Introduction: King Solomon Describes the Perversion of Justice
After Kohelet dealt with the times and seasons set by the Creator for everything, and with calculating the advantage in human toil, he turns to observe the perversion he sees "under the sun." In the verse before us, King Solomon laments a phenomenon than which none is more bitter: the very place meant to be the seat of justice and judgment is the place where wickedness reigns. We will examine the verse with the commentators, the Midrashim, and the Targum, and see how vividly these words speak to us.
(טז) וְעוֹד רָאִיתִי תַּחַת הַשָּׁמֶשׁ מְקוֹם הַמִּשְׁפָּט שָׁמָּה הָרֶשַׁע וּמְקוֹם הַצֶּדֶק שָׁמָּה הָרָשַׁע׃ - And furthermore I saw under the sun: the place of judgment, there is wickedness, and the place of righteousness, there is the wicked one.
"The Wicked Crowns the Righteous" - Pesikta Zutreta
The Pesikta Zutreta explains: In the place where there should be judgment and righteousness, there wickedness rules over it, as it is written, "for the wicked crowns the righteous." What does "crowns" mean? The one who appoints the righteous person and stands as a crown above him, the superior placed over him, is wicked. Consequently, even if the righteous person wants to carry out justice, how can he? He has a superior above him forbidding him from doing this and forbidding him from doing that.
The Perversion of Justice in Our Time
Anyone who observes can see this precise reality in our own day. The place of judgment - where true justice is supposed to be administered - is precisely where perverted and corrupt judgment is found. They consistently defend foreigners, those who arrive here and harass suffering local residents. Jews suffer in south Tel Aviv, and instead of addressing the issue, they tell you that the infiltrators are "fleeing the horrors of war" and all sorts of absurd descriptions. Had this occurred in affluent Tzahala or Rechavia, there would certainly have been an outcry; they would have declared that this cannot be tolerated and must be dealt with firmly. But since it is Shechunat HaTikvah, "there is nothing to be done, we must cope with it," and no deportation order is issued against them.
And so it is with countless other matters: Arabs who openly speak about destroying the state are permitted to run for Knesset, and everything is fine, all in the name of democracy. In contrast, right-wing figures who expressed even a tenth of that - their words are branded "grave and severe" and they are deemed unfit to participate in the democratic process. Not that their views are our views; our views are Torah views. Yet it is certainly unjust to disqualify them from the Knesset. "The place of judgment, there is wickedness."
Another example: the Supreme Court ruled against the "neighbor procedure." What was the neighbor procedure? There is a terrorist whom security forces want to draw out of his house, and there is a danger that if a soldier approaches the door, the terrorist will shoot him. Therefore, they would send his neighbor to knock on the door and tell him to open up, thereby saving soldiers' lives. The court stepped in and ruled that this is illegal. What, then, should be done? Let a soldier approach instead! Can such a mindset be comprehended? This is what the holy Zohar says: that the Erev Rav (mixed multitude) will be the heads of government prior to the arrival of Mashiach; they will rule over us until Mashiach comes and brings an end to them as well.
At the time, one of the settlers wrote in their newspaper: "I agree, we should abolish the neighbor procedure and institute a 'judge procedure' - let us send the judge himself to knock on their door. Why should my son die? Since His Honor is so humanitarian and pities the lives of those who wish to blow themselves up here, let him approach the door himself." And incidentally, the Chareidi public has never received relief from the Supreme Court; all decisions were consistently against them. Furthermore, the Chareidi attorney Weinroth noted at the time that Aharon Barak never once cited Jewish law (Mishpat Ivri) in any of his rulings. Ottoman law, English common law, all the legal systems of the nations - yet Torah law is not deemed worthy of mention even as an option, not even as a rhetorical flourish. "My children have not treated Me even like the lupine eaten at the end of a meal."
And it is no wonder that in every lawsuit they always favored the Reform. That same Mr. Barak, plainly and openly, after he retired and his yoke was lifted from us, went to accept an award from the Reform movement. And indeed, as their representative, why shouldn't he receive an award? "You represented us so well; who needs a lawyer when we have you?" And those who succeeded him followed the exact same agenda. Meanwhile, the media cries out: "Save us, anarchy, they want to destroy the court, people will swallow each other alive!" Neither swallowing each other alive nor anything of the sort - people simply want true justice; that is all they want. As someone once remarked: today, unfortunately, "Tzedek" (justice / Jupiter) is merely the name of a planet; do not expect anything more. Not an ideal of truth, not of uprightness - just the name of a planet.
