Torah Tidbits

23 May 2012 / 2 Sivan 5772
Issue 919
Parshat Sho-f'tim 5770
August 12, 2010

Chizuk and Idud

CHIZUK and IDUD for Olim & not-yet-Olim respectively

By David Magence, Jerusalem

“Judges and executive officers shall you appoint for yourselves in all the gates which HaShem your God gives you for your tribes and they shall judge the people with just judgment.” - D’varim 16:18

The Parsha presents several of the institutions necessary for nationhood. The opening verse, quoted above, presents the mitzva of appointing judges and enforcers of the judicial decisions. Later (17:15), the Torah presents the mitzva of appointing a king:
“You shall surely set a king over you, whom HaShem your God will choose, from among your brethren shall you set a king over you, you may not place a foreigner over you who is not your brother.”
The institutions of nationhood are directly related to the Land of Israel and to the city of Jerusalem.
Midrash Sifrei notes that the wording of the verse precludes the possibility of appointing a king who is not a resident of the Holy Land. The leader of the People of Israel must come from the Land of Israel.
As far as judges, the Torah instructs that “the man who intentionally does not listen to… the judge, that man shall die and you shall eradicate the evil from Israel” (17:12). The Halacha teaches that ignoring the dictates of the Sanhedrin [the supreme religious court] is a capital crime only when the court sat in Jerusalem. The authority of the Sanhedrin can be fully realized only when the court is headquartered in Jerusalem.
[Ed. note: Although capital punishment is possible only for a ZAKEN MAMREI - a Torah scholar who is authorized to render halachic decisions - who flouts the Great Sanhedrin) and has under- gone a series of trials in various courts on the way to the Sanhedrin of 71, and although there might never have been an actual case of execution for this violation - the fact that the language of the Torah is so sharp for the offence of intentially challenging a pronouncement of the Sanhedrin, indicates the severity of such an offence.]
Clearly, the Torah teaches that the nationhood of Israel can be achieved only in the Land of Israel and with Jerusalem as its capital. No other possibility is conceivable.

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