Shabbat Parashat Behar-Bechukotai - 5781

Shabbat Parashat Behar-Bechukotai - 5781

Rabbi Hal Miller

When you make a sale to your fellow or when you buy from the hand of your fellow,

do not aggrieve one another. [Vayikra [25:14]

Do not aggrieve one another and you shall have fear of your God, for I am Hashem

your God. [Vayikra [25:17]

These two verses not only appear together, but seem to be repetitive. We know that

the Torah does not repeat anything except to teach something else, so what are the

two lessons here?

Rashi gives us the majority opinion. For 25:14, "This is victimization in financial

matters" and in 25:17, "here it enjoins regarding verbal harassment". It seems

somewhat obvious in context, but what does this teach? Why couldn't there be just

one verse that covers both?

Onkelos is even more explicit in his differentiation. He says that 14 applies to the

sale of property, and applies to both the buyer and the seller. He then describes 17 as

not verbally abusing or giving bad advice intentionally to someone, which appears to

only apply to one side of the equation. He does, though, make it clear that this

prohibition only applies to cases of intent.

Rav Moshe Feinstein agrees that 14 applies to business situations, but does not

limit it to sale of property. He says that 17 deals with interpersonal relationships,

not limited to verbal harassment.

Nechama Leibowitz disagrees with Rav Moshe on the application of our verse, saying

that, "it is an offense committed by speaking, though it is neither a false oath nor evil

talk, nor slander. It is the kind of talk prevalent in day-to-day life as if it were legitimate."

The Gemora [Bava Metzia 58b] discusses our verse as applying to a prohibition of

reminding a repentant sinner or a convert of his previous acts. It specifies that this

commandment is to prevent arrogant people from taunting victims, to the point that

one is prohibited from looking around a shop as if they are going to buy, raising the

hopes of the seller, when in fact they have no intention of buying. It asks why one

would commit a sin that yields them no benefit, noting that wronging someone in

this way is worse than financial sins, since money can be made good, but words

cannot.

Rambam expands the coverage to embarrassment, saying that one may not ask a

scientific question to someone without knowledge and then ask their opinion.

It appears that one verse could not clearly define the prohibitions involved here, as

the two verses address different audiences and situations, thus the Torah had to

write two. In the end, the impact is one, that we may not wrong our fellow.