Torah Portion Shoftim

Torah Portion Shoftim

Devarim – Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9

Deu 16:18  Shofetim and officers shall you make you in all your gates, which YHWH your Elohim gives you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.

Deu 16:19  You shall not wrest justice: you shall not respect persons; neither shall you take a bribe; for a bribe does blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.

Deu 16:20  That which is altogether just shall you follow, that you may live, and inherit the land which YHWH your Elohim gives you.

A fair court system is the most important feature of a just society.  Everyone needs to feel confident that cases are decided on the merits of the facts and evidence presented and not decided on factors of race, wealth, social position, or popularity.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 16:21  You shall not plant you an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of YHWH your Elohim, which you shall make you.

Deu 16:22  Neither shall you set yourself up a pillar; which YHWH your Elohim hates.

Mixing elements of pagan worship, such as christmas trees and easter eggs, in with worship of Adonia Elohim is not permitted, period.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 17:1 You shall not sacrifice to YHWH your Elohim an ox, or a sheep, in which is a blemish, [or] anything evil; for that is an abomination to YHWH your Elohim.

Our gifts and offerings to Elohim are supposed to be our best things, not our leftover dregs.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 17:2  If there be found in the midst of you, within any of your gates which YHWH your Elohim gives you, man or woman, who does that which is evil in the sight of YHWH your Elohim, in transgressing his covenant,

Deu 17:3  and has gone and served other gods, and worshiped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the army of the sky, which I have not commanded;

Deu 17:4  and it be told you, and you have heard of it, then shall you inquire diligently; and behold, if it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is done in Yisra’el,

Deu 17:5  then shall you bring forth that man or that woman, who has done this evil thing, to your gates, even the man or the woman; and you shall stone them to death with stones.

Of course, “the law of the land is the law,” and we cannot carry out this edict today because we do not have religious authority for capital punishment.  We must respect the civil and secular laws of the country where we live – “submit” to all appointed authority, which is set in place because Elohim allows it to be.

However, that doesn’t mean we ignore this commandment altogether.  Such persons must be expelled from our homes and congregations if they refuse to repent.  We must not allow pagan practices to be brought in to contaminate our children and the sanctity of our homes and shuls.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 17:6  At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he who is to die be put to death; at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.

Deu 17:7  The hand of the witnesses shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from the midst of you.

For us today, that means a single person may not accuse or make public such a claim of paganism or idolatry.  Instead, the proper proceure was outlined by Yeshua:

Mat 18:15 “If your brother sins against you, go, show him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained back your brother.   Mat 18:16  But if he doesn’t listen, take one or two more with you, that at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.   Mat 18:17  If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the assembly. If he refuses to hear the assembly also, let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector.

First, the single person confronts the suspected sinner alone.  If they repent, the matter must remain private between them.  If, however, the person involved in pagan or idolatrous practices or whatever sin does not repent, then two more trusted witnesses are brought to again confront the wayward person.  Only if they still refuse to repent is the matter made public.  And if at that point the person still refuses to repent, then they are expelled and shunned.  This is what we are to do in this day and age, as we live under the civil laws of secular governments.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 17:8  If there arise a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within your gates; then shall you arise, and go up to the place which YHWH your Elohim shall choose;

Deu 17:9  and you shall come to the Kohanim the Levites, and to the judge who shall be in those days: and you shall inquire; and they shall show you the sentence of judgment.

To “inquire” these days means to submit the matter to a bet din, since the Temple is not standing.  If a decision could not be reached by the Levites, then they would have used the Urim and Thummin, to receive a “yes/innocent” or “no/guilty” answer from the Cohen HaGadol.    We do not have these available to us today, so there is in essence no court of appeals from the decision of a bet din.  A person who refuses to abide by the ruling of the bet din must be expelled and shunned until they repent.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 17:10  You shall do according to the tenor of the sentence which they shall show you from that place which YHWH shall choose; and you shall observe to do according to all that they shall teach you:

Deu 17:11  according to the tenor of the Torah which they shall teach you, and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside from the sentence which they shall show you, to the right hand, nor to the left.

