parsha bit: Shoftim

This week's parsha contains the famous passage tzedek, tzedek, tirdof -- "justice, justice, you shall pursue" [1]. The repeated word (rare in the torah) emphasizes the importance of doing justice not just passively but actively. Rabbi Aba taught in the name of Rabbi Tanhum ben Chiyya: though a person is a great torah scholar, careful in observing the mitzvot, if he is able to protest wrongdoing and does not do so, he is considered cursed. Rabbi Jeremiah responded by quoting Rabbi Chiyya, who taught: though a person is not a scholar nor careful in the mitzvot, if he stands up to protest against evil, he is called a blessing. (Leviticus Rabbah 25:1)

[1] From what I have learned of biblical Hebrew so far, the language does not distinguish among "shall", "will", and "may" in imperfect (future, incomplete) verbs. Presumably there is some other way (not from the verb itself) to get this, but I don't know how yet. (Sometimes, of course, it's obvious from context, but not always.) "Tirdof" could mean "you shall pursue" (a directive), "you will pursue" (a prediction), or "may you pursue" (a desire). (All of these "you"s are masculine singular, by the way.) Help from the Hebrew-literate would be welcome. :-)

tzedek tzedek tirdof

This week's torah portion contains the directive "justice, justice you shall pursue". My rabbi had an interesting comment on this tonight, not about "tzedek, tzedek" but about "tirdof". Why does the torah say "pursue" instead of, say, "establish"? Isn't establishing justice a goal, moreso than just running after it?

He suggests that we are commanded to pursue justice precisely because we can never fully achieve it -- pursue, meaning never let up. There is always more to do. I see shades of eilu d'varim here -- these are the obligations without measure.

The rest of this entry is me talking, inspired by that.

If the commandment were to "establish" justice, we might delude ourselves into thinking we'd achieved the goal. Most of the western world has a pretty reasonable judicial system, at least in the abstract. But the abstract isn't good enough; there's a big gulf between, say, the idea of defendants having competent legal representation and all of them actually having it, or between fair rules of evidence and what actually happens. And it's not only about formal systems of justice; we must pursue justice on a personal level, in the ways we interact with other people and the world at large -- the kinds of "tzedek" that are fully ours to control.

"Establish" sounds like something that can be checked off -- yup, did that, on to the next commandment. "Pursue" does not have that connotation -- we can get closer, but we can't fully get there. Pursuit is an ongoing task.

"Pursuit" raises another issue in my mind, one that seems less positive: when we pursue something, don't we usually do it at the expense of something else? Pursuing an educational or career goal usually comes at the expense of time and comfort; pursuing a person comes at the expense of attention to other people. What does pursuing justice come at the expense of? If complacency, well and good -- but is that it?