Due-tero Process

Deuteronomy sets out principles and rules for specific cases, and demands that the Israelites not veer to the left or right in their compliance (Deuteronomy 5:32). It might sound algorithmic. Put in facts, and it results in a legal imperative. Is the Jewish tradition of interpretation after interpretation at odds with a system that was envisioned by the Creator as defined, inevitable, and inexorable?

Actually, no. Deuteronomy itself expects that there will be questions about how to apply the law in the generations ahead (Deuteronomy 17:8-9). There is not only a “rule book” in Shoftim (Deuteronomy 16:18–21:9), this week’s Torah reading, but a structure for who and how it will be interpreted by the finite and fallible human beings. Shoftim expects that halakha, its sacredly revealed norms, will often have to be applied when the stakes are high—wars with foreign enemies, homicides within the community—and decision-making may be distorted by passion.

When Pirke Avot, the capstone book of the Talmud, instructs that you should have many disciples and be deliberate in judgment (Pirke Avot 1:6), it is fulfilling the biblical mandates, not reinventing them.

The farewell address of Moses is not simply “be ruled by revelation”; it is “in being ruled by revelation, you must bring not only a spirit faithful to God, not only a good heart, but you must deploy your intellect. And you, the individual, must be respectful of different roles in society, the whole system of checks and balances (Deuteronomy 16:18-20).

The starting point is the Creator—and no other divinity. You worship no human being. Different individuals have different roles, and there are limits and are counterbalanced by other roles.

There will be judges and magistrates, and they must act without bias; justice, justice shall you pursue” (Deuteronomy 16:20). In a death penalty case, you do not operate on assumptions, hearsay; you cannot put someone to death on a single witness, there must be at least two (Deuteronomy 17:6). When judges rule, their decisions must be respected.

You may select a king, but the king is not a god. The king is ruled by God, and God’s rules. The king must throughout his life read a scroll of the Torah, written by the Levitical priests (Deuteronomy 17:18-19).

The Levitical priests have authority in matters of rites and rituals, but they are not kings. They come from a tribe, unlike the others, that does not have a territory of its own (Deuteronomy 18:1). The Israelites must provide them with material sustenance just as the priests must provide them with religious instruction.

Prophets will emerge; but you must not follow them blindly. See if their oracles are fulfilled (Deuteronomy 18:21-22).

The Jewish Bible had an enormous impact on the Enlightenment tradition in politics. Exodus inspired rebellions against tyrannical rulers (Exodus 20:2). But the Bible also contemplates a society that respects the rule of law, and within that, the necessity of limiting roles with other roles, so that no person—not even a king, not even a high priest, not even a prophet—is a substitute God, a fraction of a God.

We live in a time of religious zealotry. The most dominant religions are not traditional; they can include totalist ideologies of the left and right. We are always tempted, as human beings, to see processes, checks and balances, deliberation as potential obstacles to achieving ultimate ends that are righteous.

Yet the Bible itself, which could not have a more clear sense that there is an ultimate Source of righteousness—and that the Source has revealed a program that encompasses society and government, individual and collective worship—the Bible itself insists that we must slow down, take the time to think, gather evidence, listen to different perspectives from different witnesses and experts (Deuteronomy 17:8-11).

Israeli society in recent times, including the run-up to the 7 October catastrophe, has been riven by people who are convinced they know what righteousness demands. Despite it all, for now, democracy still operates in Israel; there are still—despite the challenges—checks and balances that include the High Court applying the basic laws. No society could be under more stress from external pressures. Few societies are composed of so many fragments from the wider world, have so many streams of belief and tradition converging with such urgency, passion, anxiety, sense of duty, and mission. Yet Israel at its best is Israel at its most modern and traditional at the time; Israel, that despite everything, is dedicated to righteousness of means, not only ends.