03 Sep SHOFTIM: THE TACTICS OF THE SATAN

The verse says:
“then the two men
who have the
grievance shall
stand before
Hashem, before
the Kohanim, and the judges who will
be in those days” [Devorim 19:17]. The
expression “who will be in those days”
immediately raises a question: To which
other judges would a person present
himself, if not to the judges who are
around in his time? Obviously, he can’t
go to judges of previous generations!
Rashi famously adds: “Even though he
is not of equal stature to judges who
existed in previous generations, one
must listen to him, for one only has the
judges available in his own time.” This
does not only apply to judges. It applies
to Rabbis, teachers, Roshei Yeshivas,
Gedolim. The Torah leaders with whom
you interact may, in fact, not measure
up to those of years gone by. That

cannot be helped. You, however, must
have the attitude that the individuals
who are Torah leaders in your time are
the greatest authorities that exist and
you must approach them with proper
respect and deference.
Rav Pam, zt”l, quotes the Gemara in
Bava Basra (15b) which records a
dialog between the Almighty and the
Satan. The Satan told G-d: “I have
traversed the whole world and found
none so faithful as your servant
Avraham. You promised him that you
would give him the length and breadth
of the land which he traversed, and yet
when he was unable to find any place in
which to bury Sarah until he bought one
for four hundred shekels of silver, he
did not complain against your ways.”
Then G-d said to the Satan: “Have you
considered my servant Iyov? For there
is none like him in the earth…” The
Satan then challenged the Almighty to

let him test Iyov to
check out his true
character. This initiated
the well-known events
at the beginning of the
book of Iyov.
Rav Pam zt”l asked:
Since when is the Satan
in the business of
praising people like
Avraham? “There is no
one around who
compares with the
righteousness of
Avraham” does not
sound like the Satan!
Rav Pam zt”l answered that this is, in
fact, EXACTLY the tactic of the Satan.
The Satan picks some previous Gadol
and sets him up as a “fine and wonderful
Jew”. But he does this only to find fault
with contemporary Jewish leaders.
Such are the devious techniques of the
Satan.
We must show respect and reverence to
the leaders who are present in our own
days. The Satan = Yetzer Hara = Evil
Inclination tries to always belittle our
contemporary leaders in comparison to
the “great leaders” of past generations.
We must avoid this trap when
approaching the leaders who are present
“in our own days”.