Parashat Shoftim: Who Judges Your Gates?
(delivered by Rabbi Sacks on Saturday, August 19, 2023)
Prince, the great musician, singer, and songwriter,[1] famously told the Los Angeles Times in 2009 that “the gatekeepers must change.” While he was speaking in a different context, his suggestion might well apply to our preparation for the High Holy Days.
Parashat Shoftim, this week’s Torah selection, always follows Rosh Chodesh Elul–the beginning of the High Holy Day season, which ended just before Shabbat. It opens,[2] שֹׁפְטִ֣ים וְשֹֽׁטְרִ֗ים תִּֽתֶּן־לְךָ֙ בְּכׇל־שְׁעָרֶ֔יךָ, “Judges and officers you shall appoint in all your gates.”[3] Let’s note the inverted word order. We understand the sentence as “You shall appoint judges and offices.” However, here the sentence begins not with the usual subject and verb, “you shall appoint,” but with the direct object, “judges and officers.”
By inverting the usual word order, the Torah is directing our attention away from us and our ability to appoint the gatekeepers, because, consciously or not, we do this continually in our lives. Rather, the Torah refocuses our attention on whom we appoint.
We all stand in need of proper gatekeepers and judges at our personal gates. The moralist Bahya ibn Pakuda[4] listed ten gates by which “the Duties of the Heart” prompts us to start guarding–or to better guard–the gates of our lives. For like all gates, if they are left unprotected, unwanted forces can infiltrate our souls, upsetting our moral equilibrium and corrode our character.
So this morning, let us look at two of our gates.
The mouth is a gate. Through the mouth passes words which may either be pearls to enrich the lives of others or vicious serpents carrying deadly poison, so unless we remain on guard we can cause harm, for, as our Tanakh teaches, “death and life are in the power of the tongue.”[5]
- Yes, death–when we speak ill of friends, family, and fellow Jews
and fellow American citizens, maligning the good name of the innocent;
and life–when we encourage the despondent and console the bereaved.
Yes, death–when we use insensitive language and engage in deceitful talk;
and life–when we engage in deeper, more worthy conversations.
- Yes, death–when we incite one against another;
and life–when we bring peace among those who bicker or squabble.
In the Jerusalem Talmud, Rabbi Shim’on teaches, “If I had stood at the foot of Mount Sinai when the Torah was given to Israel, I would have petitioned G!d to grant us two mouths, one for spiritual uses and one for profane uses.”[6] Instead we have only one mouth. Who will judge to what use we shall put our gift of speech? We must do it ourselves. Let us appoint our nobler self as judge at the gate of our mouths. And if we are to berate and call out, let us discover the origin of that need within ourselves and undo it. The Chafetz Chayim used to teach, “Let us talk about ourselves.”[7] Self-reflection is surely better than demeaning others.
Constant vigilance is required. The closing paragraph of the Amidah, our tradition’s central prayer, incorporates the following, “Guard my tongue from evil and my lips from speaking falsehood.” This is traditionally recited three times a day, so that we remain on high alert.
Yes, the mouth is a gate we must guard.
A second gate for us to consider this morning.
The ear is a gate. What we choose to listen to, whether in the realm of information, entertainment, or ordinary communication, also depends upon the criterion we set for ourselves, the kind of judges we appoint to sit at that open gate. The ear may either become a passage for the wisdom of the ages and a plea for the oppressed, or the dumping ground of malicious gossip and foul propaganda.
In the Babylonian Talmud, Rabbi Bar Kappara teaches:
- “If one hears unbecoming language one should put a finger in their ear. This is one of the uses of the flexibility of the fingers.”[8]
Further:
- “The earlobe is soft so as to be able to cover up the ear when in danger of the invasion of unsuitable language.”[9]
Finally:
- “The ear sets the pattern of each one’s life.”[10]
This caution is especially important since the ear appears to us as a passive and “innocent” organ. Yet because the ear remains a vital gate, it requires a judge, even as does the mouth.
We need the High Holy Day season now upon us to consider how we sometimes have ceded our power to serve as the guardians of our own gates. We sometimes appoint friends, or family members, or political figures, or rabbis, to oversee our most important gates–our homes, our social pursuits, our ideas, our Jewish lives. The Joneses and the Smiths, the Goldbergs and the Cohens, are often our arbiters and judges, and not ourselves.
If we only had faith in ourselves and developed an inner sense of worthy values. Solid individuals bear the wisdom that our most sacred possession is our dignity and right, our responsibility and our privilege, to judge vital matters for ourselves. “You shall appoint judges and officers in all your gates.” For the sake of our character and our neshamah, our soul, let us attend to this sacred function.
May all we say and all we listen to during this Elul, this season of preparation for the High Holy Days, render us worthy of inscription for a year of good health, honor, and holiness.
Amen.
Shabbat shalom!
[1] Prince Rogers Nelson (1958-2016) had an amazing career that spanned four decades. Known for his flamboyant stage appearances and eclectic work, he was also a producer, dancer, actor, and film producer.
[2] In Hebrew, שופטים ושוטרים תתן לך בכל שעריך.
[3] Deuteronomy 16:18.
[4] Ibn Pakuda lived in Zaragoza, Spain in the first half of the eleventh century. Known as Rabbeinu Bahya, his major work, the first Jewish systematization of ethics, was written in Arabic around 1040, and was translated into Hebrew (and later English) as חובות הלבבות/Duties of the Heart. He should not be confused with the 13th-14th century biblical commentator Bahya ibn Asher, who was also known as Rabbeinu Bahya.
[5] Proverbs 18:21. In Hebrew, מות ולשון ביד הלשון.
[6] JT Berachot 1:3 and Shabbat 1:2-3.
[7] The Chafetz Chayim added that we are not allowed to speak badly (lashon hara) about ourselves, either!
[8] BT Ketubot 5b.
[9] Ibid.
[10] In Hebrew, על ידי האזן כלם חיים.