It is explained in our holy books that these "gates" refer to the entrances to the "small city" (the human being in microcosm): the eyes, ears, nostrils and mouth. When one places "judges and officers" at these "portals," i.e., when one utilizes them properly, the body is thereby transformed into a "G-dly city."
This is especially appropriate to consider during the month of Elul (when this Torah portion is read), for it is a time when we take a full accounting of everything that has transpired in the "small city" - thought, speech and deed - during the previous year. (The Lubavitcher Rebbe, zt”l)
Reprinted from the Parashat Shoftim 5784 email of R’ Yedidiye Hirtenfeld’s whY I Matter parsha sheet for the Young Israel of Midwood in Brooklyn, N.Y.
