Weekly Torah Lesson
Parasha: Devarim – Words
Torah: Devarim 1:1 – 3:22
** When Moshe was instructed to build a system that would administer justice equally to every citizen or stranger in Israel, He built the system on one principle statement.
9 And I spoke to you at that time, saying: I alone am not able to bear you. 10 Avinu Elohekem has multiplied you, and here you are today, as the stars of heaven in multitude. 11 May Avinu, Elohei avotechem make you a thousand times more numerous than you are, and bless you as He has promised you! 12 How can I alone bear your problems and your burdens and your complaints? 13 Choose wise, understanding, and knowledgeable men from among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you. (Devarim 1:9-13)
** “..wise, understanding and knowledgeable..” Men who had Avinu’s Spirit and understood the Torah’s application in everyday life.
14 And you answered me and said, ‘The thing which you have told us to do is good.’ 15 So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and knowledgeable men, and made them heads over you, leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties, leaders of tens, and officers for your tribes. 16 Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear the cases between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the stranger who is with him.’ (Devarim 1:14-16)
** “..judge righteously..” To make a judgment based on the literal meaning or spiritual intent of the Torah.
17 You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid in any man’s presence, for the judgment is Elohim’s. (Devarim 1:17)
** “..you shall not show partiality..” Every person standing before the judge receives the same consideration.
The case that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it.
** When the judicial system “breaks down”, when the law works differently for the “elite” than it does for the “poor”, law and order disintegrates.
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