YOU SHALL

NOT WITHHOLD THE WAGES OF A POOR OR DESTITUTE HIRED WORKER, OF YOUR BROTHERS OR OF YOUR STRANGERS WHO

ARE IN YOUR LAND WITHIN YOUR CITIES. YOU SHALL GIVE HIM HIS WAGE ON HIS DAY AND

NOT LET THE SUN SET OVER IT, FOR HE IS POOR, AND HE RISKS HIS LIFE FOR IT, SO

THAT HE SHOULD NOT CRY OUT TO THE LORD AGAINST YOU, SO THAT THERE SHOULD BE SIN

UPON YOU.

(Devarim

24:14-15)

You shall not withhold

the wages of a poor or destitute hired worker – Scripture speaks in realistic terms, for

it is the poor, the destitute, and the stranger who hire themselves out. Similarly:

When you lend money to My people, to the poor person [who is] with you (Shemot 22:24), and also it shall be for the stranger, the orphan, and the widow (Devarim 24: 19), for they make up the majority of the poor.

And so it speaks realistically in many places, such as, You shall not muzzle

an ox when it is threshing (25:4), You shall not

plow with an ox and a donkey together (22:10). And in Sifrei (Ki Tetze 145) they

said: "If so, why does it say poor or destitute? Because the poor

and destitute hasten to collect [their wages] more than others do."

(RaMBaN

Devarim 24:14)

Judah was exiled due to poverty – For they damaged the collateral of the

poor which they kept in their homes, as it is said, And if he is a poor man,

you shall not lie down [to sleep] with his security (Devarim 24).

Another statement: due to

poverty – that they withheld the pay of hired workers, as it is said, You

shall not withhold the wages of a poor or destitute hired worker (Devarim 24).

Another statement: due to

poverty – that they stole the gifts owed the poor, as it is said, leave

them for the poor and the stranger (ibid).

Another statement: due to

poverty – that they ate the tithe of the poor.

R. Bibi and R. Huna said in Rav's

name: He who eats food from which the tithe of the poor was not taken is

deserving of death.

(Eikha

Rabba 1)

"Scripture is referring to an optional war"

Pinchas Leiser

Lovingly

dedicated

To

my dear son Naty and to Ya'el, the chosen one of his heart

In

honor of their wedding this week.

Rashi,

following the Sages (Kiddushin 21b and Midrash Tanhuma), explains the juxtaposition of the passages of "the beautiful

son." He writes:

 [and you desire her,] you may take [her] for

yourself as a wife [Not that you are

commanded to take this woman as a wife,] but the Torah [in

permitting this marriage] is speaking only against the evil inclination [,

which drives him to desire her]. For if the Holy One, blessed is He, would not

permit her to him, he would take her illicitly. [The Torah teaches us, however,

that] if he marries her, he will ultimately come to despise her, as it says

after this, "If a man has [two wives-one beloved and the other despised]"

(verse 15);

That

is to say: the highest judicial authority must oversee the political leadership's

decision to fight an "optional war," and they must not be dragged

into such a war by emotionalism and impulsivity.

The

very term reshut – "optional" may require study and

clarification. Certainly the Torah does not relate positively to the taking of

the "beautiful woman," and the explication cited by Rashi makes this

unambiguous. The word "optional" often refers to situations that are

not prohibited by the Torah but which are also not viewed as positive or desirable

by the Torah.

The

Mishnah and Gemara in tractate Makkot (chapter 2) deal with the case of a blood avenger who "murdered" an

accidental killer who had left the city of refuge. The halakhah adopts R. Akiva's

view, which states: the blood avenger has reshut [the option of

killing the accidental killer]. In his Commentary on the Mishnah and in

the Mishneh Torah, RaMBaM explains that this refers to a situation in which the

accidental killer deliberately left the city of refuge. The Torah uses the term

murdered [ratzah]: and the blood-avenger murdered the murderer.

True, the avenger will not stand trial for this murder, but his act is still

referred to as a murder.

Along

these lines, HaRAYaH Kook ztz"l sees a kind of "hidden rebuke"

in the Torah's formulation regarding the eating of meat: for it is your soul's

desire to eat meat.

A

similar idea is expressed by R. Yohanan's famous dictum regarding the reason

for Jerusalem's destruction:

R.

Yohanan said: Jerusalem

was destroyed only because they judged there according to the laws of the

Torah. Should they then have ruled arbitrarily?! Rather say: They based their judgments

upon the laws of the Torah and did not go beyond the letter of the law. (Bava Metzia 30b)

The

blanket command, and you shall do the right and the good, does not

relate to specific halakhic categories. I think that all the examples brought

have something clear to say about the spiritual and moral plane of meta-halakhah,

which stands beyond the concepts "permitted" and "prohibited."

The category of reshut is not identical with the desirable and the

moral, the straight and good in the eyes of God and man. Rather, it refers to a

certain region of human and social behaviors that are not prohibited by the

Torah in a formal, halakhic, sense.

The

Torah may be trying to relay to us an important message through the existence

of the zone of reshut. The Torah restricts human behavior with formal

and external limits; the "four cubits o the halakhah" represent a

legal-social framework that makes the minimal demands required of a Jew. However,

these demands do not command the good and the straight, the worthy, the moral,

and the spiritually exalted.

Everything

connected to this realm of "beyond the letter o the law" and "saintly

virtue" is given over to the prerogative of human individuals and

societies

I

think that we can extend the message arising from Rashi and the Sages'

explication of the juxtaposition of passages in terms of "the Torah is speaking only against the evil inclination"

to the very beginning of our parasha.

