Doubling Down on Justice

Friday August 29, 2025/ 5 Elul 5785/Parshat Shoftim

Hevre/Friends,

It’s hard to keep me indoors when the lake and the trails beckon, especially during a summer of such spectacular weather like the one we’ve had. If I have a choice of exercising in my basement or running our country roads, you know where you’ll find me. It’s been such an active summer that my neck has been hurting from long swims and steep hikes. Or so I thought. I’ve come to realize that my neck pain is actually my body exhibiting the effect of the dramatic swings I’ve experienced during a summer of deep and conflicting pain over the state of the world.

It feels like moral whiplash: one minute feeling outraged at the sickening, violent assaults on Jews around the world, and the next feeling despondent over a never-ending war. One minute feeling as committed as ever to destroying the forces of evil that threaten the State of Israel and that turn their own urban enclaves into battlefields, and the next feeling creeping distress over the human costs of this ongoing campaign - to beleaguered IDF soldiers and to Gazan children and civilians. One minute feeling so proud of our Jewish resilience, and the next feeling enraged by settler aggressors and Haredi draft-dodgers. 

Seeking guidance from the tradition, I discover the same complexity. I find texts that call me to fight corruption, and texts that warn me against losing my humanity. When the Mishnah says “Turn it and turn it for everything is in it”, it’s not only a statement of the Torah’s all-encompassing wisdom. It’s also a description of the different and sometimes conflicting layers of wisdom it contains. After all, the grandeur of our Judaism is not its unyielding clarity on matters spiritual and ethical. Rather, it's the ability to hold nuanced, multivalenced perspectives on where to seek truth; on how to identify fairness. Our Torah portion this week provides not just a compelling illustration, but some much needed counsel against seeing justice as a zero-sum game. It summons us to this awakening not only in its verses that demand an ethical approach to laying siege upon a city in wartime, but in this iconic, lofty vision of a life rooted in justice:

צֶ֥דֶק צֶ֖דֶק תִּרְדֹּ֑ף לְמַ֤עַן תִּֽחְיֶה֙ וְיָרַשְׁתָּ֣ אֶת־הָאָ֔רֶץ אֲשֶׁר־יְהֹוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ נֹתֵ֥ן לָֽךְ׃   

Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may thrive and occupy the land that your God יהוה is giving you.

Commentators throughout the ages have tried to explain the doubling of the word “justice”. How might their array of insights help us navigate our many, often clashing, pursuits of justness? The repetition has been explained to teach us:

• To search for the most reliable court

• To pursue justice every day that you’re alive

• To pursue justice whether you gain or lose as a result

• To not just judge, but to judge righteously

• To invest effort in your pursuit of justice 

• To seek judges known for their fairness

• To be just in the pursuit of justice—both the end and the means by which it is obtained must be just

• To not be lazy and give up after discovering a little bit of justice, but rather seek it to its fullest expression

Can we follow these diverse mandates and stay the course of both fighting a just war and fighting it justly? Can we be resolute about defeating our enemies and bringing home our hostages while holding ourselves - and our fellow Jews -  accountable to our own Jewish moral standards? I believe we can. In our battles with those inside the Jewish world and with those beyond it, we can save our bodies without losing our souls. 

Not being politicians or military commanders, our agency in these times may feel limited, but it’s not. We begin to change the world by changing ourselves. As we move through this month of Elul preparing emotionally and spiritually for the renewal promised by the High Holy Days, take these teachings into your own journey of introspection. Face your own complexities. Hold your own abundance with honesty and integrity; embody it with compassion. Be a part of the answers to today’s most urgent questions. Stand not with your neck twisted but with your shoulders upright, broad enough to carry all the burdens of war with dignity and with integrity.

With continued prayers for our ability to bring home all the hostages, protect the soldiers, heal the injured, comfort the bereaved, and build a lasting peace in Israel and around the world, and with blessings for a Shabbat Shalom,

Dini

(Photo by Ronen Avisror)