none2.0,
“You know in the Torah shebichaav it says, choose _wise_ and _understanding_ men and _then_ it says don’t move from the right or to the left and deviate from what they say. It never said choose men learned in halacha it never said choose men who only speak of law.”
You accused me of inserting an agenda into the pesukum (!?) while you are just going by straight meaning, but this is not so. You’re mixing and matching the pesukim and leaving things out in order to distort the meaning. Choosing wise and understanding men comes from the first perek of sefer Devarim, where Moshe Rabbeinu is recounting for b’nei Yisroel the decision to appoint leaders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens to help him bear the burden of the people in the midbar. Not deviating to the right or left of the judgement comes from the 17th perek of sefer Devarim, and the men there are identified as, “the kohanim, the levi’im and the judge who will be in those days”, and furthermore it says, “according to the LAW they instruct you..” Oh yeah, and it also says, “the man who acts willfully, not obeying the kohen who stands there to serve Hashem your God, or to the judge, that man shall die, and you shall abolish evil from Israel. And all the people shall listen and fear, and they shall no longer act willfully.”
Sounds a bit more like wtsp’s “do or die”, and if the judgements are based on the law, you probably want those judges to be conversant in the law.
You can’t have it both ways. You can’t run to the Torah and throw pesukim and fake pshat at me to support your position while accusing me of misinterpreting things, but then disparage it as just a “book” when it doesn’t suit your purposes. That’s not intellectually honest.