מִֽי־יֹ֭אמַר זִכִּ֣יתִי לִבִּ֑י טָ֝הַ֗רְתִּי מֵחַטָּאתִֽי׃
Któż powiedzieć może: zdjąłem zmazę z mego serca, czysty jestem od grzechów moich.
Rabbeinu Bahya
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.
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.