In the Jewish spiritual tradition, there is a Torah reading–a portion of the Hebrew Bible–assigned to each week. This week’s text is \Shoftim\, from Deuteronomy 16:18-21.9, focusing on prohibitions and exhortations to justice. I?m by no means a biblical literalist, but I often find the weekly text resonates with the concerns of the moment, providing a timely and useful reminder of what we are and what we might yet become.
Last weekend, for instance, I read an appalling article in the \New York Times\: