Talmidav Shel Aharon
32-5768: Mitzvah N-35
August 19, 2008
Negative Mitzvah 35 – This is a negative commandment: do not take anything in robbery from one’s fellow-man by main force.
Hafetz Hayim: For Scripture says, “nor shall you rob him.” (Lev. 19:13). The prohibition of this injunction is on anything worth from a prutah [the smallest coin] and up, yet even less than that is forbidden [but not punishable] like anything less than a minimum amount. If a person takes even something worth a prutah from his fellow man, it as though he takes his life. It is in force everywhere and at all times for both men and women.
Stealing is a serious crime, but robbery, stealing by force, is much worse. Stealing can be done in secret; robbery is done in full view of the victim and it is as if the robber doesn’t care. It is one thing not to fear your fellow human being, but robbery also implies that the robber does not fear God either. The fact that robbery implies stealing as well as the threat to the life of the victim; this makes it one of the most terrible crimes. It is said that robbery was one of the three sins that caused the first Temple of Jerusalem to be destroyed.
On the one hand, it is clear that there must be a minimum value to the crime. Some items are so small that the threat to life could not be very great. Still, the minimum for robbery is the smallest coin. After all, even a penny or a dime could be a lot of money for someone who is very poor. Still, even something worth less could be considered robbery. It is said that this was one of the sins of the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. When a new merchant set up his grain shop in the marketplace, every person in the city would come and steal one grain of wheat from his shop. By the end of the day, he had nothing and there was nobody to arrest for the crime, after all, they had stolen only one grain of wheat!! It is so often that we steal from a friend or from our workplace simple small items, a box of paperclips, a stapler, a ream of paper, but no matter how small, it is still stealing and forbidden.
People also get very attached to their possessions. Even a small coin could be very important to a person. In the movie, “Throw Mama From the Train” actor, Danny D’Vito asks his friend, Billy Crystal, to come see his coin collection. He takes out a small box with just a few coins in it. “What are these coins?” asks Crystal. “Well,” says D’Vito, “this is the nickel that I got as change from when my father bought me my first ice cream cone. And this is a quarter that I won at Coney Island…” the value of the coin collection was not in the resale value of the coins, but in the memories they recalled in the mind of their owner. They were small coins but to D’Vito’s character, they were priceless. No wonder we are taught that one who robs another, it is as though he takes his life. Many have pined away for years over beloved objects which were stolen.
Finally, take note that this law is applied equally to Jews and non-Jews. Nobody is outside the protection of this law.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
31-5768: Mitzvah N-34
Talmidav Shel Aharon
31-5768: Mitzvah N-34
August 12, 2008
Negative Mitzvah 34 – This is a negative commandment: do not steal objects or items whatever their monetary value.
Hafetz Hayim: For Scripture says, “You shall not steal.” (Lev. 19:11). The prohibition applies to anything worth from a “perutah” [the smallest coin] and up. It is all one whether a person steals the item of monetary value of a Jew, a minor, or a non-Jew: he has to make compensation. It is forbidden to steal anything at all by the law of the Torah, as the law applies to anything half or less than the minimum amount. It is forbidden to steal anything by way of a joke, or with the intention of returning it, or with the intention of paying for it. It is forbidden to buy anything which can be firmly assumed to have been stolen. It is in force everywhere and at all times for both men and women.
As we saw last week, the prohibition against stealing items belonging to someone else is not from the Ten Commandments, it is from this source in Leviticus. In the Ten Commandments, the list includes laws that have capital punishment as their penalty. In this case, the Torah has a series of fines that are levied against those who would steal. For most items, one returns the object, or the value of the object (if it can no longer be returned) and pays a penalty of half the value of the item stolen. If the item is an animal, the penalty is different. For small animals he pays a penalty of 4 times the value of the animal. If it is a large animal, the fine is five times the value of the animal. The Sages comment on the difference in the penalty since they assume that he would carry away a small animal (sheep or goat) but the larger ones, (cow or ox) would be led away on their own power. Since it was more embarrassing to carry a sheep on one’s shoulders, the difference in fines was in recognition of this embarrassment. It seems to me, however, that if the thief chooses to steal the animal, it should not be a factor if he has to embarrass himself or not.
