Justice, the Land and the City

Justice (ẓedek), justice shall you pursue, that you may live and possess the Land the Lord, your God, is giving you. Deuteronomy 16:20

     

While the Torah requires that we pursue justice in all places, as Rabbi Ovadya Sforno comments, our verse teaches that there is a unique connection between practicing justice and possessing the Land, in his words “The pursuit of justice is a greater imperative in the Land, for the failure to do so will prevent possessing the Land.” Indeed, Midrash Tanḥuma [Parashat Shofetim 7] states explicitly that our verse makes it clear that the pursuit of justice is the necessary condition for possessing the Land:

As the verse states: “Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may live and possess the Land” – if you do not pursue justice you will not possess the Land.

            Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch adds that the Torah teaches the connection between justice and Israel’s nationality:

Justice is the highest unique goal, and the sole goal of the national entity of Israel … The concept of justice is forming all private and public matters in accordance with God’s Torah. Israel’s one task is to pursue this goal unceasingly with all devotion, “that you may live and possess the Land;” through this Israel will have done everything to secure its physical (“that you live”) and political (“and possess the Land”) existence. Here the political security of the Land, which is based upon acknowledging and caring for right and justice, is called “possession,” even after possession of the Land has been completed. The significant truth is thereby laid down that the possession of the Land comes into question every minute, and the Land has to be taken into possession afresh every minute by the Jewish state acknowledging tribute to “right and justice” and realizing this in the Land.

We may comment that what is true of the Land in general is equally true of her capital. Isaiah [1:26] prophesies that Jerusalem will be called “The city of justice.” However, Rashi comments that this will not be a new name given to the city, but a return to Jerusalem’s beginning, as Isaiah already referred to the Holy City as “full of justice.” [1:21]

The connection between justice and Jerusalem is so strong that her early kings, well before David turned the city into Israel’s eternal capital, had “ẓedek” as a component of their names. The first king of Jerusalem mentioned in the Bible is Malki- ẓedek [Genesis 14:18], and the city’s king at the time of the conquest of the Land by Joshua was named Adoni-ẓedek. [Joshua 10:3] In fact, Rashbam [Genesis 41:10] comments that just as “Pharaoh” was the name of all Egyptian monarchs and “Avimelech” of Philistine kings, so too “Malki-ẓedek” or “Adoni- ẓedek” was the official name of the kings of Jerusalem. Ibn Ezra [Ecclesiastes 1:1] explains simply that the meaning of the royal names is the king (Malki) or master (Adoni) of the place of justice.

            (The last king of the Davidic dynasty until the arrival of Messiah was named “Ẓidkiyahu.” While the name he was given by his father King Josiah was Matanya, and Ẓidkiyahu is the name the Babylonian king gave him when he installed him as king in place of his nephew Yehoyachin, nonetheless, the Bible consistently uses the name Ẓidkiyahu.)

            It should be noted that in Psalms [110:4] King David is referred to as “Malki-ẓedek,” as ibn Ezra writes: “The simple meaning (p’shat) of the psalm is reference to David.”

            Malbim [Isaiah 1:26] focuses our attention on the fact that “justice” refers to interpersonal relations (bein adam l’ḥavero). This comment explains both our Sages’ statement [Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 9b] that the Second Temple was destroyed because of unfounded hatred and Rabbi Kook’s insight that we will merit the rebuilding of Jerusalem when we reach the level of “unbounded love.” Since justice (bein adam l’ḥavero) is an essential aspect of the definition of the Eternal City, necessarily her existence depends upon bein adam l’ḥavero.