Moses-Closing-Address
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Re Tanakh versions:
Throughout this site I may use any of three versions of the Tanakh: 1. “Jewish
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Colour coded
details of our beloved TaNaKh:
1. Torah = History & Law, 2. Nevi’im = The Prophets. 3. *Ketuvim = all other Writings.
*The Ketuvim - Includes, Poetical
books - Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the Megillot, or Scrolls - Song of Solomon, Ruth,
Lamentations of Jeremiah, Ecclesiastes, and Esther, prophecy of
Daniel, and history of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles I & II.
Please Note: Some
alterations or (additions) have been made relating to ‘Names’ and ‘Attributes’
of אֱלֹהִים - Elohim (God), having been corrected like
it once was pre the “Masoretic Text”.
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Remember the following truth from our
beloved Torah!
“Ye shall NOT ADD TO THE WORD which
I command you, NEITHER SHALL YE DIMINISH FROM
IT, that ye may keep the commandments of אֱלֹהֵיכֶם יְהוָה - the LORD your Eloleichem,
which I command you”. Davarim - Deuteronomy 4:2. (JPS-1917).
However, what have both priests and rabbis of the past done, they purposely made grave and ridiculous changes! Thus, they would have already been severely punished!
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With Rabbi,
Dr. Reuven Ben Avraham-Goossens, PhD.
As Moshe - Moses begins his great closing
addresses to the next generation; he turns to a subject that dominates the last
of the Mosaic books, being ‘justice’.
Let us turn to Deuteronomy
1:16-17: (Please Note: All verses in
this study are from the JPS-1917 version of the Torah).
Verses are first in Hebrew,
followed by the English Translation.
וָאֲצַוֶּה, אֶת-שֹׁפְטֵיכֶם, בָּעֵת הַהִוא, לֵאמֹר: שָׁמֹעַ בֵּין-אֲחֵיכֶם וּשְׁפַטְתֶּם צֶדֶק, בֵּין-אִישׁ וּבֵין-אָחִיו וּבֵין גֵּרוֹ
לֹא-תַכִּירוּ פָנִים בַּמִּשְׁפָּט, כַּקָּטֹן כַּגָּדֹל תִּשְׁמָעוּן-לֹא תָגוּרוּ מִפְּנֵי-אִישׁ, כִּי הַמִּשְׁפָּט לֵאלֹהִים הוּא; וְהַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר יִקְשֶׁה מִכֶּם, תַּקְרִבוּן אֵלַי וּשְׁמַעְתִּיו
“And I charged your judges at that time, saying: 'Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; ye shall hear the small and the great alike; ye shall not be afraid of the face of any man; for the judgment is אֱלֹהִים - Elohim’s; and the cause that is too hard for you ye shall bring unto me, and I will hear it.'
צֶדֶק - Tzedek, “justice”, is the key word in the book of Devarim most famously in verse 16:
Let us now turn to Deuteronomy 16:20:
צֶדֶק צֶדֶק, תִּרְדֹּף-לְמַעַן תִּחְיֶה וְיָרַשְׁתָּ אֶת-הָאָרֶץ, אֲשֶׁר-יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לָךְ
“Justice, justice shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ - the LORD thy Eloheicha (God) giveth thee”.
The distribution of the word ‘Tzedek’ - and its derivate ‘Tzedakah’ in the Five Books of Moshe - Moses is anything but random. It is overwhelmingly concentrated on the first and last books, Genesis (where it actually appears 16 times) and in Deuteronomy (18 times). In Exodus it occurs only 4 times and in Leviticus 5. All but one of these are concentrated in two chapters: Exodus 23 (where 3 of the 4 occurrences are in two verses, 23:7-8) and Leviticus 19 (where all 5 incidences are in chapter 19). In Numbers, the word does not appear at all.
This distribution is one of many indications that the Five Books of Moshe - Moses is constructed as a ‘chiasmus’, a ‘literary unit of the form ABCBA’. The structure is as follows:
A: Genesis - the prehistory of
B: Exodus - the journey from
C: Leviticus - the code of holiness.
B: Numbers - the journey from
A: Deuteronomy - the post-history of
The words of ‘Tzedek/Tzedakah’ appears at the key points of this structure, the two outer books of Genesis and Deuteronomy, and the central chapter of the work as a whole, Leviticus 19. Clearly the word is a dominant theme of the Mosaic books as a whole.
