Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz

Sermon Parashat Shoftim Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz Some are Guilty, All are Responsible How many of you is a fan of the ‘whodunit’ crime-solving genre? Just think about your favorite novel series or TV show. We’re going to look at this very odd passage from the Torah - because the strange passages can teach us so much. Toward the end of parashat Shoftim, we find a very curious set of verses in Deut. 21:1-9 dealing with the eglat arufah , the ‘broken-necked cow’. Like in every good murder mystery, the mystery of the eglat arufah relies on three key elements: means, motive and opportunity. In this case, the Torah provides us with an unsolvable crime. What’s going on here? At this point in the Torah’s narrative, the land is settled by Israelite towns and villages and we have an operational judiciary system (which is the theme of the entire parashah!) Between those settlements of this nascent nation, an anonymous dead body is found. We don’t know who ki...

Parashat Shoftim  Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz  Cities of Sanctuary  ‘Tzedek, tzedek tirdof’ – ‘justice, justice you shall pursue’ (Deut. 16:20) is the opening sentiment of Parashat Shoftim. The portion is bookended by ‘v’atah teva’er hadam hanaki mikirbecha ki ta’aseh hayashar bei’einai Adonai’ – ‘So you shall abolish the shedding of innocent blood from among you when you will do what is right in the eyes of the Eternal.’ (21:9) The first clause discusses the impartial rule of law: you shall not take bribes or show favouritism to the privileged, ‘lo takir panim v’lo tikach shochad’, words that echo through our liturgy. On the back of this statement, the Torah rousingly calls us to pursue justice, emphasising the word justice twice.  Rashi, ever the pragmatist, explains that this refers to establishing just and efficient courts of law. The last clause comes from the end of the parashah which describes the weird ritual of the ‘eglah arufah’, the ‘broken-neck...