Two Witnesses (Shofteim #2)

Reading through Parshas Shoftim, one might notice that the requirement of two witnesses in a court case was instructed in two separate places. It is described in Devarim 17:6-7 and 19:15.” The witness requirement – two appropriate people who not only saw an act happen but tried to prevent it by warning the perpetrator of the consequences of his actions - is a foundation point of the Jewish legal system. Its repetition in the parsha whose most famous pasuk is “Justice, Justice shall you pursue” (16:20) reinforces its importance.

Not living in a situation where the Torah legal system can be applied, one might wonder at what lessons can be taken from this concept of witnesses. Perhaps first and foremost is that the hoped for role of the witnesses is to prevent the transgression in the first place. This is the significance of being part of a community because when one is part of a community ones’ friends and neighbors will help one stay on the right path. More importantly, perhaps, is a lesson that one should not surround oneself with patsies who agree to one’s every action but that one should learn to heed naysayers as well, lest one come to be too arrogant to believe their own fallibility and ignore the warnings of misdeeds when it matters most.

Of course, this is based on the assumption that people want to stay on a good path, that crimes happen as a result of impulse and/or circumstance and not a specifically chosen desire to do evil. Hashem quite obviously understood that such people as these do exist, and that they may try to “play” the law; Thus the warning against the consequence of being a false witness: “If a man who testified is a false witness, if he has testified falsely against his fellow, you shall do to him as he schemed to do to his fellow. Thus you will sweep out evil from your midst” (19:18-19). Being part of a community, a good community, helps keep people from wicked ways, and using wicked ways to undermine the community’s system of justice cannot be permitted.

The great sages quoted in Pirkei Avot speak of the importance of being amongst others. Joshua ben P’rachia advices “Make for yourself a rav, acquire for yourself a companion, and judge all men favorably” (1:6), and the great Sage Hillel instructs: “Do not separate yourself from the community” (2:4). We live in a time when independence and individuality is heralded as a prime value, but the assertion of one’s individual rights must always be balanced by the needs of sustaining the greater community, which protects each of its individual members.