Deuteronomy/Davarim 16: "You are to slaughter the Passover-offering to YHVH your God . . .in the place that YHVH chooses to have his name dwell."

[Justice — “just behavior or treatment”.  Is there justice in this world?

 

 We know that the Judge of all humankind is truly just, and yet when we see the world of humankind and how it appears that the righteous are at a disadvantage in a Torah-less world and the unrighteous seem to lord it over all others . . . is true justice only to be expected on the other side of eternity? Human judges are imperfect; the court systems are much the same; we see so much injustice in our real world.  Yet, the ideal is clearly articulated later in this chapter.  If only men would read and heed YHWH’s TORAH!

 

Commentary is from the best of Jewish minds as collected in one resource book by Dr. J.H. Hertz, Pentateuch and Haftorahs; our translation of choice is EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses.—Admin1.]

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Deuteronomy/Davarim 16

(e)  THE THREE PILGRIMAGE FESTIVALS

The law concerning the three annual pilgrimages to the Temple has already been given in Exod. XXIII,14; XXXIV,18; Lev. XXIII,4, and Num. XXVIII,16.  What distinguishes the statement of the law in Deut. is the emphasis upon the Central Sanctuary, at which all Israel must gather on these Festivals.  These Pilgrimage Feasts had a double signification.  They each had reference to a historical event of national importance, but they also marked the three seasons of the agricultural year.  ‘It is well to keep in view the agricultural aspect of the Three Festivals.  It helps us to realize the fact that Israel was once an agricultural people and that its commercial character is not, as is commonly thought, inborn, but is the result of the unkindly conditions in later ages.  It is good for us and for the world at large to remember that the history of our race has its idyliic side’ (M. Joseph).

1-8.  THE PASSOVER

 

1 Keep the New-moon of Aviv/Ripe-grain.
 You are to observe Passover to YHVH your God,
 for in the New-moon of Aviv 
YHVH your God took you out of Egypt, at night.the month of Abib.  

lit. ‘of the green ears of corn’; later known as Nisan.

by night. In Nu. XXXIII,3, it is mentioned, ‘on the morrow after the passover, the children of Israel went out.’  The deliverance took place during the night (Exod. XII,31), though the Exodus itself did not begin until the break of the day following the Passover-offering.

2 You are to slaughter the Passover-offering to YHVH your God, (from) flock and herd, 
in the place that YHVH chooses
 to have his name dwell.

and thou shalt sacrifice.  As a token of gratitude for God’s mercies.

of the flock and the herd.  In Exod. XII,3 it is ordained that a lamb was to be used as the Paschal offering; but that restriction was for that special occasion only, not for the perennial observance to be carried out in the Temple.  Another explanation is that the lamb was for the Paschal sacrifice, and the ox for the Festival-sacrifice.  This is confirmed by what is narrated in II Chron. XXXV,7.  In V. 13 of that chapter, it is stated that the lambs, which were the Passover-offering, ‘they roasted with fire according to the ordinance’; and the oxen, which were ‘the holy offerings’, were boiled—this being forbidden with the Paschal sacrifice, but allowed with the Festival-sacrifice.

3 You are not to eat it with leaven; 
seven days you are to eat it with matzot, bread of affliction, 
for with trepidation you went out from the land of Egypt,
 in order that you may bear-in-mind the day of your going-out from the land of Egypt, 
all the days of your life.

with it. i.e. with the Paschal offering.

therewith. The whole period of abstinence from leaven is treated as conditioned by the sacrifice of the Passover immediately preceding, and regulated by the same principle established in the first instance for the Passover.

the bread of affliction. So called because the bread was prepared while the people were in a state of stress and hardship, consequent upon their hasty departure from Egypt (Exod. XII,34,39).  There is, of course, an obvious association of ideas with servitude in Egypt.

in haste. That alone would make it impossible for the Israelites to think that they had gained their liberty by the might of their hand.

4 There is not to be seen with you (any) fermentation in all your territory
 for seven days,
 there is not to remain-overnight 
(any) of the meat that you slaughter at sunset on the first day, till daybreak.no leaven.

