Judges in Jerusalem – Shof’tim
When Prime Minister Menachem Begin was given a hard time in the United States, he retorted, “There are judges in Jerusalem”.
He was probably saying, “Don’t talk to me about Jews needing to behave with a sense of justice”.
In the last few months we needed Beginesque ethics to provide Israel and the Jewish people with a balanced judiciary and a firm sense of justice.
Here is not the place to lay down the sort of judiciary that Israel should have… but it is the right forum to agree on a compromise and formulate who should control appointments of judges and how the judiciary and the Knesset should interact.
The ideal judicial system needs deep and wide scrutiny, and Parashat Shof’tim (“Judges”) is a suitable context.
