“I can’t compromise on principles.” Weekly Torah portion "Shoftim"

Nahum Purer





At the beginning of this section containing the 41 commandments, Moshe tells the Jews to appoint judges and overseers. Even miniscule bribes to officials are strictly prohibited. You cannot plant trees near the temple altar and erect “pillars” following the example of idolaters. Animals with defects are not suitable for sacrifice.


A Jew who calls others to serve idols is sentenced to death - “according to two or three witnesses.” All questions that are not answered in the Torah are resolved by the Sanhedrin, the highest legal and legislative body of Jewish power. In the absence of the Sanhedrin and the Temple, rabbis and Torah scholars make decisions that are binding on everyone. The commandment was given: “When you come into the country... then from among your brothers, set a king over you.” The Jewish king is allowed to have a limited number of wives and personal property. The king must write two Torah scrolls and keep one of them with him at all times. The Kohanim and Levites do not receive land in Eretz Israel; their material needs are provided by other tribes. All types of “unconventional” communication with spiritual environments are prohibited: witchcraft, fortune telling, spells, astrology, spiritualism, which are replaced by a direct connection with the Creator. G‑d promises to send prophets to the Jews who will communicate His will; Moshe explains how to distinguish real prophets from impostors. Having arrived in Eretz Israel, it is necessary to allocate cities of refuge for people who have committed unintentional murder and are fleeing the revenge of the relatives of the deceased. But anyone who deliberately killed a person will be denied asylum. The Torah forbids stealing someone else’s property: “You shall not remove your neighbor’s boundaries.” The court does not make a decision based on the testimony of only one witness. A malicious witness who tried to slander an innocent person receives the punishment that he intended for his victim. Before embarking on hostilities, one must offer peace to the enemy, but if he persists, “then kill all the men with the edge of his sword.” You cannot cut down fruit trees during the siege of an enemy fortress. If an unidentified corpse is found in no man's land, the elders of the nearest town cut up the "heifer", wash their hands over it and solemnly swear that their fellow citizens were not involved in the death of this person.


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“And do not build up pillars for yourself, which God your Lord hates” (16:22).


In the former Soviet Union, we were taught in school: “Be principled. If you think that you are right, defend your truth to the end.” And we fought for this “truth,” sometimes contrary to common sense, to our own detriment. Compromises were condemned and equated with unscrupulousness.


In March 1988, at the height of Gorbachev’s perestroika, the newspaper “Soviet Russia” published a letter from a teacher at the Leningrad Technological Institute, Nina Andreeva, which was called: “I cannot compromise on principles.” This letter, which received widespread publicity but much less widespread support in the country, condemned glasnost and the appearance in the press of materials criticizing socialism and, in particular, Stalin’s policies. Andreeva was ready to fight to the end for her Bolshevik principles.


In the West and in Israel, in particular, such fanaticism is not held in high esteem. Compromises are more important. Because there are principles, and there is life. One Jerusalem rabbi instructed his Russian-speaking students: “If you witness a conflict, for example, on a bus between a driver and a passenger, do not get involved in the dispute, even if you saw that one of them was wrong. Better keep quiet, don’t stir up the conflict..."


In the literal sense, the “pillars” referred to in the above verse are one of the objects of pagan cult. But if we take this verse out of context, it can be interpreted in a completely different way: do not be too straightforward in your actions, do not defend your “truth” at any cost, show flexibility if circumstances require it.


For some people, their “truth”, their principles, become an obsession, and under no circumstances are they ready to “betray” them.


The sages of the Talmud taught: “You cannot learn from principles,” because every principle has exceptions. There are no ironclad principles.


Speaking about the pagan “pillars” in this section, the Torah gives us a veiled hint: be flexible and compliant in your relationships with other people if circumstances require it. Principles, of course, are important, but sometimes you have to give them up if you want to avoid conflict.


Spit and forgive


“When you approach a city to conquer it, then offer it peace” (20:10).


Peace in the broad sense of the word, and not just as the absence of war between countries and armies, is an extremely important value in the Jewish tradition. It is not for nothing that the word “shalom”, peace, is familiar to many people who do not know Hebrew. This is the most common greeting among Jews. It is also considered one of the names of G-d, and therefore is endowed with special holiness.


For the sake of peace—between peoples, neighbors, and even within the same family—great concessions and even sacrifices can and should be made.


The midrash tells a beautiful story on how to reconcile a husband and wife.


This happened almost two thousand years ago. One woman stayed late in the synagogue for a lecture by the famous teacher of the law, Rabbi Meir, and when she returned home, her husband did not let her enter the door. “Go and spit in Rabbi Meir’s face, then I’ll let you in,” this inventive jealous man told his wife. That same night, the prophet Eliyahu appeared in a dream before Rabbi Meir, told him about the incident with the woman and said that it was because of him that she remained on the street.


The next morning, Rabbi Meir came to the synagogue and sat on the step at the entrance. Seeing a homeless woman from a distance, he pretended to be sick. “Does anyone know how to do lahash for eye inflammation?” - he wailed (that was the name of the course of treatment, which included, among other things, direct spitting in the sore eye.)


The woman hurried to help the ill teacher. She did everything necessary, including salivary therapy. After this, Rabbi Meir, who was instantly healed, ordered her to immediately return to her husband and inform him that she had fulfilled his demand: she spat in the rabbi’s face several times in front of witnesses, and now he was obliged to let her into the house and restore normal family relations with her.


Divorces were very rare back then.


Moral bar


“If you besiege a city for a long time in order to conquer it, ... then do not destroy its trees by lifting an ax against them ...” (20:19).


Jewish soldiers carried out this instruction back in those ancient times, when the goal of all wars was the complete physical extermination of the enemy, when the concept of “war crimes” had not yet been invented, and few had heard of morality itself.


If, in the midst of battle, a person does not forget to protect the environment, this is a sure sign of his moral superiority. If, despite the cruel realities of war, when all the lowest instincts come out, he is able to distinguish good from evil, show pity and protect the weak, not only people, but also inanimate objects, then honor and praise him. As we see, the Torah sets the moral bar very high, without discounting times and morals.





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