A Taste of Shabbos – Parashat Shoftim

Well, Elul is already here; the month before a brand new year!  And with it a Torah portion all about various forms of authority- kings, judges, prophets, and teachers, all telling us what to do in one way or another- enough to make a free spirit feel crushed under the weight. 😊

On the other hand, Elul is all about love. The Hebrew four letter word has many references but the most popular one is: Ani Ldodi V’dodi Li = I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me. This verse, like Song of Songs from which it is taken, has a counter-verse: Dodi Li V’ani Lo = My beloved is to me and I am to my beloved – same words, different order. This is the dominant phrase in the month of Nissan – Passover. The seasonal reference in both, according to the sages is about the relationship between G-d and Israel.

Can we find a ‘Uni-verse’ that unites both verses? Yes, if we recall that the mystics remind us above and below are not mutually exclusive. Like a cosmic dance, sometimes the first step comes from above, and sometimes from below. The Tishrei move goes from below to above; we are expected to do our own inventory of self-correction from the past year, and earlier if needed. The Nissan move is G-d’s hand coming down and extracting us from the slave pits of Egypt. However, each dynamic involves the other because G-d and we are never very far apart and the receiver has to be open to the transmitter. In Egypt 4/5ths of the people perished because they did not have faith in the divine promise; the reception was faulty. The Tishrei move is prefaced by the famous Baal Shem Tov model of the ‘King is in the field’ during Elul, where G-d becomes more openly available than other times of the year, to accept our Teshuva = repentance.

Parashat Shoftim echoes some of these patterns. Prophets are not chosen out of the blue. They would go to schools to prepare themselves to receive prophecy, though the final choice would be G-d’s. Legitimate kings were descended from King David, but could be disqualified by improper behavior. Then, we had cities of Refuge, actually called Arei Miklat, sanctuary cities, where someone who murdered intentionally or accidentally, would first flee to, until it could be determined what degree of responsibility the murderer had. The presumption was that there was some flaw in need of correction even in an accidental crime, which needed rehabilitation in one of the cities where the Levites, who were the Torah scholars, could provide the environment for character rectification.

In fact, the mystics see this month of Elul as a temporal city of refuge. The metaphor is that during the year, we all ‘murder’ parts of our lives by engaging in actions, words, or even thoughts, whether in relation to G-d or others, which disconnect us from the Source of sacred life. We are taught that during the month of Elul, Moshe was healing the alienation caused by the Golden Calf, by, as the Hassidic masters describe it, sewing back the letters that detached from the tablets which joined each soul to the divine. When G-d enters the field of our lives, as, l’havdil, a candidate before Election Day of the New Year, we, as well as G-d, must still avail ourselves of the opportunity to have a ‘heart to heart’ timbre.

The sound of that resonance is opened much more directly through the custom of blowing the Shofar each day of Elul. There is an abundance of symbolism in this act; as we blow the shofar, so too does G-d whose first act of blowing was to infuse the first human with life. Just as we need to strengthen our bonds with G-d, so we should also reinforce our connections with the people in our lives. This parasha also gives us hints to do so. In the city of refuge situation, the guilty man stays there until the death of the high priest. The premise is that the latter should have prayed that not even an accidental murder should have taken place during his term.

The king too was responsible for the material well-being of his people. There is a fascinating law that he must have two Torah scrolls – one of which is safeguarded and one which he takes with him to battle. An interesting comment explains that on one hand, he must have an absolute high standard of life, but on the other hand, he must have the ability to relate to different types of people. This to me is kind of like a protractor where one leg is immobile while the other scopes out the area.

Toward the end of Shoftim we find another example of mutual responsibility. If a dead body was found ‘in a field’ clearly murdered but the perpetrator unknown, the elders of the closest city must slaughter a calf over a river and declare, ‘our hands have not shed his blood’. Rashi explains this to infer they are declaring that they did not commit a sin of omission by not giving the deceased enough provisions and escort to help him leave safely. No person is to be treated as a ‘non-entity,’ under any circumstances. Many people take the month of Elul as a time of isolation, but the more advantageous use of this month, is perhaps to be as helpful as we can to others. Another permutation of the Divine name in Elul is from a verse mentioning the word ‘Tzedakah,’ meaning both righteousness and charity, which reminds us to pay attention to other people.

In the day of judgement which is Rosh Hashanah, even if we as individuals may deserve some kind of strict justice, our sentence can be commuted if others who we helped will be upset by that strict justice. In the Torah, a court or a king may commute a sentence if there are people who would protest that original verdict. Let’s try to muster all the positive testimonies we are able to, both for ourselves and our loved ones, during these forty days till Yom Kippur, when our reconstituted identities will be ready for a new years of blessings of health, prosperity, and loving connection with others and with our Creator.

During the week, most of us are busy with so much, especially in these days of global technology, we rarely have time for deepening our relationships with G-d and with other people. So, when Shabbos comes and we are more naturally focused in our homes, families, shuls, and hearts, we can ‘work’ on improvement in those more contained areas.

The late great Aryeh Kaplan in his booklet called SABBATH DAY OF ETERNITY, writes: ‘On the seventh day, G-d added a dimension of tranquility and harmony to the world. We are then in a state of peace with all creation.  On all other days, one must strive to make oneself holy through Mitzvot, but on Shabbos, G-d is the One making a person holy. On Shabbos, Kaplan continues, the door opens a crack and we see a spark of the Eternal. We feel a breeze blowing in from the future world when all is Sabbath.’ Let us treasure the month of Elul, especially on each Sabbath, and bring Eternity into every moment! The more we are ready for our special guest called Shabbos, the more we’ll be ready for the World to Come!