My mother would say, “Stealing is stealing”. The Hafetz Hayim agrees. The value of the item is not a mitigating factor. Stealing as a joke or prank or even with the intention to buy the item is all stealing and is forbidden. It causes pain to the owner and the pain is unnecessary. One does not play fast and loose with things that belong to another person. This includes pens that belong to the company we work for, shoplifting when there is no one to catch you, and tampering with time on a time card.
Stealing also does not depend on who you are stealing from. There is no justification for stealing from a minor (candy from a baby) or from a non-Jew. Stealing from a non-Jew may even be a bigger crime since it would also involve Hillul HaShem, the desecration of G-d’s name in the eye of the victim.
Finally, it does not matter if you did not do the stealing. One is forbidden to traffic in known stolen goods. If you are caught with stolen goods, you must return it and pay the penalty.
31-5768: Mitzvah N-34
August 12, 2008
Negative Mitzvah 34 – This is a negative commandment: do not steal objects or items whatever their monetary value.
Hafetz Hayim: For Scripture says, “You shall not steal.” (Lev. 19:11). The prohibition applies to anything worth from a “perutah” [the smallest coin] and up. It is all one whether a person steals the item of monetary value of a Jew, a minor, or a non-Jew: he has to make compensation. It is forbidden to steal anything at all by the law of the Torah, as the law applies to anything half or less than the minimum amount. It is forbidden to steal anything by way of a joke, or with the intention of returning it, or with the intention of paying for it. It is forbidden to buy anything which can be firmly assumed to have been stolen. It is in force everywhere and at all times for both men and women.
As we saw last week, the prohibition against stealing items belonging to someone else is not from the Ten Commandments, it is from this source in Leviticus. In the Ten Commandments, the list includes laws that have capital punishment as their penalty. In this case, the Torah has a series of fines that are levied against those who would steal. For most items, one returns the object, or the value of the object (if it can no longer be returned) and pays a penalty of half the value of the item stolen. If the item is an animal, the penalty is different. For small animals he pays a penalty of 4 times the value of the animal. If it is a large animal, the fine is five times the value of the animal. The Sages comment on the difference in the penalty since they assume that he would carry away a small animal (sheep or goat) but the larger ones, (cow or ox) would be led away on their own power. Since it was more embarrassing to carry a sheep on one’s shoulders, the difference in fines was in recognition of this embarrassment. It seems to me, however, that if the thief chooses to steal the animal, it should not be a factor if he has to embarrass himself or not.
My mother would say, “Stealing is stealing”. The Hafetz Hayim agrees. The value of the item is not a mitigating factor. Stealing as a joke or prank or even with the intention to buy the item is all stealing and is forbidden. It causes pain to the owner and the pain is unnecessary. One does not play fast and loose with things that belong to another person. This includes pens that belong to the company we work for, shoplifting when there is no one to catch you, and tampering with time on a time card.
Stealing also does not depend on who you are stealing from. There is no justification for stealing from a minor (candy from a baby) or from a non-Jew. Stealing from a non-Jew may even be a bigger crime since it would also involve Hillul HaShem, the desecration of G-d’s name in the eye of the victim.
Finally, it does not matter if you did not do the stealing. One is forbidden to traffic in known stolen goods. If you are caught with stolen goods, you must return it and pay the penalty.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
30-5768: Mitzvah N-33
Talmidav Shel Aharon
30-5768: Mitzvah N-33
August 5, 2008
Negative Mitzvah 33 – This is a negative commandment: do not kidnap a living Jew.