Over this Solomon laments: "I saw under the sun: the place of judgment, there is wickedness" - that is where the wicked sit; "and the place of righteousness, there is the wicked one" - a place meant to administer justice, a "High Court of Justice," yet it is neither high, nor just, nor anything of the sort.
Honor for the Wicked and Disgrace for the Righteous
The Pesikta Zutarta further cites: The place where someone who executes justice ought to be - there one finds the evildoer enjoying the honor of this world. He receives this award and that prize: an award for democracy, an award for enlightenment - all those who wage war against anything holy. And compared to them, who remembers the people of charity and kindness? They are regarded as "parasites living at the state's expense." Thus there are righteous people treated as wicked, and wicked people treated as righteous.
And the Targum explains: I also saw under the sun in this world, the place of the beit din where they judge falsely - there they condemn the righteous man as guilty in his judgment, judging the righteous as wicked. And in the place where a righteous man is found, a sinful man is appointed to rule over him. This too is very true: even in places where righteous and decent people exist, the righteous man is not independent, but is in the hands of others.
When the Bread Is Buttered - It Is Hard to Remain Objective
It is well known that Ben-Gurion was the one who sought to establish the Chief Rabbinate. People asked him: What do you have to do with a rabbinate? He told them: Once they receive their salary from me, they will do whatever I want. And he did not realize how right he was. There was a rabbi who permitted mamzerim for Golda Meir in order to secure an appointment - he permitted mamzerim! All the gedolei Yisrael came out against him and ruled that his teachings carry no authority and his rulings are null and void. When there is a slice of bread and you know which side it is buttered on, it is very difficult to remain objective.
There is a story told about the Rav of Kiryat Ata, who refused to accept money from the religious council. They tried to persuade him: What are you afraid of? That we will dictate to you? You have nothing to worry about; we will not tell you what to do. He answered them: You think I am afraid that if I take money from you, you will tell me what to do? I am afraid that once I take your money, I myself will run to ask you what you think should be done! This is the plain truth: when a person receives money, he quickly runs to find favor in the eyes of the master: "Tell me exactly what you want, let me cut corners for you."
Is it any wonder, then, that today there is a state conversion system? Is this system halachically valid? Rav Ovadia Yosef spoke out against them with great fury, as did Rav Elyashiv, and who not? They all spoke in the sharpest terms, stating that these conversions are fictitious - conversion without any intention of accepting the yoke of Torah and mitzvot. Except for that Knesset member who sank into oblivion, Amsalem, who broke away with a mandate from Shas, who wrote a book claiming otherwise. According to all the gedolei Yisrael, these conversions have no validity whatsoever; everyone agrees that conversion without the acceptance of Torah and mitzvot is not a conversion.
Rav Yitzchak Yosef once related at a siyum masechet that his father told him on his deathbed that his heart ached over two matters: the draft of yeshivah students, as that decree still hangs over our heads, and the issue of conversion. He told him: Do not compromise on the issue of conversion; it is simply the destruction of the vineyard of the House of Israel, so fight for it! He suffered terrible heartbreak over this matter. Yet here you find all sorts of "state-appointed rabbis" who, in return for a handsome salary - and one cannot deny it is a handsome salary - will convert anything that moves. Bring a monkey, we will convert it, what's the problem? We will tell him he is Jewish, let him eat sufganiyot on Pesach and hamantaschen on Chanukah, and everything will be fine, all for the glory of the State. It is simply horrifying.
The Righteous Subjugated to the Wicked
See what happens when the wicked crowns the righteous - that is, when the wicked is the one appointing and in charge, and the righteous man is subordinate to him. Even in the halachic beit din, which is supposed to rule on matters of marriage and divorce, in many areas the dayanim are not free to rule according to their own judgment, because the sword of the secular court hangs over their heads. In certain matters where Halachah strictly forbids a particular action, the dayan says: "It is not up to me; there is someone above me who decides." And what do they do? They do not touch those matters at all, even though according to Halachah they ought to issue a ruling. This is the lesser of two evils, for there might have been no rabbinical courts at all; yet we must understand that such a reality exists: when the wicked crowns the righteous, the righteous cannot rule according to his own understanding.
