Rabbi Frand on Parshas Mishpatim
These divrei Torah were adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissocher Frand's Commuter Chavrusah Tapes on the weekly portion: Tape # 361,
Bankruptcy. Good Shabbos!
Haughtiness Which Allows Us To Serve G-d
A pasuk [verse] in this week's parsha teaches that a person is not allowed
to be a false (bribed) witness [Shmos 22:1]. The Talmud [Sanhedrin 29a]
describes that we frighten the witnesses so that they will be encouraged
to tell the truth. One opinion suggests that we tell them (based on a
verse in Proverbs) that false testimony causes drought, which ultimately
causes famine. A second opinion counters that this will not scare the
witnesses because they can rationalize that they are not farmers, so they
are not directly effected by drought. Another opinion suggests that we
tell them (based on another pasuk in Proverbs) that false testimony causes
a plague, which leads to illness and death. The Talmud responds that this
too might not scare them because they may have the fatalistic attitude
that "everyone dies when his time is up". Finally the Gemara concludes
that we tell them "you will appear to the people who hired you as
despicable people of infinitesimal moral value". We tell them that selling
their integrity for money will make them appear to me miserable worthless
people in the eyes of those who hired them. This, the Gemara concludes,
will frighten them into telling the truth.
This appears to be a very strange Gemara. How is it that their love of
money might blind them to the threat of drought and plague, yet not blind
them to the threat of appearing to be miserable people?
Rav Henoch Leibowitz says that we learn an interesting insight into the
personality traits of people from this Gemara. A person's sense of self
and personal pride in who he is may be more important to him than even his
money or his very life. People cannot exist without a sense that they are
people of worth and value. A person needs to feel that he has scruples and
morals - and that other people recognize that fact.
He says that we see the same principle from another teaching of our Sages,
found in the Medrash Rabbah on this week's parsha. The pasuk says, "If you
will lend My nation money..." The Medrash comments that the most difficult
type of suffering that one can ever experience is poverty. The Medrash
says that G-d gave Job the choice of suffering physically or becoming
destitute. Job responded that he would rather suffer any punishment in the
world other than poverty. He would rather experience anything other than
the humiliation of going to the market place and not having any money to
buy the basic needs of life.
Why was this so? It was not because Job loved money. It was because the
humiliation of being penniless and destitute destroys a person's sense of
self. That sense of self was more precious to him than his physical well-
being.
Rabbeinu Yonah writes in Shaar HaAvoda [the Gate of Service] that a person
must realize his self worth and that of his ancestry. He needs to feel
that he is a 'somebody' and that he has importance. Rabbeinu Yonah writes
that when a person is confronted with the temptation to do something that
is inappropriate, his sense of worth and his sense of aristocracy will
stop him from sinning. He will be embarrassed to do such a thing because
of his own self-worth and he will be embarrassed because of his parents.
A person can appeal to a healthy self-image to protect him from moral
shortcomings. However if a person sees himself as a worthless low-life, he
has nothing to which he can appeal. Dr. Abraham J. Twerski always mentions
that the way his father, of blessed memory, would chastise his children
was by telling them "es past dir nisht" (this is unbecoming of you). If we
do not have a father around to tell us "es past dir nisht", we sometimes
need to tell this to ourselves. "This is unworthy of me. I am bigger than
this. This is beneath me."
Rabbeinu Yonah writes that this is "approved haughtiness", and is a primary
entrance-way to proper service of G-d.
This write-up was adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissocher
Frand's Commuter Chavrusah Torah Tape series on the weekly Torah portion.
The complete list of halachic topics covered in this series for Parshas
Mishpatim are provided below:
Also Available: Mesorah / Artscroll has published a collection
of Rabbi Frand's essays. The book is entitled:
and is available through your local Hebrew book store or from
Project Genesis, 1-410-654-1799.
