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YOU SHALL NOT ACCEPT A BRIBE,
FOR A BRIBE WILL BLIND THE CLEAR SIGHTED AND CORRUPT WORDS THAT ARE RIGHT.
(Shemot 23:8)
Rabbi Abahu
said: Come and see how blinded are those who receive bribes.
A man whose eyes bother him gives money to a physician - he may or may not be
cured. These take a penny's worth [of bribes] and blind their eyes, for it is
said: a bribe will blind the clear-sighted.
The Rabbis taught: For a
bribe will blind the eyes of the wise (Devarim 16); a fortiori for the stupid; and will distort the words of the righteous - a
fortiori for [the words of] the wicked.
Are the stupid and the wicked
appointed to serve as judges?
Rather, say it this way: For
a bribe will blind the eyes of the wise - even when a great wise man takes
a bribe, he will not leave the world without blindness of heart. And will
distort the words of the righteous - even when a perfectly righteous man
takes a bribe, he will not take leave of the world without madness.
(Ketuvot 105a)
Will blind - Just as eyesight is used metaphorically
to refer to the heart and the mind's judgment, so too its
opposite - blindness - is used metaphorically to refer to lack of understanding
of clear and obvious facts. The meaning is that bribery sways the heart from
the path of justice and darkens the mind's light, so much so that the sighted
becomes blind, he does not see things as they truly are, and the words of the
righteous in judgment - the upright - will appear crooked and distorted in his
eyes.
(R.
Yitzhak Shemuel Reggio Shemot 23:8)
Why Does the List of Laws Appear Next to the Passage Regarding the
Altar?
Gavriel Weil
In memory of my father and teacher Rafael ben Avraham,
a lover of peace and a
pursuer of peace,
who passed away on the 4th
of Adar 5633.
Parashat Yitro ends with the verse: And you shall not ascend with
steps upon My altar, so that your nakedness shall not
be exposed upon it (
Rashi (on 19:1, Judaica Press
edition) states: "Now why was the
section dealing with laws juxtaposed to the section dealing with the altar? To tell you that you shall place the Sanhedrin adjacent to the
Indeed, many
people have already noticed that following the Ten Commandments (which are also
doubled in that they juxtapose commandments between man and God to commandments
between man and man), parashat Mishpatim
sets out in great detail the laws concerning social relations, justice, and so
forth. Details of the Tabernacle's construction only come later, in parashat Terumah. It seems that
the building of a fair society that battles injustice creates the foundations
for the construction of the Lord's Tabernacle. Without this prerequisite, there
can be no Tabernacle.
Such is the plain
meaning of Scripture. And so it sometimes seems that the tremendous investment
of Torah education in promoting the value of the Temple in the public
consciousness neglects the fact that a different consciousness must be promoted
first: the consciousness relating to all of the issues treated in the parasha such as the law of the servant (foreign worker?), he
who strikes a man who dies…(rising violence?), he who steals a man and
sells him (the trade in women?), if men fight and if men quarrel
(the divisions that split Israeli society?), and on and on - the parasha is full of them.
Shemot Rabbah (1) relates to the juxtaposition of the two
sections: "And why is this matter found next to the other? Was the priests'
nakedness exposed? But it is written: and make them cloth trousers to cover
the flesh of nakedness!? Rather, R. Avina says:
Just as the Holy One blessed be He warned the priest not to walk in rude
strides on to the altar, but should rather walk toe to heel, so too the Holy
One blessed be He warned the judges not to make rude strides in judgment."
The commentary Matnot Kehuna
explains: "That is to say, that they should not be severe in judgment, but
rather they should be moderate in judgment."
The priest
ascends to the altar full of power and importance. He is in danger of trampling
the very significance of ascension to the altar under his rude strides. The
temptation of power, tremendous narcissism and feelings of self-importance are
the lot of anyone who is raised above the common folk, and they pose a threat
to every institution in general and to religious institutions in particular. So
it is with the priests; so it is with the judges. Modesty is not merely
physical - it is also internal: pleasant manners, moderation and consideration
for others are needed in those who serve the sacred, who serve justice, or who
serve the people.
Indeed, the
metaphor is interesting: the law court is apt to take "rude strides,"
i.e., to display arrogance, pride, and disconnection from the spirit of the
public it is supposed to serve. In his commentary, Diyyukim
al ha'Torah, Rabbi Pinhas
Wolf states: "The goal of legislation is not to create laws but rather to
execute them; to that end there must be people who are prepared to uphold them.
