The Antidote to Idolatry

Parashat Shoftim (Deut. 16:18–21:9) opens with a charge: “Judges and officers you shall appoint in all your gates… and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment” (Deut. 16:18). The Torah immediately repeats: “Justice, justice shall you pursue” (16:20).

Rashi, quoting the Sifrei, explains that the doubling teaches: “Pursue justice by just means” — the goal must be just, but so must the path. Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch hears another echo: justice pursued once through strict judgment, and again through compromise, for true justice includes both law and peace.

The Torah insists that justice is not one-dimensional. It must be relentless, tireless, and pursued from every side.

And where are these judges appointed? “In all your gates.” 

Rashi teaches this means every city, every community. But Hasidic masters, such as the Kedushat Levi, read “your gates” as the gates of the body — the eyes, the ears, the mouth. Just as a society needs honest judges at its entrances, so too each of us must guard the gates of our senses, judging what we let in and what we allow out.

The Torah continues: “Do not bend judgment, do not show favoritism, and do not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and distorts the words of the righteous” (16:19). The Talmud (Ketubot 105b) says that even the smallest favor can become a bribe — a word of thanks, a helping hand. Rav Kook explains that the danger of bribery is not only corruption of justice, but corruption of vision: it warps how reality is perceived, clouding even the purest soul. And the Hasidic teachers extend this further: the greatest bribe of all is self-interest, the quiet deal we strike with ourselves when we prefer our own will over God’s. Then, without pause, the Torah declares: “Do not plant for yourself an Asherah, any tree beside the altar of the Lord your God… and do not erect for yourself a pillar, which the Lord your God hates” (16:21–22).

At first glance these laws seem unrelated. But Rashi explains that appointing a corrupt judge is like planting an Asherah next to the altar.

Injustice is idolatry, and idolatry is injustice.

Rav Hirsch develops this: an altar made of many stones represents the unity of community, while a single stone pillar represents the arrogance of the individual. To raise up ego in the place of God is a kind of idol, even without wood or stone.

The Torah then turns to kingship. It warns: “He shall not multiply horses… he shall not multiply wives… he shall not amass silver and gold” (17:16–17). Rav Kook notes that power, pleasure, and wealth are the idols most likely to seduce rulers. To guard against this, the king must write for himself two Torah scrolls, and keep one with him always (17:18–19). The Talmud (Sanhedrin 21b) teaches that this scroll was carried at his side, so that Torah would be his constant companion.

Why?

“So that his heart not be lifted above his brothers” (17:20). Here is the essence: a Jewish king is not crowned by armies or gold, but by Torah itself. If he bows to Torah, he embodies the kingship of Heaven. If he bows to himself, he becomes an idolater in royal robes.

Later, when the Torah addresses war, it returns to the theme of trees: “When you lay siege to a city… do not destroy its trees… for is the tree of the field a man, that it should be besieged by you?” (20:19). Even in battle, life must not be destroyed needlessly. The Sages connect this to the earlier law: just as one may not plant a false tree near the altar, one may not cut down a life-giving tree in war. Both are acts of arrogance, placing human rage or pride above God’s command. Rav Hirsch beautifully remarks that “the tree is the silent ally of man” and to destroy it is to betray creation itself.

Taken together, the opening of Shoftim reveals one unified vision. Injustice and idolatry are not separate evils but two faces of the same betrayal. Both arise when the self — ego, appetite, or pride — replaces God’s command. Both are ways of serving man instead of serving Hashem.

Judges in the gates, kings on the throne, soldiers in battle — all are warned against the same root sin: the worship of self.

Torah offers the antidote: justice, justice.

The prophet Micah distilled the message for all humanity:

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what the Lord requires of you: only to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).