SAN DIEGO — This week’s Parsahah, Shoftim, is all about how to judge people and situations fairly. It is about choosing people to help make those judgements and what is needed to punish the people accused of crimes. The beginning of this section tells us, “Justice, justice shall you pursue.” Judges must judge fairly. There must be at least two witnesses to a crime and if the crime is serious enough, those witnesses are the first ones to punish the guilty person. But what if a witness lies? Once the lie is discovered, that witness will be punished instead.
A well-known line from this Parshah is one that is often misused. If someone has done something wrong to you, the Torah says you have the right to justice: “eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.” Some people think this means you can do something to get back at someone else if they’ve hurt you. But that isn’t what the Torah is saying at all. The line is meant to be exactly what it says. If one man hurts another, the injured man has the right to justice equal to his injury. That doesn’t mean he can hurt the person back. Perhaps the injury is worth a chicken or a specific amount of money. The more severe the injury, the bigger the payment. This is true in our justice system today. There are laws in place to punish people who hurt others. Although people don’t usually pay for their crimes with chickens now, they will pay with money or serve time in jail, or both. For kids, if someone hurts you, you can turn to your parents, teachers and other adults for help. Even for kids, serious crimes have more serious punishments.
The last important part of this Parashah talks about war and who should be excused from fighting. For adults, it includes people who just bought a house, but haven’t lived in it yet, those who just planted a field and haven’t eaten anything from it, or those who just got married. But the last reason for being excused from fighting extends to children as well. The Torah tells us that if anyone is afraid (to fight), they should go back home. There is no shame or dishonor to refuse to fight.
What you can do: If someone threatens you, walk away. Tell a parent or teacher if someone bullies you. It takes more courage to walk away then to try and fight back.
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Marcia Berneger is a retired elementary school teacher as well as a teacher at Torah school. She is the author of such children’s books as Buster the Little Garbage Truck, and A Dreidel in Time.