THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
“You shall not pervert the judgment of a stranger or an orphan and you shall not take a widow’s garment as security” Deuteronomy 24:17
There is a fine line between compassion or empathy and pity’
PARASHAT KI Tetzei addresses foundations necessary for creating an ideal society. There are imIperatives regarding faith, ethics and morality. However, the main focus is on nurturing a society imbued with compassion and love.
There is a fine line between compassion or empathy and pity. A society rife with pity is not the society we are aspiring to. If we are full of pity, will we be able to judge fairly? Will we recognise the human dignity and talent inherent in every human being, or just show them charity out of sympathy?
The Torah has instructed us on numerous occasions to love the stranger. There is a risk that this love could lead to overcompensating and favouring the stranger. To counter such a possibility, the verse above reminds us not to pervert judgment even in their favour.
Favouring not only creates an imbalance in society but, more significantly, actually reveals a lack of faith in the vulnerable person. There was an amazing moment in 2019 when the Shalva band (made up of musicians who live with some degree of disability) first appeared on the Israeli reality show Rising Star.
As they walked into the audition and the judges saw them for the first time, one judge turned to the others and said, “Let’s make a deal: if they are good, we press the buzzer and if not, we don’t — we treat them totally equally.” He recognised that they may be swayed to judge them favourably out of kindness rather than on merit.
Arguably, it was at this moment that they were truly accepted as equal players in the competition. From then, they were judged solely on their incredible musical ability. This is the type of fervour the laws in Parashat Ki Tetzei are trying to nurture.
Before creating Adam and Eve, God proclaimed that He was making the human “in His image”. This applied to every human, regardless of ability, gender or race. Society has in recent years made strides to be more inclusive. Yet the definition of inclusion seems to still blur between accommodation and pity.
True inclusion is living by the value of that first proclamation made by God about the upcoming creation and being determined to see the Divine ability and spirit in all we meet.