 See Exod. XII,9.

with thee. This is not the traditional Jewish interpretation, which requires the rendering ‘of thine’.  ‘The leaven which belongs to thee thou mayest not see, i.e. have in possession; but thou mayest see that which belongs to others’ (Sifri).

the first day at even. This means the evening which commences the first day; i.e. on the 14th of Nisan.  The words ‘at even’ are not to be understood as signifying that the sacrifice was offered at night, but rather ‘towards the evening.’

until the morning. Of the second day of the Festival (the 16th of Nisan), the prohibition to apply also to the Festival-sacrifice.

5 You may not slaughter the Passover-offering
 within one of your gates that YHVH your God is giving you;

within any of thy gates. The law is repeated because the Israelite might think that he should exactly copy the procedure on the fateful night of the release, when each householder had to slay the lamb at the entrance of his house, and stain the doorposts with blood.

6 rather, in the place that YHVH your God chooses his name to dwell 
you are to slaughter the Passover-offering, at setting-time,
when the sun comes in,
 at the appointed-time of your going-out from Egypt.
7 You are to boil it and you are to eat it
 in the place
 that YHVH your God chooses.
 Then you are to face about, at daybreak, 
and go back to your tents.

in the morning. Of the 16th of Nisah.

go unto thy tents. i.e. return home; or, to the temporary dwellings of the pilgrims in Jerusalem (Ehrlich).

8 For six days you are to eat matzot, 
on the seventh day
 is a (day of) Restraint to YHVH your God;
you are not to do (any) work.

six days.   In v. 3 and Exod. XIII,6, the command is to eat unleavened bread for seven days.  There are several methods of reconciling the two statements.  The most obvious is to connect v. 8 with what immediately precedes.  After leaving the Holy City, unleavened bread is to be eaten for six more days.  The Rabbis deduce from the passages that the eating of unleavened bread is obligatory on the first day of the Festival only; on the six other days, the Israelite may not eat that which is leavened, but he is not compelled to eat unleavened bread.  He would not contravene the law if, i.e. he subsisted on fruit.

on the seventh day. Of the Passover Festival.

Passover is the greatest of all the historical festivals, at once the starting-point of Israel’s national life and a well-spring of its religious ideas.  In the Biblical age, we find the Passover celebrated with especial solemnity at important epochs in the national life: such as the religious revivals which marked the reign of pious kings, like Hezekiah, II Chron. XXX, and Josiah, II Chron. XXXV.

9-12.  THE FEAST OF WEEKS

9 Seven weeks you are to number for yourself; 
from the start of the sickle in the standing-grain you are to start numbering, 
seven weeks.
10 You are to observe a pilgrimage-festival of Weeks to YHVH your God 
according to the sufficiency of the freewill-offering of your hand that you give,
as YHVH your God blesses you.

the feast of weeks.  Heb. Shavuos. In Exod. XXIII,16 it is called ‘the feast of the harvest’, and in Num. XXVIII,26 ‘the day of the first fruits’, alluding to its agricultural aspect.  In the Liturgy it is described as ‘the Season of the Giving of our Torah’, viz. the Revelation at Sinai.  It is thus both a nature and a historical festival.

freewill-offering. i.e. with a gift adequate to the ability of the offerer.  On Passover, the Israelite’s offering was prescribed; but on the Feast of Weeks, each pilgrim offered what he felt disposed to give.

11 And you are to rejoice before the presence of YHVH your God, 
you, your son, your daughter,
your servant and your maid, and the Levite that is within your gates,
 and the sojourner, the orphan and the widow that are among you,
 in the place 
that YHVH your God chooses
 to have his name dwell.

thou shalt rejoice.  ‘It is a man’s duty to be joyful and glad at heart on the festivals, he and his wife and his children and those dependent upon him.  Make the children happy by giving them sweets and nuts; and the womenfolk by buying them frocks and jewellery according to your means.  It is also a duty to give food to the hungry, to the fatherless, and to the widow as well as to other poor people’ (Shulchan Aruch).

12 You are to bear-in-mind that a serf were you in Egypt;
 so you are to take-care and observe these laws.

a bondman in Egypt. ‘It was with the view that thou shouldest do these statutes, that I redeemed thee from Egypt’ (Rashi).

