In Shoftim we read about the establishment of the court system and the most famous quote:

Tzedek Tzedek-Justice, justice shalt you pursue, that you may live, and inherit the land which the Lord your God gives you. ( Deuteronomy 16:20)

Why the repeating word, “Justice”? Most commonly it translated to assume that it is emphatic. As to say, “Justice you will surely pursue”. But, I think this reading overlooks the speaker. As we know, Moshe had a speech impediment. This is the text recording his stammer.

If this is true, why does the Torah represents Moshe’s stuttering in print at this moment? Maybe it has something to do with the pursuit of justice itself. But how?

To truly pursue justice we need to connect to our own experiences of being marginalized. Vulnerability is the seat of empathy which is the foundation of justice. But what does this have to do with the repetition of the word?

In the gemara Berachot 28 we read the story of Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria being appointed the new head of the House of Study, and major changes lay ahead. His predecessor Rabban Gamliel only allowed entry only to those “whose insides were like their outsides”. He had appointed a guard at the entrance to the Beit Midrash to prevent “undesirables” from entry.

Clearly, this policy worked all too well. The first act of Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria was to remove the guard, opening up the Beit Midrash to all. So many wanted to learn that they had to bring in 400—and some say 700—extra benches to accommodate all.

But what does it mean to have your “outsides be like your insides”? All to often we judge ourselves differently then we judge others. The metric of a righteous person is that the ark their outsides match their insides. Rabban Gamliel limited learning to the righteous. We realize from Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria that the power of learning is to support personal transformation. How the guard would know is another question all together.

So back to our original question. It is possible that the repeating of the word “justice” speaks to this drive to alignment between the internal and external expression of justice. To be truly vulnerable we must explore the dissonance between our internal experience of justice and what is going on in the world. Are we up to the task of this exploration? Justice is not double speak. Rather, the arduous work of authentic alignment is the highest manifestation of justice.