Messianic Justice & The Future of Policing
Tech Tribe Dispatch #211
💡 Think:
You shall set up judges and law enforcement officials for yourself in all your cities that the L-rd, your G-d, is giving you, for your tribes, and they shall judge the people [with] righteous judgment.
- Deuteronomy 16:18, the start of this weeks Torah portion.
What is the purpose of policing? Is it an end unto itself, a distinct goal within the administration of law? Or is it just a means towards something else?
On one hand, the Torah clearly gives a place for law enforcement. As it says in Pirkei Avot “Pray for the integrity of the government; for were it not for the fear of its authority, man would swallow his neighbor alive.”
But that doesn’t make it the tachlis, as they say in Yiddish, an end to itself, let alone the end game, of society. When speaking about the Messianic era, the prophet Isaiah makes a key change.
Whereas our Torah portion speaks of judges and law enforcement officials, Isaiah speaks of something else:
“And I will restore your judges as at first and your counsellors as in the beginning.”
The judges are mentioned, but the law enforcement has been changed for counsellors. While the teaching of Torah, the divine will and wisdom of the Creator, through judges is immutable, the enforcement of those precepts is conditional: When needed, we must turn to enforcement officers . . . But optimally we can, and will, reach a stage where counsellors can teach and instruct instead.
This is no mere chance reading of the portion: The name of this week’s Torah portion is popularly known as Shoftim — mentioning only the judges (shoftim) and not the law enforcement (shotrim) mentioned in the verse.
Why?
Because ultimately, our connection to the Torah, to the law, to the words of the judges, is one that must extend from a higher place. The role of the enforcement is only to insure that justice can be available to all - to step-in only in the event that a higher connection and fealty fails to take hold. It can come and go, and thus is not named. In the Messianic times, for which we strive, and the build up to them we now find ourselves, we can transcend the need for the base enforcement of the shotrim - enforcement officers - instead connect solely through education and positivity - the counsellors of Isaiah.
Adapted from a talk of the Rebbe, Shoftim, 7 Elul, 5751
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↩️ Returning to G-d, Each Year and Every Day. On the rejuvenation of spiritual life and the essential meaning of teshuvah.
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