Parshas Behar
Your Customer Has A 'Famous Father'
Your Customer Has A 'Famous Father'
The pasuk [verse] in Parshas Behar says, "When you make a sale to your
fellow or make a purchase from the hand of your fellow, do not aggrieve
one another." [Bamidbar 25:14]. When we sell an object to our brother,
there is a Biblical prohibition against cheating him. Three pasukim later,
the pasuk says: "Each of you shall not aggrieve his fellow, and you shall
fear your G-d, for I am Hashem your G-d." [25:17].
The Sforno offers an insight into the connection between the warning
against cheating and the statement "For I am the L-rd your G-d."
Obviously, such a statement could be attached to any prohibition in the
Torah: Do not eat pig for I am the L-rd your G-d. Do not wear shatnez
[linen and wool mixtures] for I am the L-rd your G-d. Why is this
statement specifically mentioned in connection with the prohibition of
cheating?
The Sforno explains: It is as if to say: "I am the G-d of the purchaser
and I am the G-d of the seller and I am particular about either party
being cheated." In other words, if someone comes to purchase an item from
a store and the storekeeper is debating whether to cheat him or not, G-d
is telling the storekeeper: "Remember, this customer is my son."
If someone comes into a Jew's store and the storekeeper notices that it is
a simple person who is not keen in the ways of business, he may be tempted
to take advantage of the customer. If however, if the customer happens to
be the son or grandson of a great Rosh Yeshiva, the storekeeper might
hesitate before trying to pull a fast one. "I'm not going to cheat the son
of Rabbi Ploni. That would just not be right!"
That is exactly what the Almighty is telling us here. Do not cheat your
fellow Jew, because I am the L-rd your G-d. "It is My son who is buying
that suit from you. Do not cheat him!"
A Consoling Interpretation To A Scary Pasuk
There is a very scary pasuk in Parshas Bechukosai. In the midst of the
terrible tochacha [curses], the pasuk says: "And you will eat the flesh of
your sons; and the flesh of your daughters will you eat." [Vayikra 26:29]
The Medrash in Eicha Rabbah (Chapter 14) gives a different interpretation
of this pasuk than the literal one. The pasuk in Eicha states: "The hands
of merciful women boiled their children; they became their food (hayu
levoros lamo) in the ruination of the daughter of my people." [Eicha 4:10]
This is really a restatement of the same idea that we find in the
tochacha, quoted above.
The Medrash interprets homiletically: The Almighty said, "I was prepared
to destroy the world and My own children did not let me do it. Because of
their activities, I could not do what I wanted to (so to speak). In what
sense is this true? A woman had a single loaf of bread that would last for
her and her husband and children one day only. But when this couple saw
that their next door neighbor's child died out of starvation, they took
their own bread – literally out of the mouths of their own children –- and
took it next door to their neighbors, thereby providing them with a meal
of consoling (seudas hav-ra-ah), to console them for the loss of their
child. [According to the laws of mourning, the first meal partaken of by a
family returning from the funeral of a loved one should not be their own
food but should be provided by their friends and neighbors.] The Medrash
compares the root of the expression in Eicha – hayu levoros lamo [they
became their food] to the root of Seudas hav-ra-ah [the meal of
consoling].
When the couple that barely had enough bread for their own family saw what
happened to their next door neighbor, took their meager rations and
provided their neighbors with the Seudas hav-ra-ah, to help them get over
their terrible loss. The pasuk credits such a sacrifice with that of
boiling their children. When G-d saw such sacrifice, He concluded: Such a
(wonderful) nation I cannot totally wipe out.
Juxtaposition of Eruchin With Tochacha
Immediately following the tochacha is the section about Valuations
(Eruchin): "Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them: If a man
articulates a vow to Hashem regarding a valuation of living beings..."
[Bamidbar 27:2] The chapter then enumerates the "worth" of each person
based on age-gender considerations as it impacts the amount of their
assessed valuation when someone pledges to donate a person's worth to the
Temple.
The late Rabbi Moshe Sherer once gave the following insight on the
proximity of this chapter to the tochacha: The Torah is alluding to the
fact the time when it is possible to truly determine a person's "value" is
after the person goes through a crisis such as the tochacha.
When we speak about the merciful women, who, under the worst of
conditions, took bread away from their children and gave it to their less
fortunate neighbors, we truly begin to appreciate the worth of such
people. It is only after hearing of some of the heroic acts during the
Holocaust and similar incidents throughout Jewish history that we can
determine and appreciate the true value of such people.
This write-up is adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissocher
Frand's Commuter Chavrusah Torah Tapes on the weekly Torah Portion. The
halachic topics covered for the current week's portion in this series are:
Tape # 011 – Rationing Medical Care
Tape # 012 - Can Teachers Strike?
Tape # 054 - Life Insurance: The Torah Policy
Tape # 055 - Candle Lighting & Havdalah: How Early & How Late?
Tape # 097 - "Ribis" Problems of Interest for the Jew in a
Mercantile Society
Tape # 098 - "Cheremei Tzibur": A Ban on Living in Germany?
Tape # 145 - Kidney Donations: Endangering Oneself to Save Another
Tape # 192 - Making Shabbos Early
Tape # 282 - The Physician's Obligation to Heal
Tape # 328 - Sh'mita and the Heter Mechira
Tape # 372 - Using Shuls As A Shortcut
Tape # 416 - Supporting Jewish Merchants
Tape # 460 - The Obligation of Checking One's Teffilin
Tape # 504 - Lag B'Omer
Tape # 548 – Marrying for Money
Tape # 592 – Ribis and the Non-Jew
Tape # 636 – The Kedusha of the Ezras Noshim
Tape # 680 - Is Ribis Ever Permitted?
Tape # 724 – The Chazzan Who Changes His Mind
Tape # 768 – Dos and Don'ts of Treating a Lender
Tape # 812 – How Much Is That Tiffany Necklace?
Tape # 856 – Distractions When Performing A Mitzvah
Tapes or a complete catalogue can be ordered from the Yad Yechiel
Institute, PO Box 511, Owings Mills MD 21117-0511. Call (410) 358-0416 or
e-mail tapes@yadyechiel.org or visit http://www.yadyechiel.org/ for
further information.
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