{"id":64651,"date":"2019-10-23T21:24:57","date_gmt":"2019-10-23T18:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=64651"},"modified":"2023-05-17T08:24:51","modified_gmt":"2023-05-17T05:24:51","slug":"restore-your-judges-as-of-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/restore-your-judges-as-of-old\/","title":{"rendered":"Restore Your Judges As Of Old"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[940,539,837],"acf":{"old_id":"64651","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33877,"related_cahpter":"335","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"In memory of the Israeli Supreme Court Justice, Meir Shamgar (1925-2019)","content":"

The Book of Isaiah begins with a chapter that is indicative of the whole of the prophecy attributed to Isaiah \u2013 an amalgam of chastisement for sin and the promise of redemption for repentance and right living. A notable example of Isaiah\u2019s prophecy of salvation is God\u2019s declaration: \u201cI will restore your judges as of old…Zion will be delivered with justice, her penitent ones with righteousness\u201d (Isaiah 1:26-27).<\/span><\/p>\n

In praise of Israel\u2019s righteous \u201cjudges as of old,\u201d Exodus Rabbah 30:24 interprets Isaiah\u2019s prophecy in a dramatic depiction of the process of judgement. When a judge sits in judgement and renders a true verdict, the Holy One, blessed be He, descends from Heaven and causes his Shekhinah (Divine Presence) to dwell beside the judge, as it says: \u201cThe Lord was with the judge\u201d (Judges 2:18).<\/span><\/p>\n

An even more daring interpretation of Isaiah\u2019s prophecy is found in Tanhuma Shoftim 1. God Himself will serve as the Head (\u2018Av Bet-Din) of the Court, as He says: \u201cI will restore your judges as of old\u2026\u201d. This Midrash seems to interpret our verse to suggest that God promises \u2013 as it were: I Myself will return, with your judges of old, to serve as the Head of the Court that will judge humanity in the End of Days.<\/span><\/p>\n

Isaiah\u2019s prophecy that God will restore the judges of Israel \u201cas of old\u201d provides the basis for the 11<\/span>th<\/span> benediction of the Amidah: \u201cRestore our judges as in former times, and our counsellors as of yore\u2026.Blessed are You Lord, King who loves righteousness and justice.\u201d Significantly, this \u201cBenediction of Justice\u201d (Birkat Ha-Din<\/em>) immediately follows the Benediction that we recite: \u201cSound the great shofar for our freedom. Raise a banner to gather our exiles and bring us together from the four corners of the earth into our land. Blessed are You Lord, who gathers the dispersed of His people Israel\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

This messianic hope began to be fulfilled in our time with the return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel, with the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, and with the setting up of a system of courts, headed by the Israel Supreme Court. Sadly, on Friday, October 18, former Supreme Court President, Meir Shamgar, one of the giants of the Israeli judiciary, died. Israel President Reuven (Ruvi) Rivlin hailed Shamgar as one of the \u201cfounding fathers of the Israeli legal system…A possessor of judicial courage who fully believed in the court and the legal system but also knew the limits of its power\u201d. Among his many watershed decisions and pronouncements, Justice Shamgar said of the role of the Supreme Court: \u201cI advocate that it is not only the right of the court to intervene but is rather its duty to be the center of gravity for the creation of norms for the public\u201d (see Isaiah 1:17).<\/span><\/p>\n

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