The

national leadership is apt to mobilize the people for an "optional war"

in order, as the RaMBaM says, "to expand Israel's borders and to

increase his greatness and fame." The motivation for war may be

politico-territorial or connected to considerations of personal prestige. If

such a decision is not ratified by an independent judicial authority (the

Sanhedrin of Seventy-One) there is a great danger of wars motivated by the

universal human drive for conquest.

The

Torah spells out for us what may happen when people choose to wage a war which,

while not "prohibited" – in as much as "the Torah is speaking

only against the evil inclination." That scenario teaches us that every

individual, every society, every nation and every state is granted the freedom

to choose between surrender to the drive for conquest and moral behavior

requiring self-control and moderation.

The

Torah also teaches us that each choice made by an individual or a society

influences their respective characters. "Our Father Who is in Heaven,

bless the State of Israel… send Your light and truth to its leaders, ministers,

and advisors, and help them with Your good counsel."

Pinchas

Leiser, editor of Shabbat Shalom, is a psychologist

The Cry of the Gentile Woman

The Rabbis ordained that the

mourner should observe some mourning customs for a full thirty days. What

textual support did the Sages find for the thirty days [as a period of

mourning]? From its saying, and [she shall] weep for her father and her

mother for a full month; this derives from the rule that the mourner is

troubled for a full thirty days.

(RaMBaM

Hilkhot Avel 6:1)

Sisera's mother peered

late in coming? Why tarry the strides of his chariots?"

(Judges

5)

It says, It shall be a day

of terua [shofar sounding] for you (Bamidbar 29), and this is translated: "It shall be a day of trembling speech. And

by Sisera's mother it is written, Sisera's mother peered through the window;

and said in a trembling voice.

(Rosh

HaShana 33b)

Take Care

Against Anything Evil: Ethical

Behavior in Times of Ordeal

When a camp goes out to battle – Even though you

go out of the boundaries of routine family and civic life when you are in a

military camp prepared for war against you enemies (the Sifrei emphasizes against

your enemies – you wage war against your enemies". The Torah assumes

that you will fight only those who have shown themselves to be your enemies,

that you suffered from their animosity and anticipated hostile acts, therefore

even when you attack them, take care of yourself; these words negate all wars

of conquest), and therefore even when you are in a military camp, where moral

constraints are easily loosened and the goal of war itself contributes to

unbridled coarseness even then Take care

against anything evil – do not cease to check yourself as you practice

self-control, and be careful to protect yourself against

anything evil.

(Rabbi S. R. Hirsch, Commentary on Devarim 23:10)

The Good of Society is Dependent to a Great Degree Upon the Happiness

of the Individual

The following are exempt from joining the army and are not requisitioned

for any service whatsoever: he who built a house and dedicated it; he who

married his betrothed wife or the wife of his deceased brother; he who planted

a vineyard and used the fruit thereof – these do not go forth (to battle) till

the completion of one year, as it is said: He shall be free for his house

one year, and shall cheer his wife whom he has taken (Devarim 24:5). It has been learned by tradition that he

shall be free one year whether he acquired a house, or married a wife, or planted a vineyard the fruit whereof he has begun to use.

(RaMBaM, Hilkhot Melakhim

7:10, Hershman translation)

…And the Torah looks upon this duty of a husband for the happiness of

the marriage as being such a high one, and lays such importance to it, not only

for its individual happiness but also for national well-being that, for a whole year after marrying a wife, it

and to laying the foundation of his wife's happiness…

Clearly at the root of these laws lies the point of view that a state,

the concept of a state as a whole, only has reality in the actual numbers of

all its individual members, but apart from them, or next to them, one cannot

consider the existence of a state as a concept in itself. So that the national

welfare can only be sought in the well-being and happiness of all the single

individuals, hence every flourishing and happy home is a contribution to the

realization of the goal set for the entire nation, hence has to be met by the

nation with careful, encouraging, and promoting consideration.

(Rabbi S.R. Hirsch on

Devarim 24:5, Levy translation)

Two different

Secure Existence

You shall not keep in your house two different ephah measures

After mentioning the means for maintaining the Divine Presence in Israel's

midst, he warns that God hates not only miscarriage of justice, but He

also hates one who posses instruments ready for committing injustice. One

must keeps such instruments away from oneself lest He come to despise us, as He

said, For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord, your God.

(Seforno Devarim 25:14)

R. Tanhuma son of Rabbi began

speaking in Rabbi's name: Two different weights, two different ephah

measures; even both are an abomination of the Lord (Proverbs 20:10). Deceitful scales are an abomination of the

Lord (11:1). What is written

afterwards? When willful wickedness comes, then comes disgrace (11:2).

When Israel

weighs with just scales and just weights and true measures no nation or kingdom

can rule over them, but when they are suspect regarding measurements, the

enemies immediately set upon them.

Deceitful scales are an abomination of the Lord and what

it written afterwards? When willful wickedness comes, then comes disgrace.

(Pesikta Rabbati 13)

Remember what [Amalek] did to you – If you practiced

deceit with measures and weights worry about the plundering enemy, for it is

said, Deceitful scales are an abomination of the Lord and afterwards, When

willful wickedness comes, then comes disgrace.

(Rashi Devarim 25:17)

But you shall not

defile your land, which the Lord, your God, is giving you as an inheritance.

(Devarim

21:23)

for a hanging [human corpse] is a blasphemy of God The

death of the sinner makes an impression upon those who see it, And all the

people shall listen and see, and they shall no longer act wantonly (17:13). However, dealing cruelly with the

corpse is of no help – rather, it only hurts. If the body of the one put to

death is left hanging on the pole to be eaten by the fowl of heaven, that will

not serve to keep people from transgressing. Rather it will cause those who see

it to feel compassion and pity, and they will come to curse the judges and God's

law. Such is the opinion of the RaShBaM and it is correct.

(ShaDaL ad loc)