No matter how good the laws are, if they are not accepted people will
circumvent them. That is why the Torah seeks to first educate people so that
the seed of law will fall upon fertile soil; that is the connection between
these two categories of commandments that are connected by the letter vav [the prefix meaning and]."
It is essential
that there be an ethos of identification with the law and of acceptance of it
as being something that elevates both the individual and society. Without such
an ethos, judicial procedure is drained of its significance; is becomes so
mechanical and robotic that its nakedness is exposed (to use the Torah's
expression) and everyone senses that the king is unclothed.
To our sorrow,
there are not a few instances in the realities of our lives in which this seems
to be what happens (for example: the unresolved predicament of agunot).
It seems that the
two biblical passages are juxtaposed precisely in order to point out this
danger and warn us of it.
Gavriel Weil is a clinical and educational psychologist and a
member of Moshav Kfar Maimon.
Life for life - Eye for eye
He pays a life; he does not pay money for life.
Rebbi says: Life for life - money. Do you say "money" or is it "death"?
We expound: Here we read shita - "impose,"
and elsewhere we read shita - just as there
the reference is to monetary compensation, so here, too, it is monetary
compensation.
Eye for eye - money. Do you say "money," or is it
really an eye? Rabbi Elazar used to say: "One
who strikes the life an animal is to pay for it - but one who strikes
down a human is to be put to death" - Scripture juxtaposes
damages to a human with damages to an animal; just damage to an animal is
punished by monetary fine, so damage to a human is punished by monetary fine."
(Mekhilta,
Mishpatim Parasha 8: 90-91)
An Eye - Rav Saadya said, we cannot interpret this passage literally. For if a
person struck his fellow's eye, causing him to lose a third of his eyesight,
how can he possibly be smitten in an identical degree, neither more nor less?
Perhaps he will lose all his sight. Even more difficult would be cases of
burns, open wounds, and bruises; if they are in a critical place he may die,
and this would be unacceptable to reason.
Said to him Ben Zuta: Is it not written
elsewhere, As he has rendered a defect in
another human, thus is to be rendered in him (Vayikra 24:20)?!
The Gaon replied to him: The Torah places [the
letter] bet instead of the word al - "on"; the meaning
is "so shall he be punished". [Saadya's
argument is that whereas al would imply punishment 'on' the
person's body, the letter bet implies 'so'].
Ben Zuta answered: "As he has done,
thus is to be done to him" (Ibid., ibid.)
The Gaon replied: Samson said - As they did
to me, so I did to them. (Judges
Ben Zuta replied: And if the attacker was
poor, [if punishment is monetary] what would his punishment be?
The Gaon answered: If a blind man blinds the
eye of one who has sight, what can be done to him? A poor man may, in time,
become wealthy and pay, but the blind man will never be able to pay.
The general rule is: We cannot interpret the Torah perfectly without
recourse to the Sages. For when we received Torah from our ancestors, we also
received the Oral Law, and there is no difference between them. If so, the
meaning of eye for eye is that he is deserving of losing an eye for
an eye, should he not pay compensation.
(Ibn
Ezra on Shemot [the extended version],
The Half-Shekel as a
Metaphor for the Chasm Between the Infinite and that
which is Demanded of Man
Rabbi Yehuda
bar Simon said: Moses heard three things from the Almighty, was frightened, and
recoiled. When God said And they shall make
for Me a sanctuary, and I will dwell therein, Moses said: Master of the
Universe, Behold, the heavens and the heavens of the heavens cannot
contain you! He replied: "Moses, it is not as you imagine, but
twenty boards at the north, twenty at the south, eight at the west, and eight
at the east, and I will compress My Presence and I will dwell among
you." And it is written, I will appoint-meeting with you there and
I will speak with you.
