When Justice Pursued Us
There are three words in the Torah that play an outsize role in the understanding of the mission of Judaism. And two of those words are Justice. “Justice, justice pursue!” tzedek, tzedek tirdof. The pursuer of justice, one who commits to fairness in law, righteousness in action, and integrity in social institutions seeks to ensure that each person regardless of wealth or power is on equal footing and treated with respect. There is a story, however, in which it is not justice which is sought after but justice that in a way seeks us.
According to a midrash on Psalm 85:10 as the moment when human beings were to be created, different angels representing different aspects of moral life arranged themselves to petition G*d to either go through with or curtail the plan to fashion humankind. The Psalm reflects this as “Kindness and truth come together, justice and peace fall upon each other [to kiss]” As it were, Kindness supports creating human beings who have the capacity to do kindness. Truth opposes the plan since human beings are nothing but false. Justice assents to the creation for human beings are capable of doing justice. Peace opposes because only strife and contention are found amongst humankind. The midrash goes on to solve the dilemma envisioning G*d throwing truth to the ground breaking the tie and there are many lessons that can be drawn by the various pieces of this story. What strikes me though is that while truth was set against any creation that would not achieve the full, justice was content to see human beings try to be just knowing there would still be injustice. Even more, justice recognizes that unlike truth, which presumably exists on its own, there is no justice without human beings to do acts that are just.
So while the Torah teaches we must pursue justice, at the heart of our world is the conviction that justice itself pursued the cause that human beings would be created, capable of doing what is just.