Shoftim (parsha)

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Shoftim, Shof'tim, or Shofetim (שופטים — Hebrew for “judges,” the first word in the parshah) is the 48th weekly parshah or portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the fifth in the book of Deuteronomy. It constitutes Deuteronomy 16:18–21:9. Jews in the Diaspora generally read it in August or September.

“Justice, justice shall you pursue.” (Deut. 16:20.)

1 Summary
2 Commandments
3 Haftarah
4 Further reading
5 External links

[edit] Summary

[edit] Rules for magistrates

Moses directed the Israelites to appoint magistrates and officials for their tribes to govern the people with justice, impartially, without bribes. (Deut. 16:18–19.) “Justice, justice shall you pursue,” he said. (Deut. 16:20.)

[edit] Abhorrent practices

Moses warned the Israelites against setting up a sacred post beside God’s altar or erecting a stone pillar. (Deut. 16:21–22.)

Moses warned the Israelites against sacrificing an ox or sheep with any serious defect. (Deut. 17:1.)

If the Israelites found a person who worshiped other gods, the sun, the moon, or any celestial body, then they were to make a thorough inquiry, and if they established the fact on the testimony of two or more witnesses, then they were to stone the person to death, with the witnesses throwing the first stones. (Deut. 17:2–7.) If a case proved too baffling for them to decide, then they were promptly to go to the place that God would choose for God’s shrine, appear before the priests or the magistrate in charge and present their problem, and carry out any verdict that was announced there without deviating either to the right or to the left. (Deut. 17:8–11.) They were to execute any man who presumptuously disregarded the priest or the magistrate, so that all the people would hear, be afraid, and not act presumptuously again. (Deut. 17:12–13.)

King David (statue by F.A. Jerichau)

[edit] Rules for kings

If, after the Israelites had settled the land, they decided to set a king over them, they were to be free to do so, taking an Israelite chosen by God. (Deut. 17:15–15.) The king was not to keep many horses, marry many wives, or amass silver and gold to excess. (Deut. 17:16–17.) The king was to have the priests write for him a copy of this Teaching to remain with him and read all his life, so that he might learn to revere God and observe these laws faithfully. (Deut. 17:18–19.) He would thus not act haughtily toward his people nor deviate from the law, and as a consequence, he and his descendants would enjoy a long reign. (Deut. 17:20.)

[edit] Rules for Levites

The Levites were to have no territorial portion, but were to live only off of offerings, for God was to be their portion. (Deut. 18:1–2.) In exchange for their service to God, the priests were to receive the shoulder, cheeks, and stomach of sacrifices, the first fruits of the Israelites’ grain, wine, and oil, and the first shearing of sheep. (Deut. 18:3–5.) Levites were to be free to come from their settlements to the place that God had chosen as a shrine to serve in the name of God with their fellow Levites, and there they were to receive equal shares of the dues. (Deut. 18:6–8.)

[edit] Rules for prophets

The Israelites were not to imitate the abhorrent practices of the nations that they were displacing, consign their children to fire, or act as an augur, soothsayer, diviner, sorcerer, one who casts spells, one who consults ghosts or familiar spirits, or one who inquires of the dead, for it was because of those abhorrent acts that God was dispossessing the former residents of the land. (Deut. 18:9–14.)

God would raise a prophet from among them like Moses, and the Israelites were to heed him. (Deut. 18:15.) When at Horeb the Israelites asked God not to hear God’s voice directly, God created the role of the prophet to speak God’s words, promising to hold to account anybody who failed to heed the prophet’s words. (Deut. 18:16–19.) But any prophet who presumed to speak an oracle in God’s name that God had not commanded the prophet to utter, or who spoke in the name of other gods, was to die. (Deut. 18:20.) This was how the people were to determine whether the oracle was spoken by God: If the prophet spoke in the name of God and the oracle did not come true, then that oracle was not spoken by God, the prophet had uttered it presumptuously, and the people were not to fear him. (Deut. 18:21–22.)

[edit] Cities of refuge

When the Israelites had settled in the land, they were to divide the land into three parts and set aside three cities of refuge, so that any manslayer could have a place to which to flee. (Deut. 19:1–3.) And if the Israelites faithfully observed all the law and God enlarged the territory, then they were to add three more towns to those three. (Deut. 19:8–9.)

Only a manslayer who had killed another unwittingly, without being the other’s enemy, might flee there and live. (Deut. 19:4.) For instance, if a man went with his neighbor into a grove to cut wood, and as he swung an ax to cut down a tree, the ax-head flew off the handle and struck and killed the neighbor, then the man could flee to one of the cities of refuge and live. (Deut. 19:5.) If, however, one who was the enemy of another lay in wait, struck the other a fatal blow, and then fled to a city of refuge, the elders of the slayer’s town were to have the slayer turned over to the blood-avenger to be put to death. (Deut. 19:11–13.)

[edit] Landmarks

The Israelites were not to move their countrymen’s landmarks, set up by previous generations, in the property that they were allotted in the land. (Deut. 19:14.)

[edit] Rules for witnesses

An Israelite could be found guilty of an offense only on the testimony of two or more witnesses. (Deut. 19:15.) If one person gave false testimony against another, then the two parties were to appear before God and the priests or magistrates, the magistrates were to make a thorough investigation, and if the magistrates found the person to have testified falsely, then they were to do to the witness as the witness schemed to do to the other. (Deut. 19:16–19.)

