By: Aviel Kotler

When we come to study the Sage sermon on the law of partners with which the tractate opens, we are called to study the context surrounding the verse in question, as Rabbi Shimon Klein taught us (may these things be for his healing). In this way, we can understand the things in greater depth.

The context of our issue - the beginning of the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses delivers his speech to the next generation that will enter the land. He presents the events in a different way than we know from the previous Pentateuch. Among other things, Moses emphasizes in parting from Mount Sinai: "I cannot bear you alone, the Lord your God has multiplied you... How can I alone bear your trouble and your burden and your strife?" (compare Numbers 11:14).

Moses mentions here that he needs partners on the journey, people who can join him and lead the people and be mediators between the word of God and everyone's daily life. I alone say that Moses cannot, therefore: "Bring for yourselves wise and understanding men, known among your tribes, and I will appoint them as your leaders."

And in the verse where Moses tells them what to do in practice, our sermon comes: "And I will command your judges... to hear between your brothers and to judge righteously, between a man and his brother and the stranger."
This is the verse that my reader understands to contain the laws of partners, neighbors.
So it turns out that the context of the verse is Moses' need and search for partners in leadership.

Partnership rises to a higher level when we understand that the judges are the successors of Moses, and they are the sages and the wise men in every generation, up to our own generation - who call for justice and partnership.

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