So, the idea here seems pretty simple. You should have internal “judges” and “officers” to moderate your behavior so you don’t do crazy things. But that’s not very exciting to me. Also, you only need the law enforcement officers for that, so they can authorize sunset viewings and what not. What struck me here was the need for Judges. The Torah isn’t asking us to simply manage our interactions with the world around us. It is asking us to deliberate over them.

In Chassidus these judges are identified as our intellectual abilities to think of new ideas, process information and internalize all of these thoughts. These are the same abilities which allow us to make prayer meaningful and to forge new feelings of love and awe towards our Creator. This is why I chose to have the judges deliberating over a sunset instead of, let’s say, a ham sandwich. I wanted it to be clear that this was more about appreciating all the facets of each situation we find ourselves in than merely policing it. And that would have gotten really long with the sandwich.

Now perhaps you can tell me why the “officer” sounds like an airplane captain.

Dovid