Justice, justice shall you pursue!

                      (Deuteronomy 16:20)

     Elul 3, 5777/August 25, 2017

"Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may live and possess the land HaShem, your G-d, is giving you." (Deuteronomy 16:20)

This week's Torah reading, Shoftim (judges) makes no bones about it. The nation of Israel's survival in the land of Israel is foundationed upon the pursuit of justice. The word justice (tzedek) repeated in our above quoted verse, makes it emphatically clear that attainment of justice must be pursued emphatically and relentlessly.

The verse which immediately proceeds this verse make it clear that even the most upright and honest of judges can fall prey to favoritism and bribery, "for bribery blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts just words." (ibid 16:19) Justice doesn't come easy. It's not a given and there is no fool-proof system or method for attaining justice that can be created or maintained automatically. Every case brought before judges must be met with the utmost diligence and regard, so that righteous rulings will be made and justice will be achieved.

It is no coincidence, then, that we are further instructed in this week's parashathat "If a matter eludes you in judgment, between blood and blood, between judgment and judgment, or between lesion and lesion, words of dispute in your cities, then you shall rise and go up to the place HaShem, your G-d, chooses."(ibid 17:8) The place that HaShem, our G-d chooses for the highest court of justice in the land is, of course, the very same place that He will choose for His name to be established and for His presence to dwell, the place of the Holy Temple.

There is nothing closer to G-d's desire for His people, and for all humanity, than the pursuit of justice, and therefore, the ultimate recourse to the attaining of justice, the highest court in the land, the Great Sanhedrin, must be located squarely and unequivocally in close proximity to the Holy Temple, within earshot and eye-shot of the great stone altar, the ultimate expression of man's humanity, his frailty and his desire to right himself and draw closer to G-d, and the Holy of Holies, the place where G-d's presence is most pure and unmitigated, where the stone tablets of His Law rest, the very point in eternal time and infinite space from which G-d created our world, and out of love for His creation placed man at the center and at the helm of His creation.

It is in this chosen place, where G-d's desire for His people, for their good, their happiness, peace and prosperity to prevail, and man's desire to measure up as best he can to G-d's hopes and expectations, that the judges must sit, so that their thoughts, deliberations and ultimate decisions will be made and arrived at in the best possible fashion. It is man that seeks justice, but in every case brought before the judges G-d is also a witness, and His testimony, in the form of His ultimate knowledge of our innermost thoughts and motivations, strengths and weaknesses, is delivered in the place where His presence resides. Our judges need to sit in this place of G-d's overwhelming being, so that their judgments will be fully informed by G-d's perfect understanding of the people He created.

We all know how difficult it is to achieve a modicum of justice in our world, and we all are painfully aware of how often the pursuit of justice seems to miss the mark. We throw up our hands in frustration, yet the Torah makes it perfectly clear that the pursuit of justice is an imperative, and that its attainment can ultimately only be achieved when it is physically, as well as intellectually and spiritually connected in immediate proximity to the place of the Holy Temple. Today, of course, the place of the Holy Temple is a place where horrible injustices are committed and G-d's desire for humanity is being confounded by the fanaticism of a few claiming to represent the many. When the source of justice in the world is being held hostage by tyrannical despots, the whole world suffers, and very painfully so. The G-d of Israel so loves mankind that He predicates His glory and His honor on the honor due man via the pursuit of justice. If we stand up for G-d's honor, He will stand up for our honor. Today, the double "justice, justice" that we must pursue with all our being is the justice for man and G-d, and the return of His place of honor in the Holy Temple, and man's place of honor, in the highest court in all the land, adjacent to the Holy Temple. As the prophet declares: "for out of Zion shall the Torah come forth, and the word of HaShem from Jerusalem!" (Isaiah 2:3)

-The Temple Institute