Shoftim: Tribalism

This parsha, Shoftim, repeatedly contrasts us and them.  The exhortations are: Don't be like them. 

Appoint your own judges, don't use their court system,  The king must be from among your kin,  Future prophets will be born from among your your brothers and sisters. 

The xenophobia can be seen as a way of preserving the people as a nation and their (core) values.  The prediction of future prophets is a recognition that the world will change ;and constitutes a mechanism to accommodate for the changes, while preserving the tradition.  One change was the abandonment (the removal of recognition) of prophecy.  But the idea that some people have a special, closer connection to the Divine lives on in various formulations (e.g. Chasidism) - with consequences. 

The parsha contains passages that reflect some of our core values.   Key among theses is the use of the Text of the Written Law as a mnemonic for the actual law.  A (monetary equivalent of an) eye for eye.  Do to the lying witnesses as they desired to do to the defendant ( not what they have already done)

The parsha tells me to be suspicious of the foreign values, their concept of justice and mercy and truth.  In our time, I cannot help but turn on the front facing camera and look at the values  expressed in the Torah,  as well. 

Hillel says, "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?" Ethics of the Fathers, 1:14