Chasing Tzedek

This week has us screaming for justice.

On Sunday, we were shattered by the news of the six hostages murdered just before IDF troops reached them. Throughout the week, we saw images and heard reports of how much our enemies hate us. Our kids are back on campuses where rules against hate-speech and interfering with students are not enforced. Institutions we think we can trust do nothing or even pile on the hatred. A doctoral student at Columbia University, who was roundly mocked for demanding "humanitarian aid" for the students who broke into and occupied a building on campus in April, is teaching a class in that same building this fall – a class which all undergraduates are required to take in order to receive a diploma. Yesterday, the Portland, Maine, city council voted to divest from companies doing business with Israel.

All these developments are painful, frustrating, and dispiriting. Where is the justice?

While there are no easy solutions, we must chase after tzedek.

“Tzedek tzedek tirdofe – Tzedek, tzedek shall you pursue.” (Devarim 16:20).

Tzedek is most often translated as “justice.” I believe justice doesn’t do justice to the word “tzedek.”

Tzedek means to act honestly, uprightly, and charitably to fill a void. An act of tzedek may be to punish the criminal or speak and deal honestly or to give to the needy. “Give a little tzedakah!”

The Torah repeats the word “tzedek” because there are many types of injustice that require our attention. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” There are many wrongs that need righting, and one size of “justice” does not resolve all of them.

It is not within our power to set everything right, but that doesn’t mean there is nothing for us to do. Rav Kook, whose yahrzeit is today (3 Elul), noted:

“The pure and righteous do not complain about wickedness: they increase righteousness. They do not complain about heresy: they increase faith. They do not complain about ignorance: they increase wisdom.” (Arpilai Tohar, pp. 27–28)

We cannot sit back and let injustice get the better of us. We respond with acts of goodness, kindness, justice, and we speak up loudly for Israel and our community. That is Tzedek.

The Torah commands us to pursue tzedek with the word “tirdofe,” which literally means to run or chase. Pursuing tzedek by acting honestly, justly, and generously is a race. When it comes to running, people run at different paces and can run for different distances. The pursuit of tzedek is a different “race” for each issue and each person. We may not finish. What is important, though, is for each of us to get in the race. We cannot sit on the sidelines.

There is another type of tzedek to pursue.

Tzedek is the root for tzaddik, the righteous or accomplished individual. “Tzedek tzedek tirdofe” requires of us each to be the best we can be and seek out the tzaddik in ourselves and others. There’s no guarantee we’ll “catch” that tzaddik, but we need to try.

Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach was a great Torah scholar and posek. He had an amazingly warm and kind personality which endeared him to all. When he would see a car drive by on Shabbat, which, being Israel, was very likely being driven by a Jew, would shout out, “Mazal tov!” Why? He figured that a Jew driving must be heading to the hospital for a good reason like the birth of a child.

Reb Shlomo Zalman was fulfilling the mitzvah of “tzedek tzedek tirdofe,” chasing after the righteousness in others. We should do the same and seek the righteousness within and within others.

There is a lot of injustice surrounding us, and tzedek to pursue everywhere. The Torah doesn’t tell us to catch justice; we are commanded to pursue it and seek it even if we cannot achieve it. As we begin the month of Elul, it’s time for each of us to open our eyes, our minds, and our hearts, put on our “tzedek shoes,” and join the race for justice, honesty, integrity, charity, aspiring for righteousness and seeing it in others.

The race is on. On your mark, get set, go!