Halakhah sa Isaias 1:17: Tur, Shulchan Arukh, Choshen Mishpat & Sefer HaChinukh

And this is the intention of our rabbis z”l, when they say, “All who judge a judgement truthfully, it’s as if he is a partner with God in the creation of the world,” because God created the world to continue and the wicked who steal and commit acts of violence ruin the world through their actions. And similarly we find regarding the generation of the flood that the decree of their judgement was sealed only because of theft, as it is written, (Genesis 6:11) “For the earth is filled with violence,” and it says after this, (Genesis 6:13) “I will destroy them with the earth”. What emerges is that the judge who breaks the high arms of the wicked keeps the world going and completes the will of the Creator, blessed is His name, who created it to keep going, and it is as if they become partners with the Holy One ,Blessed Be He, in the creation. Abraham our forefather didn’t know God, and He called him (Isaiah 41:8) “My beloved” because he walked in the ways of justice and guided his children, as it is written, (Genesis 18:19) “For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of God, to do righteousness and justice…” And Moses our teacher a”h, master of all prophets, took advice from Yitro with regards to justice, to establish judges to caution Israel and to command them through justice, and God agreed with this. And Joshua afterwards established a covenant with Israel to serve God, he left his last word as justice, as it is written, (Joshua 24:25) “On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he reaffirmed for them laws and justice.” [This is] because justice is the foundation and the great principle in the service of God, and following [Abraham] have each and every judge judged their generation, and bring them back from their evil ways to service of God to go in the way that Abraham paved to do righteousness and justice, and through this were they [i.e. the Jewish people] were saved from their enemies until Samuel the prophet came, God-faithful, (1 Samuel 7:15-16) “who judged Israel all the days of his life. And he went on a circuit year by year to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah. And he judged Israel in all these places.” And our sages tell us that the path he took one year was not the one he took the next, so that he could turn the hearts of the entire nation toward service of God, and to walk in the way of Abraham our forefather a”h, and he anointed David to be the king of Israel, and he too walked in the ways of God from all that was in front of him, as it is written,(2 Samuel 8:15) “And David did justice and righteousness. (1 Chronicles 11:8) “And Joab restored the rest of the city.” And our sages tell us that in the merit of the justice and righteousness of David, Joab restored the rest of the city, and had his child [Solomon] continue after him, the “Yedid Hashem”, who loved to go in the laws of his father David and would ask from God an understanding, listening heart to judge his people, to understand between good and bad, and it was good in God’s eyes, that which he asked regarding this. And He gave him a wise and understanding heart which has never been before, and no one has been like him since, and all of Israel was afraid of him because they saw that the wisdom of God was in his heart to do justice. And also Jehoshaphat, who took the paths of his father and raised his heart in the ways of God, was strengthened in justice, and he appointed judges in every city, and he said to the judges, “See what you do, for you are not judging for man but for God, and with you shall be justice.” Josiah as well, that Scripture testifies about him, “And no king was like him before, who returned to God with all his heart.” And also the King Messiah, who will be revealed speedily in our days, is praised by Scripture regarding justice, and it is written, (Isaiah 11:4) “And he will judge the destitute with justice, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth…” And according to the greatness of his reward will be the punishment for those who void and pervert it, as it is taught, “Destruction comes to the word based on lack of law and on the perversion of law.” And so did David say, (Psalms 119:121) “I have done justice and righteousness, leave me not to my oppressors.” This implies that without justice, he would have been left in the hands off oppressors. And Jerusalem was only destroyed, and Israel only exiled, because of the neglecting of justice, as it is written, (Isaiah 1:21) “She once was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her-- but now murderers.”... And God wants it more than all the sacrifices, as it is written, “Doing righteousness and justice is choicier to God than the zevach offerings.” It does not says “than sin and burnt offerings,” but rather “than zevach offerings.”

