There is a particular kind of power that impresses us because of what it can do. A hydraulic press can exert hundreds of tons of force. Steel bends beneath it. Wood splinters. Glass shatters almost without resistance. Now imagine the press descending toward a fragile glass vessel. Closer. Closer. Until only a fraction of an inch remains between steel and glass. And then it stops. The machine has not lost any of its power. The glass has not become any less fragile. What has changed is that power has encountered a limit.

That image has stayed with me because it illuminates something I had not fully appreciated about Parashat Shoftim. We tend to remember Shoftim for one magnificent commandment: Tzedek, tzedek tirdof – “Justice, justice shall you pursue.” Those words deserve their prominence. But they may also distract us from a more subtle pattern running through the portion.

Shoftim is filled with power. Judges exercise judicial power. Kings possess political power. Priests hold sacred authority. Prophets claim the power of divine speech. Armies possess the terrible power of organized force. And again and again, as the Torah describes these forms of authority, it places limits around them. The judge may decide between people, but may not distort judgment, show favoritism, or accept a bribe. The king may rule, but may not multiply horses, wives, silver, or gold. He must keep a copy of Torah beside him and read from it continually “so that his heart will not be lifted above his fellows.” Even prophetic authority is constrained. A person cannot simply announce, “God has spoken to me,” and thereby become immune from scrutiny. Claims of prophecy........

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