Earlier today while looking for Theo's lost blue ball below the Ein Kerem house, I came across ripe tomatoes growing on the vine. Small round ones, the kind you pop in your mouth as I did and also larger deep red orange globes ready to be plucked. And so I did. I gathered what I could carry, climbed the steps with Theo trailing behind, rinsed them off and left them to air dry.

Was I stealing, I wonder? Nah, I replied. Yet that old familiar feeling, wondering if I'm "getting away with something" crept in. As well as the old fear of "not getting what I want" or "losing what I've got." Really, just picked a few tomatoes. But the thought lingered until I realized that thought wasn't going away. And so I sent an email to my host, told her what I did, and asked if she wanted them. I immediately felt better having done that, regardless of the result.

As I suspected, she said she had plenty. "Keep them," with a smiley face.

And moments later, finally getting to today's reading, I read this commentary on a parsha in Deuteronomy (my highlights in pink) :

So too, we are expected to become impartial judges over ourselves, being הבו לכם, honest and impartial about what we have to work on and improve. Hence in the singular, i.e. each –שופטים ושוטרים תתן לך :prepare yourselves; And – א )יג ( of you should place a judge – borders and parameters, בכל שעריך – around his personality.  Moshe introduces this issue by using the word איכה - alas, woe - that terrible word used by Yirmiyahu to talk about the destruction.         He warns that the beginning of destruction will lie in the small breakdowns in law and order,         in the unpunished theft of pennies and the overlooked little acts of cheating. 

It is for this reason that the judges are ordered to consider a case involving one cent with the same care, and with the same priority as a multi-billion dollar suit, hearing it first if it came first. Our job is to take care of whatever part of the truth comes our way. To ensure truth emerges from that little prutah is just as important, in terms of human spirituality as ensuring truth in a case that rocks the nation.