Elul 2, 5771 · September 1, 2011 | General Overview:
| This week's reading, Shoftim, addresses fundamental issues pertaining to the leadership of the Jewish people. It begins with a discussion regarding judges, and later discusses the concept of the kings, prophets, and the kohanim (priests). Many commandments are introduced in this weeks reading, including: appointing judges, the obligation to follow Rabbinic Law and the words of the prophets, the obligations of a king, the punishment for perjury, laws of war, and the procedure for dealing with unsolved murders. |
 | By Baruch Epstein |  |
|  | | THE PARSHAH | | | Deuteronomy 16:18–21:9
"Justice"—the very concept is said to be a Jewish contribution to the world. A glance at this week's Parshah (equality before the law, due process, protection of criminals from vigilante vengeance, curbs on the behavior of kings, rules and ethics in warfare . . . ) shows why.
|  |  | | COLUMNISTS | | | He was standing at the entrance of the strip mall, his front and back covered by identical, cumbersome cardboard signs. He was still there a few hours later when I returned from the synagogue . . .
By Naftali Silberberg |  | | | | Just because you decided against leaving your footprints in the sands of time, that's no excuse for knocking other people off their feet.
By Levi Avtzon | | | | | One of the most fascinating clauses in the Torah's criminal justice system is the law of the "indefensible criminal." If the evidence against the accused is so compelling that not a single one of the 23-member tribunal is inclined to argue in his favor, he cannot be convicted!
By Yanki Tauber | | | | FEATURED VIDEO | | | Letters and Numbers of Torah - Shoftim
The verse (Deut 17:14) "When you settle in the land... and you say, 'Let us appoint a king...'" is the basis for the mitzvah for the Jewish people to appoint a monarch. Why is the Hebrew word for "when you settle" (v'yashavta) conspicuously missing a letter "hei" at the end? Aaron L. Raskin | | | | | Shoftim Parshah Report
G-fish tries to cheat at board games by pretending to be a prophet (double gulp!) Dovid Taub & Jonathan Goorvich | | | | FEATURED AUDIO CLASSES | | | In this week's Torah portion we are commanded to use witnesses to establish the law. There are two types of witnesses; ones that observe and later clarify an event, and ones that are integral to actually establishing and creating the event. By Moshe New | | | | | A five minute weekly Torah insight based on the wellsprings of Torah and Chassidut. By J. Immanuel Schochet | | | | | The Kabbalistic approach to the weekly Torah reading By Mendel Kaplan | | | | |  |
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