47. The Settlers Are the Most Honest of the Bunch

Parshah Shoftim

*Important attribution note: All quotes listed in this article are credited to the Artscroll Stone Edition Chumash. Here is an Extremely Clear Citation so I don’t get in trouble: Nosson Scherman, Hersh Goldwurm, Avie Gold, & Meir Zlotowitz. (2015). The Chumash: the Torah, Haftaros and Five Megillos. Mesorah Publications, Ltd.

Deuteronomy 17:2-9*

“If there will be found among you in one of your cities, which Hashem, your God, gives you, a man or a woman who commits what is evil in the eyes of Hashem, your God, to violate His covenant, and he will go and serve gods of others… and it will be told to you and you will hear… then you shall remove that man or that woman who did this evil thing, to your cities - the man or the woman - and you shall pelt them with stones, so that they will die. 

By the testimony of two witnesses or three witnesses shall the condemned person be put to death… 

If a matter of judgment is hidden from you… you shall come to the Kohanim, the Levites, and to the judge who will be in those days; you shall inquire and they will tell you the word of judgment.” 

Let me get this straight. A person could be put to death solely based on the testimony of two witnesses. If they couldn’t find two witnesses, the person could be executed as long as the priestly class agreed they were guilty? 

I understand that these were primitive times. At least they required two witnesses? We later learn that they punished people who gave false testimony. If these laws were just a quaint matter of history, it wouldn’t be a problem. However, many people still believe in these laws, so much so that they want to return to them. The genocide in Gaza started in part because a sizable portion of Israelis wanted to return to Torah law. 

Deuteronomy 20:5*

“Then the officers shall speak to the people, saying, “Who is the man who has built a new house and has not inaugurated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the war and another man will inaugurate it.” 

I agree with this sentiment. If an army needs to be mobilized, I do believe they should still have exceptions for life’s big events: marriage, birth of a child, death of a parent. Obviously, one would hope that the nation’s reason for mobilization is not colonial genocide, but I digress. 

Deuteronomy 20:9*

“When the officers have finished speaking to the people, the leaders of the legions shall take command at the head of the people.” 

When did leaders stop leading in battle? We need leaders who value their lives no more than the lives of their people, but we haven’t had those leaders for a very long time. 

Deuteronomy 20:10-12*

“When you draw near to a city to wage war against it, you shall call out to it for peace. It shall be that if it responds to you in peace and opens for you, then the entire people found within it shall be as tribute for you, and they shall serve you. But if it does not make peace with you, but makes war with you, you shall besiege it.” 

Wow. The Israelites wage blatant wars of aggression with two options: surrender and become servants, or die in wars. 

History repeats itself. 

Deuteronomy 20:14*

“Only the women, the small children, the animals, and everything that will be in the city - all its booty - may you plunder for yourselves; you shall eat the booty of your enemies.” 

Right now, in contemporary Israeli society, rabbis use their religious credentials to explain how it really isn’t so bad if the IDF rapes women during wartime. 

The root of this travesty lies right here in this passage.

*Again with the Extremely Clear Citation so I don’t get in trouble: Nosson Scherman, Hersh Goldwurm, Avie Gold, & Meir Zlotowitz. (2015). The Chumash : the Torah, Haftaros and Five Megillos. Mesorah Publications, Ltd.