Previously, the Torah implied that there had to be standing courts to resolve disputes (Exodus 21:22, 22:8); here the Torah gives the formal command that such courts be established in every city of Eretz Yisrael, with a Sanhedrin, or high court, for each tribe. In addition to judges, the Torah requires the appointment of officers of the court, who would have the responsibility to enforce the decisions of the judges, and would circulate in the markets and streets to enforce standards of honesty and summon violators to the court for adjudication (Rambam, Hil. Sanhedrin; Ramban)

"Shoftim" and "Shotrim" – "Judges and Officers shall you appoint", the Torah teaches us. God is not in charge to appoint judges and officers, but we, the people of Israel. Many elections in the Torah are under the direct decision or supervision of God: kings, prophets, priest lineage, etc. However, to appoint judges and officers is our responsibility. It is interesting that according to the Talmud (Sanhedrin 56a), this is one of the "Seven Noahide Laws", the seven commandments that Jews and gentiles alike are obligated to obey.

God understands that is our responsibility to take care of having a just society, because we are living within it. Judges will be appointed to decide what is right and what is wrong according to the Torah and according to the circumstances. By the way, Judaism believes that human judges are the ones who determine in each situation (of course based on the Torah) what the verdict is. The application or not of sanctions is not decided by prophetic inspiration nor by ecstatic visions. Judges, human judges, are in charge of deciding which behavior is acceptable and what is not.

But judges alone are not enough. Officers are necessary to carry out the result of the law, the verdict, and the sanctions. If an ordinance will establish that it is forbidden to park in front of the White House, but nobody will tow my car or make me pay a fine, the ordinance would loss any applicable value. If discrimination will be condemned in the legal system, but not strongly enough by officers, teachers, employees, clergy, counselors and parents, the tragedy in Los Angeles will not be the last one -God forbid.

Of course, once the perpetrator shot, everybody agrees that his action is terrible and worthy to be punished. However, the question is, Who stopped the perpetrator when he spoke about white supremacy many years ago? Who applied to him a suspension when he verbally abused his co-workers? Who reproved him when he made fun of Jewish and black kids at school?

You don’t get a "Hate Crime" perpetrator in one week or one year. You need an entire life.

Hate crime perpetrators grow up in intolerant homes, in country clubs where Jews are not accepted and in churches where the preachers tell the people, based on their reading of the scriptures, that the antichrist is Jewish.

Each time we don’t condemn a discriminatory statement we are giving our silent approval. Each time, a teacher, a minister, an employee or a parent, underestimate the negative value of a mean or derogatory comment or action, he is contributing to the impoverishing of our society’s system of values.

Of course you need other ingredients to make a murderer, and these ingredients are common to all the shootings. However, it will be a mistake to relate to this crime as just another tragedy.

As members of the Jewish people, we have a special responsibility in making our voices heard. When someone critically injures five people in Los Angeles on a racial or religious base, he is also injuring my right to be different, to show openly what makes me different from other people (and not only what makes me alike). He is injuring my freedom to wear a Kipah in the street, to open the Synagogue each day to develop Jewish activities. In other words, to be Jewish.

And I don’t need to remind you that our grandparents came to America (and I include here my grandparents who came to Argentina) to practice and study their Jewish traditions without being persecuted. They didn’t came here –in most of the cases- to make money, but to be Jewish, because if a Jew in Kishinev, or in Moscow, or in Kiev, in the beginning of our century walked in the streets, a Cossack could kill him. Jews could assimilate in Russia or hide far away in Siberia, but they wanted to live openly as Jews. So they came to this country, and to other free countries, and won the right to be Jewish in the streets, in the public schools and in their own schools, and not only in their homes.

It is our responsibility to make our voice heard, within and outside our congregation. And it is the responsibility of the American Society and us as part of it, to educate our children, our congregants, our students and our employers, to be tolerant, kind and respectful with those who share my codes and with those who don’t share my codes.

To accept, to respect and to care about someone, who thinks, believes and acts like me is not difficult at all. The real challenge is to accept, to respect and to care about someone who doesn’t believe, think and act like me.

The Constitution of the United States, the legal system and most of the educational programs in our public schools, agree about the importance of tolerance and respect. The big question is how we apply this explicit and implicit agreement in our daily routine: at school, in our houses of prayer, at work and at home.

A better legislation on discrimination can contribute to avoid another tragedy but will not automatically change our society. Making this country a better place to live in is a task of all of us: parents, teachers, ministers, officers and local leaders. Of course, it is not a task for a day or a week but for an entire life.

This is the long way but is the only one that will lead us to a real change.

And may God bless this country and help us to make our contribution to a just and peaceful world, so tragedies like the one in Los Angeles will never happen again.

Shabbat Shalom!