Did you hear the one about the fair Judge?

Justice.  What does true justice look like?  The Torah’s requirements for judges, litigants and witnesses are extremely rigorous, as outlined in this week’s Parsha.  These laws are codified in many places in the Talmud, and there is an entire tractate – Sanhedrin – dedicated to this subject.  

Let’s look at a few of the Torah’s conditions.

Judges must be recognized throughout their community as righteous, wise, and non-materialistic people who detest any kind of financial incentive.  They must follow the laws of the Torah in their personal lives as well as in all their dealings in court.  Judges cannot have any kind of financial stake  in the case in any way, and they cannot be related to any of the parties.  Anything that smells of bribery or favoritism is unimaginable for a judge.

Everyone must be treated equally.  The story goes that a judge opened a court proceeding in a multi-million-dollar case as follows:  Mr. Smith, I received a bribe from you of $25,000.  Mr. Smith turns red and squirms in his seat.    Mr. Jones, the Judge continues, I received a bribe from you of $20,000.  Mr. Jones is now squirming.  The judge continues:  I will return $5,000 to Mr. Smith to level the playing field.  Now let’s get started with the arguments.

A judge may not have one party to the dispute sit and another stand.  If a wealthy party is dressed better than his poor opponent, we tell the rich person to either dress down or to lend the poor person nicer clothes.  

Even the judge’s demeanor must be equal to all parties.  There are many stories in the Talmud of judges who were offered very minor favors by acquaintances and refused to accept a case for them.  

Witnesses cannot be related to each other or any of the parties to a case.  The court investigates carefully if any of the witnesses has even a remote possibility to gain in any way from their testimony, which would be considered an ulterior motive.  Known criminals cannot testify in court.  (How does that compare with our court system?)

Litigants are warned to always tell the truth as it is, and not to engage in legal tricks to help their case.  Typically, a claimant  needs two witnesses to win a monetary case.  If he only has one, the defendant could swear to the truth of his denial and avoid paying.  

The claimant, known to be an honest man and not a swindler, asks a good friend to come to court to just stand next to the witness.  This way, he reasons, the defendant will think there are two witnesses and just agree to pay rather than being proved a liar in court.  

Even if the friend truly believes that the claim is valid, and will not actually testify, this practice is against the Torah, as it says “Keep far from falsehood.”

One of the great prophecies about the Messianic times, referring to Jerusalem, is (Isaiah 1:26): “And I will restore your judges as at first and your counselors as in the beginning; afterwards you shall be called City of Righteousness, Faithful City.”  True justice is one of the many things we yearn for that Moshiach will bring back to the world.