Inner Judges And Officers

שופטים ושוטרים ת' לך

"Judges and officers you shall appoint for yourself" (Devarim 16:18).

The piece opens with the Torah's command to appoint judges and officers, the verse the whole teaching is built upon.

הוא ג"כ לכל פרט

This too applies to every individual.

The Sfas Emes establishes that this command is not only communal but operates within each and every person.

שופטים הוא הדעת להבין האמת והוא ע"י הגיון בתורה שבכתב ושבע"פ

"Judges" refers to the faculty of understanding (da'as) that discerns the truth, and this is attained through delving and laboring in the written Torah and the oral Torah.

The "judges" within a person are his power of understanding, the da'as that recognizes truth, which is sharpened only by toiling in the written and oral Torah.

כמו השופט שפוסק הדין כן קבלת האדם עצמו בפיו

Just as the judge issues the ruling, so too a person takes the verdict upon himself by accepting it with his own mouth.

He draws the parallel: as a court hands down its ruling, so a person internalizes the verdict by verbally accepting it upon himself.

ושוטרים בחי' המצות עשה ול"ת שהוא בגוף המעשה לכוף היצר לשנות המעשה ע"פ התורה

And "officers" corresponds to the aspect of the positive mitzvos and the negative mitzvos, which are in the actual deed itself, to subdue the yetzer hara and to change one's conduct in accordance with the Torah.

The "officers" are the mitzvos of action, both the positive and the negative, whose role is to subdue the yetzer hara and bring a person's actual deeds into line with the Torah.

ובאמת נראה כי הסנהדרין וחכמי ישראל שהיו בזמן המקדש האירו עיניהם של ישראל

In truth it appears that the Sanhedrin and the chachmei Yisrael who lived in the time of the Beis HaMikdash illuminated the eyes of Bnei Yisrael.

When the Beis HaMikdash stood, the Sanhedrin and the sages of Yisrael gave clarity and light to the eyes of Bnei Yisrael.

ועי"ז הי' גם לכל פרט בחי' שופטים ושוטרים כנ"ל

And through this there came to be, in every individual as well, the aspect of "judges and officers," as explained above.

Because of that illumination from the sages, the inner faculties of "judges and officers" were awakened within each individual.

וז"ש ושפטו את העם משפט צדק

And this is the meaning of "and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment" (Devarim 16:18).

He now reads the verse's phrase "righteous judgment" as pointing to this inner avodah, not merely courtroom rulings.

שאין הפי' רק על הטענות

For its meaning is not only regarding the legal claims brought before them.

The phrase does not refer only to deciding the monetary or legal claims that come before a court.

רק שיטו לבות בנ"י שיהיו אנשי אמת וישפטו מעשיהם בצדק

Rather, that they would incline the hearts of Bnei Yisrael so that they become people of truth and would judge their own deeds with righteousness.

Rather it means the judges turned the hearts of Bnei Yisrael toward truth, so that each person would judge his own conduct righteously.

וע"ז מבקשין השיבה שופטינו כו' ויועצינו:

And it is upon this that we make our request in "Restore our judges... and our counselors" (the Shemoneh Esrei).

This inner reality is precisely what we daven for when we ask Hashem to restore our judges and counselors as in former times.

Summary: The Sfas Emes teaches that the command to appoint "judges and officers" speaks not only to the nation but to every individual. The inner "judge" is a person's da'as, his power to discern truth, acquired by laboring in the written and oral Torah and accepted by him with his own mouth, while the inner "officers" are the mitzvos of action that subdue the yetzer hara and align one's deeds with the Torah. When the Beis HaMikdash stood, the Sanhedrin and chachmei Yisrael illuminated the eyes of Bnei Yisrael, and through that light these inner faculties were awakened in each person. Thus "righteous judgment" means not merely deciding legal claims but turning the hearts of Bnei Yisrael toward truth so that each person judges his own deeds with righteousness. This is what we plead for in the tefillah "Restore our judges and our counselors as in former times."