Unlike Passover and Tabernacles, the Feast of Weeks has no distinctive ceremony.  In many rites, the Book of Ruth, presenting a charming picture of agricultural life in ancient Palestine, is read.  In many congregations it is also customary to spend the first night of Shavuos in reading selections from the Torah and the Prophets, as well as from Rabbinic literature.  The special book of service for this purpose is known as Tikkun leyl Shavos.  A more universal custom is to decorate the synagogues with flowers and plants on this Festival. On Shavuos, the Jewish child was first initiated into the study of the Jewish religion and the Hebrew Language.

13-15.  FEAST OF TABERNACLES

13 The pilgrimage-festival of Sukkot/Huts you are to observe for yourself, for seven days,
at your ingathering, from your threshing-floor, from your vat.

feast of tabernacles. The name is explained in Lev. XXIII,42.  It is called ‘Feast of Ingathering’ in Exod. XXIII,16, XXIV,22.

tabernacle. Is here used in the sense given by Dr. Johnson, ‘casual dwelling.’

14 You are to rejoice on your festival, 
you, your son, and your daughter, 
your servant and your maid,
the Levite,
 the sojourner, the orphan and the widow that are within your gates.
15 For seven days you are to celebrate-a-festival to YHVH your God
 in the place that YHVH chooses, 
for YHVH your God has been blessing you
 in all your produce and in all the doings of your hands, 
and you shall be, oh so joyful!

seven days. It is noteworthy that the Torah does not add here the observance of Shemini Atzeres, the eighth day of solemn assembly, as in Lev. XIII,36.  But it is evident that this chapter does not aim at giving a list of all the special days, and that is why there is no mention here of the New Year and Day of Atonement.  Its purpose is to describe the three occasions in the year when the Israelite must make a pilgrimage to the Temple. The reason for the omission of Shemini Atzeres is perhaps to be sought in the fact that it was considered ‘a separate Festival’ and the Israelite was not commanded to make the pilgrimage specially for this eighth day.  Being in the Holy City for Tabernacles, he remains there until after Atzeres.

altogether joyful.  Since this Festival marked the reaping of the fruits of the year’s toil, it was an occasion of great rejoicing.  It is sometimes referred to as ‘the Festival’, par excellence.

‘Joyous worship has always been the keynote of the festival of Tabernacles.  In Temple days, the priests, with Lulav and Ethrog, went round the Altar in procession to the sound of the Shofar, chanting, ‘Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD: O LORD, I beseech thee, send now prosperity’ (Ps. CXVIII,25).  The ceremony which appears to have aroused the greatest enthusiasm was the Drawing of water.  The Mishnah tells us, ‘He that hath not beheld the joy of the Drawing of water hath never seen joy in his life.’  There were torch dances by men of piety and renown, and songs and hymns by Levites and people to the accompaniment of flutes, harps, and cymbals.

‘The latest feature in the development of the Festival is the festive character given to the last day (Simchas Torah), as marking the occasion of the completion and recommencement of the reading of the Law.  In the Middle Ages, it became customary to take all the Scrolls from the Ark and to bear them in procession round the Synagogue.  Anxious as Jewish parents have always been to stimulate their children’s love and interest in their religion, they made it essentially a Children’s festival.  In some synagogues, children were called to the reading of the Law.  Fruits and sweets were distributed among them.

‘And thus, in ever-changing surroundings, the note of joy in the festival of Tabernacles can be heard through all the centuries; now as the rejoicing over the harvest, now as the joy of Temple-worship, and now again in triumphant homage to the Law, Israel’s inalienable birthright, “whence with joy he draws water out of the wells of salvation”‘(H.M. Adler).

16 (At) three points in the year
 are all your male-folk to be seen
 at the presence of YHVH your God
 in the place that he chooses: 
on the Festival of Matzot, 
on the Festival of Weeks, 
and on the Festival of Huts;
 and no one is to be-seen at the presence of YHVH empty-handed;

three times in a year. The v. occurs substantially in Exod. XXIII,14-17 and XXXIV,23.

empty. i.e. without offerings.

17 (rather) each-man according to the giving-capacity of his hand
 according to the blessing of YHVH your God that he has given you.

