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Opinion

Proper Communication

August 4, 2011 16:59
2 min read

Rabbi Yaakov Menken

http://www.torah.org/learning/lifeline/5758/devarim.html

"How can I alone support your bother, your burden, and your arguments? Take wise and understanding men for yourselves, who are known to your tribes, and I will place them at your head... And I took the heads of your tribes, wise and understanding men, and I placed them as heads over you, ministers over thousands, ministers over hundreds, ministers over fifties, and ministers over tens, and police for your tribes." [Dev. 1:12-13, 15]

The Seforno says that there is an implied rebuke in the appointment of judges over Israel, extending even to "ministers over tens." Even though the Nation of Israel was told that they would enter and inherit the Land of Israel without needing to fight for it, receiving something far greater and honorable than all their property, nonetheless they could not stop bickering and arguing -- to the point that every group of ten needed its own personal judge.