Dedicated in memory of Tziporah bas Mayer Yitzchok, whose yahrzeit falls out next week, on 22 Teves, by her son, Dr. Larry Bryskin.

Judge for Yourself

By Rabbi Joshua (litigiously known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

Ya’akov, in his blessings to his children, tells Dan, “Dan, you should judge your people as one of the tribes of Yisroel.” Coming as a blessing, this verse would seem to imply that the tendency for a person to judge is praiseworthy. On the other hand, the Talmud in the first chapter of Pesachim relates that a certain person, whenever he had a clash with another person, would tell him, “let’s go to court, I’m suing.” The Talmud infers from the same verse cited above, that this contentious person came from Dan. So is a proclivity to judgment a good thing or a bad thing?

Rav Henoch Leibowitz, zt”l, said that engaging in judgement is a character trait. Like all character traits, it must be applied in a measured way, as the word middah, which literally means measure, implies. Some situations need to be approached with a sense of justice, while others require a lighter approach. Ya’akov praised Dan for having that discernment of when to apply din.

Based on this idea, we can explain a gemara in Sotah in regard to the burial of Ya’akov. It related that Eisav came to the burial, and insisted that the plot was his, not Ya’akov’s. The tribes thereby sent Naftali to Egypt to get the receipt for it, while in the meantime, Ya’akov remained unburied. Chushim ben Dan saw this, and hit Eisav with a club, thus killing him and enabling the burial of Ya’akov. While other explanations have been given, perhaps we can suggest that Chushim, as a son of Dan, had an innate sense of justice, and even though he was deaf he saw the objective situation in front of him, and applied strict justice.