In his time, when Rav Elyashiv, ztz"l, served on the rabbinical court, they wanted to appoint that same rabbi who permitted mamzerim, whom the gedolei Yisrael had declared was not a rabbi. Rav Elyashiv attempted to prevent this, bringing Rav Ovadia Yosef from Tel Aviv to forge a sort of "deal" so that this man would not be appointed. Rav Ovadia did not want to leave Tel Aviv, but because Rav Elyashiv pressed him, saying this was the only way to block that individual, he agreed to come. In practice, the effort succeeded only partially: Rav Ovadia was appointed Chief Rabbi, but the one who permitted mamzerim was also appointed, as his "deal" with Golda was more effective. On that very day, Rav Elyashiv resigned from the rabbinical bench. He said: "He is to be the President of the Supreme Rabbinical Court and I must be subordinate to him? The wicked crowning the righteous - under no circumstances!" And on that very day, he left the beit din.
And the beit din lost a person of such stature. In an interview with Rav Mordechai Eliyahu, ztz"l, he recounted that when they would sit in the beit din - he, Rav Ovadia Yosef, and Rav Elyashiv - whenever the others wanted to write a ruling, they would open sefarim and pull down volumes: "The Shulchan Aruch writes in this siman, in such-and-such se'if katan." Yet Rav Elyashiv would write for fifteen minutes without opening a single sefer: "The Shulchan Aruch wrote in siman such-and-such, and commented on it in such-and-such, and in such a case it is thus-and-so" - and then he would return to his learning. It was well known that his moments were counted in seconds, and his diligence was singular in his generation. Everyone else needed to open sefarim to research, while he had everything organized in his head. And from such a man we saw: "The wicked crowns the righteous, and I should be beneath you?" He stood up and left.
Thus, we understand that this reality is one dominated by the forces of impurity, and sadly this will persist until the arrival of the Mashiach - but then, "and God seeks out the pursued," and everything is destined to change.
Rashi: The Chamber of Hewn Stone and the Middle Gate
Rashi explains: Through divine inspiration, I foresaw the place of the Chamber of Hewn Stone (Lishkat HaGazit) in Jerusalem, of which it was said, "she was full of justice" - yet there they will judge with wickedness, as it says, "her leaders judge for bribes"; and I foresaw their downfall. That is, in the very place where they were meant to judge righteously, they judged wickedly, and consequently Shlomo saw their punishment - the exile.
"And the place of righteousness" - this refers to the Middle Gate (Sha'ar HaTavech). Our Sages explain: Why was it called the Middle Gate? Because it was the place of deciding the Halachah, "hatevech" being related to "chituch" (cutting or deciding). This was the place where they rendered halachic rulings - "there was the wickedness," for there the princes of the king of Babylon sat. As it says in Yirmiyahu: "All the officers of the king of Babylon entered and sat in the Middle Gate: Nergal-saretzer, Samgar-nevu, Sarsechim Rav-saris, Nergal-saretzer Rav-mag, and all the rest of the officers of the king of Babylon." There they sentenced Israel to severe afflictions and death sentences - specifically in the place of righteousness. The place that was meant to be the seat of righteousness, where you failed to act according to the Halachah, is the very place where the nations will come and punish you.
Grammar of the Verse: "Shema HaResha" - A Noun
Rashi adds: "'Shema haresha' - its cantillation mark is on top, to indicate that it is a noun." Grammatically, one might have read it at the end of the verse as "ha'rasha," an adjective referring to a wicked person. However, one must follow the cantillation marks (te'amim): the accent is placed above, on the letter resh, rather than below on the shin. An accent below indicates milra (stress on the final syllable), while an accent above indicates mile'el (stress on the penultimate syllable). Since the accent is above, it is read as if it were vocalized "ha'resha" (wickedness), except that due to the pause at the end of the verse (sof pasuk), the segol changed into a kamatz gadol - and even though we do not generally find this shift elsewhere, this is the reason here.
