WRJ Voices: Shof'tim

In this week’s Parashah Moses directs the Israelites to appoint judges to make decisions when there are disagreements. Moses further directs the Israelites to honor the decisions made by the judges with neither derision nor doubt.

How timely. 

Shof’tim comes at a time when our country is poised to have the United States president, with congressional approval, choose his second of the nine Supreme Court judges that serve on the highest court in the United States of America.

In considering what to write for my Dvar Torah, I read many works about Shof’tim which spoke to the meaning of justice in today’s world, most of which spoke to the similarity between the times of Moses and the times now. Parallels were especially noted between refugee cities and community responsibility for both the living and the dead.

The story of Shof’tim is well known. The setting is that of forty years of travel coming to an end and Moses knowing what the Israelites don’t. Spoiler alert: Moses knows he is not going into the new world order with the group he has led for forty years.

The cast of Shof’tim is Israelites who are bored, tired, youthful, and not good listeners. The action of Shof’tim is that old Moses, with a well-documented top-down language processing disorder, must orate with a force of meaning that will last forever.

Shof’tim starts with Moses’ direction of appointing “magistrates and officials," (verse 16:18) and then moves to the concept of justice (verse 16:20) while adhering to the new world order of monotheism.

The oration (Moses’ third, in fact) gives details of both criminal and civil law by which the Israelites must live now and in the future. Details in Shof’tim are specific to then such as a death penalty to do away with cultish practices that are abhorrent to the eternal (verse 17:1-5) and to now such as any accusation of a crime is validated only with two or more witnesses (verse19:15).

Shof’tim also includes rules of war (verse 20:1) which take effect only after communicating terms of peace (verse 20:10) and includes exemptions for the newly married and the pacifists (verses 20: 7 & 8). Also included in Shof’tim is how to care for the earth even when engaged in war (verse 20:19) and establishes the law “eglah arufah” in which a whole community, in unison, takes on responsibility to act together as one (verse 21:1-8).

This summary of Shof’tim gives some insight into three impressive topics: 1-picking a Supreme Court judge, 2-maintaining refugee cities, and 3-establishing community responsibility. It was difficult choosing among these. I wrote my Dvar Torah three times.  However, I see the goal for this Dvar Torah in our WRJ “Voices” to relate Shof’tim to WRJ.

On March 3, 2017, at the Fried Leadership conference in Charleston, I took the workshop “The First 100 days ….” which addressed WRJ’s advocacy plan starting in 2017. In this workshop, we learned in what way WRJ chooses where and how to bring Reform Jewish values into the public arena.

The workshop taught us improved judgment when it comes to deciding among all the issues facing WRJ for tikkun olam (“repairing the world” or social justice). The workshop did this by explaining the thorough priority system WRJ uses. This priority system is appropriate for both community and individual decision-making and is methodical, based on Reform Jewish values and replicable.

The workshop also taught us the need for immediate action schedules. “Values” become “boots on the ground” and the work specified in the workshop continues to this day in 2018. The immediate action schedule included drafting public statements to show WRJ’s face to the world, continuing a webinar series for issue briefings, producing action alerts to assist WRJ women to become locally engaged, and forming partnerships with others on issues of concern.

How to relate Shof’tim to WRJ? One might look no further than our WRJ Women Act website. On this site, WRJ is bringing Reform Jewish values into discussions of a Supreme Court choice. On the website, resources can be found on how to act locally to aid those seeking refuge, as well as example after example of how WRJ has acted as a community responsible for the good of the all.

So, my D’var Torah with Shof’tim, as it relates to the pressing issues of the day and seen through a WRJ experience is sharing with you an hour-long workshop, once taken at a Fried Leadership Conference. 

WRJ Executive Director Rabbi Marla Feldman, one of the workshop leaders said at the workshop, “We will need to organize, mobilize, seek partners, preach, teach, and lift up our voices to secure the America of our dreams.”

Gabrielle Grunau, Ph.D. is an alumna of the WRJ North American Board (2013-2018) and currently serves as Area 4 WRJ Mid Atlantic District Area Director. Gabrielle is an active volunteer at Washington Hebrew Congregation where she and her three grown children have been members for thirty-three years, as well as an active volunteer in Toastmaster where she is President of Washington DC Club 139. Gabrielle worked professionally as an Organizational Psychologist in educational settings with a specialty in workplace bullying.