In the last remaining weeks before the Jewish New Year, congregations around the world read weekly Torah portions from the Book of Deuteronomy, including the famous exhortation, “Justice, justice, shall you pursue”—from Chapter 16, Verse 20.

The obvious question on this verse is why the Bible repeats the Hebrew word, “Tzedek”—which means both “justice,” and “righteousness”? A great sage from the late 1700s, Rabbi Bunam of P’schischa, records a profound answer from the tradition. The text uses the word twice to make sure that when you pursue justice, you only use just-and righteous-means. In other words, the Biblical view directly contradicts Marxism: no, you can’t unjustly confiscate wealth from those who created it to fulfill the righteous goal of helping the poor.

The Bible insists that no matter how worthy your purposes, you must employ only righteous means in achieving them.