Chelek 34, Shoftim 01 - Rabbi Ari Shishler

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Sicha Women Shiur - Project Likkutei Sichos’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

What is the role of a Jewish policeman? That's the question that we have to address at the beginning of this week's parsha which speaks about judges and policemen. And the parsha Rashi writes parsha says and if you look at Rashi's commentary at the beginning of our parsha where the possuk says shoftim v'shotrim that you should have judges and policemen, Rashi explains shoftim means dayanim upiskim issurim. Shoftim refers to the judges who decide the law. But shotrim are shomrim al hamitzvosan and the policemen are the people who chase or ensure that people fulfill those instructions from the judges. And that means shomrim v'kofsin umakkin v'rotzuah that they could hit or they could bind a person, they could use a stick or they could use a um a whip ad sheyikabel ol divrei hashoftim until the person accepts the verdict of the judge. B'kos um'farshin so the commentaries point out on Rashi's perspective over here the mashal hoisef Rashi sheshoftim heim dayanim upiskim issurim. Why is Rashi telling us that judges are those who determine the judgment? D'ya afl gav d'orach kol dain piskei issurim even though why is Rashi telling us that even though we already know that that's the job of a judge is to decide the law. Esked el avoi l'chol alma utzricha l'meimar oid shotrim the reason that he had to explain shoftim is to understand why the Torah is telling us over here shotrim policemen. U'lfi ha'arah pirushei zeh d'ya adain ein oiser af piskei issurim v'lo oi so therefore Rashi wants to emphasize the role of the judge is only to administer the judgment and no more. Deina koifasin he doesn't bind or imprison the individual. V'shoiter hu shekoif v'oreid v'oreid l'kayem mitzvas hashoifet whereas the policeman his job

Jump to a moment

1. 0:00What is the role of a Jewish policeman? That's the question that we have to address…
2. 3:43punitive things until the person accepts the verdict of the judge. Why do I need that…
3. 7:57litigant to accept the court's ruling. That's why in this case Rashi does not say these…
4. 11:41the person who enforces the punishment, too. How do we know that? We come to Parshas…
5. 15:55necessarily punishers. We have seen many times that shoftim could very well be those who actually…
6. 20:13Which is addressing how the legal system should work for future generations when Moshe Rabbeinu is…
7. 23:59somebody. So, in other words, all of these tools have roles to play in the base…
8. 28:10without policeman and no policeman without a judge, they defend that based on a statement of…
9. 31:46But we could still test this. This principle, that when you have two components of a…
10. 36:08policemen. So, they are not an independent entity in the judicial process that requires or deserves…

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