From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, August 27, 2004 1:09 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Ki Seitzei, 5764



                                                Control Yourself

                  By Rabbi Joshua (controllingly known as The Hoffer) Hoffman


This week's parsha contains more mitzvos than any other parsha in the Torah. The Talmud (Yevomos 4a) tells us that even according to the opinion that we generally do not try to find significance in the juxtaposition of different sections of the Torah to each other ('ein dorshin semuchin'), in the book of Devorim everyone agrees that we do so. Although the Talmudic passage is referring to halachic expositions based on such juxtapositions, Rabbi Ya'akov Sakly, a student of the 13th century Talmudic authority Rashba, takes it in a homiletical sense, as well.  Accordingly he presents, in his Torah commentary Toras HaMincha to parshas Ki Seitzei, an explanation of the continuity of the parsha, explaining how each mitzvoh is connected to the one that follows it. I would like to focus on just one group of mitzvos that he discusses, presenting his explanation and expanding upon it.


The Torah tells us that it is prohibited to kidnap a person and then sell him, and that the penalty for doing so is death. The next mitzvoh mentioned is that of taking care in regard to the affliction of tzora'as: "Take care about the tzora'as affliction, to be very careful and to act ; according to everything that the Kohanim the Levites instruct you, as I have commanded them, you shall be careful to perform" (Devorim 24:8). Rashi explains that this verse prohibits the cutting off of any signs of tzora'as, such as white hairs on the flesh, or the tzora'as affliction itself, so that the Kohanim will be able to judge the case accurately. We are then told (verse 9) to remember what happened to Miriam when the Jews were on the road going out of Egypt. We have offered, in the past, an explanation of the connection between Miriam's sin of engaging in leshon hora, or disparaging talk, concerning Moshe, for which she was punished with tzora'as, and the fact that it was done on the road out of Egypt (see Netvort to parshas Ki Seitzei, 5762, available at Torahheights.com) However, we still need to understand why these mitzvos regarding tzora'as are mentioned after the prohibition of kidnapping.  


 Rabbi Sakly writes that a person who kidnaps someone separates him from the home of his parents, just as a person who engages in disparaging talk - leshon hora -separates people from each other, and is therefore punished through tzora'as, which requires him to sit for a time outside of the regular encampment. I would like to expand on this explanation by referring to an earlier reference to kidnapping in the Torah. In parshas Mishpotim, the Torah tells us, "One who kidnaps a man and sells him, and he was found in his possession, he shall surely be put to death" (Shemos 21:16). This verse is preceded by mention of the death penalty for striking a parent, and followed by mention of the death penalty for cursing a parent. Why does the verse concerning kidnapping intervene between the two verses concerning crimes against a parent? In Netvort to parshas Mishpotim, 5761, we mentioned the explanation of R. Saadia Gaon, as cited by R. Avrohom Ibn Ezra, that it is usually minors who are the victims of kidnapping. These victims then grow up without knowing who their parents are, and eventually may end up hitting or cursing them. Even if these children do not end up striking or cursing their parents, we explained, still, the kidnapper created the possibility of such a situation, and this is sufficient reason to warrant the death penalty. On a wider level, perhaps, we can say that someone who kidnaps a person and removes him from his family is really destroying his self-identity, or alienating him from himself. Because of this process of self-alienation, the kidnapped person is apt, eventually, to strike or curse his parents, the source of his personality and his abilities in life (see Netvort to Mishpotim for a somewhat different application of this idea).


 Based on our understanding of the prohibition of kidnapping, we can better understand why it is juxtaposed to a law of tzora'as and a mention of Miriam's engagement in leshon hora against Moshe. One who engages in leshon hora influences the opinion of others about the person being spoken about, and, thus, in a sense, robs him of his personality, both in his own eyes as well as in the eyes of those who listen to the leshon hora. In regard to the person who speaks the leshon hora, he is actually alienating himself from his own personality, because he is, in effect, saying that he is unable to control his own power of speech. This is how Rabbi Boruch Sorotzkin, in his commentary HaBinoh VeHaBerocho, explains the midrash which says that a person who speaks leshon hora is 'kofer ba'ikar' - denies a basic principle of Judaism. The idea being expressed here, says Rabbi Sorotzkin, is that the person is denying his ability to control his own speech and thus rejecting the basic premise of all the mitzvos of the Torah, that a person is master over his actions, and is able to fulfill the mitzvos that the Torah mandates (see Netvort to parshas Ki Seitzei, 5762, for a further application of Rabbi Sorotzkin's explanation of this midrash). Thus, a person who speaks leshon hora is really alienating himself from his own inner essence, just as a person who kidnaps someone alienates the victim from his self-identity by removing him from his parents, the source of his abilities and inner essence. Perhaps, then, this is one of the reasons for these laws being placed next to each other in our parsha.    



Please address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.

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