not go out to the battle .

The nations of Canaan are to be utterly destroyed , all the nations of the Canaanites , being the Hittites , Amorites , Canaanites , Perizzites , Hivvites and Jebusites , As HaShem Commanded us , for these nations' ways should never be followed , for their idol worshiping ways and practices were abominable .

HaShem Also Instructs That when we go to war against a city and besiege it many days , we are not to destroy its fruit trees .

Then HaShem Instructed On The Law of the Eglah Arufah , where a man is found murdered on the Land That HaShem Gives us , fallen in the field and we do not know who smote him . Our Elders and Judges must go out and measure toward the cities around the body and the city nearest , must take a heifer on which no work has been done and that has not pulled a yoke and it is to be pushed down a harsh valley that cannot be worked or sown and the back of its neck axed , in the valley . The Kohanim , the offspring of Levi , shall also come . All the Elders of that closest city , shall wash their hands over the heifer that was axed in the valley and state that " Our hands have not spilled this blood , and our eyes did not see it . Atone for Your People Israel That You Have Redeemed , O HaShem : Do Not Place innocent blood in the midst of Your People Israel ! " Then shall the blood be atoned for them .

The Parsha ends , By HaShem Telling us , " But you shall remove the innocent blood from your midst when you do what is right In The Eyes Of HaShem . " We are a people from of old , even from the time of Avraham , of hospitality . It was Avraham , who always escorted a guest quite a way from Avraham's home . It is the Jewish Way , to ensure that our guests are escorted and safe . Thus the closest city to the body , shows that this man was not escorted safely out of the city borders , seeing as trouble befell him . Thus , this man's safety was the responsibility of the closest city . So it is the closest city , who must perform this Law of the Eglah Arufah . We are a People Unto HaShem and great care must be taken with the Soul That HaShem Gives us , for all day and all night , we escort our Soul within us and so must we always act in a Righteous manner at all times , for we carry HaShem's Gift Of Light Within us as The Most Special Guest Of All . So Ends The Parsha .

HaShem Instructs us to appoint " Shoftim Ve Shotrim " - " Judges and Officers , " in our cities . We are partly Physical beings and so , need Physical Judgement and a Physical Officer to carry the work of the Court to ensure The Law is kept . We note that this Sedra Mentions " in all our cities " which teaches that a city that is not under Jewish care , but under Gentile Control , The Nation whose city is in it , must according to the Noachide Laws , ensure that a Court of Justice System be appointed . HaShem Wants us , in Israel , to have a Religious Court System , that follows strict Torah and has Torah Observant Judges and Officers , both needing to be very knowledgeable in Torah Law to uphold our Country according to strict Torah Dictates . Transgressors of Torah , are to face the Religious Jewish Torah Court System and so , be Judged and taken to account , by Judges and Officers in Cases , according to Strict Torah Guidelines And So , Says HaShem , will we then live and possess The Land That HaShem our G-D Gives us . But where should " Shoftim Ve Shotrim " - " Judges and Officers " start ? Do they start in the Court or elsewhere . HaShem Commands us to Appoint " Shoftim Ve Shotrim " - " Judges and Officers " in all our cities , but I feel HaShem Has A Deeper Meaning Here . For Keeping The Law Of HaShem , does start with us , within us . HaShem Tells us in the first verse Of This Parsha To Appoint " Shoftim Ve Shotrim " - " Judges and Officers " " Titen Lecha Bechol Sh'arecha " - " Shall we appoint in all our cities , " but the words , " Titen Lecha Bechol Sh'arecha " directly means " Appoint for you in all your Gates . " So I feel that HaShem Is Deeply Telling us , that we are to ' Appoint Judges and Officers for us Within us , within our own Gates ' and what is the Gate of the Soul , if not the Physical body . So I feel that HaShem Is Deeply Telling us , ' Appoint within yourselves , " For you " - " Titen Lecha , " that your Physical Body that Gates the Soul , be unto you , a Judge and Officer from within . So HaShem Is Teaching us That we must be as the first start of that Law of " Judge and Officer , " by being a strict " Judge " of ourselves and be our own " Officer , " that ensures that we keep HaShem's Holy Commandments . That is where it starts . Within us , for us . It is up to us to control the Yetzer Horah and so be strict in putting our own wants and opinions aside and be strict " Shoftim Ve Shotrim " - " Judges and Officers " and be a strict Judge over our own actions and choices , making Holy Choices and being strict to carry them out , like a Judge and Officer of ourselves . HaShem Wants us to make the right Holy choices . HaShem Gives us A Lot Of His Trust And HaShem Has A Lot Of love For us . We should surely then not let HaShem down , Chas Ve Shalom . So we are to start within ourselves and make ourselves our own " Shoftim Ve Shotrim " And Always Keep On The Straight Path Of HaShem's Holy Torah . Then can we work outwards , being a holy example to those around us and teach them by example to be holy too . If we do this , we can be Holy Carriers Of HaShem's " Name " - " Shem " ( Hebrew word for name - pronounced as ' Sheim ' ) and we see this in both words " Shoftim " and " Shotrim , " for the first and last letter of each of these words spell " Shem " - " Name , " Being The Carriers Of HaShem's Holy Name , From Within us To the outside World , all working to bring on The End Of Days , The Time When All Will Shine With The Light Of HaShem's Name And HaShem , As our Haftorah for this Torah Sedra Teaches , Will Return In Love To Yerushalayim , May It Be Soon In Our Days , With The Love Of HaShem Ha Kadosh Baruch Hu HaShem The Holy One Blessed Be He .

I wish Ever Most Beloved HaShem With Utmost And Deepest Forever Everlasting And Eternal Most Beautiful Love , A Most Beautiful And Sweet Shabbos Kodesh With Forever And Eternal Love and to all of my fellow Jews and to all of HaShem's Beautiful Creation , a Most Beautiful And Sweet Shabbos Kodesh with love .