Shofetim (parashah)

In the Masoretic Text, Parashat Shofetim has four "open portion" (פתוחה‎, petuchah) divisions (roughly equivalent to paragraphs, often abbreviated with the Hebrew letter פ‎ pe).

[10] In the continuation of the reading, Moses taught that if a legal case proved too baffling for the Israelites to decide, then they were promptly to go to the place where the sanctuary was located, appear before the kohenim or judge in charge, and present their problem, and carry out any verdict that was announced there without deviating either to the right or to the left.

[19] In exchange for their service to God, the priests were to receive the shoulder, cheeks, and stomach of sacrifices, the firstfruits of the Israelites' cereal, wine, oil, and the first sheep shearing.

[37] In the sixth reading, Moses warned that the Israelites were not to move their countrymen's landmarks, set up by previous generations, in the property that they were allotted in the land.

[42] Then the officials were to ask the troops whether anyone had built a new house but not dedicated it, planted a vineyard but never harvested it, paid the bride price for a wife but not yet married her, or become afraid and disheartened, and all these they were to send back to their homes.

[50] In the continuation of the reading, Moses taught that if, in the land, they found the body of a murder victim lying in the open, and they could not determine the killer, then the elders and judges were to measure the distances from the corpse to the nearby towns.

[58] The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these Biblical sources:[59] Benjamin Sommer argued that Deuteronomy 12–26 borrowed whole sections from the earlier text of Exodus 21–23.

The law in Deuteronomy 18:6–8, establishing that the rural Levites who came to Jerusalem were equal in rank and privilege with their fellow-tribesmen already ministering there, was not carried out during Josiah's religious reforms, as 2 Kings 23:9 reports.

[67] The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these early nonrabbinic sources:[68] Philo called the rule that a judge should not receive the testimony of a single witness "an excellent commandment."

[69] Similarly, Josephus reported the rule of Deuteronomy 17:6 and 19:15, writing that judges should not credit a single witness, but rather should rely only on three, or two at the least, and only those whose testimony was confirmed by their good lives.

(Eliezer ben Hurcanus said that whoever killed such an animal, even without a trial, acquired merit, but Rabbi Akiva held that their death was to be decided by a court of 23.

The Mishnah taught that three experts were required for the assessment of fourth-year fruit (as in Leviticus 19:23–25) and the second tithe (as in Deuteronomy 14:22–26) of unknown value, of consecrated objects for redemption purposes, and valuations of movable property the value of which had been vowed to the Sanctuary.

The law that a bribe is not necessarily monetary was derived from the fact that Exodus 23:8 does not say: “And you shall take no profit.” The Gemara illustrated this by telling how Samuel was once crossing a river on a ferry and a certain man gave him a hand to help him out of the ferryboat.

[95] Rabbi Eliezer ben Jacob deduced from the prohibition against any kind of tree beside the altar in Deuteronomy 16:21 that wooden columns were not allowed in the Temple courtyard.

[101] The Gemara cited the Torah's requirement for corroborating witnesses in Deuteronomy 17:6 to support the Mishnah's prohibition of circumstantial evidence in capital cases.

Rav Papa taught that the word "all" means to include not the witnesses, but the Rabbinical students who attended trials, and thus was not inconsistent with the views of Jose b. Judah or of the Rabbis.

'"[117] The Sages based their authority to legislate rules equally binding with those laid down in the Torah on the words of Deuteronomy 17:11: "According to the law that they shall teach you .

If not, then they all proceeded to the Great Sanhedrin at the Hall of Hewn Stones, which issued instruction to all Israel, for Deuteronomy 17:10 said that "they shall declare to you from that place that the Lord shall choose," meaning the Temple.

"[125] The interpreters of Scripture by symbol taught that the deeds of Phinehas explained why Deuteronomy 18:3 directed that the priests were to receive the foreleg, cheeks, and stomach of sacrifices.

"[128] Tractate Terumot in the Mishnah, Tosefta, and Jerusalem Talmud interpreted the laws of the first of one's grain, wine, and oil that Numbers 18:12 and Deuteronomy 18:4 required one to give to a Priest.

[132] Rabbi Assi taught that the children of Noah were also prohibited to do anything stated in Deuteronomy 18:10–11: "There shall not be found among you any one that makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one that uses divination, a soothsayer, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or one that consults a ghost or a familiar spirit, or a necromancer.

[148] The heart speaks,[149] sees,[149] hears,[150] walks,[151] falls,[152] stands,[153] rejoices,[154] cries,[155] is comforted,[156] is troubled,[157] becomes hardened,[158] grieves,[159] fears,[160] can be broken,[161] becomes proud,[162] rebels,[163] invents,[164] cavils,[165] overflows,[166] devises,[167] desires,[168] goes astray,[169] lusts,[170] is refreshed,[171] can be stolen,[172] is humbled,[173] is enticed,[174] errs,[175] trembles,[176] is awakened,[177] loves,[178] hates,[179] envies,[180] is searched,[181] is rent,[182] meditates,[183] is like a fire,[184] is like a stone,[185] turns in repentance,[186] dies,[187] melts,[188] takes in words,[189] is susceptible to fear,[190] gives thanks,[191] covets,[192] becomes hard,[193] makes merry,[194] acts deceitfully,[195] speaks from out of itself,[196] loves bribes,[197] writes words,[198] plans,[199] receives commandments,[200] acts with pride,[201] makes arrangements,[202] and aggrandizes itself.

Rav Papa said in the name of Rava that Exodus 21:19 referred explicitly to healing, and the verse would not make sense if one assumed that retaliation was meant.

Rabbi Judah replied that God endowed the people of that time with exceptional intelligence, and they sent their scribes, who peeled off the plaster and carried away a copy of the inscription.

you shall do according to the sentence which they declare to you," Baḥya ibn Paquda noted that the subjects included are things that need to be detailed, distinguished, and discussed by the method of Tradition, and not by that of logical demonstration from reason alone.

[245] The parashah is discussed in these modern sources: Gerhard von Rad argued that the ordinances for standardizing the cult and establishing only one sanctuary are the most distinctive feature in Deuteronomy's new arrangements for ordering Israel's life before God.

Von Rad argued that these texts indicate that Israel's cult had become completely lacking in unity, celebrating at former Canaanite shrines intended for Baal.

[256] Explaining the origins of the law that one can see in the Cities of Refuge Numbers 35:9–34 and Deuteronomy 4:41–43 and 19:1–13, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. wrote that early forms of legal procedure were grounded in vengeance.

Kugel reported that some modern interpreters deduced that the editor responsible for inserting the Dinah story in Genesis was particularly connected with Deuteronomy or at least familiar with its laws.

These interpreters concluded that the Dinah story was a late addition, inserted to account for Jacob's otherwise referentless allusion to the violent tempers of Simeon and Levi in Genesis 49:5–7 by importing and only slightly modified an originally unrelated tale, probably situated during the time of the Judges.