Tisha Bav: Justice, Law and Righteousness

By Rabbi Arik W. Ascherman on July 28, 2006 - ג' מנחם אב תשס"ו

This week we begin the Book of Deuteronomy. The entire book is more or less Moses’ final words to the Israelites before his death, and our Torah portion begins to recap much of what has happened since the exodus from Egypt.

This Shabbat is also known as Shabbat Khazon. Tisha B’Av falls next Thursday and we therefore read this Shabbat the third and final haphtarah of warning beginning with the words “Khason Yishiahu,”
(“The vision of Isaiah,” [Isaiah 1:1])

It is interesting to note that, with all of the dire warnings in the haftarot of the last three weeks, the this week’s haphtarah, last week’s haphtarah, and the haftarot for Tisha B’Av itself contain a consistent message regarding what we must do to improve our situation.

Last week we read,

“If you return O Israel, declares Adonai, If you return to Me, If you remove your abominations from My presence and do not waver, And swear, ‘As Adonai lives,” In truth, justice and righteousness, Nations shall bring blessing upon themselves through God (some translations ‘you,’ which makes more sense in context) and bring praise themselves through God (some translations ‘you.’)”.

(Jeremiah 4: 1-2)

This week we read,

“Wash yourselves clean; Put away your evil doings from out of sight; Cease to do evil;
Learn to do good. Seek justice; Aid the oppressed. Uphold the rights of the orphan;
Defend the cause of the widow”.
(Isaiah 1:16)

On Tisha B’Av morning we will read,

“Thus said Adonai,
‘Let not the wise person glory in their wisdom; Let not the strong person lorry in their strength;
Let not the rich person glory in their riches. But only in this should the one who glorifies glory:
In understanding and knowing Me
For I am Adonai who acts with loving kindness, justice and righteousness in the world.
In these things I delight declares Adonai.
(Jeremiah 9:22-23)

On Tisha B’Av afternoon we read,
“Thus says Adonai:
Guard justice and do what is right…”
(Isaiah 56:1)

The words tzedakah and mishpat appear again and again. Literally they mean justice and law, but in the words of the prophets they are synonyms, generally translated interchangeably as justice and righteousness.

So often we seek to blame others for our troubles. In these terrible days we certainly know that bad things can happen to good people. However, as we traditionally put on tefillin on Tisha B’Av afternoon we would be wise that these teachings always be as a frontlet before our eyes. Come what may it be Your Will that we always be able to say that we have done as much as humanly possible to act with tzedakah and mishpat in all that we do.

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