Shoftim
We need protection
Of the gates into our soul (1)
Shoftim VeShotrim
Bribes will blind your eyes
And the world is filled with them (2)
Beware subtle bribes
Seek justice justice
For Jewish brothers, others
Mayor Koch's pshat (3)
The dead man will die
Already gone long ago
As some dead men live (4)
Two or three eidim
The third counts like the second
For better or worse (5)
Not trendy, but true
Destroy evil from your midst
A Jewish duty
Listen to the judge
When he says that right is right
Or that left is left (6)
Place a king on you
That his fear should be on you
Like the King of kings
Limit the horses
There should be no exceptions
No matter how wise (7)
Kings too must recall
G-d is the King of all kings
Keep Torah guide close
(1) The Sefer Yetzirah and others explain that the command to defend our gates applies not only to our cities but tour bodies. Our orifices are our gates and we must protect our souls by defending what we allow inside us.
(2) Rav Elchonon Wasserman explains that the world offers bribes of materialismand that we must be on guard to adhere to the truth and not be swayed by the bribes of this world. Along these lines Rav Chaim Schmuelewitz said "there are no doubts, only desires."
(3) When Koch was hosting a radio program and a man called up and said that Hatzalah wouldn't take him because he wasn't Jewish, Koch said he didn't believe that because of this traditional Jewish understanding of this pasuk.
(4) The Torah states "yumat hameit," and the rabbis explain that a bad person is like dead when alive. The rabbis add that righteous people live on after they die.
(5) The rabbis say that the Torah says two or three count to tell you that if the two witnesses are found to be phony, the third person is held accountable too for having latched onto them. And the idea is developed that it is a great thing when you connect to good people.
(6) See Torah Temimah. Everyone quotes the Chazal that says, listen even if they say left is right. But the Torah Temimah quotes a Chazal that says the sensible reverse - only listen when they say right is right...
(7) The wise Shlomo HaMelech erred in this regard.
posted by rabbi neil fleischmann @ 5:44 PM
3 Comments:
these parsha haikus
too much of same old same old?
ripe time for sonnets?
change haiku format?
personally i would not!
bobette thinks it great!
R' schachter points out that the common understanding of "al yamin she'who smoel" (even if they say right is left) is totally incorrect. He proves that that cannot be pshat from the concept of "par he'elem davar shel ztibbur" which points to the idea that judaism adamantly does not believe in rabbinic infalliblity. there is more to write but i'll suffice with a links to ideas that sum this up http://torahweb.org/torah/2003/parsha/rsch_mishpatim.html.(after having looked at the dvar torah I see there some points that still need to be addressed, perhaps a different time)Brad
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