[If] before him [the Judge] there were many lawsuits [awaiting a legal decision],⁷The laws of precedence here are applicable only when they all appeared simultaneously in Court, but if one appeared first, he receives precedence save in the case of a scholar versus an illiterate person where the law is that even if he appeared last, he receives precedence (v. par 1 supra). we give priority to the orphan's lawsuit over the lawsuit of the widow,⁸Tur citing Yad, Sanhedrin XXI, 6. Derived from Judge the orphan, plead for the widow (Is. I, 17) quoted by Yad, ibid. Cf. however, Ye shall not afflict any widow or orphan (Ex. XXI, 21) where the widow is placed before the orphan. This presents no difficulty because the latter text speaks of affliction of the widow or orphan who are forlorn and heartbroken (v. Yad, De‘oth VI, 10) in which case the widow suffers more than the orphan (cf. San. 22b: ‘The death of a man is felt by none than his wife’). But young orphans are not mature enough to realize the gravity of their loss. Hence, in this respect the Bible gives priority to the widow. However, in the case of a lawsuit the orphans are weaker than the widow. Consequently, the orphans receive precedence — Be’er Eliyahu. and the lawsuit of the widow takes precedence over the lawsuit of a Scholar,⁹Whence it follows that the lawsuit of an orphan certainly takes precedence over that of a Scholar which contradicts the ruling in par. 1 supra which is derived from Ket. 105b-106a: where it is related that R. Anan who once accepted a gift (v. reason a.l) from a man who brought a lawsuit to him sent the latter to R. Naḥman to whom he also sent (the following communication): ‘Will the Master adjudicate (the case of) this man because I, Anan, am ineligible to act as Judge for him. Since he dispatched such a message to me, (R. Naḥman) thought, he must be his (R. Anan’s) relative (and one is forbidden to act as Judge or witness in a relative’s action). An orphan’s lawsuit was going on before him and he pondered: This one (i.e., to judge an orphan) is a positive precept and that one (to show respect for a Scholar and consequently, for his relative too) is also a positive precept, but the positive precept of showing respect for the Torah (i.e., for a Scholar on account of his learning) takes precedence. Consequently he put aside the orphan’s lawsuit and placed before him that man’s suit. When the other litigant noticed the honour he (R. Naḥman) was showing him (his opponent whom R. Naḥman thought was R. Anan’s relative) he had nothing to say (i.e., he was intimidated).’ In order to remove the contradiction between the present ruling and that of par. 1 supra the following point should be made: In par. 1 we deal with a case where the legal guardian (אפוטרופוס) of the orphans brought the lawsuit. This is substantiated by the expression דינא דיתמי (not והוו יתמי קמיה) employed in Ket. ibid., the source of the ruling that we give priority to the Scholar’s lawsuit; in the present ruling we refer to the orphans themselves who appeared in Court — Be’er Eliyahu. and the lawsuit of a Scholar takes precedence over the lawsuit of an illiterate person,¹⁰, supra n. and the lawsuit of a woman takes priority over the lawsuit of a man.¹¹Yeb. 100a: ‘In former times, when a man and a woman (with different lawsuits) appeared before me for a legal decision, I used to settle the man’s lawsuit first, because I was of the opinion that a man (should receive precedence) being subject to the fulfilment of all the commandments (a woman is exempt from some); when, however, I heard this (the reason why a woman should be given her share of the poor man’s tithe first. , Gem. a.l), I settle a woman’s lawsuit first. Why! So as to save her from degradation (it would be a degradation for her to have to wait her turn in a company of men).’

From the laws of the commandment is that which they, may their memory be blessed, said (Shevuot 31a) [regarding] two litigants, whereby one was dressed in expensive clothes and the other in worn clothes, we say to the honored one, “Dress him like you, or dress like him; and afterwards, we will judge between you” — so that they be equal. And now in our time, we have not seen a court that did this. And they, may their memory be blessed, also said (Mishneh Torah, The Sanhedrin and the Penalties within Their Jurisdiction 21:3) that it is a commandment to sit them equally, and not that one be above his fellow or that one be sitting and the other be standing — except for a Torah scholar and an ignoramus, about which they said that we seat the Torah scholar and say to the ignoramus, “Sit”; but if he does not sit, we are not concerned about this (Mishneh Torah, The Sanhedrin and the Penalties within Their Jurisdiction 21:4). And they, may their memory be blessed, said (Mishneh Torah, The Sanhedrin and the Penalties within Their Jurisdiction 21:6) that if many cases came in front of you, and among them was a case of an orphan or a widow, that it is a commandment to have them precede [the others]; as it is stated (Isaiah 1:17), “judge the orphan, dispute for the widow” — meaning to say that we were commanded to quicken their cases more than with the case of others. And so [too,] did they, may their memory be blessed, say (Ketuvot 105b) that the case of a Torah scholar precedes the case of an ignoramus, and the case of a woman precedes the case of a man — since the embarrassment of a woman is great. And all this that we said is included in “you shall judge with righteousness.” And these matters, together with the rest of the details of the commandment are in scattered places in the Talmud, and many among them are in Sanhedrin and Shevuot. (See Tur, Choshen Mishpat 17.)