[edit] Rules for war

Before the Israelites joined battle, the priest was to tell the troops not to fear, for God would accompany them to do battle against their enemy. (Deut. 20:2–4.) Then the officials were to ask the troop whether anyone had built a new house but not dedicated it, planted a vineyard but never harvested it, paid the bride-price for a wife but not yet married her, or become afraid and disheartened, and all these they were to send back to their homes. (Deut. 20:5–8.)

When the Israelites approached a town to attack it, they were to offer it terms of peace, and if the town surrendered, then all the people of the town were to serve the Israelites as forced labor. (Deut. 20:10–11.) But if the town did not surrender, then the Israelites were to lay siege to the town, and when God granted victory, kill all its men and take as booty the women, children, livestock, and everything else in the town. (Deut. 20:12–14.) Those were the rules for towns that lay very far from Israel, but for the towns of the nations in the land — the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites — the Israelites were to kill everyone, lest they lead the Israelites into doing all the abhorrent things that those nations had done for their gods. (Deut. 20:15–18.) When the Israelites besieged a city for a long time, they could eat the fruit of the city’s trees, but they were not to cut down any trees that could yield food. (Deut. 20:19–20.)

[edit] The found corpse

If, in the land, someone slain was found lying in the open, and the slayer could not be determined, then the elders and magistrates were to measure the distances from the corpse to the nearby towns. (Deut. 21:1–2.) The elders of the town nearest to the corpse were to take a heifer that had never been worked down to an ever-flowing wadi and break its neck. (Deut. 21:3–4.) The priests were to come forward, all the elders were to wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken, and the elders were to declare that their hands did not shed the blood nor their eyes see it done. (Deut. 21:5–7.) The elders were to ask God to absolve the Israelites, and not let guilt for the blood of the innocent remain among them, and they would be absolved of bloodguilt. (Deut. 21:8.)

[edit] Commandments

According to Maimonides and Sefer ha-Chinuch, there are 14 positive and 27 negative commandments in the parshah.

To appoint judges (Deut. 16:18.)
Not to plant a tree in the sanctuary (Deut. 16:21.)
Not to erect a column in a public place of worship (Deut. 16:22.)
Not to offer a temporarily blemished animal (Deut. 17:1.)
To act according to the ruling of the Sanhedrin (Deut. 17:11.)
Not to deviate from the word of the Sanhedrin (Deut. 17:11.)
To appoint a king from Israel (Deut. 17:15.)
Not to appoint a convert (Deut. 17:15.)
The king must not have too many horses. (Deut. 17:16.)
Not to dwell permanently in Egypt (Deut. 17:16.)
The king must not have too many wives. (Deut. 17:17.)
The king must not have too much silver and gold. (Deut. 17:17.)
The king must have a separate Torah for himself. (Deut. 17:18.)
The Tribe of Levi must not be given a portion of the land in Israel; rather they are given cities in which to dwell. (Deut. 18:1.)
The Levites must not take a share in the spoils of war. (Deut. 18:1.)
To give the shoulder, two cheeks, and stomach of slaughtered animals to a Kohen (Deut. 18:3.)
To set aside the tithe for the Kohen (Terumah Gedolah) (Deut. 18:4.)
To give the first sheering of sheep to a Kohen (Deut. 18:4.)
The priests’ work shifts must be equal during holidays. (Deut. 18:6-8.)
Not to go into a trance to foresee events (Deut. 18:10.)
Not to perform acts of magic (Deut. 18:10.)
Not to mutter incantations (Deut. 18:11.)
Not to consult a medium (ov) (Deut. 18:11.)
Not to consult a wizard (yidoni) (Deut. 18:11.)
Not to attempt to contact the dead (Deut. 18:11.)
To listen to the prophet speaking in God’s Name (Deut. 18:15.)
Not to prophesize falsely in the name of God (Deut. 18:20.)
Not to prophesize in the name of an idol (Deut. 18:20.)
Not to be afraid of putting the false prophet to death (Deut. 18:22.)
To designate cities of refuge and prepare routes of access (Deut. 19:3.)
A judge must not pity the murderer or assaulter at the trial. (Deut. 19:13.)
Not to move a boundary marker to steal someone's property (Deut. 19:14.)
Not to accept testimony from a lone witness (Deut. 19:15.)
To punish the false witnesses as they tried to punish the defendant (Deut. 19:19.)
Not to panic and retreat during battle (Deut. 20:3.)
To appoint a priest to speak with the soldiers during the war (Deut. 20:5.)
To offer peace terms to the inhabitants of a city while holding siege, and treat them according to the Torah if they accept the terms (Deut. 20:10.)
Not to let any of the people of the seven Canaanite nations remain alive (Deut. 20:16.)
Not to destroy fruit trees even during the siege (Deut. 20:19)
To break the neck of a calf by the river valley following an unsolved murder (Deut. 21:4.)
Not to work nor plant that river valley (Deut. 21:4.)

[edit] Haftarah

The haftarah for the parshah is Isaiah 51:12–52:12.

[edit] Further reading

The parshah has parallels or is discussed in these classical sources:

Jeremiah 22:1–5; 23:9–40; 28:7–9.
Sifre to Deuteronomy 144:1–210:3 (e.g., Jacob Neusner, Sifre to Deuteronomy, vol. 2, 3–108. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987).
Deuteronomy Rabbah 5:1–15.