Removal

This aliyah is indeed a very beautiful one - full of majestic statements about heading out to battle, and not being faint of heart, and justice, but it's the repetition of a key point that does it for me. Specifically, a repetition of what it takes to "eradicate evil from your midst."

Again, there is this modern notion - to be found absolutely nowhere in Torah - of a so-called yetzer ha'ra - an evil inclination.  And its corresponding massive tomes of theology and philosophy, and ethical study, and of course great mysticism as well.  

But what does it actually say in the Torah?  It gives us specific steps to eradicate evil - not just in us but "in our [entire] midst."

This seems to contradict every philosophy that the yetzer ha'ra is always around, ever-present, never lets up, always trying to trick you - etc.  This, to me, is not rooted in deep Torah values.  It may be present in some form of meaningful ethics, but I don't think Torah.  No, the Torah comes to teach us that (from earlier entries) not only is it important to be joyful and blessed in everything the hand undertakes, it is equally important, possible, and even commanded to remove, completely, all evil.

And how is this done? Through making people collectively responsible for what they do and say.  The Torah's example is so ingenious, it's beautiful - that who is the emblem of evil that must be eradicated?  Those who lie against another in order to harm or frame them.  And that the court must impose exactly what happened to the lying witness as what that witness was seeking to do to the victim.

Imagine what this would actually look like, and feel like, and what it would be like to live in such a world.  Where there was real, swift, and also totally just...justice.  Accountability.  And when accountability was exacted, an objective form of evil as, in fact, removed from the world.  From eternity.  From objective reality - emet - truth.

It could be said that life would then be a never-ending accountability circle - one mistake gets transposed ad infinitum.  And perhaps this is the case.  But eventually - and, by the way, we technically have the guidebook so it's not hidden from us at all regarding how to do this - the loop will end, evil will be fully eradicated from both the immediate and greater midst, and every step closer is eternally worthwhile.