Partial Judgment

Dear Friends,

We’re in a moment of profound trepidation. It’s both hopeful and horrific to feel that we’re nearing the end of a life-altering nightmare. All of it magnified by a pandemic’s winter on the horizon. And although we are short on resources, we cannot sing, nor eat with friends, the well of spirit available to us is always infinite if we are disciplined in our practices of drawing water. So dig deep. Be a regular at the well.

I noted the charade of the confirmation hearings this week -- Amy Coney Barrett might well not have been present. She offered so little, though many of her views we may suppose. All we were offered were gestures, facial-expressions, and outfit-choices (the crimson stronger than the periwinkle, I name them only as signs for interpretation, not unlike RBG’s dissent collars, or a democrat’s rare red tie) -- which say more than you might think. I think it’s a hump we’ve yet to climb, the notion that a facade of impartiality is more important than candor of principles. As the Torah teaches it, “Don’t be afraid of people, (that is -- restrain your words -- says Rashi), judgement belongs to God” (Deuteronomy I:17).

In digging through the literature on the appointment of Judges, I came upon this passage from Maimonidies, 

This was the manner of the ancient sages: they shunned being appointed; they made many straining efforts to avoid sitting in judgment, unless they knew that there was none as qualified for the office as they, and that if they refrained to serve, the line of justice might be upset. Nevertheless, they would not act as judges unless the people and the elders exerted pressure upon them to do so. (Mishnah Torah Sanhedrin 3:8)

We are far from the codes of Maimonidies. There has been nothing but destructive exuberance to fill this post, lives put at risk by every gathering that’s taken place through this process.

The dissonance between Maimonidies and the systems of judgement in our day are a sign that we have not yet arrived -- justice is always evolving. But the room for growth does not live in some imaginary other, it lives in us. “Judgment belongs to god.” The gap between Justice Barrett’s sense of judgment and our own, and the gap between our sense of judgment and god’s, are both worthy of reflection. Who are we to be so certain in justice? As justice evolves how will our descendants look upon our practices of consuming meat, relying on fossil fuels, investing with banks that harm the ecosystem, using cell-phones with parts dug from the earth by children and slaves, casually maintaining systems of segregation and racism? Our judgement is not so enlightened if we cannot even converse with those across the aisles, if the goodness in our arguments is not foundation enough to keep us from being blown about by the political thunderstorms.

Great is peace because it is whole. Peace is a vessel that contains blessing. Wishing it for you and for all of us.

Rabbi Zach Fredman