The Possuk states: שֹׁפְטִים וְשֹׁטְרִים תִתֶּן־לְךָ בְכָל־שְעָרֶּיךָ וגוֹ׳ “You shall set up judges and enforcement officers for yourself in all your cities etc.” and finishes with the words: ךָוּבִעַרְתָ הָרָע מִקִרְבֶּ “you shall abolish evil from within you ... לוּבִעַרְתָ הָרָע מִיִשְרָאֵל : And you shall abolish evil from Yisroel”. All this corresponds [analogously] to that which our Chachomim of blessed memory expound on the words Possuk: (16:18) שֹׁפְטִים וְשֹׁטְרִים תִתֶּן־לְךָ בְכָל־שְעָרֶּיךָ אֲשֶּר ה׳ אֱלֹקֶּיךָ נֹׁתֵן לְךָ לִשְבָטֶּיךָ וְשָפְטוּ אֶּת־הָעָם מִשְפַּט־צֶּדֶּק “You shall set up judges and law enforcement officials for yourself in all your gates (cities) that HaShem, your G-d, is giving you, for your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment”.
Rashi says on the words: “Judges and law-enforcement officials” שֹׁפְטִים are judges who decide the verdict, and שֹׁטְרִים are those who chastise the people in compliance with their order, or who strike and bind with rods and straps, until the guilty party accepts the judge’s verdict.
The section dealing with laws that are relevant and associated with judges and enforcement officers finishes with the words: (17:7) יַּד הָעֵדִים תִִּֽהְיֶּה־בוֹ בָרִאשֹׁנָה לַּהֲמִיתוֹ וְיַּד כָל־הָעָם בָאַּחֲרֹׁנָה וּבִעַּרְתָ הָרָע מִקִרְבֶּךָ “The hand of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people, and you shall abolish evil from among you.”
You shall abolish evil from amongst you: Just before Sheini the Possuk returns to talk about judges and says: וּבִעַּרְתָ הָרָע מִיִשְרָאֵל “And you shall abolish evil from Yisroel”.
Expounding the Parable of the Small City
The Talmud in Nedorim (32B) relates: What is the meaning of that which is written (Koheles 9:14–15): “There was a little city and few men in it, and there came a great king against it, who enclosed it, and built around it great works of siege? Now there was found in it a man poor and wise, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man”? “A little city,” refers to the body; “and few men in it,” refers to the limbs; “and there came a great king against it and besieged it,” refers to the evil inclination; “and built great bulwarks against it,” these are sins. “Now there was found in it a man poor and wise,” refers to the good inclination; “and he by his wisdom delivered the city,” refers to repentance and good deeds that are caused by the good inclination. “Yet no man remembered that same poor man” means that when the evil inclination overcomes the good inclination no one remembers the good inclination. (This is also brought down in the Medrash Koheles Rabbah 9:15).
Possuk: Koheles (9:14) עִיר קְטַּנָה וַּאֲנָשִים בָהּ מְעָט וּבָא־אֵלֶּיהָ מֶּלֶּךְ גָדוֹל וְסָבַּב אֹׁתָהּ וּבָנָה עָלֶּיהָ מְצוֹדִים גְדֹׁלִים “[There was] a small city, with few people in it, and a great king came upon it and surrounded it and built mighty siege works against it.” (9:15) וּמָצָא בָהּ אִיש מִסְכֵן חָכָם וּמִלַּט־הוּא אֶּת־הָעִיר בְחָכְמָתוֹ וְאָדָם לֹׁא זָכַּר אֶּת־הָאִיש הַּמִסְכֵן הַּהּוּא “And there was found therein a poor wise man, and he extricated the city through his wisdom, but no man remembered that poor man.”
The Yetzer Hora and the Yetzer Tov
The Yetzer Hora is called ‘big’ because it is thirteen years older than the Yetzer Tov which only enters one’s body at his Bar Mitzvah whereas the Yetzer Hora is there from birth (Koheles Rabbah 9:15). The Yetzer Hora is called a king because everyone listens to him (Koheles Rabbah 4:13). The evil inclination lives inside the human and works against it, setting ambushes and traps to take and maintain control of the person causing him to stumble and sin.
The purpose of this Avodah is to effectuate that which the Possuk says: וּבִעַרְתָ הָרָע מִקִרְבֶּךָ “you shall abolish evil from within you”, which refers to the Yetzer hora, as our Rabbis of blessed memory have stated in the Talmud.