(2)  GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE – This section defines the status of judges, the king, the priests and prophets—all of them officers of the Hebrew Commonwealth.

(a)  JUDGES AND JUSTICE

18-20.  Provision is to be made for an ordered civil government.  Justice must be free, accessible, and absolutely impartial; II Chronicles XIX,5-11.

18 Judges and officials you are to provide for yourselves, within all your gates
 that YHVH your God is giving you,
 for your tribal-districts; 
they are to judge the people (with) equitable justice.

judges.  Local lay magistrates.

tribe by tribe. i.e. in every town of each tribe.

with righteous judgment. The judges must be both competent and impartial, and are not to be appointed for social or family reasons; see I,13.

19 You are not to cast aside a case-for-judgment,
 you are not to (specially) recognize (anyone’s) face, 
and you are not to take a bribe
 -for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise,
 and twists the words of the equitable.

thou.  These commands are in the singular, as though they were an exhortation to each judge individually (Ibn Exra).

wrest. Pervert; Exod. XXIII,6.

 

respect persons. The Heb. idiom for ‘showing partiality’; Lev. XIX,15.  Absolute fairness must be shown in the order of the hearing of the cases, whether the case involve a small sum or a large sum, whether the litigant be rich or poor.  The Rabbis, however, ruled that an exception be made in the suit of an orphan, whose case must always be heard first; next in order, that of a widow; furthermore, that a woman’s cause must be heard before that of a man. The judge is to give everyone a patient and courteous hearing.  He is warned against yielding to the subtle temptation of giving an unjust judgment out of pity to the poor. ‘The judge shall not say, “This man is poor and his opponent is rich, and it is the duty of the latter to help in his need.  I shall therefore decide against the rich man, and thereby cause the poor man to be helped without the taint of almsgiving.” Nor shall the judge say, “How can I put this rich man to shame in public, on account of a paltry sum?  I shall acquit him now, but shall tell him afterwards to make good the amount” (Talmud).

 

a gift. A bribe. The acceptance of any gift by a judge is forbidden; XXVII,25.  In the East, that judge was regarded as still a just judge who took gifts only from the party in the right.  But judicial venality is not unknown in Western lands.  The absolutely honest intention to accord justice to all is, even in England, only a recent attainment.

 

blind the eyes. To the facts of the case and their true bearings; and the judge will find it impossible not to seek to justify the giver of the bribe (Talmud).

words of the righteous.  Of men who otherwise would be righteous.  Some translate ’cause’ instead of words’ in that case, righteous means, ‘those who are in the right,’ the innocent.

JUSTICE, JUSTICE SHALT THOU FOLLOW

20 Equity, equity you are to pursue,
 in order that you may live 
and possess the land that YHVH your God is giving you!

justice, justice.  Or ‘that which is altogether just’; or, ‘justice, and only justice.’  Heb. The duplication of the word ‘justice’ brings out with the greatest possible emphasis the supreme duty of even-handed justice to all.  ‘Justice, whether to your profit or loss, whether in word or in action, whether to Jew or non-Jew’ (Bachya ben Asher).  A Chassidic rabbi explained this insistence on ‘justice, and only justice,’ to imply, ‘Do not use unjust means to secure the victory of justice’—a deep saying.  Man is slow to realize that justice is strong enough, Divine enough, to triumph without itself resorting to injustice.  In the eyes of the Prophets, justice was a Divine, irresistible force.  Isaiah, for example, uses only one word to designate both ‘justice’ and ‘victory’ (i.e. the triumph of right in the world).

 

Justice, justice shalt thou follow.  These passionate words may be taken as the keynote of the humane legislation of the Torah, and of the demand for social righteousness by Israel’s Prophets, Psalmists and Sages.  ‘Let justice roll down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream,’ is the cry of Amos.  Justice is not the only ethical quality in God or man, nor is it the highest quality; but it is the basis for all the others.  ‘Righteousness and justice are the foundations of Thy throne,’ says the Psalmist: the whole idea of the Divine rests on them.

