Devarim 16:18-20
Justice, Justice
Three verses that set up a judiciary, warn it about itself and then repeat one word, leaving the commentators divided over why.
For children, teens and adults
This is the opening of Parashat Shoftim, and it reads like the first page of a constitution. Over the next two chapters Moshe sets up four centres of power, courts, a king, priests, prophets, and puts limits on each of them. He starts with the courts, and almost the first thing he does is assume they will go wrong: one verse to build the institution, and the very next one is a list of ways it can be bought. Then the passage ends on a phrase every Israeli has heard, on courthouse walls and in a hundred speeches, צדק צדק תרדף, and almost nobody has been told that the classical commentators read the doubled word in at least four different ways, some of them aimed at the judge and some of them aimed squarely at you.
שֹׁפְטִים וְשֹׁטְרִים תִּתֶּן־לְךָ בְּכָל־שְׁעָרֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר ה׳ אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לְךָ לִשְׁבָטֶיךָ וְשָׁפְטוּ אֶת־הָעָם מִשְׁפַּט־צֶדֶק׃
Devarim 16:18
Shoftim v'shotrim titen lecha b'chol she'arecha asher Hashem Elokecha noten lecha lishvatecha, v'shaftu et ha'am mishpat tzedek.
You shall appoint judges and officers for yourself in all your gates, which Hashem your God is giving you, for your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.