What Are The Qualifications a Judge Must Have ?
By Rabbi Dr Michael Schulman
Illustration by Chabad.org
From Part VIII of the book Sheva Mitzvot Hashem by Rabbi Moshe Weiner
Some qualifications that are needed for judges and those who appoint them
Only worthy judges should be appointed or elected.
The judges and those who appoint them should be familiar with the judicial system. They should have good character traits, and should not be greedy for money.
The officials who appoint judges should not to show favoritism. Judges should not be chosen based on things that have no objective relevance to the qualifications for judging.
Every judge needs to have seven good qualities: wisdom; humility; fear of Heaven; disdain for money; love of truth; being accepted and highly regarded by people in general; and a good reputation, without involvement in forbidden or immoral activities.
There is also a direct requirement upon the citizens to honor and respect the people who have been installed as the official judges. This is part of the obligation of establishing a judicial system. It applies even for judges who have only a few of the ideal qualities. But if a judge turns out to be completely unworthy of judging, it is an obligation to correct this by removing him from his position. For example, a judge who takes a bribe or intentionally perverts judgment should be removed from his judgeship and put on trial for committing those transgressions.
See our new course Choshen-Mishpat I on Laws and Courts for Noahides.
By Rabbi Dr. Michael Schulman, Executive Director of Ask Noah International
First Part Delivered as a talk at the 4th International Noahide Conference, Jerusalem, Israel, 5779 / 20’19 [1] the original article can be found here.
Brought by Rabbi Moshe Perets
Rabbi Moshe Perets is the President of the Noahide Academy of Israel, Founder and Executive Director of NoahideAcademy.org, the world’s largest Noahide informational website. He accomplished his Rabbinical Studies at the Chabad Yeshiva and his medical studies at the University of Louvain in Brussels, Belgium.
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