Hafetz Hayim: For Scripture says, “You shall not steal.” (Ex. 20:13). The Sages of blessed memory learned (Talmud Sanhedrin 86a) that this is an admonition to one who would kidnap a living Jew. If he sells him into slavery he likewise violates a negative commandment, since that is covered by the injunction, “They shall not be sold as slaves” (Lev. 25:42) a kidnapper is not punishable by death until he steals away an Israelite, takes him into his domain and makes use of him, and sells him to others. If he sold the man to the father or brother of the one who was kidnapped, he would be free of punishment. It is in force everywhere and at all times for both men and women.
Once again, the Ten Commandments doesn’t say what we think it says. On the surface, when it says, “You shall not steal” we would think that it refers to the theft of someone’s “stuff” (chattels as it is called in the legal literature). But stealing property is covered by the law in Leviticus 19:11. The Rabbis also noted that the prohibition against stealing is found between the laws of murder and adultery, both capital crimes. Stealing property did not seem to fit, so they interpreted this law to be a ban on kidnapping.
There are two other places where this law is mentioned. Exodus 21:16 and Deut. 24:7 and there are some discrepancies between them. Exodus refers to the kidnapping of all people but Deut. seems to limit the law to kidnapping Jews. It reconcile the many differences between these two verses, the sages limited the charge of Kidnapping to those who abduct, detain, enslave and sell a human being. Without all four parts, a kidnapper could not be put to death. The crime may be reprehensible, but not a capital offence. This is the reason that the sale of the man to his father or brother would not make him guilty of any offence. The brother or father would be buying the man, not for slavery, but to redeem him from captivity. (Redeeming from captivity would be a positive mitzvahfor the family.)
Without all four elements, there could be no punishment for the kidnapper at all since any one element missing, would make the act incomplete and not a “real kidnapping.”
The Hafetz Hayim seems to limit this law to Jews but my sources informed me that it applies to all human beings. Kidnapping and the sale of those people into slavery is forbidden for all people.
30-5768: Mitzvah N-33
August 5, 2008
Negative Mitzvah 33 – This is a negative commandment: do not kidnap a living Jew.
Hafetz Hayim: For Scripture says, “You shall not steal.” (Ex. 20:13). The Sages of blessed memory learned (Talmud Sanhedrin 86a) that this is an admonition to one who would kidnap a living Jew. If he sells him into slavery he likewise violates a negative commandment, since that is covered by the injunction, “They shall not be sold as slaves” (Lev. 25:42) a kidnapper is not punishable by death until he steals away an Israelite, takes him into his domain and makes use of him, and sells him to others. If he sold the man to the father or brother of the one who was kidnapped, he would be free of punishment. It is in force everywhere and at all times for both men and women.
Once again, the Ten Commandments doesn’t say what we think it says. On the surface, when it says, “You shall not steal” we would think that it refers to the theft of someone’s “stuff” (chattels as it is called in the legal literature). But stealing property is covered by the law in Leviticus 19:11. The Rabbis also noted that the prohibition against stealing is found between the laws of murder and adultery, both capital crimes. Stealing property did not seem to fit, so they interpreted this law to be a ban on kidnapping.
There are two other places where this law is mentioned. Exodus 21:16 and Deut. 24:7 and there are some discrepancies between them. Exodus refers to the kidnapping of all people but Deut. seems to limit the law to kidnapping Jews. It reconcile the many differences between these two verses, the sages limited the charge of Kidnapping to those who abduct, detain, enslave and sell a human being. Without all four parts, a kidnapper could not be put to death. The crime may be reprehensible, but not a capital offence. This is the reason that the sale of the man to his father or brother would not make him guilty of any offence. The brother or father would be buying the man, not for slavery, but to redeem him from captivity. (Redeeming from captivity would be a positive mitzvahfor the family.)
Without all four elements, there could be no punishment for the kidnapper at all since any one element missing, would make the act incomplete and not a “real kidnapping.”
The Hafetz Hayim seems to limit this law to Jews but my sources informed me that it applies to all human beings. Kidnapping and the sale of those people into slavery is forbidden for all people.
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