By Rabbi Yosef Shemtov:
This week’s portion starts with, “You shall appoint judges and officers in your cities that HaShem will give you and they should judge the people with righteous judgment.”
The rabbis learn this mitzva is not just for a court to judge righteously; it is a mitzva for every individual person.
We are very judgmental in our daily lives. We have ideas and opinions about what people around us do. We are constantly dealing and socializing with different types of people.
The Torah is teaching us: don’t rush to judge somebody; try to give them the benefit of the doubt.
In many cases, if we had waited to know all the details of a situation, we wouldn’t say comments or do hurtful actions to others. In less than a month we will be judged on Rosh Hashana for a new year. The rabbis teach us if we train ourselves to judge people favorably, then the Almighty will do the same thing to us. Let’s focus on this trait of giving the benefit of the doubt to others to merit having a wonderful year ahead of us.