Pemikiran Yahudi Ulangan 22:4: Akeidat Yitzchak, Eight Chapters & Nineteen Letters

Although there are occasions when the Torah exempts certain individuals from certain observances because of regard for the dignity of such individuals, such exemptions have to meet certain criteria. Based on Deut. 22,4, "you may hide yourself from them, "the Talmud Berachot 19, derives the ruling that old people or notables may ignore the commandment to catch stray animals and return them to their owners, so that their dignity should not suffer in the process. Nevertheless, demeaning oneself is in order when (a) the gain to be achieved thereby outweighs the loss of dignity involved, or (b) when the result desired is certain to be realised. To illustrate the principles: When a revered old man is seen carrying a beam on his shoulder in order to erect a fence, the loss of dignity would outweigh the benefits to be secured by carrying out the task personally. When however, said beam was meant to shore up the wall of a house in danger of collapse, the loss of dignity would certainly be minor compared to the benefit of saving the house from collapsing. Prompt personal attention then outweighs all other considerations. This is the meaning of Proverbs 1,29, "better he that is lightly esteemed and is his own servant, than he that stands on his dignity and is short of bread." When the above mentioned criteria to forego one's dignity do not apply, such as when the Jewish people traded their dignity and worshipped at the golden calf, one can only ask with Jeremiah (2, 11) "how can a nation trade a G-d for something which is not even a deity?" How then are we to explain this act of the Jewish people?

Since there is a conceptual affinity between witchcraft and harlotry, the laws about witches follow at this point. The injunction to stamp out witches is more than a one time effort. You have to bring them to trial and condemn them to death. If a conviction cannot be obtained, you cannot reopen the trial, but the injunction of ridding the country of witches remains in effect. All idolatry is intimately intertwined with the practice of withcraft, an attempt to manipulate certain forces of nature considered the ultimate arbiter of man's fate. Canaan was especially prone to this. (Leviticus chapter 18) Therefore the need to eradicate all traces of such practices. Similarly, pederasty and other sexual perversions are to be eradicated, and its perpetrators are to be put to death. Only the former is mentioned in our Parshah. Apparently, such practices also formed part of witchcraft. The reason that "he who scarifices to deities" follows, is to emphasize the quasi religious nature that some of the sexual perversions practiced by the Canaanites had assumed. Any deities which had been worshipped in this fashion are especially abominable in the eyes of G-d. Only He who is pure and whose servants are pure, deserves to be worshipped. The desire of G-d is not that man indulge himself in all kinds of perverted physical gratifications, but rather that he get his satisfaction out of helping people less fortunate than himself, such as widows and orphans. He should help restore their lives to a level equal to that of their more fortunate peers. Our own experience in Egypt- if nothing else- should provide us with sufficient motivation. (12) Just as G-d had listened to our outcry then, He will listen to the outcry of the stranger, the orphan and the widow, should they feel compelled to appeal to Him on account of our callousness. This concept is extended in that we are to help people in need with loans etc., without becoming oppressive creditors. Concerning the giving of money outright, "let your heart not be hard when you give, even repeatedly". You are expected to support your fellow Jew who has fallen on hard times. Give adequately, not niggardly, so that the recipients' need for further hand outs can be eliminated. If the needy used to be a person of means, we need to help such a person to maintain his former standard of living. "Do not curse a judge!" Judges who function in lieu of G-d, must not be cursed. Similarly, the leader of the nation, or other notables who occupy positions of legitimate authority. G-d has seen fit to share His power and glory with them, ergo you have to accept this. In the last analysis you are supposed to become anshey kodesh, men of holy purpose, and this is the only way to attain such a status. This will express itself even more in how discriminating you are in what you eat, even of the categories of animals permitted to you as food. (no treyfah) There follow instructions to judges to preserve the unassailability of their office by not doing anything that makes them appear prejudiced. No false testimony, no preferences for rich or poor litigants, no collaboration with known criminals or sinners. (even if the purpose is to arrive at the truth). You must not assume that the majority can never be wrong. When you know that the majority is wrong, then the fact that they are in the majority does not absolve you from your duty to speak out. Neither are you to follow the senior judge's opinion automatically, just because he is senior and presumably wiser. (13) After this detour, the main topic is resumed with the injunction not to bend the law, not to be guilty of untruthful decisions due to careless examinations of the facts and arguments. Should you reason that G-d would anyways not allow a perversion of justice to occur, and that therefore any judicial murder would have been due to the victim having been guilty of another crime for which he had not been tried, and which society had not been aware of, such reasoning does not exonerate the judge from blood guilt if he was not thorough enough. Do not accept a bribe, even in order to pronounce fair judgment. Do not oppress a stranger even in matters in which applying pressure to naturally born Jews is permitted. You know the psyche of a stranger; it is different from one who feels at home and secure in his country. A stranger (convert) is liable to interpret all pressure as someone taking advantage of his inferior status. Once we are on the subject of excercising pity,we switch to the laws of shmittah the year the fields are to lie fallow, of one's duty to relinquish one's claim over one's property every seventh year, in order to share the proceeds with the poor. Also the Sabbath legislation has at least partially the function of providing a respite for one's staff and beasts of burden. Since other deities have never done anything for those who believed in them, their names should not even be mentioned by Jews as deities. The fact that only G-d is to be worshipped, is connected with the three annual pilgrimages to the temple. Since there are times when man is most aware of G-d’s bounty, that is the time to demonstrate one's appreciation, and acknowledge Him publicly. There are also times when the farmer is temporarily relieved of his more demanding chores, and the journey to Jerusalem presents no economic hardship at such times. The kid which kicks the mother that feeds it, deserves to be boiled in the mother's milk as punishment, (figuratively speaking). Similarly, all who display ingratitude, deserve similar treatment. To remind us of the importance of gratitude, the Torah places this prohibition at this juncture. Its position in Parshat Ki Tissa is after the sin of the golden calf. The Yalkut Parshat Re-ay, item 892, explains this in a similar vein. Apart from our sages' comment on the reason why this prohibition is repeated three times at different places in the Torah, a major reason may be that to do so, i.e. boil the kid in the milk of its mother, would display a certain sense of insensitivity on our part. Even the right to use animals for our own purposes should not be taken for granted to such an extent; it would reveal that we possess a cruel streak.

