[MS: Despite the name of this week's parsha, Shoftim, ie Judges, I do not think this Parsha is a guide to the troubles in Israel about its Supreme Court and the powers of the Knesset. Some may editorialize this Parsha is relevant, but it seems to me that claim is a distraction from very serious, current issues and a misreading of the Tradition.
In contrast, critically relevant is Tradition's overriding, persistent warnings against the tragedy of Baseless Hatred or Sinat Chinam. The MS Sefaria Sheets linked below discuss these warnings and how they are relevant to the tragedy unfolding in Israel today. Sheets
For in depth analysis of the Supreme Court of Israel and the emergency in Israel, see links below.]
Professor Netta Barak-Cohen now-famous analysis ( pp. 42, March 6, 2023) The Levin-Rothman Plan for Altering The Justice System - A Comprehensive Analysis and Proposal for Consideration.
Reactions to the 2023 Israeli Judicial Reform - a wiki survey and essay with extensive links.
A recent series of Sheets on the judicial crisis and the emergency in Israel are in the Sefaria Collection on Robert Alter - MS Sefaria
[MS: About Robert Alter's approach to the Bible and its texts, one could hardly say Alter is blind to its depth and multiple interpretations - when appropriate.
On the other hand, Alter will comment in a Note if he believes the text simply says what it means and should not be over-ridden with far fetched interpretations or extensive commentary claimed to be in the text itself.
For example in this Parsha: On 6:20, Alter's Note is:
"20. Justice, justice. Though much ingenuity has been exercised by exegetes to explain the repetition, its function as a verbal gesture of sheer emphasis is self-evident: justice, and justice alone, shall you pursue."
Similarly, see Numbers 31:17, where Alter's Note finds the attempted justification for killing children during a war is just "strained apologetics."
Interpretation vs Rewriting - Another tool in reading the ible per Alter:
See Alter's The Art of Biblical Narrative (pp11-13, midrashic approach puts didactic moral instruction over the actual story in the text and uses small pieces of text to build elaborate homiletical structures beyond text);
and The Art of Bible Translation, ( p24-26, King James, Christian bibles and free adaptation or transmutation for new "bibles "of special interests.) These and similar problems of interpretation vs reinvention, are discussed in the MS Sefaria Sheet Collection on Robert Alter.]
[MS: The quotations above are from copyrighted material; formatting, emphasis and edits are added.]
/-/-/-/-/-/-
August 15, 2023