Deu 17:12  The man who does presumptuously, in not listening to the Kohen who stands to minister there before YHWH your Elohim, or to the judge, even that man shall die: and you shall put away the evil from Yisra’el.

Deu 17:13  All the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.

Again, all we can do today is shun such a person until they repent.  However, we must not be lax in doing so, or else sinners will be convinced that they do not need to repent and that their sins will be tolerated by the community.  If the community does intend to tolerate some sins, for whatever reason, a meeting must be held and this judgment must be publicly declared – to indicate that the elders have considered some “extenuating circumstances” and made a decision of some sort.  Sin should never be just ignored, even if the community intends to tolerate it.  It sets a bad precedent to turn a blind eye – ignoring sins a community intends to tolerate leads to ignoring sins the community should not and cannot tolerate.   Therefore the elders should make clear that they are not ignoring any sin in the community, no matter how small it appears to be.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 17:14  When you are come to the land which YHWH your Elohim gives you, and shall possess it, and shall dwell therein, and shall say, I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are round about me;

Deu 17:15  you shall surely set him king over you, whom YHWH your Elohim shall choose: one from among your brothers shall you set king over you; you may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.

Deu 17:16  Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he may multiply horses; because YHWH has said to you, You shall henceforth return no more that way.

Deu 17:17  Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart not turn away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

The point of having a King is not to let some person indulge in wealth and privilege.  The point is to have a unifying force, a leader, someone who can speak for the nation to other nations.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 17:18  It shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book, out of [that which is] before the Kohanim the Levites:

Deu 17:19  and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear YHWH his Elohim, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them;

Deu 17:20  that his heart not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he not turn aside from the mitzvah, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of Yisra’el.

A King is not above the Torah, he is below it.  He sits on his throne at Elohin’s sufferance, and Elohim can and will remove a King who exploits the people and acts brazenly against Torah.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 18:1 The Kohanim the Levites, [even] all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion nor inheritance with Yisra’el: they shall eat the offerings of YHWH made by fire, and his inheritance.

Deu 18:2  They shall have no inheritance among their brothers: YHWH is their inheritance, as he has spoken to them.

They have no territorial land.  However, they do have cities that are their own, where they have shops and businesses and small farms for livlihood.  They serve two weeks of regular duty at the Temple and, of course, duty during the festivals.  At other times, they lived and worked in their towns.  Their portion of the offerings at the Temple were never enough to sustain them all year round – and were never meant to be.  Levites had “day jobs” for those times when they were not on their rotation for Temple duty.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 18:3  This shall be the Kohanim’ due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep, that they shall give to the Kohen the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw.

Deu 18:4  The first fruits of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, shall you give him.

Deu 18:5  For YHWH your Elohim has chosen him out of all your tribes, to stand to minister in the name of YHWH, him and his sons for ever.

Deu 18:6  If a Levite comes from any of your gates out of all Yisra’el, where he lives as a foreigner, and comes with all the desire of his soul to the place which YHWH shall choose;

Deu 18:7  then he shall minister in the name of YHWH his Elohim, as all his brothers the Levites do, who stand there before YHWH.

Deu 18:8  They shall have like portions to eat, besides that which comes of the sale of his patrimony.

A Levite that has not been raised in a Levite town or village has the same rights to enter service as other Levites.  There are limits, however.  Elsewhere we are informed that a Levite must be at least 25 years of age to begin an apprenticeship in Temple Duties, and must be at least 30 years of age to enter the Temple Service proper, and must retire from service at age 50.   A Levite of the Cohen HaGadol’s line may not marry a non-Levite woman, a divorcee or widow, even if he was not raised in a Levite town or village.  If he does, he is disqualified from the lineage of the Cohen HaGadol.  (He can, however, still serve as a regular priest.)

