Shabbat Shoftim: If Not Now, When?

וְיִגַּ֥ל כַּמַּ֖יִם מִשְׁפָּ֑ט וּצְדָקָ֖ה כְּנַ֥חַל אֵיתָֽן׃

But let justice well up like water,

Righteousness like a torrential river. (Amos 5.24)

We are appropriately proud of our prophetic tradition and its insistence upon “just balances, just weights, a just efah, and a just hin” (Lev. 19.36) in our business dealings, as well as the social imperative to “hear out your neighbor, [to] decide justly between one party and the other—be it a fellow Israelite or a stranger.” (Deut. 1.16)

As we enter the Third Era* of Judaism, a time of waning rabbinic authority and dropping membership in many Jewish institutions, it is the prophetic tradition that continues to hold us strongly, and hold us together. Young Jews who can’t imagine setting foot in a shul are active members of If Not Now and Never Again; the first phrase comes directly from the ancient Jewish religious tradition that insists on righteousness in judgement:

הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, אִם אֵין אֲנִי לִי, מִי לִי. וּכְשֶׁאֲנִי לְעַצְמִי, מָה אֲנִי. וְאִם לֹא עַכְשָׁיו, אֵימָתָי:  

Hillel used to say: If I am not for myself, who is for me? But if I am for my own self [only], what am I? And if not now, when? 

Today If Not Now is also a Jewish organization that rallies Jewish opposition to the Occupation of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel. The young people who support it have clearly absorbed the ethical teaching of their religious culture: “you shall not stand idle while your neighbor bleeds.” (Lev. 19.16)

The second phrase, coined after the Holocaust by our people, is not only a healthy and necessary Jewish imperative around self-defense, but also, in the hands of both survivors and the members of the national Jewish organization founded in 2019 to protest ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) persecution of immigrants, a universal imperative also founded on Torah values:

כְּאֶזְרָ֣ח מִכֶּם֩ יִהְיֶ֨ה לָכֶ֜ם הַגֵּ֣ר ׀ הַגָּ֣ר אִתְּכֶ֗ם וְאָהַבְתָּ֥ לוֹ֙ כָּמ֔וֹךָ כִּֽי־גֵרִ֥ים הֱיִיתֶ֖ם בְּאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרָ֑יִם 

The stranger that dwells with you shall be to you as one born among you, and thou shalt love them as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Miżrayim. (Lev. 19.34)

Both of these organizations have been criticized as radical and “bad for the Jews” by Jewish institutional leadership. But the irony is immense: all they are doing is putting Jewish values into practice, in a way that I believe our ancient prophets would have liked. They called for justice to sweep away unjust structures the way that flood waters sweep away everything in their path.

Because justice is a divine imperative; we are told that we must judge justly, that our laws must be just, at the cost of our lives. That is the heart of this week’s parashah: “justice, justice you shall pursue, that you may thrive and occupy the land that your God יהוה is giving you.” (Deut. 16.20)

There is a millennial belief, stemming from this Torah verse, that the land of Israel will vomit us out if we do not follow the mitzvot we are obligated to fulfill as a condition of living there – most of all, if we do not establish justice in the land for all its inhabitants. One traditional saying incorporated into our prayers reflects it: “because of our sins we were exiled from our land.” 

As we struggle to find the path of consolation we are to walk in these weeks before the High Holy Days, as we consider the many ways in which injustice seems to flourish, may we find some hope in the newest generation of our people. They are committed to the insistence upon  absolute justice as their Jewish birthright; and while they may be young and innocent of the social compromise necessary to live in society, may they insist to us on the truth that social compromise should be founded in compassion and justice, not in equivocation and the acceptance of human pain as collateral damage.

“Justice, justice you shall pursue.” The repetition indicated to our ancestors that we must have just means and just ends, no less. May we be among those, regardless of age or circumstance, who cling to justice in the face of social peer pressure, and to compassion in the face of psychological overwhelm. Our ethical world depends upon it.

רַבָּן שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן גַּמְלִיאֵל אוֹמֵר, עַל שְׁלשָׁה דְבָרִים הָעוֹלָם עוֹמֵד, עַל הַדִּין וְעַל הָאֱמֶת וְעַל הַשָּׁלוֹם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (זכריה ח) אֱמֶת וּמִשְׁפַּט שָׁלוֹם שִׁפְטוּ בְּשַׁעֲרֵיכֶם:  

Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel used to say: on three things does the world stand: On justice, on truth and on peace, as it is said: “execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates” (Zekhariah 8:16). (Pirke Avot 1.18)