Likewise, all that is contained in the Law concerning the giving of tithes, the gleaning of the harvest, the forgotten sheaves, the single grapes, and the small bunches in the vineyards for the poor, the law of the Sabbatical year, and of the Jubilee, the giving of charity according to the wants of the needy one, all these approach the extreme of lavishness to be practised in order that we may depart far from its opposite, stinginess, and thus, nearing the extreme of excessive prodigality, there may become instilled in us the quality of generosity.³⁵Cf. Moreh, III, 39. If you should test most of the commandments from this point of view, you would find that they are all for the discipline and guidance of the faculties of the soul. Thus, the Law forbids revenge, the bearing of a grudge, and blood-revenge by saying, "Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge";³⁶Lev. XIX, 18. "thou shalt surely unload with him"³⁷Ex. XXIII, 5. (the ass of him who hates you); "thou shalt surely help him to lift them up again"³⁸Deut. XXII, 4. (thy brother's ass or ox which has fallen by the way). These commandments are intended to weaken the force of wrath or anger. Likewise, the command, "Thou shalt surely bring them back"³⁹Ibid., XXII, 1. (thy brother's ox or lamb which has gone astray), is meant to remove the disposition of avarice. Similarly, "Before the hoary head shalt thou rise up, and honor the face of the old man",⁴⁰Lev. XIX, 32. "Honor thy father and thy mother"⁴¹Ex. XX, 12. etc., "thou shalt not depart from the sentence which they may tell thee"⁴²Deut. XVII, 11. etc., are intended to do away with boldness, and to produce modesty. Then, in order to keep away from the other extreme, i. e. of excessive bashulness, we are told, "Thou shalt indeed rebuke thy neighbor" etc.,⁴³Lev. XIX, 17. "thou shalt not fear him"⁴⁴Deut. XVIII, 22. (the false prophet) etc., so that excessive bashfulness, too, should disappear, in order that we pursue the medium course. Should, however, anyone who would without doubt be foolish if he did so try to enforce these commands with additional rigor, as, for instance, by prohibiting eating and drinking more than does the Law, or by restricting connubial intercourse to a greater degree, or by distributing all of his money among the poor, or using it for sacred purposes more freely than the Law requires, or by spending it entirely upon sacred objects and upon the sanctuary, he would indeed be performing improper acts, and would be unconsciously going to either one or the other extreme, thus forsaking completely the proper mean. In this connection, I have nerver heard a more remarkable saying than that of the Rabbis, found in the Palestinian Talmud, in the ninth chapter of the treatise Nedarim, where they greatly blame those who bind themselves by oaths and vows, in consequence of which they are fettered like prisoners. The exact words they use are, "Said Rabbi Iddai, in the name of Rabbi Isaac, 'Dost thou not think that what the Law prohibits is sufficient for thee that thou must take upon thyself additional prohibitions?'"⁴⁵Yer. Nedarim, IX, 1; ed. Krotoschin, 41b: אלא שאתה מבקש לאסור עליך.