Parshat Shoftim opens with the command to appoint judges and legal officials to carry out justice within the society and with a warning against the worship of other gods. Two witnesses must be heard before a court can impose the death penalty. Cases of homicide, civil law, or assault too difficult to decide in one court must be transferred to a higher court. Regulations for choosing a king / leader are presented, including a warning that this leader should follow the laws of Torah faithfully. The offerings for priests are against set forth; also set forth is the different difference between a true and false prophet. Cities of refuge for those guilty of manslaughter are described, with laws forbidding the movement of landmarks. The portion concludes with regulations to be observed during war and with assessments of communal responsibilities when the body of a murder victim is found beyond the city limits. - A Torah Commentary for Our Times, Harvey Fields.
As it is taught in a baraita: When the verse states: “Justice, justice, shall you follow,” one mention of “justice” is stated with regard to judgment and one is stated with regard to compromise. How so? Where there are two boats traveling on the river and they encounter each other, if both of them attempt to pass, both of them sink, as the river is not wide enough for both to pass. If they pass one after the other, both of them pass. And similarly, where there are two camels who were ascending the ascent of Beit Ḥoron, where there is a narrow steep path, and they encounter each other, if both of them attempt to ascend, both of them fall. If they ascend one after the other, both of them ascend.
(1) “Judges and officers you shall place for you within all your gates that the Lord your God is giving you for your tribes, and they shall judge the people with fair judgment” (Deuteronomy 16:18).
Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said: Do not regard justice lightly, as it is one of the stanchions that support the world. Why? It is as the Sages taught: The world stands upon three matters: Upon justice, upon truth, and upon peace. Consider that if you distort judgment you destabilize the world, as it is one of its stanchions. The Rabbis say: The potency of justice is considerable, as it is one of the legs of the Divine Throne. From where is this derived? “Righteousness and justice are at the base of Your throne; kindness and truth greet Your countenance” (Psalms 89:15). The Holy One blessed be He said: ‘Since that is so, the punishment for injustice is harsh; be careful.’ From where is this derived? It is from what we read in our context, “Judges and officers.”
Thus at the outset of the book in which he summarised the entire history of Israel and its destiny as a holy people, he already gave priority to the administration of justice, something he would memorably summarise in a later chapter (Deut. 16:20) with the words, “Justice, justice, shall you pursue.” The words for justice, tzedek and mishpat, are recurring themes of the book. The root tz-d-k appears eighteen times in Deuteronomy; the root sh-f-t, forty-eight times. (R. Jonathan Sacks)
Rambam explains that these women underwent a conversion process, and were, technically speaking, Jewish at the time of their respective marriages to Shlomo HaMelech. Thus, we have cleared Shlomo HaMelech of the terrible sin of intermarriage. Rambam’s position is accepted as mainstream Jewish thought, as it is presented as the normative understanding in the Shulchan Aruch in its discussion of Hilchot Geirut (Yoreh De’ah 268), and is cited by Pashtanim including the Metzudat David (Melachim I 3:1), Ralbag, Malbim, and Da’at Mikra. (Chaim Jachter, c. 2019)
(18) When he is seated on his royal throne, he shall have a copy of this Teaching written for him on a scroll by the levitical priests. (19) Let it remain with him and let him read in it all his life, so that he may learn to revere his God יהוה, to observe faithfully every word of this Teaching as well as these laws. (20) Thus he will not act haughtily toward his fellows or deviate from the Instruction to the right or to the left, to the end that he and his descendants may reign long in the midst of Israel.
When did the custom of reading the Torah in the synagogue begin? The Torah commands the king to read from the Torah, and mandates the Hak’hel ceremony in which the Torah is read before the entire nation, but there is no specific command for the individual to read the Torah. The Sages asserted that the custom of reading from the Torah on Shabbat and holidays was derived from Moses: “Moses instituted the practice for the Israelites of reading from the Torah on Shabbat and holidays and Rosh Hodesh.” According to midrashic sources, the practice of reading the Torah on Mondays and Thursdays and during the Minhah service on Shabbat also originated in ancient times: “Thus the Prophets and the Elders instituted for them the custom of reading from the Torah on Shabbat, Mondays, and Thursdays.” A baraita in the Babylonian Talmud says it was instituted by the Prophets. (Sharon Shalom, 2012)
As an example of Deuteronomy’s thinking and often humane approach, the rules of war have a reasoned tone compared even to the contemporary world. Many of them occur elsewhere in the ancient Near East. The first four verses stress the frequently appearing idea that God fights on the Israelites’ behalf. From there vv.5–7 help to maintain the values of an agricultural society by keeping new builders, new planters, and newlyweds at home for a while. Added to this are considerations of troop morale (vv.8–9), offers of peaceful surrender terms (10–11), and the end results of siege as commonly portrayed in the ancient world (12–14). A different outcome is to be striven for in the case of the native Canaanites, who are to be wiped out, that Israel not be led astray into their “abominable” practices (16–18). The latter passage, especially since it is followed by an ecologically compassionate one about fruit trees, seems genocidal and hence morally unacceptable today. Clearly it stems from a zealous time and strong feelings; whether it was carried out as described we do not know. Medieval Jews solved the problem of moral sensibilities for themselves by defining the Canaanites as long dead with no contemporary successors. But the troubling nature of the text remains.
We should not cut down fruit trees outside a city nor prevent an irrigation ditch from bringing water to them so that they dry up, as Deuteronomy 20:19 states: 'Do not destroy its trees.' Anyone who cuts down such a tree should be lashed.
This does not apply only in a siege, but in all situations. Anyone who cuts down a fruit tree with a destructive intent, should be lashed.
Nevertheless, a fruit tree may be cut down if it causes damage to other trees or to fields belonging to others, or if a high price could be received for its wood. The Torah only prohibited cutting down a tree with a destructive intent.
Trees and their fruit are a vital source of food and nutrition, especially in a country beset by famine, as we learn from the account of Abraham’s earliest days on the land. Making sure that these trees have their highest yield is a small but significant insurance policy against the ravages of drought and hunger. Protecting fruit trees is the focus of another Deuteronomic law, which demands that fruit trees not be destroyed during war. Trees were often chopped down on the battlefield, since enemies could hide behind them; a field cleared of trees made human targets more visible and vulnerable. But fruit trees were not to become another tool in the human war machine since they are a food source. It takes a long time for a fruit tree to reach its full maturity and a short time to destroy it; the Torah demands that we take this into consideration, even when it comes to our adversaries. (Erica Brown, 2011)