The Seven Names of the Evil Inclination
The Talmud: Tractate Succah. (52A) Rabbi Avira, and some say Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, taught: The evil inclination has seven names. 1. Hakodosh Boruch Hu called it רע ‘evil’, as it is stated: “For the inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Bereishis 8:21). 2. Moshe called it ערל ‘uncircumcised’, as it is stated: “And circumcise the foreskin of your hearts” (Devorim 10:16). 3. Dovid called it טמא ‘impure’, as it is stated: “Create for me a pure heart, O G-d” (Tehilim 51:12); by inference, there is an impure heart that is the evil inclination. 4. Shlomoh called it שונא ‘enemy’, as it is stated: “If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; for you will heap coals of fire upon his head, and HaShem will reward you” (Mishlei 25:21–22). Do not read it as: And HaShem will reward you; rather read it as: And HaShem will reconcile it to you. HaShem will cause the evil inclination to love you and no longer seek to entice you to sin. 5. Yeshaya called it a מכשול ‘stumbling block’, as it is stated: “And He will say: Cast you up, cast you up, clear the way, take up the stumbling block out of the way of My people” (Yeshaya 57:14). 6. Yechezkal called it אבן ‘a stone’, as it is stated: “And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh” (Yechezkal 36:26). 7. Yoel called it צפוני ‘hidden one’, as it says: “But I will remove the northern one Hatzefoni far off from you” (Yoel 2:20). The Sages of blessed memory taught concerning the verse: “But I will remove the northern one ‘Hatzefoni’ far off from you,” that this is referring to the evil inclination. And why is the evil inclination referred to as Tzefoni? It is due to the fact that it is always hidden - Tzofun in one’s heart.
The Impact of Individual Avodah
As a result of [this Avodah whereby] he “drives out evil from within” it effectuates the Possuk “abolish evil from Yisroel”, that he [in the process] drives out the evil from the general populace of Yisroel and [further] from the entire world. [This is akin to what the Rambam writes: That a person has to visualise himself and also the entire world in perfect balance [so] that everyone is exactly [one] half meritorious and [one] half culpable. This means that by performing one solitary Mitzvah, a person tips the scales for himself and the entire world to a majority of good deeds].
For, since the world was created for Yisroel, as our sages have expounded on the Possuk in Bereishis, “For Yisroel who are called Reishis”, as a result of that [avodah] the evil becomes eradicated from Yisroel, [and consequently] automatically the evil becomes eradicated from the entire world. And all this comes about through וְשֹׁטְרִים שֹׁפְטִים ‘Judges and Officers’. Because the ‘Judges’ relates to that which our Rabbis of blessed memory have said: “One should always incite his good inclination over his evil inclination”.
Judges and Officers: The Personal Struggle
‘Officers’ is as our Rabbis of blessed memory have said: “One should bring to mind the day of his death” (which is akin to an officer meting out a punishment). And even though the reminder of punishment (Officers) will surely achieve its intended goal, whereas the incitement of the good inclination over the evil inclination (Judges) may not succeed every time, as is apparent from the continuation of the Rabbis statement when they say that a person should always (Initially) incite his good inclination over his evil inclination, and if that succeeds then well and good, but if it does not succeed then ...a person should bring to mind the day of his death.”
Nevertheless, the order of one’s Avodah needs to be that, first he must incite his good inclination over his evil inclination (‘Judges) and only thereafter if that does not achieve its intended goal, does he need to carry out the Avodah of reminding oneself of the day of death (‘Officers).
Her Husband is Known in the Gates
To clarify this concept of ‘judges and officers that you shall install at your gates’ at a deeper level, there is a Possuk that states: הּבַעְלָ נוֹדָע בַשְעָרִים “Her husband is known in the gates”. Her husband is Hakodosh Boruch Hu, whom no mind can grasp at all, [yet] nevertheless, He is known at the gates, meaning, that He becomes known (as in grasped) through שְעָרִים which we translated as gates but [this word] has two other interpretations. 1. שְעָרִים meaning כָל חַד וְחַד לְפוּם שִֹׁיעוּרָא דִיל יה each one according to his own ability, for one man’s Avodah is nothing like that of his friend.
Because, even though all Neshomos are interrelated and ‘We are all as one’, nevertheless the general body of Neshomos is divided into six hundred thousand individual root Neshomos, and each root Neshomah sub divides again into six hundred thousand sparks. Therefore, no two Neshomoh sparks have the same Avodah requirement, as in the Avodah of Reuven is serving HaShem through vision, whereas the Avodah of Shimon is through listening. The Avodah of Levi is the concept יַעַם יִלָוֶּה אִישִי א לַ הַפַ - “My husband will be attached to me” as is explained in Torah Ohr in the deeper understanding.
