Parshat Shoftim: Tzedek Amongst the People

There is an old Yiddish joke about the atheist in the community who goes to shul regularly. He is outspoken about his objection to God and religion and so someone challenges him- what are you doing at services? He responds: Goldstein goes to shul to talk to God, and I go to shul to talk to Goldstein.

Schmoozing, chatting, catching-up with each other are all important parts of participating in Jewish community.  I believe though the story is flawed.  The story proposes an either/or but the truth is that we are at shul both to talk to God and to talk to each other.  Since God created us all in God’s image, having a dialogue with our fellow community members is an act of prayer that honors the way God gives us each a voice, a perspective, and special gifts to share.

We do not function as Jewish islands, cordoned off in our personal prayer bubbles.   Rabbi Baruch Zeilicovich, a colleague of mine here in New Jersey, taught that chayim, the Hebrew word for life, is in the plural – meaning that we are a community minded people, a family.

Our parsha this week focuses on how we organize ourselves, specifically to make sure there is justice in the world.

The famous words ring out ‘Tzedek, tzedek tirdof…’ Justice, Justice you shall pursue…

But our palace of justice is not an ivory tower, it is our shul, our town, the Kiddush table, the classroom.

How do we create a community that functions well amongst people of so many different backgrounds and personalities?

As Tevye teaches us, “It’s not easy!”

To follow from Rabbi Rachel’s teaching last week about the importance of mitzvot between people, bein adam le’chavero, R. Alexander Ziskind of Grodno helps us by teaching that the way to holiness and relationship to God starts first with encouraging us to implement two mitzvot:  Love your neighbor as yourself (ve’ahavta li’re’acha kamocha) and ‘B’tzedek tishpot amitecha’, Judge your neighbor fairly & thoughtfully.  Tzedek here is not book justice, it’s the way we strive to create harmony amongst people, not unanimity or complete agreement, but harmony. 

Reb Ziskind explains that we achieve this harmony by creating empathy – that we share in each other’s simcha, and we journey with others in their sorrow.

The teaching ‘Judge your neighbor thoughtfully’ is so critical for us in sharing our space and time with each other.  We cannot always know the context that informs how a person is feeling.  If we cannot find a way in to discover the context, what’s happening in someone’s life, then b’tzedek tishpot is about avoiding assumptions about why someone is feeling or acting the way they are.  Tears can be tears of joy or sadness.  One person’s closed eyes are meditation and the other’s are distraction or fatigue from a tough week. 

And so we see that justice – tzedek- amongst us is about creating a sense that we’re in it together, that we’re looking out for each other, and supporting each other, and that sometimes our ‘job’ is to help shape and change and other times our work is simply to be there, in the spirit of the song, “Don’t walk in front of me I may not follow, don’t walk behind me I may not lead, just walk beside me and be my friend and together we will walk in the path of Hashem.”