The title of this week's portion means "Judges," and it is not the book of judges, but the section in Deuteronomy in which Moses instructs the people to set up a judicial system when they enter the Land of Israel.
There is a famous passage: "Justice, justice shalt thou pursue" (16:20). This is often used by left-wing "social justice" groups (to the extent that they quote the Bible) to claim a kind of spiritual basis for their redistributionist claims.
Except the passage means the opposite. It is preceded by Deuteronomy 16:19: "You shall not pervert justice; you shall not show favoritism, and you shall not take a bribe, for bribery blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts just words." The principle in this passage is impartial justice -- i.e. justice not "perverted" by the relative status of the litigants.
Justice means equality before the law -- and not equality of outcomes.
This portion, one of the shortest, repeats the terms of the covenant: do good, and receive reward; do evil, and receive punishment. The Torah makes clear that this applies to individuals: it cautions against rationalizing sin.
Deuteronomy 29:18 says: "When he hears the words of this oath, he may bless himself in his heart, saying, ‘I will enjoy peace of mind even if I follow my heart’s illusions.’ As a result, God will add the punishment for his 'drunk' (unintentional) sins to the punishment for his 'thirsty' (intentional) sins."
The punishment for sin is one thing; the punishment for excusing oneself from the moral rules is that you are punished even for inadvertent sins.
The lesson: don't try to make up an independent morality, separate from the one God provides to the people. If you could ever do such a thing, you'd be so great that you'd be worthy of being punished for even inadvertent sins.
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This week's show will be slightly different from the norm: we'll focus on clips and topics, rather than guests -- and that, hopefully, will mean more input from the callers (unless you are all watching football on opening weekend).
Topics:
- The state of the economy
- The fight against crime
- The midterm election fight
- The struggle for peace between Russia and Ukraine
- The airstrike on the Venezuelan drug cartel
- The attempt to sink Kennedy
- The war in Gaza
- The case against Harvard
- The Trump presidency
Tune in: SiriusXM Patriot 125, 7-10 p.m. ET / 4-7 p.m. PT
Call: 866-957-2874
