DEUT31 It is a negative commandment not to appoint a judge who is unsuitable for Scripture states, You shall not respect persons in judgment [this verse]; and it was explained in the Midrash Sifre that this is addressed to the man assigned to appoint judges, so he should not respect persons: He should not say, "So-and-so is strong," or handsome, or wise in other fields of knowledge or other areas of excellence, which are not related to the Torah and the reverent fear of Heaven [God]. For a judge needs to be wise in the Torah, reverent toward Heaven, with a hatred of bribery, who subdues his evil impulse; and he should have a strong, fearless heart to rescue an exploited or victimized person from the one who oppresses him. These are the notable qualities that a judge needs to have. If, however, someone appointed judges on account of other qualities, he violates the prohibition.

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DEUT32 See [[EXOD790]] Exodus 23:3 favor COHON 197-8

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DEUT33 The passage dealing with a dead man who is found outside a city (Deuteronomy xv. 1-6) must be instanced again here, though passing reference has already been made to it. The elders of the city, responsible for the administration of its affairs, were bidden to slaughter a heifer and to wash their hands in public and exclaim "Our hands have not shared this blood". The Rabbis ask: (Sotah ix.7) "How could the elders be suspected of murder?" The reply is "If they failed to provide the poor in their charge with the necessary food, with the result that the needy man had to have recourse to highway robbery for his means of existence, losing his life while so engaged, it was the responsibility and the blame of the elders that a life had been taken. Similarly, if they left him without the necessary protection and he fell a victim by the roadside from starvation, it was again the responsibility of the elders before God." In this graphic way Judaism impresses upon its adherence that each one according to his station is responsible for the social conditions which create crime and poverty. A strict sense of justice sets the highest value upon all things that make man increase his power of doing good and of removing the causes of evil. From whatever angle we examine our ethical teachings, we see that our faith recommends and encourages a robust morality. It looks upon life as a continual battle for right against injustice, for truth against falsehood [this verse], for survival against extinction.

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DEUT34 What is the intent of: "Small is great"? Resh Lakish said: To teach that a litigation of one perutah shall be as important to you as a litigation of one hundred. What is the implication for practice? If, that [even a small litigation] requires analysis and decision, this is obvious. [The implication must be, then,] that if it [the smaller litigation] is presented first, it receives precedence [i.e., it is judged first] (Sanhedrin 8a)

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DEUT35 In addition to judging the actions of our fellow man favorably (except for known evil people), there are others who should be judged favorably in their actions as well. The first is in regard to the actions of God Himself. Moses castigated the Jewish people for impugning the motives of God in bringing them out of Egypt [this verse]. The people said that the only reason God took them out of Egypt was because He hated the Jewish people and wanted them to be destroyed by the Emorites. For not judging God "favorably," these Jews were punished. On the other hand, part of Rabbi Akiva's greatness was that he judged God and His actions towards people in a favorable manner, no matter how bad the situation seemed. In a famous story, Rabbi Akiva wanted to stay at the Inn, accompanied by his donkey, chicken, and torch, and every step of the way it seemed that God was "against" Rabbi Akiva (Berachot 60b). And yet, Rabbi Akiva but never lost hope that everything that was happening was for a positive reason, controlled by God. First, he could not find any room in any "motel" to stay at, so he had to sleep in the fields outside of town. A strong gust of wind blew out his fire, so he was in complete darkness. Then a weasel ate his chicken and a lion then ate his donkey. At each step of the way, Rabbi Akiva blessed God and attributed positive reasons to everything that occurred, despite the fact that each action seemed to place Rabbi Akiva in a more desperate situation. The next morning, Rabbi Akiva awoke and saw that robbers had invaded the town and killed its inhabitants. If the robbers had seen his light or heard his chicken or donkey, they would have spotted Rabbi Akiva and killed him as well. So too, Nachum Ish Gamzu would always judge God favorably and say, "Gam Zu LeTova" -- "This too is for good," for everything that happened in his life, even though his arms and legs were amputated at one point (Ta'anit 21a). This attitude and obligation to judge God favorably are not mere stories in the Talmud, but are brought down in Jewish law as an obligation for every Jew in Jewish law in the way that Jews must view life and view God (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 230:5). Another group of people that each person must change favorably is themselves! A person may not view himself or herself as totally evil, but should always try to judge himself or herself favorably (Mishna Avot 2:13). Maimonides explains this Jewish law to signify that we may not exaggerate one's faults, but rather, we must try to see the good in his or her behavior as well (Maimonides commentary on Mishna Avot 2:13). Rabbeinu Yonah begins one of his philosophical works with a call for awareness about every Jew's obligation to introspect and see all the good in himself or herself. While trying to constantly improve one's moral character, a person should never lose sight of all the goodness within and should therefore judge himself or herself favorably (Rabbeinu Yonah, Sha'arei Avoda, "Introduction").

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DEUT36 See [[NUM146]] Numbers 14:28 spoken TZADIK 439

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DEUT37 See [[REFNUM145]] Numbers 14:28 do GATES 405

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DEUT38 ["tishberu" also understandable as "you shall break")] -- From here, they said: If you can break your enemy with food, feed him; if not, heap money upon him. And this was the practice followed by R. Yonathan. When a potentate [who would act as a judge] would enter the city, he would send him an expensive gift, saying: if the plea of an orphan or a widow comes before him, his wrath will be appeased, and he will be reconcilable (Yerushalmi Shabbath 1:4)

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DEUT39 A person should not be miserly. This is inferred from the verse, "Purchase food from them with silver… For Hashem your God has blessed you with your handiwork" [this verse]. Rashi explains that in order to acknowledge Hashem's blessing, this verse instructs the Jewish people to behave as wealthy people and not as poor people.

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DEUT40 In another Torah narrative, we may be able to infer that Moses himself was sensitive to the needless killing of innocents, even in order to capture the land of Israel. After numerous wars in the desert against various nations, the Torah records that the Jewish people offered peace to the nation of Sichon if the Sichonites would simply let the Jewish people pass through their land unharmed. When they refused, the Jews battled with them and defeated them. But nowhere did God ever command Moses to first offer them peace (Numbers 21:21-23 with Rashi commentary). Elsewhere the Torah itself says that it was Moses' own idea to offer peace as an alternative to war (this and next verse with Rashi commentary). Why did Moses do it? The Midrash alludes to one possible reason. It says Moses believed there were among Sichon those innocents who had not sinned, and it was apparently for this reason that Moses decided to offer the specific nation the possibility of peace (which they refused) Midrash Tanchuma 96:3). Thus, in order to avoid killing non-sinners, Moses preferred a peaceful alternative. The Midrash goes on to say that Moses "taught" God this concept, to always first offer peace to the enemy before going to war (Deuteronomy 20:10-16). It is possible that the reason behind this tactic is to avoid killing innocent people during warfare. There is one more allusion to Jewish sensitivity to collateral damage in the Bible. In the last book of narrative, Chronicles, which reviews Jewish history up until that point, King David writes that the reason that he was not allowed to build the Holy Temple is that he shed blood in wars. The Radak explains that this specifically refers to acts of collateral damage, the innocent lives that had to be taken by King David in the course of war (Chronicles I 22:8 with Rashi commentary). Thus, according to a modern Rabbi explaining this verse and commentary, while this action of killing citizens was sometimes necessary as part of waging war, Judaism did not attach enough guilt to this deed to actively punish King David for this necessary action, but rather denied him the merit of building the Holy Temple, which is the symbol of peace and atonement (Rabbi Asher Weiss, Michat Asher on Deuteronomy 32:6).

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