A "shem davar" means a noun, neither a verb nor an adjective. When one refers to a person as a "rasha," it means he acts wickedly; but "resha" is the entity itself, wickedness. It is as if the verse reads: and the place of righteousness - there is the resha; in the very place where righteousness is supposed to prevail, wickedness is perpetrated.
The Midrash: Specifically Where He Benefited Them, There They Corrupted
The Midrash expounds: "'The place of judgment, there is the wickedness' - the place where the Attribute of Justice struck in Shittim, as it says in Parashat Balak, 'Take all the leaders of the people and hang them up' - 'there is the wickedness,' as it says, 'and the people began to commit harlotry with the daughters of Moav.' The place where I vindicated Israel and called them divine beings, as it is written, 'I said, you are godlike' - at that exalted place, where they were on the level of great tzaddikim, there they acted wickedly and made the Golden Calf, the greatest corruption. The place where I declared them righteous and transformed Bil'am's curses into blessings - there they acted wickedly: 'Israel settled in Shittim, and the people began to commit harlotry with the daughters of Moav.'"
What is the Midrash teaching us? Come and see: specifically in those places where the Holy One, Blessed be He, bestowed good upon them - there they acted corruptly. The Holy One, Blessed be He, said: See how much good I bestowed upon you. I gave you the Beit HaMikdash - and right there you murdered Zechariah. I revealed Myself to you at Mount Sinai - and there you made the Calf. I gave you blessings through Bil'am - and there you corrupted yourselves in Shittim with the daughters of Midian.
Ingratitude: Why the Benefactor Specifically Is Pursued
This explains an observation noted before, that very often a person repays evil specifically to the one who benefited him. And why? Because the recipient of a favor is indebted to his benefactor. If he possesses gratitude (hakarat hatov), he will strive to repay the kindness as quickly as possible; but if he is an ingrate, he will make every effort to deny the favor: "You did not do anything good for me at all, and besides, I already paid you back." He will look for reasons to negate the favor, and at times will even persecute the one who did good to him. This defies human logic, but it is reality. As is famously told of the Chatam Sofer, when someone persecuted him relentlessly, he remarked: "I do not recall having done him so many favors that he should persecute me to such a degree."
A True Story - "The Place of Justice, Wickedness Is There"
A story was related this week about a Jew who lent his friend a considerable sum, around three hundred thousand shekels. When he asked for his money back, the borrower denied it and claimed: 'I already paid you back.' He even added: 'If you keep bothering me, I will destroy you' - not physically, and as we will immediately see, it was even worse. The lender wanted his money and asked again and again, so the borrower went to the media and set an investigative television report on him.
Now, this was a man who had been caring for an elderly woman for twenty years with endless devotion. True, she had promised him her apartment, but he dedicated himself to her without limit - the very opposite of indolence, a very positive person, and the one who related this story knows him personally. Several times when the elderly woman was on the verge of death, he called an ambulance and saw to her resuscitation; he had bonded with her deeply. Yet the investigative program set out to prove that he was exploiting her to extract her money. And the astounding thing: the woman herself said, 'What do you want? I willingly want to sign over the apartment to him.' That, they did not air on the show. Anyone who hears this begins to understand the nature of the media.
They brought in a relative of hers from abroad - not a daughter, but a grandniece - who arrived in a wheelchair. The elderly woman, who was sharp and entirely lucid, asked her: 'What do you want? Why did you come? I haven't heard from you in twenty years, what suddenly brought you here?' In short, she told her: 'I ask that you leave.' That, too, they did not air. Furthermore, in the middle of the show, the interviewer wanted to extract phone records from the elderly woman's mobile phone - a woman of ninety-three or ninety-four - to show calls supposedly proving she was being manipulated. She took the cell phone, slipped it into her pocket, and prepared to leave. The elderly woman began looking around: 'Where is my phone?' Only then did the interviewer return it to her. A media figure - and a thief. Legally, taking another person's phone to check outgoing calls and see whom they spoke with is completely forbidden. Not only that, but they even concocted someone to pose as her grandson - 'Hello, Grandma' - in an attempt to coax statements from her, and even that failed. Look at the depth of such wickedness.
