Shoftim - Justice Supports the World

listening to the weekly partial podcast with Ari goldwag recorded with hm's nunning assistance in R Israel 5784 2024 this week's par is par show team and I'd like to share with you the very first piece in the medes and another piece that's referenced by the Maru and if few and I want to say before we even get into theim we're going to speak about Mish we're going to speak about Justice we're going to speak about fulfilling our obligations between ourselves and others between ourselves and God and we're here at the beginning of el and we have it's the one month countdown to rashash and yum Kipper and on rashash and yum we talk about we talk about God who is the king of Justice God who is the king of you know rashash shipper we're judged we know this idea and I want to talk about what is it what is the concept of Justice what is the concept of being judged and I want to kind of frame it in a way that might be a little different from what than what we're used to and point out the importance of between ourselves and others the B lak part is important of course between ourselves and God but B between ourselves and other human beings is also a very essential point which is what we're going to speak about and I also want to point out which I mentioned in the ban podcast that El we think of el you know we start the the kids are all starting school now so we think of it as the beginning of next year we think of rash as the beginning of the new year which is true but I'd like to point out and bring to your attention and offer for contemplation that El really and really is the end of the previous year right rashash yes we talk about how we're going to be judged for what's going to be in the coming year but that judgment is based on what happened in the previous year and so a lot of times we find ourselves scrambling we know with with prayer and repentance and charity those are things that flip the Judgment but you know we have a 30-day uh countdown like I said and we have an opportunity right now to make the end of our year which is really the summation of our year to make it count and make it significant and show that what what was everything that happened before this year was a leap year and we had a very challenging difficult year for Amel nationally individually but what did we take out of the year is the time when we have this kind of sum up we're back in Yeshiva we're back in the B medish we're thinking about chuva we're thinking about we're saying is my light hasem is the one who supports us in our Wars and our challenges we're talking about it we're hearing the Sher we're being called to wake up so want to talk about and try to understand and especially in the context of el the idea of and the idea of judges and policemen so let's study this together the says very beginning of ourem instructs mosha to instruct the Jewish people that we are to have judges and we are to have those who enforce the judgments enforce the ti enforce make sure that we are staying on the straight narrow path doing the will of hem you're supposed to place them at all your Gates everywhere where there are Jews there are to be those who make sure that we're doing what's righted and that's true in regards to our fulfillment of the tah between ourselves and God but as we'll see the concept of mish which is interesting is called concept of is related to the job of the which is the same language is a of the judge his job is to make sure that we in our relationships with others in everything is fair and right and correct and now the me tells us something which is so important to understand and there's aite here a foundational principle which when you hear it it's not going to sound new it's not going to sound like oh I never thought of that or I never heard of that but it's something that's so important to be brought out the beginning of the which it's l so I'm learning where you have to learn M try to be better he says I'm not coming to teach you something that you don't know I'm coming to remind you of something that you know but it needs to be reminded we need to be reminded about PR certain principles because if we understand this principle we can understand a huge a huge open there's a huge opening that comes to us it's a it's a foundation for everything else now listen to this IDE can you have a judge who's a relative of the person who's being judged relative of one of the people who are coming in a court case say who is considered a relative in regards to judgment father a brother an uncle from his father's side his mother's side Etc just like we find that you can't have a witness who's a relative of the person involved the Torah forbids it we'll see why why can't I have somebody who my if anybody knows me it's going to my brother if anyone knows me it's going to be my parent they can't be a witness they can't be a witness a relative can't be a witness and a relative can't be the judge where do we get this from says that when a person has I'm sorry the K and the priests those who serve in the temple they're from the tribe of Ley they are the ones who hasem chose to serve him in the mikdash in the in the b mikd in the temple the Mish in the Tabernacle they Bless the people in the name of hem interesting these are the ones that we go to the those who know the will of hasem who are serving hasem their whole focus is serving God that's where we go to when we have a question there are the ones who know the there are the ones who are able to decide if someone has become leprous a Nega leprosy it's very important we see that when it comes to court cases fights between people where they need someone to adjudicate the ptic places a court case an adjudication together with a case where a person needs to find out if his leprosy is problem problematic so what do we learn from this connection from the fact that the Torah places these two concepts next to each other first of all when it comes to leprosy it has to be determined in the daytime the Coen has to look at it and see it in the proper light which is a musall besides for being literal has to be seen in the proper light it has to be seen properly so too judgments have to be done in the daytime and just like when it comes to to uh to a Nega a person we have a cloud we have a general principle a coin can't look at his arm and determine on his arm if if this this dry skin here is a Nega is a leprous a blemish a leprous blemish and you can't see it on your on your close relative either this is a foundational idea way so too just like you can't see it's you're what's called a nog interesting the same word which means a Nega which means a leprous blemish you are blemished you're with you're biased the brother of the guy the Coen can not look at his brother's blemish and decide if it's a blemish or not he's biased he doesn't want his brother to end up in beud in uh in solitude right and the same thing with a judge there's something called bias and bias means that I can't figure out I can't judge properly if I am weighted in a certain direction right we find even in uh in