Chavarah- Jewish Community Learning

A blog of Jewish study and traditions. Notes from classes: Torah Study with Rabbi Marder, Toledot and Shabbaton as well as other details found of interest.

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Sunday, April 10, 2005

Justice Justice...

Torah Study Beth Am 4/9/005 'Justice, justice shall you pursue.' Deut 16:18-20

A discussion of a system for Judges and Officials to hear the unbiased facts and judge fairly.

What follows is a look at what is fair according to the Bible and what is "fair" or "not fair" in our US Judicial system.

A key difference noted is the focus on the community vs the focus on the individual... very interesting and it still gives us a lot to strive toward.

In the Torah the system for Justice evolves from Moses being the only Judge. To the delegation of authority based on Jethro's suggestions and then to the system of the community selecting Judges and the creation of "Professional" Judiciary.

Fairness is a subject that starts with God's selection of Abraham to do what is fair and just, the issue of the citizens of Sodom, and the system of Tsedeck or Equity.

Rashi's commentaries make it very clear how important "Fairness" and "impartiality" are in Justice. And he also emphasized the need to appoint Judges based on their ability to be fair.

The essence is that we are, in fact, aware of our imperfection and the difficulty of being fair. so we are give a "dream of perfect justice" - something to work toward.

URJ Torah Study on Shoftim - Justice

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