 

It must be noted that the idea of justice in Hebrew thought stands for something quite other than in Greek.  In Plato’s Republic, for example, it implies a harmonious arrangement of society, by which every human peg is put into its appropriate hole, so that those who perform humble functions shall be content to perform them in due subservience to their superiors.  It stresses the inequalities of human nature; whereas in the Hebrew conception of justice, the equality is stressed.  To understand the idea of justice in Israel we must bear in mind the Biblical teaching that man is created in the image of God; that in every human being there is a Divine spark; and that each human life is sacred, and of infinite worth.  In consequence, a human being cannot be treated as a chattel, or a thing, but must be treated as a personality; and, as a personality, every human being is the possessor of the right to life, honour, and the fruits of his labor.  Justice is the awe-inspired respect for the personality of others, and their inalienable rights; even as injustice is the most flagrant manifestation of disrespect for the personality of others (F. Adler).  Judaism requires that human personality be respected in every human being—in the female heathen prisoner of war, in the delinquent, even in the criminal condemned to death.  The lashes to be inflicted on the evil-doer must be strictly limited, lest ‘thy brother seem vile unto thee‘ (XXV,3); and, if he be found worthy of death by hanging, his human dignity must still be respected: his body is not to remain hanging overnight, but must be buried the same day (XXI,23).

 

It is thus seen that whereas in Greek the idea of justice was akin to harmony, in Hebrew it is akin to holiness.  Isaiah (v, 16) has for all time declared ‘The Holy God is sanctified by justice.’  In brief, where there is no justice, no proper and practical appreciation of the human rights of every human being as sons of the one and only God of righteousness—there we have a negation of religion.  The oppressor, the man who tramples on others, and especially on those like the orphan and the stranger who are too weak to defend themselves, is throughout the Scripture held forth as the enemy of God and man.  The final disappearance of injustice and oppression is represented in the New Year Amidah as the goal of human history, and as synonymous with the realization of God’s Kingdom on earth.

 

However, justice is more than mere abstention from injuring our fellowmen.  ‘The work of justice is peace: and the effect thereof, quietness and confidence forever’ (Isa. XXXII,17).  It is a positive conception, and includes charity, philanthropy, and every endeavour to bring out what is highest and best in others.  Just as ‘truth’ is usually preceded in Scripture by ‘lovingkindness’—to teach that strict justice must, in its execution, be mitigated by pity and humanity.  To do justly and to love mercy,’ is the Prophet’s summing up of human duty towards our fellowmen.  the world could not exist if it were governed by strict justice alone—say the Rabbis; therefore, God judges His human children by justice tempered with mercy.  Such being the Jewish understanding of justice, it is but natural that in later Hebrew that same word came to denote ‘charity’ exclusively.

 

Nor is justice limited to the relation between individuals.  It extends to the relation between group and group, and it asserts the claims of the poor upon the rich, of the helpless upon them who possess the means to help.  And even as there is social justice, prescribing the duties of class to class, so there is international justice, which demands respect for the personality of each and every national group, and proclaims that no people can of right be robbed of its national life or territory, its language or spiritual heritage.  It is this wider recognition of justice that has called into existence the League of Nations.  ‘I do not know whether you are aware that the League of Nations was first of all the vision of a great Jew almost 3,000 years ago,—the prophet Isaiah’ (J.C. Smuts); see Isa. II,1-4.

 

‘The world owes its conception of justice to the Jew,’ says an American jurist.  ‘God gave him to see, through the things that are ever changing, the things that never change.  Compared with the meaning and majesty of this achievement, every other triumph of every other people sinks into insignificance.’

 

thou mayest live. The pure administration of justice is thus one of the conditions of Israel’s existence as a nation.  Our teachers, from the first of them to the last, brand the perversion of the course of justice as the most alarming sign of national decay.

 

AGAINST IDOLATROUS WORSHIP

Idolatry may well be included among the laws dealing with government and justice.  The Jewish State, as a theocracy, was based on loyalty to God, and idolatry was regarded as high treason.  There is a close connection between the commands concerning judges and idolatrous worship; ‘He who appoints a judge who is unfit for his office, is as if he were to build an Asherah, a centre of heathen worship’ (Talmud).

pillar. which the LORD thy God hateth. These additional words distinguish the heathen pillars from the innocent pillars mentioned in Gen. VIII, 18; V,14 (Ibn Ezra, Dillmann).