Shoftim: Zemer of The Week

The name of this zemer’s author, Moshe, is hidden in the initials of the second words of the first three stanzas. The zemer first appeared in the Machzor Vitry almost a thousand years ago. The zemer praises Sabbath observers and asks Hashem to bless them. Each stanza ends with a verse from Tanach. After the opening stanza, the lines of the zemer follow an א-ב order, ending in צ; the version in the Machzor Vitry includes one more stanza that has the remaining four letters of the א-ב.

 

Central elements of this parsha include the appointments of judges and kings, the activities for which people would come to Yerushalayim, and the composition of the wartime army.

 

Some of the zemer’s connections to the parsha are as follows:

· Preamble: “ואיש על דגלו” (“Every man at his own banner”) – Each tribe both had its own banner and – according to Rashi at the beginning of the parsha, in Devarim 16:18 – had its own set of judges.

· “כ” line: “כדבר המלך דתוו” (“According to the word of the King and His decree”) – The parsha (Devarim 17:14-17:17) describes how to appoint a king and the restrictions on the king.

o “ז” line: “זכרו תורת משה” (“Remember the Torah of Moshe”) – One requirement is that the king write a copy of the Torah (or, according to Rashi, possibly two copies) (Devarim 17:18).

o According to the Iyun Tefillah, “דתוו” refers to the Torah.

o “ב” line: “כמקבלי מתן נחליא-ל” (“Like receiving the gift of Hashem’s inheritance”) – Artscroll cites the Gemara (Eruvin 54a) that “נחליא-ל” refers to the Torah.

· “א” line: “בבנין אריאל” (“with the building of the Bais Hamikdash”) and “ש” line: “בבנין שלם” (“with the building of Yerushalayim”) – Multiple times in last week’s parsha, and then another 3 times in this week’s parsha, the Torah refers to Yerushalayim and the Beit Hamikdash as “Ha'makom asher yivchar Hashem”:

They serve as the center of judgment (Devarim 17:8-10), as the place where the Leviim serve (Devarim 18:6), and as the place to bring Bikurim (Devarim 26:2).

· “ח” line: “ככלה בין רעותיה משבצה” (“Like a bride bedecked among her companions”) – The parsha describes the events that trigger exemptions from military service. One of them is having recently gotten married (Devarim 20:7).

· “צ” line: “הבה תמים” (“Grant completeness!”) – These last two words of the zemer are matched in our parsha by the exhortation “תמים תהיה עם ד׳ אלוקיך” (“You shall be complete with Hashem your G-d”) in Devarim 18:13