Filed under: Thoughts of the Week
This reading on judges and human statues and arrangements, Deuteronomy 16:18 – 21:9, focuses on “justice, justice you shall follow that they may live and inherit the land.” The Torah reading deals with setting up the courts, societal leadership roles, the laws of warfare, cities of refuge, assigning guilt in unsolved murder cases, people building a just community.
The haftorah, the fourth of the haftorot of consolation, Isaiah LI, 12-LII, 12, is one of optimism, although it starts with the reminder that the son of man is made of grass. The Divine will comfort the people, redeem Jerusalem, and protect the nation.
This Shabbat I joined the community in a bike tour of 20 miles, known as the Steeple Chase. Bikers go from church to church for snacks along the way, including one stop called the Holy Cow Shelter in a field along a country road. It is a fund-raiser for the Perceptions Program – a treatment house in the community – and WAIM – the Windham Area Interfaith Ministry – a program that collects and distributes clothes and organizes a fuel bank in the winter. The community is the hand of the Divine within these and other programs.
My role as a tourist in a difficult world does not do justice directly. We find ways to help others and ourselves for the problems are too complicated to be effective without the societal structures outlines in this portion. People of good will do add good to the world.
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