And when He said: Command
the Children of Israel and say to them: Of my near-offering, my food ...Moses
said: "Master of the Universe, were I to gather all the animals of the
world and all the cattle, they would not suffice for a single offering, and all
the trees in the world would not supply a single fire, as is written: Lebanon
is not fuel enough, nor its beasts enough for sacrifice!" He
replied: "Moses, it is not as you imagine, but rather: You are to
sacrifice one lamb in the morning, and not two together, because I neither
eat nor drink [Literally, "there are neither food nor drink before
me"]. Why? If indeed there were food before me, when you spent forty days
and forty nights with, and food you did not eat, and if there were food before,
you would have eaten. But a pleasing odor [means]: be punctilious in
offering a pleasing odor." And when He said, "they are to give,
each man, a ransom for his life", Moses wondered and asked, "Who
can give full ransom for his life? For it is written The
price of life is too high, and so one ceases to be, forever, A brother cannot
redeem a man, or pay his ransom to God." He replied to him: "It
is not as you imagine, but rather this shall you give, as this
shall you give." Rav Huna
said in the name of Rav, "Shaddai
- we cannot attain to Him, He is great in power... (Job 37:23) The Holy One, Blessed Be He, does not inconvenience
(Tanhuma, Ki Tissa,
10)
And you shall not
mistreat a stranger, nor shall you oppress him: Lack of Protest can also be Counted as Oppression
After it said do not oppress
in the plural, it said if you indeed oppress him [in the singular], for
anyone who sees someone oppressing an orphan or a widow and does not come to
their aid is also thought of as an oppressor. This is the punishment: if
someone is oppressed and the other does not come to his aid, the punishment is
inflicted on them all. That is why afterwards [it is written] My wrath will be kindled, and I will slay you
[plural] with the sword - all of you.
(Ibn Ezra Shemot 22:20)
This notion, i.e., that
non-action is also a kind of action, that everyone who is capable of protesting
but does not protest is judged as a collaborator, is found frequently in
Scripture, Mishnah, and the aggada.
The author of the Ha'Amek Davar, who agrees here with Ibn
Ezra, makes the paradoxical comment that the prophet makes a claim of this kind
against the Holy One blessed be He. If He sees injustice and remains silent,
even He is - so to speak - a collaborator with the wrongdoers. And Rabbi
Abraham wrote that anyone who sees someone oppressing an orphan or a widow and
does not come to their aid is also thought of as an oppressor. He is correct;
this is fully supported by a verse from Isaiah (64:11): Concerning these will You restrain
Yourself; will You remain silent and afflict us so very greatly? This
means: In that You are silent You impose affliction.
(Ha'Amek Davar Shemot 22:22)
By restraining and remaining
silent - You become - so to speak - one of our oppressors.
(Prof.
Nehama Leibowitz z"l, Iyyunim le'Sefer Shemot, pg. 285)
All of the gates are locked
except for the gates of mistreatment [ona'a]
(Bava Metzia 59b)
Except for the gates of
mistreatment: Because it is
the heart's sorrow and is wont to make tears fall.
(Rashi ad loc)
Our Rabbis taught: He who
mistreats the stranger transgresses three negative commandments and he who
oppresses the stranger transgresses two. What is the difference? Three
prohibitions are written by mistreatment: And you shall not mistreat a
stranger (Shemot 22);
When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him (Vayikra
19); you shall not mistreat
one against his fellow (Vayikra 25) - the stranger is included under [the category of] his fellow.
Three passages refer to
oppression as well: Do not oppress him (Shemot 23); do not oppress a stranger (Shemot
23); you shall not behave
toward him as a lender (Shemot 22) - does that include the stranger? Rather, each of these is included in
the three.
We learned - R. Eliezer the Great said: Why does the Torah warn us in
thirty-six places - and some say forty-six - regarding the stranger? Because it may cause him to return to his old ways. Why is
it written: Do not mistreat the stranger and do not oppress him for you were
strangers in the
(Bava Metzia 59b)
Peace is Achieved through Proper
Legal Processes and the Overcoming of Acrimonious Feelings
You established
equity [meisharim] (Psalms 99:4). R. Alexandri said: You established straight ways [yesharot] in your world. Someone has a legal dispute
with his fellow. They go to court together, accept the verdict, and make peace
between them - that is what is meant by You
established equity. Someone takes to the road and sees his fellow's ass
crouching under its load, he goes and lends a hand, helping him load and unload
[the beast]. They enter an inn and he says: "So he loves me, and I thought
he hated me!" They immediately begin to converse with each other, and
peace dwells between them. What brought peace to them, making them love each
other? The fact that he observed that which is written in the Torah: When
you see the ass of your enemy lying under its burden and would refrain from
raising it, you must nevertheless raise it with him (Shemot 23:5) as it is written: Its ways are ways of pleasantness, and
all of its paths are peace (Proverbs
(Midrash
Tehillim 99)
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