current type of judgments not Alik and and and bezen type but there something called to recuse the judge can recuse thems from being involved in a certain case because they recognize that they have a bias and one of the major problems today is that the judges do not in certain courts recuse themselves when they have a bias right they they don't admit that they have a bias but hear this and as my would say you know this is something that you're going to hear from me and you're probably not going to hear it anywhere else and it's a principle in muser that a human being is Naga a human being is blemished biased we have lots of reasons why we judge things in certain ways we have reasons why we judge others in certain ways we have reasons why certain things are pule to us certain things we consider to be wrong other things to be right and has to do with our biases and how we feel about ourselves and what the ramifications are there are so many things that weigh our hearts and our judgments it's so important to know this let's say an example of something to think about to contemplate we're upset at somebody for having done something wrong because our feelings were hurt we may not realize that what they did from their perspective was right I don't I don't want to give many examples of it you can think of an example for yourself in your life but so many times we judge others because of our own feelings our own emotions and in certain ways that's legitimate but other times we judge up another person too negatively because we were H we don't ever stop and contemplate their side it's an important principle we're talking here about Judges the judges have to be fair and they have to be unbiased or they have to recognize their bias and recuse themselves or according to the ti you can't have certain people be judges it's important to understand that we are always judging and we have biases and we need to watch out for those biases okay hold on to that thought because it really comes out to something very important let's see the continuation of the m says when it comes to din when it comes to judgments and I I add when it comes to M it come has to do with between us and it's called mishpat to do with proper judgments and things being fair and right don't minimize the language of the m is don't be malag which means to make fun of don't minimize the importance of D of Judgment of righteousness it's one of the three foundations of the world the says in in uh in the ethics of our fathers mishna says that there are three things upon which the world stands on Jud judgement on truth and on peace and if you look in that mishna if you look at thefor there they explain d means the general principle that we look for what's right when it comes to our relationships with others if it seems like we've done something wrong we search for we search out what is the correct who who to whom does this money belong if I have an argument I say the money is mine and you say the money is yours well we want to know the truth right that's seeking out what what's true and what's right Ms we need to tell the truth says the rav on the mishna we need to say what's right we can't lie to our friends we can't use a falsehood in order to gain what we want in life and the third thing is peace seeking out to indeed have peace between us says between nations and also between individuals so what do we see we see that then the concept of mish and and making sure that things are right in our relationships between ourselves and other people it's a foundation of the world we have to be careful if we don't do what's right if we don't seek out making sure that we're aligned in our Rel relationships with others I'm not taking money that's not mine I'm not causing damage to somebody if my if my tree if my Bogen vilia has climbed up into someone else's uh air conditioning unit I got to make sure that if it's my responsibility because it's coming from my property that I take care of that this is called in this is and this is the foundation of the world if I don't do that the whole world shakes whole world Quakes now listen to this because this PK that we're about to quote is actually a prerequisite for what happens on rashash we're talking about rashash because the beginning of el 30-day countdown thek says how do we know that not only is it a foundation of the world but really it's the foundation of the God's Heavenly Throne the concept of being right with others it's the foundation of the Heavenly Throne says in Psalms 89:15 rightousness and judgment that means to between ourselves and God between us and our fellows are the foundation of your throne these are the foundations of God's Throne kindness and Truth are if a person is aligned with kindness and truth that means I'm doing what I'm supposed to do in my relationships with others in my relationship with Hashem and I can come before Hashem and I want to read to you the continuation of the right after that say the ver says King David after speaking about getting right being in right relationships with ourselves with between ourselves and Hashem between ourselves and God between ourselves and others what's the next line praiseworthy is the nation who knows the the chauffeur blast these are the verses that we read immediately after immediately after hearing the sh blast right before Ash right before we go into M these are the verses in hasem in the light of your face we will go in your name we will rejoice all day long and in your righteousness we will be raised up you are the Splendor of our strength we want to we want our honor to be raised up hem is our protector the Holy One of Israel is our King you want to know how we Merit you want to know how we Merit protection we need protection whether we're in Israel the land of Israel we need we need that protection whether we're in and we have students who are going out to college campuses we need protection how do we get protection the P before is the pic that we're quoting here in our medish the way we get protection the way we get to to to that sh is through aligning with hashem's Will and aligning with hashem's Will has to do with doing the laws that has to do with what Hashem expects of us between us and him and doing the laws again again I'm saying it over and over again because it's so important between ourselves and our fellows it's much easier to say to God look I between me and you it's much it's that's very easy to say because God understands he's our father he loves us it's much harder to go to the people in our lives we may have wronged might be now it might be 10 years ago 50 years ago whatever it's much harder to to get get aligned with hashem's will when it comes to between us and our our fellows but that's how we get to rashash this is what the the type of work we need to do at the end of the year right how did we get into this mess when I say mess I mean nationally individually how did we get into our the troubles that we face it's very clear we can trace it back to be another between ourselves and our fellows to not having the respect for each other not loving each other