פָּרָשַׁת שֹׁפְטִים

Parshat Shoftim sets up justice and leadership for Bnei Yisrael (the children of Israel) in their land: judges, courts, kohanim (priests), prophets and a king, all under the Torah. They appoint shoftim (judges) and shotrim (officers) in every city and take no bribe: "Tzedek tzedek tirdof, justice, justice you shall pursue." No one is put to death except on the testimony of two or three witnesses. A case too hard for the local court goes up to the kohanim and the judge in the place Hashem chooses, and Bnei Yisrael follow their ruling. A king whom Hashem chooses must not gather too many horses, wives or gold, and he writes his own Sefer Torah and reads it all his life.

The kohanim and Levi'im (Levites) have no share of the land; Hashem is their inheritance, and the people give them their portions (in practice, the Leviim had established cities in many of the shevatim inheritances). Bnei Yisrael must not learn the nations' divination, sorcery or asking of the dead, but be tamim (wholehearted) with Hashem, who will raise up a navi (prophet) like Moshe; a navi whose word does not come true is a false navi.

Three arei miklat (cities of refuge) are set apart for one who kills by accident, while a deliberate murderer is handed to the go'el hadam (the avenger of blood). A false witness receives what he plotted against his brother. Before battle, a man who built a new house, planted a vineyard or became betrothed, or who is afraid, goes home; a city is first offered peace, and fruit trees are not cut down in a siege. The parsha ends with the eglah arufah: when a murdered man is found in a field, the elders of the nearest city break the neck of a calf in a valley stream and declare, "Our hands did not shed this blood."