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 18:9  When you are come into the land which YHWH your Elohim gives you, you shall not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.

Deu 18:10  There shall not be found with you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices sorcery, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer,

Deu 18:11  or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer.

Deu 18:12  For whoever does these things is an abomination to YHWH: and because of these abominations YHWH your Elohim does drive them out from before you.

Deu 18:13  You shall be perfect with YHWH your Elohim.

Deu 18:14  For these nations, that you shall dispossess, listen to those who practice sorcery, and to diviners; but as for you, YHWH your Elohim has not allowed you so to do.

When someone seeks out the occult arts, it is because they do not trust Elohim to guide them, or they want to change what Elohim has set forth in their lives.   Both are a de facto rebellion against the leadership and sovereignty of Elohim.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 18:15  YHWH your Elohim will raise up to you a prophet from the midst of you, of your brothers, like me; to him you shall listen;

Deu 18:16  according to all that you desired of YHWH your Elohim in Chorev in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of YHWH my Elohim, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I not die.

Deu 18:17  YHWH said to me, They have well said that which they have spoken.

Deu 18:18  I will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, like you; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him.

Deu 18:19  It shall happen, that whoever will not listen to my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.

While this is true of the prophets in general, this passage was understood by the sages to refer to one particular prophet, who would become the Messiah of Israel.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 18:20  But the prophet, who shall speak a word presumptuously in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who shall speak in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.

Deu 18:21  If you say in your heart, How shall we know the word which YHWH has not spoken?

Deu 18:22  when a prophet speaks in the name of YHWH, if the thing doesn’t follow, nor happen, that is the thing which YHWH has not spoken: the prophet has spoken it presumptuously, you shall not be afraid of him.

The Sages realized that in the case of punishments or negative events, Elohim can and does relent if a person repents of their sins (as we see on a large scale in the book of Jonah, for example).  Therefore it was understood that this passage referred to promises of blessings or predictions of positive events.  If a supposed prophets makes such a statement and it does not come to pass, then that person is a false prophet.  Elsewhere we learn that a supposed prophet or dreamer who claims any part of the Torah is “done away with” is also a false prophet (Deuteronomy chapter 13).

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 19:1 When YHWH your Elohim shall cut off the nations, whose land YHWH your Elohim gives you, and you succeed them, and dwell in their cities, and in their houses;

Deu 19:2  you shall set apart three cities for you in the midst of your land, which YHWH your Elohim gives you to possess it.

Deu 19:3  You shall prepare you the way, and divide the borders of your land, which YHWH your Elohim causes you to inherit, into three parts, that every manslayer may flee there.

Prison is not a Biblical concept.  The person who commits manslaughter could flee to a City of Refuge, and live and work there until the death of the Cohen HaGadol who was presiding at the time of his mishap.  The person’s family could follow him there, and they set up their shop or business or trade the same as if they always had done.  This type of “little exile” did not separate families, did not impoverish the wife and children or elderly parents who depended on his support, and kept society stable.  Modern prisons do the exact opposite.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 19:4  This is the case of the manslayer, that shall flee there and live: whoever kills his neighbor unawares, and didn’t hate him in time past;

Deu 19:5  as when a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to hew wood, and his hand fetches a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle, and lights on his neighbor, so that he dies; he shall flee to one of these cities and live:

Deu 19:6  lest the avenger of blood pursue the manslayer, while his heart is hot, and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him mortally; whereas he was not worthy of death, inasmuch as he didn’t hate him in time past.

Deu 19:7  Therefore I command you, saying, You shall set apart three cities for you.

Killing someone for an unintentional accident is not justice – neither is destroying his family with poverty and confining him in unnatural conditions.  None of these is Elohim’s will.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 19:8  If YHWH your Elohim enlarge your border, as he has sworn to your fathers, and give you all the land which he promised to give to your fathers;

Deu 19:9  if you shall keep all this mitzvah to do it, which I command you this day, to love YHWH your Elohim, and to walk ever in his ways; then shall you add three cities more for you, besides these three:

Deu 19:10  that innocent blood not be shed in the midst of your land, which YHWH your Elohim gives you for an inheritance, and so blood be on you.

The Cities of Refuge should be numerous enough and close enough together to not make it impossible for a man to reach them before being killed by the Kinsman Redeemer of the deceased fellow.  Again, shedding blood is always wrong, but it should not be an automatic death sentence for someone who had no intention of killing someone.  Only true cold-blooded murder deserves an automatic sentence of death.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 19:11  But if any man hate his neighbor, and lie in wait for him, and rise up against him, and strike him mortally so that he dies, and he flee into one of these cities;

Deu 19:12  then the elders of his city shall send and bring him there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.

Deu 19:13  Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall put away the innocent blood from Yisra’el, that it may go well with you.

Our current system of capital punishment does not work because there are decades of appeals and the procedure is not effective as a deterrent.  In anciet Israel, a death sentence was carried out immediately after the bet din proceedings (and there had to be at least two witnesses to the crime for a capital punishment).

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 19:14  You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark, which they of old time have set, in your inheritance which you shall inherit, in the land that YHWH your Elohim gives you to possess it.

Moving a landmark or boundary marker is the same as stealing land.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 19:15  One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sins: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established.

Again, a single person may not make a public accusation against someone suspected of sinning.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 19:16  If an unrighteous witness rise up against any man to testify against him of wrong-doing,

Deu 19:17  then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before YHWH, before the Kohanim and the judges who shall be in those days;

Deu 19:18  and the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness is a false witness, and has testified falsely against his brother;

Deu 19:19  then shall you do to him, as he had thought to do to his brother: so shall you put away the evil from the midst of you.

Deu 19:20  Those who remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil in the midst of you.

Deu 19:21  Your eyes shall not pity; life [shall go] for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

A person who testifies against someone simply because they hate them, or for financial gain, or for political or social reasons having nothing to do with being an actual witness of the supposed sin the defendant is accused of, that person is a false witness.  Whatever punishment would have befalled the defendant should be implemented against the false witness.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 20:1 When you go forth to battle against your enemies, and see horses, and chariots, [and] a people more than you, you shall not be afraid of them; for YHWH your Elohim is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

Deu 20:2  It shall be, when you draw near to the battle, that the Kohen shall approach and speak to the people,

Deu 20:3  and shall tell them, Hear, Yisra’el, you draw near this day to battle against your enemies: don’t let your heart faint; don’t be afraid, nor tremble, neither be scared of them;

Deu 20:4  for YHWH your Elohim is he who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.

It is not superior weaponry or superior numbers that win a battle.  A force that is outmanned and outgunned can still win if Elohim is on their side.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 20:5  The officers shall speak to the people, saying, What man is there who has built a new house, and has not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it.

Deu 20:6  What man is there who has planted a vineyard, and has not used the fruit of it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man use the fruit of it.

Deu 20:7  What man is there who has pledged to be married a wife, and has not taken her? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her.

Deu 20:8  The officers shall speak further to the people, and they shall say, What man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? let him go and return to his house, lest his brother’s heart melt as his heart.

Deu 20:9  It shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking to the people, that they shall appoint captains of armies at the head of the people.

Military service is largely optional, not mandatory – there was no “draft” as we know it in ancient Israel, as we see here.  There were numerous exceptions to military service, including unwillingness to fight.  We also learn from the various military census accounts in the Tanakh that the minimum age for military service is 20 years old.  A person younger than 20 is not, in Elohim’s law, elegible for combat duty.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 20:10  When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim shalom to it.

Deu 20:11  It shall be, if it make you answer of shalom, and open to you, then it shall be, that all the people who are found therein shall become tributary to you, and shall serve you.