What does it all mean? Tzedek/Tzedakah is almost impossible to translate, because of its many shadings of meaning: ‘justice’, ‘charity’, ‘righteousness’, ‘integrity’, ‘equity’, ‘fairness’ and ‘innocence’. It certainly means more than strictly ‘legal justice’, for which the Tanakh uses words like ‘Mishpat’ (‘justice’ or ‘judgment’) and ‘din’ (‘judgment’, ‘justice’ or ‘law’). One example illustrates the point:
Let us now look at Deuteronomy 24:12-13:
וְאִם-אִישׁ עָנִי, הוּא-לֹא תִשְׁכַּב, בַּעֲבֹטוֹ
הָשֵׁב תָּשִׁיב לוֹ אֶת-הַעֲבוֹט כְּבוֹא הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ, וְשָׁכַב בְּשַׂלְמָתוֹ וּבֵרְכֶךָּ; וּלְךָ תִּהְיֶה צְדָקָה, לִפְנֵי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ
“And if he be a poor man, thou shalt not sleep with his pledge; thou shalt surely restore to him the pledge when the sun goeth down, that he may sleep in his garment, and bless thee; and it shall be righteousness unto thee before יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ - the LORD thy Eloheicha”.
Tzedakah cannot mean legal justice in this verse. It speaks of a situation in which a poor person has only a single cloak or covering, which he has handed over to the lender as security against a loan. The lender has a legal right to keep the cloak until the loan has been repaid. However, acting on the basis of this right is simply not the right thing to do. It ignores the human situation of the poor person, who has nothing else with which to keep warm on a cold night.
The point becomes even clearer when we examine the parallel passage in Exodus 22:25-26, which states the following:
אִם-חָבֹל תַּחְבֹּל, שַׂלְמַת רֵעֶךָ-עַד-בֹּא הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ, תְּשִׁיבֶנּוּ לוֹ
כִּי הִוא כְסוּתֹה לְבַדָּהּ, הִוא שִׂמְלָתוֹ לְעֹרוֹ; בַּמֶּה יִשְׁכָּב-וְהָיָה כִּי-יִצְעַק אֵלַי, וְשָׁמַעְתִּי כִּי-חַנּוּן אָנִי
“If thou at all take thy neighbour’s garment to pledge, thou shalt restore it unto him by that the sun goeth down; for that is his only covering, it is his garment for his skin; wherein shall he sleep? and it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto Me, that I will hear; for I am gracious”.
The same situation which in Deuteronomy is described as tzedakah, in Exodus is termed compassion or ‘grace’ - ‘Chanun’ - חַנּוּן means ‘gracious’, ‘kind’, and ‘merciful’. Another thought is that tzedakah could be translated ‘tzedakah’ in Deuteronomy 24 as ‘charitable merit’. It is really best rendered as ‘the right and decent thing to do’ or ‘justice tempered by compassion’.
In Hebraism, ‘justice’ - ‘Tzedek’, as opposed to ‘Mishpat’ that must be tempered by ‘compassion’.
Why is justice so central to our faith? Because it is impartial! Law as envisaged by the Torah makes no distinction between the ‘rich’ and the ‘poor’, ‘powerful’ and ‘powerless’, ‘home born’ or ‘stranger’. Equality before the law is the translation into human terms of equality before אֱלֹהִים - Elohim. Time and again the Torah insists that justice is not a human artefact: ‘Do not be intimidated by any man, for judgment belongs to אֱלֹהִים - Elohim’. Because it belongs to אֱלֹהִים - Elohim, it must never be compromised, by ‘fear’, ‘bribery’, or ‘favouritism’. It is an inescapable duty, an inalienable right.
Hebraism is a faith of love:
1. Deuteronomy 6:5:
וְאָהַבְתָּ, אֵת יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, בְּכָל-לְבָבְךָ וּבְכָל-נַפְשְׁךָ, וּבְכָל-מְאֹדֶךָ
“You shall love יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם - the LORD your Eloheichem; with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might”.
2. Leviticus 19:18:
לֹא-תִקֹּם
וְלֹא-תִטֹּר
אֶת-בְּנֵי
עַמֶּךָ,
וְאָהַבְתָּ
לְרֵעֲךָ
כָּמוֹךָ:
אֲנִי, יְהוָה
“Thou shalt not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children
of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am יְהוָה - the LORD”.
But our faith is also a religion of ‘justice’, for without justice, ‘love corrupts’ (it is said by some, ‘who would not bend the rules, if he could, to favour those he loves?’). But then, it should also be a religion of ‘compassion’. For without compassion, the law itself can generate ‘inequity’, ‘justice’ plus ‘compassion’, and that equals ‘Tzedek’, the first precondition of a decent society!
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This site was originally created, for those who desired to return to our blessed and wonderful faith. Thus be wise and work on your faith and pray at least two or three times a day (if possible) and always seek our beloved אֱלֹהִים - Elohim’s guidance, for His love is always with us, especially when we seek Him, blessed be He! However this site has become very much a teaching site with hundreds of studies!
Remember what אֱלֹהִים - Elohim, blessed be
He, said the following through a number of our prophets...
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“The More Torah, the More Life”,
For Elohim is the One who
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May the שָׁלוֹם - Shalom = Peace
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שָׁלוֹם
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