by Rav Yosef Naveh, yeshiva.org.il, translated by Hillel Fendel
This week's Torah portion of Shoftim (Deut. 16,18-21,9) begins with this verse: "Appoint for yourselves judges and police for your tribes in all your settlements that G-d your Lord is giving you, and make sure that they administer honest judgment for the people" [translation by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan].
The Sfat Emet (by the Gerrer Rebbe, R. Yehuda Aryeh Leib Alter, 1847-1905) explains that the "judges" correspond to the head tefillin, and the "police" to the hand tefillin. A person judges with his head and brain how to do things in the best and truest way, while police use physical force, represented by the hand, to enforce and execute the judgements determined by the head.
The author of HaLekach v'HaLibuv (R. Avraham Schorr, nephew of Rosh Yeshivat Torah Vodaas Rav Gedaliah Schorr) challenges this explanation: "We know that the prescribed order of putting on tefillin is hand first and head only afterwards, whereas the Torah states here 'judges' before 'police' - first the head and then the hand. Can this be reconciled?"
R. Schorr explains that the matter must be understood based upon the second verse in the weekly portion, the commandment not to take bribes: "Do not slant judgement… do not take a bribe, for it will blind the eyes of the wise" (Deut. 16,19). When a judge takes a bribe from one of the litigants, he is no longer able to judge a true judgement. As the Gaon Rav Elchanan Wasserman explained, the bribe that most effectively sways correct judgement is that which grants a person physical, this-worldly pleasures, causing him not to see the true path. One must therefore get rid of all physical pleasures in order to be able to see the way of truth.
Hands Purify, Head Decides
And this is represented by the order of tefillin: First we put on the hand tefillin, so that we may purify our physical pleasures, and only then do we put tefillin on our head so that it can now judge according to real truth, without being blinded by physical pleasures.
And when a person merits, by virtue of the head tefillin, to have his mind rule over his heart, to calculate his ways in Divine truth, and to remember that all his life-forces are from the blessed Creator Who, every moment, grants him the ability to see, speak, hear and smell - he will naturally not want to do anything with his body in contrast to the will of his Father in Heaven.
Once a person overcomes his physical inclinations and subjugates his lusts to G-d, he merits a true judgement – as is written, "The rulers [or, parable-makers] will say, come to Cheshbon!" (Numbers 21,27) That is, though Cheshbon is a place-name, it also means "calculation," and this verse therefore is used as an exhortation to make proper moral calculations, and thus merit a true judgement.
The Hassidic work Bnei Yisaschar (R. Tzvi Elimelech Shapira, 1783-1841) states that the numerology of Elul – the month of repentance which we begin tonight – is 67, the same as that of the word Binah, which means "understanding." That is, we must utilize these days of Elul for careful and calm consideration and self-accounting regarding our path in life. "Let us search our way and delve [into them], and we will return unto G-d" (Eicha 3,40). Binah corresponds to the emotions of the heart, as is written, "his heart will understand (yavin) and he will repent and will be healed" (Yeshayahu 6,10) – perfectly appropriate for the month of Elul.
We recite Psalm 27 precisely 100 times a year: morning and evening of the 30 days of Elul, and the same for 20 days of Tishrei. Verse 8 states: "To you my heart said, 'seek My presence.'" This is a difficult phrase, and Rashi explains: "On your behalf, my heart says to the Israelites [that they should] seek My presence."
That is, G-d sends to my heart a thought of "seeking My presence," an arousal to seek out and find Him. Based on the context of the verse, R. Schorr explains that the worshiper here is praying for a Divine arousal and that he should merit to be Divinely answered and receive from G-d the desire to seek Him out.
The first letters of these Hebrew words that we are discussing – vaaneni l'cha amar libi – spell out the word Elul (so wrote the Lev Simcha, the Gerrer Rebbe from 1977 to 1992). This is a very appropriate allusion, as our work in the month of Elul is to cleanse our hearts so that we may judge ourselves with truth and fix that which needs to be fixed. In Elul we also increase our prayers, so that the heart will always long for closeness to G-d. As this Psalm 27 concludes: "Hope for G-d, be strong and He will give your heart courage, and hope for G-d."
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