Several weeks ago, nearly five thousand people gathered in
Philadelphia and various simulcast sites across the country for
The Justice Conference, an annual pilgrimage convened by World
Relief and Kilns College for justice workers, students, and
learners from all over the world. The topics covered a broad
spectrum, from abolishing modern day slavery, to bringing peace
in the Congo and confronting urban poverty. Some say justice is
merely fashionable today, a luxury of the rich. Others say
justice belongs to politics or the courts. Some say justice
waters down faith. But the thousands of pilgrims in Philly and
across the nation beg to differ: faith without justice is dead.
Two words are used for justice in the Tanakh, the Old Testament
of the Bible. The first, mishpat, means “rendering judgment,” or
“giving people what they are due,”[i] and is sometimes referred
to as “rectifying justice.” The second word, tsedequa, means
“the right thing,” or especially, “right relationships,” and is
referred to as “primary j