A just army always makes an offer of peace to a city or village prior to attacking.  If the city or town surrenders, no one is to be killed.  Therefore their blood is on their own hands if they choose not to surrender.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 20:12  If it will make no shalom with you, but will make war against you, then you shall besiege it:

Deu 20:13  and when YHWH your Elohim delivers it into your hand, you shall strike every male of it with the edge of the sword:

Deu 20:14  but the women, and the little ones, and the livestock, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil of it, shall you take for a prey to yourself; and you shall eat the spoil of your enemies, which YHWH your Elohim has given you.

Deu 20:15  Thus shall you do to all the cities which are very far off from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.

Cities outside of Eretz Israel that became a military threat were to be subjugated, not exterminated.  Only the men were to be killed – war against women and children was absolutely not permitted.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 20:16  But of the cities of these peoples, that YHWH your Elohim gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes;

Deu 20:17  but you shall utterly destroy them: the Chittite, and the Amori, the Kena`ani, and the Perizzi, the Chivvi, and the Yevusi; as YHWH your Elohim has commanded you;

Deu 20:18  that they not teach you to do after all their abominations, which they have done to their gods; so would you sin against YHWH your Elohim.

Contrary to the assertions of modern historians with an anti-Biblical agenda, this is not a commandment to engage in genocide.  As the story of Rahav at Jerico shows, the Cana’anites knew Israel was coming and knew Elohim had given them the land – all they had to do was pack up and leave ahead of Joshua’s army, and not a single person would have died.  There were no passports or visas in those days – they could go anywhere they wanted outside of Eretz Israel to live, and nothing was stopping them from doing so.  Most likely, many thousands of people did just that – and lived happily ever after.  The ones who stayed did so knowing full well what the consequences would be.  They chose to defy YHWH Elohim anyway.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 20:19  When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy the trees of it by wielding an axe against them; for you may eat of them, and you shall not cut them down; for is the tree of the field man, that it should be besieged of you?

Deu 20:20  Only the trees of which you know that they are not trees for food, you shall destroy and cut them down; and you shall build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until it fall.

Just like the army was commanded not to make war against women and children, the army was also commanded not to make war against the environment.  A “scorched earth” policy was therefore against Elohim’s commandment.  Trees and vineyards and fields with food were not to be destroyed.

Deuteronomy, continued:

Deu 21:1 If one be found slain in the land which YHWH your Elohim gives you to possess it, lying in the field, and it isn’t known who has struck him;

Deu 21:2  then your elders and your judges shall come forth, and they shall measure to the cities which are round about him who is slain:

Deu 21:3  and it shall be, that the city which is nearest to the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd, which hasn’t been worked with, and which has not drawn in the yoke;

Deu 21:4  and the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley.

Deu 21:5  The Kohanim the sons of Levi shall come near; for them YHWH your Elohim has chosen to minister to him, and to bless in the name of YHWH; and according to their word shall every controversy and every stroke be.

Deu 21:6  All the elders of that city, who are nearest to the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley;

Deu 21:7  and they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.

Deu 21:8  Forgive, YHWH, your people Yisra’el, whom you have redeemed, and don’t allow innocent blood [to remain] in the midst of your people Yisra’el. The blood shall be forgiven them.

Deu 21:9  So shall you put away the innocent blood from the midst of you, when you shall do that which is right in the eyes of YHWH.

Shedding blood always requires blood to be shed in return – the sentence is death.  A manslayer may flee to a City of Refuge to have his sentence suspended (but not eliminated, since if he leaves the City of Refuge the deceased person’s kinsman redeemer may still kill him).  But a murder is always a capital offence to be carried out immediately.  In this case, since the murderer is unknown, a sacrifice if offered in his place.  That will balance the “blood for blood” equation required to have peace and fertility in the land.  However, it will not do away with the “Law of Sin and Death” which will still apply to the killer.  “The soul that sins, it shall die.”

Next:  Haftarah Shoftim