Our scriptures command us:
Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof Deuteronomy 16:20: “Justice Justice, shall you
pursue.”
One of the first things young children learn to say is, “That’s
not fair.” From a young age we learn to believe
in the possibility of justice. We
yearn. We thirst. We demand justice. But, as we have so often heard, “The world is
not fair.”
Some protesters marching for justice in the streets shout, “No
Justice, No Peace.” I am sympathetic to
their impatience for fundamental change and as much as I can understand their insistence
and persistence, it will help us to know why justice is so elusive.
Why has it been so difficult to achieve justice? The problem, as our scriptures know, is
people. The nature of human nature is
ambiguous, contradictory, and inconsistent.
We know what is right, but we do not do it. For all our songs about love and peace we are
too easily seduced by fear. Everyone says
they want peace but there seems to be little peace. We like to sing about love, but sometimes we
are not very loving. People claim they want
justice, but justice remains elusive. It sounds nice but . . .
While justice is elusive, we are commanded to go after it as
best we can. We must do what we can to effect
change in an imperfect world amidst imperfect human beings.
We are not permitted to be indifferent. Indifference is
decadence. An indifferent person is already dead but he or she does not know
it.
Elie Wiesel has written, “The one who thinks about God,
forgetting Man, runs the risk of mistaking his goal: God may be your next-door
neighbor.” Chaos and injustice will
always be with us. But we must do all we
can do to hold back its craziness.
The Hebrew word “tirdof” means to run. Run as fast as you can. Run after justice. Run, run, and do not stop running. Justice, Justice shall you pursue says the
scripture. We can almost touch it and
yet . . . Run, run and in that way, you will be running with God.
