Parashat Shoftim – Sanctifying Our Days

Dedicated to the memory of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino

What constitutes a life well-lived and a life of blessing?

This week, I had the heartbreak of being at the funeral of Hersh Goldberg-Polin.  His dear mother Rachel shared the following about Hersh: “You made true and deep friendships, you traveled each summer and started to explore the world, you worked, you learned, you read, you taught, you served, you listened, you even fell in love and had a deep true relationship for more than 2 years. And you shared the excitement of that new experience with us. You charmed everyone you ever talked to, old or young. You promoted justice and peace in a way a only a young pure, wide-eyed idealist, can. You never raised your voice to me in your life. You treated me respectfully always, even when you chose a different path.”

With this bitter week marking the tragic loss of six hostages and Rosh Hodesh, the beginning of a new month, we pray for God to renew our lives in the coming month: “Grant us a long life, a peaceful life with goodness and blessing, sustenance and physical vitality, a life informed by purity and piety . . . a life of abundance and honor, a life embracing piety and love of Torah, a life in which our heart’s desires for goodness will be fulfilled” (Birkat HaHodesh).

This Rosh Hodesh offers us a particularly auspicious moment to dwell upon this question of a life well-lived, for this week marks the beginning of Elul—a month in which we are encouraged to take a heshbon ha-nefesh, an accounting of our souls. At its essence, this idea demands that we look inward and become critical of ourselves and the year that has passed. This week’s parashah, Shoftim, gives us one definition of a life of blessing (in addition to the inspiring model that Hersh z”l gave all of us) that we can use in evaluating where we have come from and where we are going.

Torah’s description of a life well-lived, ironically & fittingly (given the horror we are living through), comes at a point in the parashah that delineates the protocol in a state of war. 

Deuteronomy 20 relates, “Before you join battle, the priest shall come forward and address the troops. He shall say to them, ‘Hear O Israel! You are about to join battle with your enemy. Let not your courage falter. Do not fear, panic, or dread them. For it is the Lord your God who marches with you to do battle for you against your enemy, to bring you victory’” (Deuteronomy 20:2–4).

The instruction continues, “Then the officials shall address the troops as follows: Is there anyone who has built a new house but has not dedicated it? Let him go back to his home, lest he die in battle and another dedicate it. Is there anyone who has planted a vineyard but has never harvested it? Let him go back to his home, lest he die in battle and another harvest it. Is there anyone who has paid the bride-price for a wife, but who has not yet married her? Let him go back to his home, lest he die in battle and another marry her” (Deuteronomy 20:5–7).

Why does the Torah choose these three aspects as the definition of a blessed life? I propose that each of these facets is interwoven with the concept of kiddushin (sanctification). The sanctification of place, time, and people.

To build one’s home is to sanctify place, to aspire toward building a mikdash me’at, a sanctuary in miniature. After the destruction of the Temple, it is one’s table that brings about repentance. Merely by having guests to one’s home on Shabbat and speaking words of Torah, one effects atonement. The home then becomes the sacred inner sanctum of the Temple.

Second, our passage speaks of harvesting one’s vineyard. Every sacred time in the tradition is marked by kiddush, the sanctification of the day over a cup of wine. And so by planting a vineyard, one makes a commitment to being a partner with God in this act of sanctifying time.

Finally, the Torah alludes to the act of kiddushin between two individuals. For it is through this act that two individuals stand under a huppah (the symbol of the home they will build together) and declare their uniqueness to each other. The concern for exclusivity and loyalty (“lest another marry her”) is part of kiddushin—two people being set aside for each other.

The Torah’s primary concern is that of realization and completion. Acts of holiness and sanctification are to be completed. The Torah commands that, if we have begun any of these acts of kiddushin, then we must endeavor to complete them before risking our lives on behalf of others. We must choose life, but we must choose a life that is endowed with a recognition of holiness and wholeness.

The confluence of Rosh Hodesh Elul and Parashat Shoftim gives us a precious occasion to turn inward and think about how we ourselves define a life of blessing and a life well-lived.

How is it that we seek wholeness in our lives? Are we actively seeking holiness?

Abraham Joshua Heschel writes that Judaism is about rediscovering and hearing the existential questions that God asks of us each day.

Let this be an opportunity for us to reflect deeply and create personal visions in the month leading up to Yom ha-Din, the Day of Judgment. Only through deliberate thought and prior planning may we realize the kiddushin, sanctification, that can be a daily part of our lives.

May the model of Hersh’s twenty-three years, along with Torah, inspire us to live lives of meaning and soulfulness.

May the Goldberg-Polin, Gat, Yerushalmi, Lobanov, Sarusi and Danino families feel the loving embrace of the entire Jewish world and of humanity.

Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom as we pray for the peace of Israel and may our hostages be Home speedily. 

Journey to Israel with Schechter Institutes in November:
https://schechter.edu/40th-anniversary-mission/