The Kli Yakar - Parshat Mishpatim

This week, the Kli Yakar writes at length about the high standards a dayan (a judge in a court — a beit din — that completely conforms to Jewish Law) absolutely must maintain.
This is yet another example of the Kli Yakar's specialness and high integrity.

It is human nature to defend (or to at least show sympathy toward) the group with which one identifies.

The Kli Yakar himself served as dayan, and it is that profession which the Kli Yakar repeatedly exhorts to be courageous, God-fearing, humble, honest, trustworthy, and to avoid even a hint of arrogance, while harshly condemning dayanim who do not meet these standards.

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Making Fine Wine & Fine Verdicts

וְאֵלֶּה הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים אֲשֶׁר תָּשִׂים לִפְנֵיהֶם

"And these are the laws that you shall put before them...." (21:1)
 
​Regarding this verse alone, the Kli Yakar writes for pages, exhorting dayanim to humble themselves against the slightest speck of arrogance or conceit. The Kli Yakar also warns dayanim not to "trample on the heads of the holy Nation," meaning not to trample of the heads of either the religious leaders or the regular people.

He stresses the absolute necessity of thoughtful deliberation before issuing a ruling, comparing it to the process of producing fine wine:

....the dregs descend to the bottom — meaning, the chaff and faulty ideas jumbled within the mind of a person — and by means of their descent to the bottom, his mind itself will remain clear, pure, and clean without intermixing and he won't come to err...." 

The Kli Yakar also opines that hasty judgement is a sign of the following:

• arrogance

     and/or

• having accepted a bribe​

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Physical Blemishes: What They Really Tell Us

Then the Kli Yakar discussed the deeper meaning of physical blemishes.

First, he quotes Gemara Yevamot: "Just as [those who served on] the beit din was clean in justice, likewise, they were clean from any physical blemish."
Then he explains:

....any blemish in one's body is not so prohibitive in and of itself. However, [it renders one's service invalid] in that it shows some kind of negative aspect [of the person's spiritual character] associated with [that part of] the body...."

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For example, the Kli Yakar mentions how blindness can indicate having accepted a bribe, which can lead to blindness, as stated in Shemot 23:8 and Devarim 16:19.
 
(For more information on what various physical ailments could be telling you about your spiritual and emotional issues, including guidance on how to heal both the physical and the spiritual/emotional issues, I've found the books Garden of Healing and Talk to God and Fix Your Health to be of immense value.)

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Never Fear!

Regarding any fears a dayan may have regarding a possibly violent reaction from a litigant resulting from a just ruling against that litigant, the Kli Yakar reassures the dayan that just as no iron implement could be raised against the Mizbe'ach (the Altar), next to which the Sanhedrin was seated, so too, "no evil will come to him" meaning that Hashem will protect the righteous dayan from assault.

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The Exploitative Poor vs. the Genuinely Needy Poor

כִּי תִרְאֶה חֲמוֹר שֹׂנַאֲךָ רֹבֵץ תַּחַת מַשָּׂאוֹ וְחָדַלְתָּ מֵעֲזֹב לוֹ עָזֹב תַּעֲזֹב עִמּוֹ

"....you shall surely help along with him." (23:5)

 
Throughout this parsha, the Kli Yakar also repeatedly emphasizes the great need to give tzedakah without hesitation.

Yet he also stresses the need to give only to those who truly can't manage without it.

Because the verse uses the word "imo/with," the Kli Yakar understands it to imply that the poor person must also make an effort.

In that sense, the giver is helping the receiver to "lift his load."

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And here is an answer regarding the small minority of the poor of our nation who cast themselves on the public and they don't want to perform any kind of work, even if they are able, nor any other kind of thing that is within their ability to bring relief to the hunger in their home, and protest if people don't give them enough to provide whatever they lack:
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Hashem did not command this [i.e., to support poor people who can work, but instead, prefer to accept hand-outs]. Rather, "along with him" — "raise it with him" — because the poor person shall do everything in his power to make [a livelihood].

And if, nevertheless, he cannot manage, than every man of Yisrael is obligated to assist him, to support him and to provide whatever he lacks —"and you shall surely help along with him"— even a hundred times.

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Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim of Luntschitz (1550-1619) lived in Bohemia (which is today Poland and Czechoslovakia). He served as rabbi and dayan and wrote several books, the most well-known being his commentary on the Chumash known as the Kli Yakar.
This is my own translation and any errors are also mine. 
For a wonderful rendering of the Kli Yakar into English, please see Rabbi Elihu Levine's translation.