Integrity: A Prerequisite for a Judge
Words of Wisdom with Rabbi Efrat Zarren-Zohar
This Dvar Torah on Parashat Yitro was edited from one written by Rabbi Chaim Ingram, a senior tutor for the Sydney Australia Beth Din and the non-resident rabbi of the Adelaide Hebrew Congregation.
Yitro, the father-in-law of Moses, may be a ‘bit-part’ player in the Torah narrative, but his contribution is seminal.
The hierarchical judicial structure he proposed of appointing “leaders of thousands… hundreds… fifties and… tens” (Exod. 18:21) under the overall direction of Moses has become the foundation of all judicial systems in democracies the world over.
Moreover, the criteria he outlines for the appointment of judges has become the gold standard for every just society. “You shall seek out from the entire nation [as judges] anshei chayil: G-D-fearing, men of truth, haters of rapacity” (ibid).
I have punctuated the above citation according to Ramba who understands anshei Chayil as the klal, the generic, overarching description of the calibre of judge who is needed and the other descriptions – G-D fearing men etc – as p’ratim, as illustrations of anshei chayil.
Consequently, when the Torah relates (vs.23-24) that Moses did according to his father-in-law’s advice, it only mentions this generic term: that he chose men of chayil.
I have so far refrained from translating Chayil with good reason, as it is a very challenging word to translate!
I ought to have taken note of the insightful words of Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch. He defines the word Chayil as an “accumulation of forces, whether of possessions, power, moral or mental gifts …hence fortune, army, goodness, virtue or valour.”
Rav Hirsch wrote his commentary on the Chumash in German, and these English renderings are likely also to be approximations.
But I think we can, by dint of his definition, arrive at an English word that perfectly sums up this holistic “accumulation of [benign] forces” in the moral sense – and that word is integrity.
Judges must be people of integrity.
Their moral qualities should be unimpugnable.
They should have no unresolved biases or prejudices that may cloud their perception – as the Torah states “judging …with probity and fairness” (Deut 16:19), “not favouring the poor just because they are poor [whether financially or via social status], nor the well-connected” (Lev. 19:15).
In halacha, a dayan [judge] is not allowed to hear one side of an argument without hearing the other.
The famous phrase tsedek tsedek tirdof (Deut 16:20) has been understood to mean that justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done!
A judge, whether in a Jewish or in a wider society (the injunction to appoint judges of integrity is one of the seven laws the Torah prescribes universally) must – just like any leader – stand a notch above the populace.
He cannot just be “one of the boys” seen frequenting nightclubs or engaging in trite social media gossip or, far worse, distorted or vilifying political commentary bordering on defamation.
He must not show bias towards, nor prejudice against, any individual or ethnic / racial / religious / national grouping, even when not acting in his capacity as a judge.
In the Amida which we say three times every weekday, we importune G-D to “return our [righteous] judges as in earlier times, and our counsellors as in ancient years, and remove from us sorrow and angst”.
Why should there be such an intrinsic connection between just judgement and emotional equilibrium?
Our Sages explain that when people are made to feel they are being judged fairly and equitably, even if their opponent wins the case, they feel secure and happy!
We pray with all our hearts for the time when, both in Israel and in the Diaspora lands in which we find ourselves, all our judges will resemble the Solomonic figures of our heyday!
