[Jewish] [Mindful Torah] Psalm for Tuesday; Psalm 82, Verse 3

[Rabbi Steven Nathan]

Judge the poor and the orphan; do justice to the afflicted and
destitute.

At first glance, this verse seems like something that should come so
naturally to us as human beings. And yet, what struck me was the use of
forms of the words shf't / judge and tz'dk / justice in the two
different halves of the verse.

The verb used in the first half is the same verb that was used in verse
two of the psalm. There the Psalmist asks "how long will you judge
unjustly" in reference to the appearance that the wicked are not
getting what they deserve in this world. It is also the root of the
Biblical Word for the "judges" that ruled the Israelites prior to the
advent of the monarchy as well as the Modern Hebrew words for a judge
in the legal system.


The root of the word hitz'dik "do justice" in the second half of the
verse is the same root as tzedek/justice, as in "justice, justice shall
you pursue" (Deuteronomy 16:20) and tzedakah, or righteous giving
(though often translated as charity).

I began to wonder why the first half of the verse had a more
legalistic, and perhaps even negative, connotation, where the second is
clearly about righteousness and could only have a positive connotation.

As I tried to understand why one would want to judge the poor and the
orphan and do justice to the afflicted and destitute I suddenly read
the two halves of the verse as one united verse: 'Judge and act
righteously towards the poor, the orphan, the afflicted and the
destitute.' This made sense to me, as all of these are viewed within
the Torah's framework as among the oppressed for whom we must care as a
society.


If this is the case, then why the two different verbs? Then I
remembered the verse in the Torah that appears immediately
preceding "justice, justice shall you pursue": "You shall not judge
unfairly; you shall show no partiality ” (Deuteronomy 16:19). It also
called to mind Leviticus 19:15, "you shall not render an unfair
decision: do not favor the poor or show deference to the rich; judge
your kinsman fairly."

To act justly and righteously means to treat everyone fairly and to be
impartial It means that we must have equanimity when dealing with all
human beings, regardless of social status or power.


When we are dealing with those that are less fortunate, we must be just
and righteous. However, we must not assume that they are "in the right"
simply because they are oppressed any more than we should assume that a
wealthy or powerful person is "in the wrong."


Equanimity is one of the keys to mindfulness practice. It is not only
about looking at other human beings with calmness and an evenness of
temper, but looking at ourselves that way as well. It means
experiencing our own thoughts, feelings and actions both through the
lens of fair judgment and the lens or justice and righteousness.


What it does NOT mean is that we should be judgmental. For within the
perspective of equanimity we are not making value judgments; nothing is
inherently bad or good, right or wrong. It simply is what it is. If an
action has caused harm to another person or to property, etc. we must
certainly treat it as such and there must be consequences. And if our
actions help another and make the world a better place, that too must
be acknowledged. But each thought, action or utterance must be viewed
on its own merits with the balance of justice and righteousness, but
still in a non-judgmental way. We must look at the actions and their
results and not judge the essence of the actors themselves


There is a fine line between judging, justice and being judgmental. It
is being mindful, clear, calm and composed that allows us to act with
equanimity and hopefully not to cross that line. We must always seek
justice and fairness in all that we do.










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Posted By Rabbi Steven Nathan to Mindful Torah at 5/04/2010 02:32:00 PM
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