Elul has arrived, which means the Jewish calendar has once again dispensed with gentle encouragement and moved directly to the annual performance review.

This Shabbat we read Parashat Shofetim, meaning “judges.” It begins with Moshe commanding the Israelites to appoint judges and law enforcement officers in every city. This is appropriate for Elul, the month in which we are supposed to examine our behavior, acknowledge our failings, and prepare ourselves for the Days of Awe.

Most of us are extremely enthusiastic about judgement, provided someone else is in the dock.

“Justice, justice shall you pursue,” Moshe declares. Not admire. Not discuss over coffee. Not place on a motivational poster beside a photograph of a sunrise. Pursue.

Shofetim is effectively the Torah’s constitutional blueprint for the Jewish nation. It deals with courts, witnesses, kings, prophets, warfare, accidental killing, and communal responsibility. It is less a soothing spiritual interlude than an instruction manual for preventing society from becoming one enormous WhatsApp group administered by somebody’s unstable cousin.

The first requirement is the appointment of honest judges. They may not favor anyone, distort the law, or accept bribes, because “bribery blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous.”

Notice that the Torah does not say bribery blinds only the corrupt, dim-witted, or morally suspicious. It blinds the wise. Intelligent people are not immune to self-interest. We are able to produce more sophisticated explanations for why our self-interest is, in this particular case, an important matter of principle.

I am extremely capable of conducting such judicial proceedings in my own head. I can prosecute, defend, and acquit myself before breakfast. If I spend money I should have saved, the defense submits that the purchase was essential to my emotional wellbeing. If I avoid something difficult, the court accepts that I was protecting my boundaries. If someone else behaves in precisely the same way, however, I am prepared to deliver a detailed judgement, sentence, and psychiatric assessment before they have finished explaining.

I live with three cats,........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)