Parashat Shoftimשׁוֹפְטִים

What happens in Shoftim

'Justice, justice shall you pursue' — the Torah doubles the word and hands the pursuit to human institutions: appoint judges in every town, forbid bribes, require two witnesses, provide courts of appeal. Kings must write their own Torah scroll and keep it with them, so power stays under law. Even war has rules here — and in a striking environmental law, fruit trees may not be destroyed in a siege: 'Is the tree of the field a person, that it should be besieged by you?'

Big themes

• Pursuing justice justly
• Power under law
• Protecting even the trees