(18) You shall appoint magistrates and officials for your tribes, in all the settlements that Adonai your God is giving you, and they shall govern the people with due justice. (19) You shall not judge unfairly: you shall show no partiality; you shall not take bribes, for bribes blind the eyes of the discerning and upset the plea of the just. (20) Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may thrive and occupy the land that Adonai your God is giving you.
Justice, justice you shall pursue...With justice, you shall pursue justice. Even the pursuit of justice must employ only just means, and not falsehood.
R' Simhah Bunim of Pshischa (18th century Poland)
Justice, justice you shall pursue...Justice alone is not enough, because there are many types of justice, just as there are many kinds of truth. Every regime has its own justice. The Torah, therefore, stresses, "Justice justice you shall pursue," namely the musar (ethic) of justice, where both the means and the end are just.
Derashot El Ami (19th-20th century Poland & Palestine)
Alternatively, our verse addresses the people who are subject to litigation and exhorts them to strive for righteousness regardless of whether this will be financially beneficial or harmful to them. This is why the Torah repeats the exhortation.
צדק צדק תרדוף. שאין חקר וסוף לבחי' צדק ואמת. כי ה' אלקים אמת. ולכך לעולם יש להוסיף ולהעמיק שיהי' אמת לאמיתו. כי אינו אמת עד שנעשה כל האדם אחד מיוחד לעבודתו ית' ואמת מראש עד סוף אותיות התורה. בשם הרב הק' מפרשיסחא היהודי ז"ל להיות רדיפת הצדק. בצדק לא בשקר. ודפח"ח:
"Justice, justice, you shall pursue." [The repetition of the word tzedek comes to teach that] there is no end to His righteousness and truth, for G-d is true. Therefore, it is incumbent upon one to always delve deeper to insure that he is [living according to] complete truth. Truth can only be reached when one becomes entirely united in his service of G-d, and is completely true in all the letters of the Torah.
Another explanation [for the repetition], in the name of the Yid HaKadosh from Psishcha: One must pursue justice with justice itself, and not falsehood. And the words of the wise are gracious.
The reason why the word tzedek is repeated is as follows: The first tzedek refers to how G-d punctiliously watches our conduct. The second refers to us; that is, when we see a friend, G-d forbid, transgressing the Torah, and you feel angry [for the desecration of the Torah, ed.], the Torah tells us "tzedek!" -- namely, that Hashem does not want you to prosecute your friend! As I wrote earlier, it is akin to how the Sanhedrin would not carry out punishment immediately after judgment had been rendered -- even if they knew they had ruled correctly -- for perhaps Hashem would illuminate their eyes and open a new light by way of which the judges could find a zechus for a Jewish person [i.e., the one was had been judged for punishment, ed.].
סְלִיק מַסֶּכֶת פֵּאָה
So far, our texts have mostly described a world made better by judges and institutions of justice. What dangers lie in the perversion of justice for those that are corrupted and for society as a whole?
Now, let's move specifically into thinking about a capital case, the most serious of case possible to be judged in a Jewish court. What does it mean to pursue justice here?
How does the postponement of judgement make for justice. Should justice not be swift? Why wait a day for a capital case as opposed to other cases where judgement is offered immediately?
Now, moving away from the courts, what does it mean for us to pursue justice? What must we do and who are we responsible for?
Take a look at the texts below. Ask yourself:
- Which of these speak to my experience?
- What stories can I tell that exist in relation to these ideas?
- Does one of these rabbis speak a truth that I live my life by?
Jerusalem Talmud, Pe-ah 1:1 [4a]
The Law does not order you to run after or pursue the other commandments, but only to fulfill them on the appropriate occasion. But peace you must seek in your place and pursue it even to another place as well.
Tzedakah: The Untranslatable Virtue - Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
But mishpat alone cannot create a good society. To it must be added tzedakah, distributive justice. One can imagine a society which fastidiously observes the rule of law, and yet contains so much inequality that wealth is concentrated into the hands of the few, and many are left without the most basic requirements of a dignified existence. There may be high unemployment and widespread poverty. Some may live in palaces while others go homeless. That is not the kind of order that the Torah contemplates. There must be justice not only in how the law is applied, but also in how the means of existence – wealth as God’s blessing – are distributed. That is tzedakah.
Tzedakah cannot be translated because it joins together two concepts that in other languages are opposites, namely charity and justice. Suppose, for example, that I give someone $100. Either he is entitled to it, or he is not. If he is, then my act is a form of justice. If he is not, it is an act of charity. In English (as with the Latin terms caritas and iustitia) a gesture of charity cannot be an act of justice, nor can an act of justice be described as charity. Tzedakah is therefore an unusual term, because it means both. It arises from the theology of Judaism, which insists on the difference between possession and ownership. Ultimately, all things are owned by God, creator of the world. What we possess, we do not own – we merely hold it in trust for God. The clearest example is the provision in Leviticus: “The land must not be sold permanently because the land is Mine; you are merely strangers and temporary residents in relation to Me” (Leviticus 25:23).
