Written by Hindy, ו אלול תשפ”ב, September 01, 2022
If we station judges or officers in all of our cities, what does it do for us? Or more so, to
what extent will they keep watch? “You must appoint judges and sheriffs for yourself in all your
cities” (17:8) is the opening sentence of this week’s parsha, Shoftim. The Shach gives an
alternate translation. 1“In all your cities” is meant to mean “in all your gates”. There isn’t much
of a difference between “our cities” or “our gates”, the Siftei Kohein takes it further. In all your
gates, meaning the gates belonging to us, as in our bodies’ gates. This watch of judges and
officers over our gates is referring to a watch of our watching over our eyes and ears—shmiras
einiim, shmiras oznaiim. Guarding our eyes and what they see, and guarding our ears, what they
hear, and what they choose to listen to.
This parsha also goes over the prohibition of planting trees in (or in the court of) the Beit
Hamikdash. This comes from a necessity of distancing ourselves from forces which bring us
away from Hashem (as we covered in last week’s parsha, Re’eh), the force in this case being
idolatry. Idolaters at that time would commonly plant trees next to their Baal idol, thus when we
destroy the idols, we must also destroy these trees-which were known as asheiros.
Later on2 it is brought up that when besieging a city, we must not cut down or destroy its
trees, but instead preserve and eat the fruit of the trees instead. The explanation follows shortly
thereafter: “For man is like a tree of the field-Ki ha’adam eitz hasadeh”. Why does it say one
place that we must destroy the trees of an enemy/idolater (because they served Baal in tandem
with the asheira), and here in this parsha say not to cut down the trees of someone we besiege
(who is probably an enemy), but instead preserve them so we could benefit from them?
The Shach’s interpretation brings the answer. We need to make sure that everything God
gave us in life is used for its deeper purpose. This is shown through the different dealings of the
trees. We must guard all of “our gates”, meaning our eyes, ears, mouth, and use them for their
deeper, more spiritual purposes instead of falling into speaking or listening to loshon hara (or not
working to protect our eyes, etc.). Instead we must fight and use them or their holier purposes.
So too, the trees could be used and worshipped as asheiros, or be preserved and used as
sustenance.
Let us all work in this month of Elul to use “our gates” for their holier purposes.
Shabbat shalom, and may we merit to have all of our tefillos be answered,
Hindy