Parashah Shoftim (“Judges”), found in Deuteronomy 16:18–21:9, emphasizes the foundational principles of justice and ethical leadership in Jewish law. Moses instructs the Israelites to establish fair ...

Parashat Shoftim contains 41 mitzvot, 14 positive and 27 negative. Among these are some of the most fundamental rules for how a Jewish state is to be governed, who the leaders are, what their ...

Shoftim: Towards ultimate justice - the Haftarah and the Parasha This is the period of the seven Haftarahs of consolation, irrespective of the Torah reading, but the one read this week has a deep ...

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On the eve of battle, most soldiers are afraid, fearful of death or injury, fearful also that they will run, uncertain that they are prepared to kill. Rabbi Akiva, who is usually the most fanciful of ...

A true leader is one who first and foremost rules over himself and his emotions. A person who can be overtaken by negative emotions cannot serve as a leader. In the weekly Torah portion Shoftim, the ...

Editor’s Note: Today, the 3rd of Elul, is the Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Abraham Yitzhak Kook, (1865-1935), the great talmudic scholar, Israel’s first Chief Rabbi of Israel (then Palestine) and the ...

I can remember one of the first spiritual-psychological Chasidic texts that I studied, a text that opened the gates to a lifetime of study. When I was about 28 years old – 1982 – one of my teachers ...

Anyone who wields power must bear in mind the ethical teachings of the prophets, recognizing that values take precedence over power, and should guide those in power. This week’s Torah portion, Shoftim ...

The power of the legal system is in many ways the closest humans can come to godliness. It is through the rule of law that humans create order out of chaos, rein in the powerful from abusing the weak, ...