Usually I receive a few phone calls and a few emails regarding the column that I write for Torah Tidbits. However, in response to the column that I called Lesson #26A Conduct of the Judges, I received quite a few emails, phone calls and people meeting me on the street discussing the column with me. That column needs elaboration.

When Rena and I made Aliya in 1984, Rabbi Norman Lamm, the president of Yeshiva University, invited me to teach Yoreh De'ah at the Gruss Kollel in Jerusalem. I was teaching students in the last year of the semichah (ordination) program. The class was a very gifted class with almost every student having at least two academic degrees. I remember the first session well. I asked the students, at least those who were going into the active rabbinate, whether they wanted to become rabbis like Rabbi Feinstein or Rabbi Soloveichik on the one hand or like another rabbi I knew who ate on Tish'a B'Av with a girl on his lap. They all snickered and said that the person who ate on Tish'a B'Av with a girl on his lap should not be dignified with the term "rabbi'. I explained to them that Tish'a B'Av that year was on a Shabbat when one must eat, and the girl on his lap was his two week old daughter. The response of the students was why didn't I tell these facts before I asked the question. I started the course this way so that the students would appreciate that one must know the facts before he can deliver judgment or decide halachah. In fact on the Beth Din of the Council of Young Israel Rabbis in Israel I always have the litigants present their version of the facts so that we on the Beth Din see the extent of agreements and disagreements and then we commence to take testimony.

PRINCIPLE #1. Before applying the halachah (law) to the case on hand one should know the facts.

HaShem creates the universe, creates man, and immediately puts man on a diet. Man may eat from the various vegetation of the garden but not from certain plants. Man violates the terms of this diet and is approached by HaShem. "Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat?" Man answers "The woman whom you gave to be with me -- she gave me of the tree, and I ate." Eve answers "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." Had Adam and/or Eve accepted responsibility the world may have been a much better place for mankind.

PRINCIPLE #2. If wrong, accept responsibility and don't blame others.

In Torah Tidbits #405 in my column that I numbered Lesson #26A, I discussed a football game and applied the halachah to the facts that I thought were true. The facts were not accurately in front of me when I wrote the column. So while the halachah in the column was correct, they did not apply to the facts as they existed. I violated PRINCIPLE #1.

I can probably find quite a few excuses why I did not have the correct facts. I heard them from Mr. A, or I read them in newspaper B, or I gleaned them from source C, or any combination of factors. I don't blame anyone but myself. I should have checked the sources myself.

I therefore retract that which I wrote about the players and referees.

So for that I apologize to the officials of the league, the referees, the coaches, the players and the readers of Torah Tidbits.

I thank Mr. Daniel Gewirtz, the commissioner of the football league for presenting me with the full facts.

That column #26A, did however, contain important halachic principles, that I now once again set forth without application to a football game.

Conduct of the judges:

The judge must sit in fear of the Almighty and in a serious manner as if a sword was lying on this neck and as if purgatory was open before him.

The judge must know whom he is judging and before Whom he will be required to give an accounting if he perverts the cause of justice.

A judge is forbidden to act in an arrogant manner with the community.

The judge should act with humility and restraint.

The judge should be patient with the troubles and burdens of the community.

Any judge who does not render a truthful judgment causes the Divine presence to depart from the people Israel.

Every judge who intentionally and wrongfully causes money to be taken from one litigant and to be given to another will in turn be judged by the Almighty and pay with his own life.

Every judge who judges a truthful judgment even if only for one hour causes the Divine presence to dwell among the people Israel and is the equivalent to perfecting the entire world.

The judge is a partner in sustaining the world by firming up one of the pillars upon which it stands.