Shoftim
R. Moshe Cordovero on Parashat Shoftim, read on Shabbat Shoftim · Elul — with one of this week's three questions for the two of you.
The parsha opens with the appointment of judges: shoftim v'shotrim titen lecha b'chol she'arecha — judges and officers shall you place at all your gates. The Sages read 'gates' to mean not only the gates of the city but the gates of the self — the openings through which words come out and impressions go in. Every person needs inner judges. The question is what kind. Cordovero, treating the sefirah of Gevurah (judgment), insists that true judgment is always held inside love. Sharp judgment without love is harsh and crushes the one it judges. Love without any judgment is shapeless and serves no one. The wisdom is the holding-together. As Elul opens — the month of God's nearness, the month of self-examination — Cordovero is asking us to set inner judges who judge from inside love.
When you judge yourself this Elul — when you take your own measure — does the judgment come from someone who loves you, or from somewhere harsher? Whose voice is it?
The full week — the passage itself with its source, the other two questions, and the closing verse of hope — lives in the app. Together Tomorrow on the App Store.