Bribery & Blindness - Parshat Shoftim

(18) Judges and officers you shall place in all your gates that the Eternal your God is giving you, and they shall judge the people with just laws. (19) You shall not bend justice: you shall show no favor; do not take bribes, for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and and twist the words of the righteous. (20) Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may live and inherit the land that the Eternal your God is giving you.

(6) You shall not bend the laws of your needy in their disputes. (7) Keep far from a false charge; do not bring death on those who are just and in the right, for I will not justify the wicked. (8) Do not take bribes, for bribes blind the clear-sighted and twist the words of the righteous.

(21) You shall also seek out from among all the people capable men who fear God, trustworthy men who spurn ill-gotten gain. Set these over them as chiefs of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.

When Isaac had grown old, and his eyes had dimmed... Rabbi Yitzchak opened with this verse: “Those who justify the wicked because of a bribe, and withhold vindication from the righteous.” (Isaiah 5:23) That is, someone who takes a bribe in order to justify the wicked. This is Isaac, whose eyes dimmed because he justified the wicked. And thus it says: "When Isaac had grown old, and his eyes had dimmed..."

(1) When Isaac had grown old and his eyes had dimmed from seeing, he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.” He answered, “Here I am.” (2) And he said, “I am old now, and I do not know how soon I may die. (3) Take your gear, your quiver and bow, and go out into the open and hunt me some game. (4) Then prepare a dish for me such as I like, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my innermost blessing before I die.” (5) Rebekah had been listening as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau had gone out into the open to hunt game to bring home, (6) Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I overheard your father speaking to your brother Esau, saying, (7) ‘Bring me some game and prepare a dish for me to eat, that I may bless you, with the approval of the Eternal One, before I die.’ (8) Now, my son, listen carefully as I instruct you. (9) Go to the flock and fetch me two choice kids, and I will make of them a dish for your father, such as he likes. (10) Then take it to your father to eat, in order that he may bless you before he dies.” (11) Jacob answered his mother Rebekah, “But my brother Esau is a hairy man and I am smooth-skinned. (12) If my father touches me, I shall appear to him as a trickster and bring upon myself a curse, not a blessing.” (13) But his mother said to him, “Your curse, my son, be upon me! Just do as I say and go fetch them for me.” (14) He got them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared a dish such as his father liked. (15) Rebekah then took the best clothes of her older son Esau, which were there in the house, and had her younger son Jacob put them on; (16) and she covered his hands and the hairless part of his neck with the skins of the kids. (17) Then she put in the hands of her son Jacob the dish and the bread that she had prepared. (18) He went to his father and said, “Father.” And he said, “Yes, which of my sons are you?” (19) Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau, your first-born; I have done as you told me. Pray sit up and eat of my game, that you may give me your innermost blessing.” (20) Isaac said to his son, “How did you succeed so quickly, my son?” And he said, “Because the Eternal your God granted me good fortune.” (21) Isaac said to Jacob, “Come closer that I may feel you, my son—whether you are really my son Esau or not.” (22) So Jacob drew close to his father Isaac, who felt him and wondered. “The voice is the voice of Jacob, yet the hands are the hands of Esau.” (23) He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; and so he blessed him. (24) He asked, “Are you really my son Esau?” And when he said, “I am,” (25) he said, “Serve me and let me eat of my son’s game that I may give you my innermost blessing.” So he served him and he ate, and he brought him wine and he drank. (26) Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come close and kiss me, my son”; (27) and he went up and kissed him. And he smelled his clothes and he blessed him, saying, “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of the fields that the Eternal has blessed.

(7) Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eyes were undimmed and his vigor unabated.