The Torah's Police Officers

Parshat Shoftim introduces us to the system of law enforcement that God envisioned for the Israelites: a police force, called the shotrim. Only...the Torah doesn't really tell us outright what these shotrim are supposed to do. In fact, the only thing we're told about them is in an obscure law about military service: when some people are exempt from service for one reason or another, the shotrim are the ones who send them home.

Why is this law the only thing the Torah tells us about the shotrim? And why would this job be assigned to police officers? Believe it or not, the answers just might lie in an older story in the Torah, a story about a nation with a very different kind of law enforcement system: Egypt.

Come and see what the Torah's idea of police officers is all about.

Watch the course mentioned in the video: Why Do We Celebrate “Law-Day”?

We also explore the shotrim's role before battle in: The Bible's Curious Exemptions For Serving In The Military