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Parshat Shoftim
This week’s parsha opens with the commandment to appoint law enforcement officers and judges, emphasizing the importance of a just legal system, followed by the appointment of a king, who must act modestly, and concludes with the halachot of going to war, obligating a Jew to act with the highest level of morality, even at this time of bloodshed and the ensuing super high flow of adrenalin, keeping his camp clean and acting with mercy towards his enemies. The obligation to leave an escape route for a surrounded enemy, is for this reason.
Chazal tell us that Jerusalem was destroyed because the courts were paskening according to the strict letter of the law, and not within its boundaries. (lifnim me shurat ha din).
The Shulchan Aruch paskens that an employee who accidentally causes his employer damage, should not only be exempt from paying for that damage, but should also be paid his wages, requiring the employer to undergo a financial loss in order to be merciful towards his employee. A secular judge would have no hesitation in ruling that the employer has every right to make his worker pay for the damage, and forfeit his wages too.
This is all part of being a light to the nations, as Chazal tell us.
Who said it was easy being a Jew?!
Shabbat Shalom
Dayan Shlomo Cohen