Now comes the part directly relevant to our subject: the man decided to take them to court. A relative advised him: 'Do you value your health? Leave them alone; you cannot win against them. If you want to throw your life away, you will enter into fifteen years of litigation with them; but if you want your life, sue only the one who owes you the three hundred thousand shekels - sue him, and leave the rest alone.' Being a man of principle, he filed a lawsuit against everyone. What happened? The judge summoned him and said: 'Drop this television channel and that woman from the suit; sue the rest.' He protested: 'I have facts, I am bringing evidence!' The reply: 'Remove them from the lawsuit.' One hand washes the other. This is 'the place of justice, wickedness is there' - the very people who are meant to pursue justice are where wickedness and corruption dwell. Furthermore, we see that precisely in the place where a person did good to another, there he was persecuted and ruined.
The Ramban: The Place of Wickedness Is the Place of Judgment
There is a famous and fundamental teaching of the Ramban on the verse, 'the place of justice, wickedness is there.' Commenting on the verse, 'And there was a famine in the land,' the Ramban writes that when Avraham went down to Egypt because of the famine to reside there and sustain his soul during the drought, the Egyptians wronged him without cause by taking his wife. The Holy One, blessed be He, avenged them with severe plagues - Pharaoh was struck with plagues - and brought them out with silver and gold, with flocks and cattle and very heavy livestock, and Pharaoh even urged them to leave the land.
The Ramban explains: not a single thing that occurred to the father failed to occur to the children. As the Sages expounded in Bereishit Rabbah, Rabbi Pinchas in the name of Rabbi Oshaya: The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Avraham, 'Go forth and pave the way before your children' - Avraham paved the way when he descended to Egypt, ensuring that whatever happened to him would happen to his descendants after him. And so you find: concerning Avraham it is written, 'And there was a famine in the land,' and concerning the Children of Israel it is subsequently written, 'For these two years the famine has been in the midst of the land.'
From this emerges a profound moral lesson: Know, writes the Ramban, that Avraham Avinu unintentionally committed a great sin, for he placed his righteous wife in the snare of transgression out of fear that they would kill him. After all, had he said 'she is my wife,' they would not have taken her, but he feared they would kill him. One might ask: was that not a genuine fear? The Ramban answers: he ought to have trusted in Hashem to save him, his wife, and all that was his, for G-d has the power to help and rescue. In other words, there was excessive human effort (*hishtadlut*) here - why was it necessary to say 'she is my sister' and endanger her, to the point that she was taken into Pharaoh's house?
The Ramban adds: leaving the land that he had initially been commanded to enter, simply on account of the famine, was also a sin, for G-d redeems from death during famine. There is a famine - but who told you to leave? The One Who told you, 'Go forth... to the land that I will show you' and sent you here, certainly has the power to sustain you here. And because of this deed, exile in the land of Egypt at the hand of Pharaoh was decreed upon his descendants.
Here we have a major foundation: the exile in Egypt under Pharaoh came as a consequence of this act. 'The place of justice, wickedness is there' - the place where his descendants were judged afterward is the very place where the sin and failing occurred. The sin was that Avraham went down to Egypt during the famine, brought his wife, and said, 'She is my sister.' It turns out that the verse is read, as it were, in reverse: the place of the wickedness - there judgment will ultimately take place.
Measure for Measure - Identifying the Sin by the Stroke
From here we see that judgment takes place in the place of wickedness, and the two are linked. Indeed, the Gedolim were able to discern measure for measure based on this principle: if they saw an affliction in a particular limb, they knew that it was in that limb that they had stumbled and sinned, and from that awareness they knew how to rectify that specific matter. In the very place where you are judged - that is a sign that in that place lay the wickedness.
A story was once told about a woman whose daughter was offered a shidduch - an extraordinarily special young man, but he had a slight limp. The husband wanted it very much, but she refused: "My daughter is healthy; why should I take someone who limps?" Eventually, she prepared tea for her husband before prayers as he had requested, and as she came to serve him, she slipped and fell, was cut by the broken glass, burned, and broke her leg. She said, "That is what happens when you make a cup of tea for your husband before davening." But she did not realize that this is what happens when one rejects a young man because he limps, and now she herself is limping for four months in a cast! This story is cited from Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz, and it seems it involved the wife of the author of the "Baruch Ta'am", with the prospective match being the Divrei Chaim of Sanz. She misread the message - and the lesson is that the defining clue is the location of the injury: if the injury is a limp, look for what sin involved the leg, for that is truly the reason behind what is happening now.