enough and and and I'll say and you might say too I'll say hey it's not the guy's fault he wasn't nice to me he disrespected me but I'll tell you a secret first there's a concept which means that there's a reflection between my the way that I look at another person is how they reflect back in me if I change myself if I take credit for my part for the things that I've done wrong it changes the whole the whole picture that other person might not apologize or they might apologize insincerely but when I change myself it changes the whole thing was heing God says look since the concept that we're talking about here is so important so serious the whole world the foundation of God's Throne that means the place from which God rules over the world and that means his manifestation of the world we are making God our King that means we're saying God we want you Hashem we want you to manifest through Us in the world that's what the truest are that's what these Sher blasts are it's God you're the king but the prerequisite for the is first we need to have alignment we need to be in line with really what we know ourselves we should be between ourselves and hasem between ourselves and the human beings in our Social Circles to ourselves and those around us this is this is ABCs and and let's not forget the bias the bias hey I was hurt the bias that causes me to judge others a brother can't be a judge and the person himself can't be a judge I can't judge properly another person if I've been hurts I have to I have to make make incredible intense efforts to try to understand somebody else I'll tell you a little secret talked about he talked about the fact that you know sometimes people are upset at us and we didn't even do anything wrong sometimes people have their Hang-Ups but it affects us why is he upset of me didn't do anything wrong and we start to feel negative towards that person for example how do he get out of that so would tell a story that a particular individual didn't tell us obviously the name of the person but he he he was he expressed animosity towards for no reason no real good reason whatever it wasn't clear exactly but went out of his way listen this is called this is an incredible mus principle he would go out of his way to do this person a favor without him kn about it he would go he would take the garbages of his friend of this individual he would take the garbage cans when they were when after the garbage was picked up so the garbage men would just leave them on the side rep would take the garbage cans and put them on the side of this individual's house did him a favor the guy didn't even know about the favor the the person was probably mystified as to how his garbage cans always ended up on the side of his house and said I was a free man I'm a free man I can do a fa I can clean it up obviously if there's a there's been a some kind of negative interaction between people we need to clean it up and apologize and that's very hard it's it's probably one of the hardest things but I'm also offering you another thing another tool talks about the the Bali mus talk about do the person of favor without without them knowing about it don't think and don't make the mistake it's easy to make a mistake I'm going to I'm going to do them a favor even though they were mean to me that's not the point that's not the point to be to be more righteous than them that could exacerbate the problem okay that's the principle here and I want to read to you one more thing in the Mish I know we're running out of time but I'd like to read to you one more small thing in the Mish which is reference by the Maru M says like this speaking of laws and speaking of what is the idea of judgment the Ping says in in Psalms 71: 1 and two the song of King Solomon God gives judgments to the king judge your your nation with righteousness from says rebi says rebi we have a concept of a comparison between the The Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments are compared to the concept of d the Torah places in idea of the Ten Commandments commanded the Jewish people and right after that it talks about the Mish and the laws the laws how we are to behave between ourselves and others why it's saying that there is a lot have to do it between us and God your God shall not have any other God before me just as the were heard by the Jewish people and given over at Mount Si so to the laws not just between us and God but the laws between ourselves and others these are also equally Divine why is it so important same idea as we see over here that the world is dependent on these things says God founds the land the foundation of the Earth Earth the foundation of our societies is understand like for example the negativity of the media the the gossip the the the destructive speech that goes on in the media social media that's that's very big that's has to do with Nations and and political figures but think about it even on our WhatsApp groups and in our sending a message a negative message heaven forbid about other people that causes the the world to Teeter what holds up the Earth is mbot is proper behavior between ourselves and others you want to know what's holding back Jerusalem from being built the B from being built the the that which causes Jerusalem to be redeemed and to be rebuilt is mish is our proper behavior between ourselves and others and this is the things that makes righteous people great who's that sadic who's a righteous individual Ash Mish praiseworthy is the one who keeps Mish and on those there explain there's Mish and there's Mish has to do with has to do with to our eles and our fellows between ourselves and our you want to be a sadic we want to be a sadic we want to be righteous but we have to be well-rounded righteous individuals we have to work on our of course we do and that's and that's all of the the all the things speaks about but there's this between ourselves and others that's the foundation of the world that's what holds up God's Throne when we come in in 30 days from now to speak to Hashem and to ask for a better year next year let's finish off this year working on our relationships between ourselves and others I want to bless you and I ask you to bless me Hashem should help us that we should be able to work on these relationships to do the tough work maybe even try to be nice to somebody without them knowing about it do an extra favor as a first step towards apologizing to them and taking credit for the mistakes that we've done without any expectation of them taking credit for the mistakes that they've made some should help us to be able to man up to be able to recognize and to work on giving other people the respect that they deserve and sometimes the money that they deserve because we got it perhaps in an illegitimate way should help us to own up to be the amazing human beings that we have the potential to be to create a a solid foundation for God's throne in the world thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shamas this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.wag.com or search on iTunes Ari goldwag [Music]