The weekly Torah portion (Parashat HaShavua) corresponding to Sunday, August 16, 2026, is Parashat Ki Teitzei (Deuteronomy 21:10–25:19), which follows Parashat Shoftim (Deuteronomy 16:18–21:9). Both of these contiguous portions provide profound ethical and legal frameworks that should have been learned long ago by Luís Neves (former Director of the Judicial Police / PJ), his friend Albano Pinto (formerly director of the DCIAP), and Álvaro Pires (Director of Financial and Property Management Services for the PJ).
The two Police officials are today under heavy scrutiny for awarding public contracts worth €2.3 million to the construction firm Construbarcelos, owned by João Carvalho, who also performed private home renovations for them, apparently below market prices, with known invoices of €5,000 in the first case and €150 in the second. Neves and Pires now find themselves in a problem that, according to the former head of the Bar Association, Marinho Pinto, and journalists Felícia Cabrita and Sandra Felgueiras, raises serious suspicions of corruption. The Republic's Attorney General, Amadeu Guerra, a "Masonic lunch partner of Neves", has not yet ordered the opening of a criminal investigation, which apparently only exists for ordinary citizens. Yet, the near future does not depend on individual wishes.
Together with Albano Pinto and Lucilia Gago, Neves was one of the main responsible for the illegal and criminal invasion of the Kadoorie synagogue on March 11, 2022, as if he was searching a brothel, a fact that the Jewish Community of Porto promises not to forget. Where are the "register office corruptions" with which the shameful men of Neves and Albano ruined the good name of the Jewish Community of Porto?
At political lunches in Lisbon, faithful followers of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are already claiming that the Jewish Community of Porto is behind the scenes of the misfortunes that have befallen the now disgraced officials, without realizing that the story of Haman always repeats itself without human intervention and that it is not possible to stop it, but only to witness the unfolding of events. The souls will experience the exact mirror image of the chaos it caused until the energy is balanced and purified.
Kabbalah teaches that all actions operate on a strict spiritual law of cause and effect, creating a literal "boomerang" or echo where evil inevitably rebounds upon the perpetrator.Rather than viewing retribution as a delayed, external punishment from Heaven, Kabbalah frames it as a natural cosmic consequence. Every action—good or bad—dynamically alters the soul's structure and the spiritual universe.
According the Zohar, committing evil actions generates Klipot (shells of darkness) around the perpetrator's soul, blocking out divine light.By generating evil, the individual naturally disconnects themselves from the source of life and blessings.The suffering that "returns" is actually the individual trapping themselves inside the very darkness they created. When a person commits an act of evil against a Jewish Community, the immediate outcome may look like success or gratification, but the negative energy only creates a temporary illusion, blowing up into chaos, suffering, or lack later in life.
Parashat Shoftim teaches the prohibition of bribes and conflicts of Interest. Shoftim, meaning "Judges", establishes the absolute baseline for justice and institutional integrity. "You shall not distort justice; you shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous" (Deuteronomy 16:19). A "bribe" (shochad) doesn't have to be a suitcase of cash. It can be a "bribe of words" or a "bribe of convenience"—such as a private contractor giving favored pricing, rapid scheduling, or structural favors on a public official's private home.
All those involved were certainly very happy with the works of Carvalho. At the same time, many citizens were being arrested on unfounded suspicions of corruption, as happened in a case in Madeira—led by Neves himself and with the use of military aircraft as if they were waging war against a hostile state. Innocent citizens were imprisoned for three weeks until they were cleared by a judge.
While Shoftim teaches that even if an official believes they can remain objective, accepting personal benefits from a public entity's supplier naturally "blinds" institutional oversight, Parashat Ki Teitzei moves from general institutional structure to everyday civic and financial morality.The Commandment: "You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a large and a small... a perfect and just weight you shall have... for all who do these things, all who act corruptly, are an abomination to the Lord" (Deuteronomy 25:13-16).
The law of honest weights demands a single, transparent standard for all transactions. In public administration, this translates to fair competition and public tenders. What is now being revealed in Portugal represents a complete denial of this universal command. Construbarcelos received 17 contracts between 2020 and 2025, some of them without public tender or where only minimal competitors were consulted. The convergence of private favors, public funding, and shared relationships creates an overlap that the Torah's ethical framework seeks to prevent entirely by demanding that institutions remain entirely beyond reproach.
In short, the Torah portions of mid-August 2026 teach that justice must be entirely decoupled from personal relationships and private benefits. When public administrators mix state contracts with private domestic favors, they create a systemic blindspot that erodes public trust, precisely the structural corruption that Shoftim and Ki Teitzei warn will subvert the rule of law. To assume that the illegal invasion of one of the largest synagogues in Europe will have no consequences for its perpetrators is to completely ignore Kabbalah and the way the Universe works.