However, many times we cannot know this, because such matters belong to the realm of sod (esoteric wisdom). Just as the holy Ari, of blessed memory, would reveal to Rav Chaim Vital in all kinds of matters: one person suffered from his shoulder, and who could have known what the shoulder had to do with anything? The holy Ari told him: It is written that immediately (teichef) following washing comes the blessing, but you do not juxtapose them - and teichef (תכף) has the same letters as kateif (כתף, shoulder). That is the allusion. So first of all, these are esoteric matters that we cannot grasp; and second, they were able to know because they lived in spiritual perfection, so when something happened, they immediately recognized the cause. But with us, if something happens - for which sins is it? Those of this morning, of yesterday, of a week ago, of the past month? "There is no sound spot in it, nothing but wounds, bruises, and open sores." Where would a person even begin to measure where the sin originated? Are we lacking reasons? One could draw up an entire list! Therefore, in our case, it is very difficult to identify the wound according to the sin.
As an aside, the author of the "Imrei Shefer" presents an entire approach here, which is not being studied right now; it is best studied at the end, so we can see all the pesukim in sequence according to his approach, as he explains an entire progression in the words of Kohelet.
"Michlol Yofi": Precisely in the Place of the Mitzvah - There Lies the Failure
In the sefer Michlol Yofi, it is explained: Know that precisely in a place of judgment, wickedness can multiply. How so? For instance, if one subjects the judgment to delay (inui hadin) - inui hadin means delaying justice, where a judge is able to rule yet stalls. This is among the gravest matters, for the Mishnah in tractate Avot states that the sword comes to the world for the delaying of justice and the perversion of justice - equating them: the delaying of justice, which is merely procrastination, is compared to the perversion of justice.
Furthermore, "and the place of righteousness" refers to the place where one ought to give charity to the poor person, which is tzedek, doing tzedakah. And even there, "wickedness is there": How so? When one gives charity publicly and humiliates him, so that everyone now sees that he is in need; or publicizes his name, displays photographs showing how he helps and supports needy families, photographing those people and exposing them to great shame. Here, charity was given - yet nonetheless, "wickedness is there." Thus, one must be cautious, for sometimes precisely in the very place where one can perform a great mitzvah, in that exact place one can fall into a tremendous failure.
"Me'am Loez": The Place of Judgment - Rosh Hashanah
An additional explanation is brought by the Me'am Loez, by way of derash. We noted that although the text says harasha, it means wickedness, as an abstract noun; yet he wishes to interpret it literally as "the wicked one." And what is this referring to? "The place of judgment" - when is the judgment? On Rosh Hashanah. In the place where man is judged on Rosh Hashanah, there stands the wicked one at his right hand to accuse and prosecute him. One can also interpret "wickedness is there" to mean that the transgression itself acts as the accuser, for one who commits a sin acquires for himself a prosecutor; and the wickedness itself, the sin itself, prosecutes him there in the place of judgment.
In summary:
In a single verse, King Solomon unfolded the entire pain of this world: the place of justice, there is wickedness; and the place of righteousness, there is wickedness. We learned that wickedness surrounds the righteous and thereby suppresses him, and that courts that were set above righteousness but fail to uphold it bring retribution and exile - as Rashi notes regarding the Chamber of Hewn Stone and the Middle Gate. We learned from the Midrash that precisely in the place where the Holy One, blessed be He, did good for Israel, there they acted corruptly, which is the nature of ingratitude. We learned from the Ramban that the place of judgment is the place of wickedness, that where the sin occurred, there the judgment will take place, which is the source of the principle of measure for measure. And we learned that even in the place of the mitzvah itself - in judgment and in charity - failure lies in wait, through delaying justice and humiliating the poor. And the comfort lies in the preceding verse: "and God seeks out the pursued" - this dominion of the forces of impurity will continue until the arrival of the Messiah, and then everything is destined to change.