Parshat Shoftim
| This week’s parashah, Shoftim, begins: “You shall assign judges and officers for yourself. . . and judge the people with righteousness.” An anonymous commentator cited in Itturei Torah found a deeper meaning beneath the surface of that verse. He read it, not as a teaching about public justice, but as a teaching about how we grow as individuals.
He read the first clause with special emphasis on the words “for yourself,” to mean that we must judge ourselves — we must hold ourselves strictly to account — before we have the right to judge anyone else. He read the second clause, “and judge the people with righteousness,” to mean that, if we have fulfilled the first clause and held ourselves to account, then our judgment of others will be kinder, i.e. we will tend to see them as righteous and overlook their faults. In other words, if we have taken responsibility for our own shortcomings, we will be less likely to project those shortcomings onto others. During the month of Elul, our task is to examine our lives in preparation for the Days of Awe, to judge ourselves as if from God’s perspective. One practical way to know if we are succeeding is to see if we are growing more patient and compassionate toward the people around us. May this time of self-examination also be a time of greater closeness to our family, our friends, and our community.
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