The portion of Shoftim deals fundamentally with the administration of the state. Through its chapters we are introduced to four differing forms of leadership, designed to guide the nation of God.

Close analysis reveals two differing sources of power. Leadership is either Divinely chosen are elected by man. Additionally the main charge of responsibility is either a direct responsibility to either God or the nation. This may be illustrated as such:

Godly Appointment Leadership:

Prophet—(Giver of Spiritual Direction)—Primary charge is the nation—“unto him you shall hearken” (Deuteronomy 18:13)

Priest—(Administrator in Cult)—Primary responsibility is to God—“To stand to minister in the name of the Lord…for all time.” (Deuteronomy 18:5)

Leadership Elected by Man:

King—(Executive)—Primary charge is the nation- “one from among your brethren shall you set king over you” (Deuteronomy 17:13)

Judge—(Must Enact Godly Justice)—Primary responsibility is to God –“You Judge not for man, but for the Lord” (Chronicles II 19:6)

It is important to note that both prophet and king share a mandate. The monarch of Israel is by no means free in his power. Rather with limitations on his finances (monetary power) horses (personal military might) and wives (the means by which political alliances are realized in the ancient world) it is clear that he is answerable for all his deeds. He is not to act for his own ends. Rather authority is to be utilized for the ideals expected of God’s nation. Towards national righteousness prophet and king, God and man must labour.

This division of powers is clearly created with this specific purpose to achieve. Indeed the opening verse of Shoftim establishes the demand for a system of justice:

“Judges and officers shall you make you in all your gates, which the Lord your God gives you, tribe by tribe; and they shall judge the people with RIGHTEOUS JUDGEMENT [MIshpat].” (Deuteronomy 16:18)

The notion of “righteous judgement” is one that is synonymous with the Divine task of Israel. AS God proclaimed of the first patriarch:

“Abraham shall surely become A GREAT and mighty NATION, AND ALL THE NATIONS OF THE EARTH SHALL BE BLESSED IN HIM …For I have known him, TO THE END that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord, to do RIGHTEOUSNESS AND JUSTICE [Mishpat].” (Genesis 18:18-19)

The task of Israel is not one of exclusive privilege. Rather the promise of God is contingent upon the moral state of Abraham's descendants. In the words of the prophet, Israel is to be “A light unto the nations.” It is the ability to live up to the Divine ideals of “righteousness and justice” which shall define the destiny of the people.

We may thus understand these systems of upholding justice to be the means given by which Israel may achieve its role on earth.

Above all else the Torah stresses the need to account for the blood of the innocent. The legendary scholar of the 19th century Rabbi David Zvi Hoffman explains:

“After the precepts regarding the administering of the state…the text continues with…the most important ones [precepts] for the existence of the state. They are those dealing with protection of those whose lives are in danger and the prevention of innocent bloodshed.”

Yet there is one law, which does not fit this pattern:

“You shall not remove your neighbor's landmark, which they of old time have set, in thine inheritance which you salt inherit, in the land that the Lord your God gives you to possess it.” (Deuteronomy 19:14)

Close analysis grants revelation. Truthfully this law is part of a greater theme. Indeed, reference is made to the land as being given by God thirteen times throughout our section. This must serve as the basis to our understanding of these laws. Ultimately there is no essential difference between the perversion of justice and the theft of God given land. In the Divine Eye both defy the “borders” of the Land of God.

The land is the ultimate means by which Israel is to implement ideals into the deeds of history. The demand for the nation and its leaders is clearly set “Righteousness, righteousness shall you pursue.” To turn from this task is to undermine the very function of the land.

The Biblical notion of leadership may best be understood through the strange ritual of the axed heifer that closes our portion:

“If one be found slain in the land which the Lord your God gives you to possess it, lying in the field, and it be not known who hath smitten him… And it shall be, that the city which is nearest unto the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd…and shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley…And all the elders of that city…shall wash their hands over the heifer...And they shall speak and say: 'Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. Forgive, O Lord, Your people Israel, whom You hast redeemed, and suffer not innocent blood to remain in the midst of Your people Israel.' And the blood shall be forgiven them.” (Deuteronomy 21:1-9)

The celebrated professor of Tanach, Nehama Leibowitz, explores the significance of this rite. She explains the underlying principle to be an understanding that, “The public as a whole and the city nearest to the slain and its elders are all responsible for the terrible deed committed in the field. Their whole way of life, their social order, economic, educational and security institutions are answerable for the murder.” (Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in Deuteronomy pg.207)

Leibowitz goes further insisting that the greater implications for all humanity be heeded. This is her message:

“Responsibility for wrongdoing does not only lie with the perpetrator himself…lack of proper care and attention are also criminal. Whoever keeps to his own quiet corner and refuses to have anything to do with the “evil world”, who observes oppression and violence but does not stir a finger in protest cannot proclaim…‘our hands have not shed this blood’.” (Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in Deuteronomy pg.208)

The task of Israel lies not in the silent gates of individual devotion. Rather to truly effect this world, Israel as a collective whole must turn to ethical deed. From here is born the biblical notion of leadership, one in which accountability is axiomatic. Undoubtedly we have known failure, but if meaning is to be found amidst the history of man we must strive once more to attain the righteousness buried in the soul of all men.