Table for Five: Shoftim

Yehudit Wolffe
Founder, Bais Chana of California and KosherSofer.com

Torah warns judges that a bribe will distort their vision and words. How can a bribe distort our brain? It seems to me it’s because accepting a bribe removes us from our alignment with our soul’s desire to do Hashem’s will to bring justice. We get trapped in our own selfish desires. 

Our true inner will and desire is to fulfill our purpose as a soul in a body to elevate our soul, body and the world. Kabbalah teaches that will and desire come from a part of our soul that is above our logical brain. Therefore, not being aligned with our soul’s true desire can overpower and distort our brains logic and perceptions of just judgment (and other good things). For example: When we know something is not good for us, our desire for it can rationalize it to be good. 

Torah teaches that our righteous Moshiach judges by smell. How???? 

Possibly meaning that Moshiach is completely in tune with G-d’s will, and being aligned, Moshiach perceives truth and true logic and senses if our motives and our soul’s will are aligned. Sensing how in tune we are with G-d’s will, Moshiach guides and motivates us to align with our true will, which is to serve our creator and reveal G-d in our personal life and world. Thereby we see truth, that G-d is the true power and bribes are not needed or wanted: Seeing our opportunity and responsibility to make the world better, and facilitating miracles. 

Rabbi Chanan (Antony) Gordon
International Inspirational Speaker

At first blush verse 19 in parsha Shoftim appears to be warning Jewish judges to maintain their objectivity by cautioning them to “… not take a bribe (shochad)” (Deut. 16:19). If one looks deeper into this verse by reviewing a section in the Oral Law that corresponds to this verse, we are given a more profound understanding of the role that each of us are expected to assume in this world – whether we are part of the judicial system or not. 

The Talmud in question, in Ketuvot, 105b asks, “What is shochad? It means she’hu chad (that he is alone).” The commentator Gan Raveh explains this cryptic remark in light of another Talmudic passage (Shabbat, 10a) that states, “any judge who issues a true verdict is considered to be a partner with G-d in Creation.” In other words, a judge who accepts a bribe cannot issue a true verdict, since the bribe will have swayed his perception of truth. Since his ruling will not be honest, he can no longer be called G-d’s partner in Creation. Therefore, the bribe (shochad) has led him to a state where he is alone (she’hu chad). 

We are all partners with Hashem in this world and our role is to be His Ambassadors. That said, we lose the honor of being Hashem’s representatives in this world if we compromise on truth. It is clearly no coincidence that the Hebrew word for ‘truth’ – emet – happens to be one of Hashem’s names. 

Pinchas Winston
Thirtysix.org

Any justice-based society warns against taking bribes. But usually, they only warn against taking bribes to corrupt justice, not to uphold it. Rashi points out that the Torah forbids a bribe even from a person who says, “I just want you to be just in your decision. I’m not looking to win per se, just to get a fair trial.” You could say that the Torah doesn’t like a bribe like this, as altruistic as it is, because once you allow such bribes it will open the door for the wrong kind as well. Very true. But there is an even deeper reason for this, to do with being created in the image of God. The Sforno explains that the part of God that we image is discernment. A Tzelem Elokim, someone made in the image of God, has to be a thinker, a deliberator, someone who makes a point of fully understanding ideas well enough to judge their worthiness, so that their decisions can be as truthful, and therefore as Godly, as possible. A bribe, no matter how righteous the recipient is, or how noble the reason is for giving and accepting it, reduces a person’s objectivity and dependency on deliberation. The Hebrew word for bribe is shochad, alluding to how a person becomes one with the bribe. Biases work the same way. They compel us to distort facts to get results we favor, reducing our ability to live up to our potential to be a Tzelem Elokim. 

David Sacks
Join David Sacks Torah WhatsApp group here. 

This world is a bribe. It tells you that what you see around you is all there is. It lulls you into a sensory bombarded coma. And there, in the fog of your euphoric non-thinking, it tells you to do whatever you want because “You only live once.” 

Don’t be bribed by your senses. Because the Torah teaches us that bribery causes blindness. Blindness to what? Blindness to the unseen realms that tower before us. Blindness to the consequences of our choices. Blindness to the heavens and the heavens on top of the heavens. 

Where our souls came from and to where we will return to give an account — when our eyes become open again.