Kommentar zu Wajikra 19:35

לא תעשו עול במשפט YE SHALL NOT DO UNRIGHTEOUSNESS IN משפט — If this has a reference to the execution of justice it would be redundant, for it has already been stated (v. 15) “Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment”. What, then is the meaning of משפט mentioned here? It refers to what is right in respect to measure of length, to weight and to measure of capacity. The use of the word משפט here teaches us, therefore, that one who has to do with measuring (in trade or commerce) is termed (is regarded as) “a judge” so that if he gives false measure he is like the judge who perverts justice and he is therefore called "an unjust person” (עַוָּל), hateful, detested, doomed to destruction, and an abomination (cf. Rashi v. 15). He brings about those five things which are mentioned in connection with the judge who perverts justice: he defiles the land, profanes the Name of the Lord, causes the Shechinah to depart from Israel's midst, Israel to fall by the sword and to be exiled from their land (Sifra, Kedoshim, Chapter 8 5).

לא תעשו עול במשפט במדה במשקל ובמשורה, seeing that the term אונאה, unfair dealings, also includes unfair business practices, the Torah issues a general prohibition concerning this addressed both to the locally born Jew and the recent convert, or stranger. The words used include measures for measuring liquids, dry matters, as well as the use of deceptive weights.

במדה, measures of length used to measure fields.

לא תעשו עול במשפט, ”do not pervert the judicial process.” According to Ibn Ezra the verse refers especially to treatment of proselytes, as the reason why the Torah felt it necessary to write ושפטתם צדק בין איש ובין אחיו ובין גרו, “judge righteously between a man and his brother, and between his fellow who is a proselyte, or even a resident alien!” (Deut. 1,16)

לא תעשו עול במשפט, “Do not commit a perversion of justice.” This prohibition has already appeared in almost the identical words in 19,15 in connection with the poor who was not to be given preferential treatment. In that instance the “justice” referred to was in connection with social legislation which had been spelled out by the Torah (legislating nationally). Here the Torah writes a similar warning concerning internationally accepted norms such as weights and measures. It is reminiscent of Exodus 15,25 “there He gave them statutes and social laws.” That legislation too preceded the giving of the Torah, i.e. laws designed to regulate the people’s life in the desert.

One who measures is termed a judge. Since the verse writes “judgment” it teaches that one who measures is termed a judge. And the difference this makes is that “if he acts falsely in measure, he is as one, etc.”

ובמשורה, “or in measure.” Our sages used this expression when they said that water should be drunk “in measured quantities (sparingly);” (Ethics of our Fathers 6,4)

במדה — This denotes land measure (linear and square measure);

משורה, a measure used to measure liquids. Our sages use this expression when speaking of measures of water in Avot 6,4.

במדה, “concerning measure.” This applies to division of the land in Eretz Yisrael (Baba Metzia 61). The Talmud there discusses brothers who share in their father’s inheritance and who have measured the tract of land of one brother in the winter using a rope which is wet because of the time of year. When measuring the tract of land for the second brother in the summer, they must not use the same rope as the sun would have shortened the length of that rope to the disadvantage of the second brother.

And causes five [catastrophic] matters. You might ask, why do we need the word “judgment” to teach this? Here too the verse writes עול which implies “corrupt, hateful, [etc.],” as Rashi explained above (verse 15) regarding a judge. You might also ask, why does he explain here that this “causes five [catastrophic] matters, etc.” Why did he not explain this earlier regarding a judge? The answer is that Rashi is saying as follows. Why does the verse write “judgment”? To teach that he is like a judge. Concerning what? [You cannot say that it is to teach you that he is corrupt, hateful, etc.] because here too the verse says עול [which implies these things]. The answer is that he is compared to a judge to inform you that he causes the five [catastrophic] matters which are said regarding a judge.

במשקל is what the word literally implies (“in weight", from שקל, to weigh);

במשקל, “concerning weights.” One must not dunk one’s weights in salt causing them to lose actual weight due to corrosion (compare Baba Metzia 61 and Baba Batra 89). Dunking the weights in salt would result in loss to the purchaser. There are variant readings which suggest that the weights become heavier; in that event this warning would be addressed to the purchaser and not to the seller.

Land measure. I.e., when there are two brothers or two partners, you may not measure for one of them in winter when the rope is wet and stretches more, and for the other one in the summer when the rope is hard and does not stretch, causing one of them a loss. Alternatively, even if one measures with [the length of a rod of] wood, one may not measure for one of them in summer and for the other in winter, because in summer the earth is dry and cracked, while in winter it is [tightly] joined together.

ובמשורה — This denotes liquid and dry measure (Sifra, Kedoshim, Chapter 8 6; Bava Metzia 61b).

ובמשורה, “or volume measures.” Our sages in Baba Batra 89 explain that the seller must not heat up the item (liquid) he is selling to give it an inflated measure by volume. As soon as the liquid cools down it will be found deficient in measure. According to Rashbam there this may apply to the foam which forms on top of a heated liquid filling the measure deceptively. Therefore, the seller has to wait after he has filled the measuring device until the liquid in question has cooled before making sure that he has measured fairly. He needs to make good any shrinkage due to previous overheating.
Another aspect of this law is that the seller must not pour at great speed into the measuring device as this too would create foam depleting the real amount of liquid given to the buyer. Air bubbles are not allowed to be counted as part of the liquid dispensed. According to our sages the measuring tube called משורה is used to measure small quantities. If even when the loss to the purchaser in objective terms is minimal the Torah is concerned with such a loss, how much more will the Torah frown on someone dispensing in a similar manner into a large measuring container where the total loss to the purchaser is much greater! The reason the Torah mentioned משורה as an example was that one transgresses this law already at the time one heats the product in question even if no sale had been made as yet and one cannot be accused of trying to defraud a specific person, prospective purchaser. Even when the seller has not yet poured into his משורה, the fact that he heated the product he was going to sell makes him guilty of attempted fraud.
Just as the sages said that one is guilty for possessing faulty weights from the time one has manufactured them, even if one has not used them, so one is guilty of tampering with the liquids to be sold even if no buyer is at hand. It recalls what Solomon said in Proverbs 20,9: ”who can say I have made my heart pure, I am free from sin ?” “False weights and false measures are both alike, an abomination to the Lord.” Just as man becomes culpable for evil intentions [if they were subsequently carried out, Ed.] even while he had not yet carried out the felony, so he will be held responsible for making false weights and measures.
Our sages said in connection with idolatry that a person is subject to the curse of G’d already at the time he fashions an idol even though he has not yet worshipped it (compare Avodah Zarah 52 and Deut. 27,15). In the case of idolatry culpability also commences with construction of the idol based on Deut. 9,21 where he Torah writes: ואת חטאתכם אשר עשיתם את העגל, “and your sin that you committed- the calf.”
The Torah therefore wrote משורה, to let us know that if an amount as little as a פרוטה, a tiny coin, is affected by the inaccurate measuring device, the person involved is liable to punishment as soon as he heated the liquid involved. Rabbi Levi said in Baba Batra 88 that penalties applied to people cheating with weights and measures are more severe than those applied to people guilty of sexual offenses, seeing that such people can repent their sins as long as no mamzer, “bastard,” has been born out of such a union [at which time the sin becomes irreversible, Ed.] Seeing that the practice of unfair weights and measures is indiscriminate in its application, the guilty party does not know whom he has cheated and he therefore cannot make restitution. Repentance without restitution is no proper repentance.

Liquid and dry. The correct text is, “’Volume,’ that is liquid measure.” The text should not include the words “dry measure,” because משורה is a liquid measure as it says (Amos 6:4) “And drink water in a measure.”