Shoftim: Who is the reader?

This week's parsha, shoftim, deals with the agent of the  collective wielding power over the individual.  It deals with judges and courts of law, kings. prophets, armies and avengers. Situations in which an individual or a small group ( a pair of witnesses) have life and death power assigned to them by the verses.

One purpose of this assignment of authority is to maintain the general peace. It  is a recognition that things will happen; and unfortunate consequences will ensue; and blame will be ascribed; and compensation  and revenge will be sought.  There will be conflicting interests. Evil may arise  from time to time. A mechanism for dealing with these questions - between blood and blood; between judgement and judgement - must  function.  Parties with no interest  in which side prevails will adjudicate the issue.  They are the representatives of Gd, the Just. 

The  qualifications of  showing no favoritism, ignoring fame and infamy, not accepting bribes

לֹא־תַטֶּ֣ה מִשְׁפָּ֔ט לֹ֥א תַכִּ֖יר פָּנִ֑ים וְלֹא־תִקַּ֣ח שֹׁ֔חַד

are both obvious and, in the strictest sense, impossible.  The judge could have  no opinions about justice.  Is the law fixed, without regard to changing circumstances, or does it evolve as the understanding of the world evolves from discovery? Is the purpose of the law to maintain the status quo  or is it to optimize the circumstance of the present and, perhaps, to create a more equitable future. Who deserves fairness? Who should get a break?  Has the bread thief (Jean Valjean) committed a crime that absolutely requires  imprisonment? 

What is nature of this "Just justice: צֶ֥דֶק צֶ֖דֶק תִּרְדֹּ֑ף that is to be pursue? The word צֶ֥דֶק, tzedek can be broken into צֶ֥דֶ tzad. a side  and דֶק dak, extremely fine . The inevitability of having a position, taking a side, is recognized. The requirement for righteousness is to grind the side, to look at the finest points of its basis. One pictographic meaning for ק  quf is the eye of a needle. The judge can stand on one side of the controversy, but the thread of the argument must be fine enough to pass through the eye of a needle; the judge must view the case through a pinhole, an aperture that provides an infinite depth of field; even the furthest idea is brought into sharp focus; one can see the toenails of the elephant. (Pumpiditha) 

There is an instruction to "give yourselves" judges and constables.  There are no instructions on how these people are elected. They just happen. 

In Washington state, judges are elected.  Few people have the time and knowledge to review their qualifications or their past rulings. They are elected by the opinion-manipulation-apparatus: newspapers, community leaders, social media. I battle  with favoring names that suggest a shared ethnicity . Ultimately, I am not sure of what I want. The meaning of fairness has evolved. Is mercy the  selection of the beneficiary (and victim)?

The appointment of a king unifies the tribes, it magnifies the resources, coordinates battles. The first king is elected. Subsequent kings rule because they are not deposed. We are the beneficiaries of the coordination of power. The unification of the United States is a large part of its success, its goodness, and its ability to do evil. The Jewish people are in an eternal battle for unity; and that struggles tears them apart [Whose unity? what should be united?]

The selection of a prophet is the most divisive  process. How does one judge the proclaimer of truth?  Someone is telling you to understand the world differently, do you attend to the eloquence? The existence of  set of rules tells you that you do not understand the world deeply enough.  The prophet comes to interpret the murky  rules. If the deviation from your sense data is too great, if the turn from the past is too revolutionary: reject.  This leaves a lot of room for questionable beliefs. Maybe that is not all bad. 

The parsha ends with the ritual for the unsolved murder.  The most proximate court of law perform a useless animal murder [the slaughter is not kosher and their is no sacrificial part] and literally wash their hands of the responsibility for the human death. The message is purposely ambiguous. The ritual calls out that these judges are responsible, on some level, for every murder in their jurisdiction. It was their duty to neutralize the potential for violence. They should have improved the social situation to make violence unnecessary.  They failed - but it was impossible. 

The parsha is read by people on the outside: not judges, or kings, or prophets. It teaches skepticism, but instructs the installation of these authorities. Choose the best alternative.