This week we open the Book of Devarim, meaning “words,” also known by the name Deuteronomy, the final book of the Torah and the only one written primarily from the first-person perspective of Moses. 

Taking place in the 11th month of the 40th year ¹ into the Israelites’ wandering, ² as they are about to enter the Promised Land, it begins: 

These are the words that Moses addressed to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan. ³ 

Moshe recounts how, back in the Book of Exodus, early in his tenure as a leader, the Israelites had become too numerous for him to manage on his own, so he needed to appoint judges. Now, Moses reiterates the instructions he gave to those judges, saying: 

Hear out your fellow Israelites, and decide justly between one party and the other—be it a fellow Israelite or a stranger. 

You shall not be partial in judgment: hear out low and high alike. Fear neither party, for judgment is God’s. And any matter that is too difficult for you, you shall bring to me and I will hear it. ⁴

Here we learn a critical foundational principle of a just judicial system: justice must be, so to speak, blind, or, shall we say, impartial. ⁵ A system that plays favorites is definitionally not just.  

The medieval French commentator Rashi paid particular attention to the words “hear out low and high [great and small] alike.” One meaning he took from the verse is the obvious one: a judge must treat the rich and poor equally. However, he also explained that it means we must treat equally cases dealing with great and small amounts of money. ⁶  

We can see the relevance of this precept especially today, when it is convenient for a wealthy person or a massive company to sue others for large sums of money, but, for example, a person who loses $200 in wage theft has no affordable means of recourse, even though that income might be crucial for that person to feed themself and their family. 

The Midrash Sifrei, ⁷ quoted by Rashi, applies the obligation of fairness in judgment not only to legal cases, but also to the appointment of the judges themselves. It tells us:

One should not say, “Mr. So-and-so is a fine or a strong man, I will make him a judge; Mr. So-and-so is my relative, I will make him a judge in the city,” — while in reality he is not expert in the laws, and consequently he will condemn the innocent and acquit the guilty. ⁸

No considerations for the appointment of judges can be given besides proper expertise and competence.

This midrash ⁹ additionally teaches about the seriousness of the role of the judges as public servants. It imagines Moshe telling them, “It is not now as it was before: Until now, you were your own masters. Now, you are in the service of the community!” ¹⁰ 

The medieval philosopher Moses Maimonides identified three mitzvot tied to this passage in Deuteronomy: 

1. Not to show special courtesy to a great individual ¹¹
2. Not to be afraid of a bad individual ¹²
3. Not to appoint as a judge a person who is not well versed in the laws… even if he is expert in other branches of knowledge. ¹³
4. 
   

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, the 18th- 19th-century Hasidic leader, taught that these rules of judgment apply not only to actual judges, but to each person in their everyday life. He relates: ¹⁴ 

When a person sits down to talk about another person, it is… [a] Day of Judgment—for they sit in judgment of their fellow. A person must be very careful about this. They have to take a good look at themself and ask if they are fit to pass judgment on their fellow, “for judgment belongs to God.” ¹⁵

Rebbe Nachman then references ¹⁶ Hillel the Elder’s saying in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of Our Fathers): “Do not judge your fellow until you have reached their place.” ¹⁷ 

The broader value here is that we all need to take stands on matters of justice, whether it is in criminal cases or in how we view our obligations to the downtrodden among us, such as immigrants or our neighbors experiencing homelessness. And what is crucial for us to remember is not to do what is popular, but what is right.   

We learn from the beginning of Deuteronomy that we cannot fall into the ideological trappings of automatically siding with someone based upon their stature or power. It is the job of the judge—and we all serve as judges in one way or another—to remove bias and work toward a system that is fair to all parties.

It is not that we shouldn’t advocate for the weakest and most marginalized among us—the commandment specifically demands that we establish a system of equality. But in a world that often deems bias in favor of the privileged and powerful to be “fair,” we cannot forget the commandment to, as Maimonides put it, “not… show special courtesy to a great individual” or, in the words of Moshe, to “hear out high and low alike.” 

Sources

1.  The entire Sefer Devarim, beginning with the date mentioned above through Moshe’s death and the Israelites’ mourning him for 30 days, takes place over a span of a mere 67 days.
2.  Deuteronomy 1:3
3.  Deuteronomy 1:1
4. Deuteronomy 1:16-17
5.  “Justice is blind” is perhaps a most recognizable phrase, but we should try to move away from ableist language, preferring something like “justice is impartial.” 
6.  Rashi on Deuteronomy 1:17:2
7.  Sifrei Devarim 17:1
8.  Rashi on Deuteronomy 1:17:1
9.  Sifrei Devarim 16:2
10.  Rashi on Deuteronomy 1:16:2
11.  Mishneh Torah, Negative Mitzvot 275
12.  ibid. 276
13.  ibid. 284
14.  Likutei Moharan, Part II 1:14:1
15.  Deuteronomy 1:17
16.  ibid.
17.  Pirkei Avot 2:4