Po Ve Sham

Raise your hand if you would take a bribe? 

Now, let me rephrase my question… Do you have any biases? 

It’s a straightforward question, but the answer is trickier than it seems.

The Pasuk says…  There is a verse in parashat Shoftim that clearly states “You shall not take a bribe.” (Deut 16:19)

Don’t let anything deviate your judgment. And here it comes, the most potent deviators of our judgment often aren’t physical gifts but our own internal biases!

Ketubot 105b in The Talmud:

(Free form translations)

Jewish law teaches that not all bribes are money-based. This is because it doesn’t directly say “don’t take profit.”

The Gemara wonders: How can someone bribe using just words or actions?

To answer, the Gemara shares a story. Shmuel was helped by a man while he was trying to cross a river.

When Shmuel asked him his purpose there, the man said he had a case for Shmuel to judge.

But because of the help he received, Shmuel felt he couldn’t judge the man’s case. Even without money, the act of kindness affected their relationship.

In a similar story, Ameimar was acting as a judge when a feather got stuck on his head. A man helped him by taking it off.

When asked about his reason for being there, the man mentioned he wanted Ameimar to judge his case.

But because of this small act of removing the feather, Ameimar felt he couldn’t be impartial in judging the man’s case.

Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Shoftim 7:1:

Judges should stay away from bribes. If a judge is influenced by a bribe, he can’t make fair decisions.

R. Abbahu made a point: Even if someone takes a very tiny gift with wrong intentions, it’s bad. It’s like they’re hiding and taking a bribe.

R. Ishmael ben Elisha shared his experience: The effect of bribes is strong. One time, someone gave him a gift. Even though it wasn’t really a bribe, he felt a connection to the person. Every time he saw the man, he felt warmly towards him and was curious about how his case was going. This story is to show that even non-monetary gestures can influence a person’s feelings and judgments.

Image by Racool_studio on Freepik

We find stories of rabbis navigating potential pitfalls in judgment. One rabbi steps back from a case over a small amount of money. Another distances himself because a person once did him a minor favor. Why? The rabbis knew that anything, no matter how small, could cloud their judgment. What is the Talmud trying to illustrate to us?  Watch out for those subtle influences.

Now, let’s talk about the sneaky things called implicit biases. Think of them as the silent, internal bribes we don’t even realize we’re accepting. They shape how we see the world, how we react, and the decisions we make.

Professor Jonathan Haidt, in “The Righteous Mind,” explains Intuition First, Strategic Reasoning Second: One of Haidt’s central arguments is that moral judgments are primarily based on intuitions, not conscious reasoning. He describes how people often have immediate gut reactions to moral scenarios and then use reasoning post hoc to justify these intuitive feelings. This idea can be summarized by his analogy of the mind being like a rider (reasoning) on an elephant (intuition), where the elephant decides a direction and the rider justifies that choice.

So, how do we navigate through this? Here’s where cultural humility comes into play. Cultural humility isn’t just about acknowledging that there are other valid viewpoints out there. It’s deeper than that. It’s about self-awareness, about recognizing where we come from, who we are, and how that shapes our view of the world. By truly understanding our own stories and backgrounds, we can start to see the biases that lurk in our shadows. It’s like cleaning a window – the clearer it gets, the better we can see through it.

In wrapping up, let’s think back to that initial question. Do we take bribes? In the best case we don’t do it intentionally, but we probably do it, as we carry and ride (as in the example of the elephant) on many biases. However by embracing a spirit of cultural humility and understanding and challenging our biases we’re hopefully  moving in the right direction.  Parashat Shoftim and the commandment not to take bribes are ultimately an invitation to keep our judgments clear and our hearts open. 

May we be blessed with the willingness to engage in this important work.

Shabbat Shalom