<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jan 22, 2014 at 5:23 PM, Zev Sero wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="im">
On 22/01/2014 3:18 PM, Micha Berger wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">On a different front, where do we know that the shofeit was a member of<br></blockquote></div><div class="im"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
a beis din? Tosafos appear to assume it, otherwise why consider Devorah<br>
as an example to be even a hava amina to argue against?<br>
</blockquote>
<br></div>
Because that's what the word means. "Shofet" in Leshon Tanach is an exact<br>
synonym for "Dayan" in Leshon Chazal.</blockquote><div><snip></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="im"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
A shofeit is more like a regional king<br>
</blockquote>
<br></div>
No, it isn't. If it were then Pilegesh Begiv'ah wouldn't have happened,<br>
because the "regional king" would have stopped it. The last posuk in Shoftim<br>
says that the reason it happened was because all of EY was a literal anarchy,<br>
just like medieval Iceland, with a judicial system but no government. Anyone<br>
could do whatever they wanted, and the only recourse anyone had was to sue<br>
them afterwards.</blockquote><div><br></div><div>And yet, all of the actions of the Shoftim which are explicitly recorded in Tenach are those of civil (& religious) leadership. I suspect the word <i>shofeit</i> has a broader range of meaning than <i>dayan</i>; more akin to “magistrate” than “judge”.</div>
<div><br></div><div>And that the incident of <i>pilegesh beGiv‘ah</i> happened is no contradiction to the idea that the Shoftim operated <i>in loco regis</i>, since (a) their authority was limited both in space (not necessarily over all <i>shevatim</i>) and in scope and (b) there was no defined transition or inheritance of power so there were times and places where no Shofeit ruled.</div>
<div><br></div><div>—Chesky</div></div></div></div>