This week’s Sedra opens with Hashem instructing us to appoint judges and officers (law enforcement personnel). The Torah then tells us that anyone who is in the position of judging others should not take bribes as these will blind the eyes of the wise – חכמים and pervert the words of Tzadikim. Chazal explain that while it is obvious that one may not take payoffs in order to give the wrong ruling the Torah is telling us that it is also forbidden to accept bribery to give the correct ruling.

The Torah is in effect telling us that when by accepting a bribe one is tainting one’s ability to remain objective, thereby delegitimizing any subsequent ruling.  It would seem that this is what the Torah is trying to convey by telling us that bribery blinds the eyes of the wise. The Torah is always very particular and exacting in its choice in words – so why does it choose to describe the negative impact of bribery on the wise by calling it blinding, and on the righteous as distorting their speech?

Chazal (Pirkei Avos) tell us that a wise person is someone who can see the future – in other words someone with foresight. Chazal are telling us that the defining factor as to whether someone is wise or not is whether that someone has foresight or not. Chazal are essentially telling us that wisdom is based upon vision and perception. This is also the thrust of our Parsha on this subject.  It would also appear from our Parsha that righteousness inherently includes sensitivity in speech as one of its critical components.

Hashem gave all of mankind human intellect and human compassion. Everyone has some sort of balance of these two crucial elements. This balance at whatever equilibrium point it exists can and should allow us to understand and grasp much. What blinds us and numbs our sensitivities is only our allowing our greed to get the better of us and thereby taint our true objectiveness.

Understanding truth and being objective is natural. Let us not allow synthetic greed to taint integrity.

A very warm Good Shabbos, Rabbi Y. Dov Krakowski