Date: May 6th 2022

Rabbi Ganz’s weekly d’var torah was a labor of love. He spent many hours every week learning and delving into the commentaries of each torah portion to create a new and original insight (shmooz) that was hidden within the words of the commentary. These insights would illuminate an ethical, social, psychological or relational principle divined from within the words of the torah rather than transposed from some other source of knowledge, and they would have practical applications to our everyday life. In his memory the family is hoping to continue to disseminate the Rabbi’s divrei torah to the hundreds of friends and talmidim (students) who have been receiving his weekly “D’var” over these past many years. May the continued sharing of these words of torah be an aliyah for his neshama (merit for his soul) and a vehicle for the readers to continue to connect to the teachings of Rabbi Ganz and his mesorah from Slabodka of chochmas hamusar (ethical wisdom) learned from his rebbe R
av Henoch Leibowitz zt”l.

The following D’var was originally sent out on May 1st 2015

PARSHAT KEDOSHIM – FAMILY CRIMINALITY AND DYNAMICS (or perhaps: FAMILY CRIMINAL DYNAMICS)

Parshat Kedoshim teaches us about one who commits a particular form of idolatry. Regarding the sinner’s punishment The Almighty says: “I will focus my attention on that person and his family” (Parshat Kedoshim 20, 5). This means that the Divine Wrath will be directed both at the transgressor himself and his family.

The Commentary of Rashi raises the obvious question: Why should a person’s sin bring down G-d’s wrath on his or her entire family? It was the sinner alone that sinned.

Rashi, as explained by the Commentary of Sifsei Chachamim, answers that because they are family, they try to wrongly prove the idolater innocent, and that makes them all complicit. To explain the concept, Rashi quotes Rabbi Shimon in the Talmud (Shavuot 39a) who said, “There is no such thing as a robber whose entire family are not robbers as well. Why? It is because they all protect him.”

A close analysis of this text will yield (at least) two distinct ideas.

I. Protecting a criminal from just retribution is considered to be on par with having actually committed the crime. This is why G-d’s wrath is spilled out upon both the perpetrator of the crime and the family that protects him.

One major ramification of this concept concerns how Israel should respond to terrorists who fire rockets into its populated areas from civilian areas from places like hospitals and mosques. As a rule, the Israeli response has been one of carefully targeted retaliation. The IDF focuses massive effort and resources to strike back at the militants with the least humanely possible amount of collateral damage.

In truth, this is a complex political matter where disparate considerations contribute to Israeli policy, not the least of which is world opinion. Only one fully conversant with all of these factors can knowledgably opine on what the Israeli response should actually be.

Yet, leaving geopolitical considerations aside for a moment, which response to the rockets being fired is morally correct? Is it the Israeli government’s policy of pinpoint retribution or is it appropriate to respond to Arab rocket attacks by firing back forcefully at the source of the Arab rockets?

There is relevant nuance, practically speaking, in Israel’s recent wars with Hamas in Gaza because it is possible that many of the civilians used as “Human shields” do not do so willingly but rather under mortal threat. This would make them victims and not perpetrators in the context of our insight into Rashi in Kedoshim. However, what we would see from this chazal is that Arab civilians who allow terrorists to set up rocket launchers in their midst so they won’t be shot back at are as guilty as those firing the rockets and therefore equally deserving of retribution.
To illustrate by citing a contrast: imagine what would happen if some Americans, angry about illegal immigration, were to encamp themselves on the US side of the Mexican border and start to shoot rockets indiscriminately into Mexico. The US government and its citizens would be embarrassed and apologetic, and they would not rest until the killers were hunted down and brought to justice.

The fact that some Arab societies allow and seemingly encourage such violence to be perpetrated from their midst (and furthermore glorify the killers) makes them at least as complicit as the family in the biblical example that helps their relative who is a robber. If so, it would appear that according to the Torah, the same retribution due the killers themselves is also due the civilian society that supports them.

If so, from a moral standpoint, if deemed helpful for self-defense, when Arab rockets are fired into Israeli civilian centers, Israel could respond by firing rockets into the civilian areas from where the Arab rockets are fired.


The same holds true for judges and juries who are improperly soft on crime. Think of a hardened criminal who is nonetheless spared prison time for humanitarian reasons. If that criminal then commits a crime against others, it is as if the judge and jury that wrongly freed him are active participants in the subsequent crime. Their ill-advised compassion for the accused makes them accessories to the crime that was later committed.



II. A warm and loving family whose members are always helping each other is a beautiful thing. It is a hope of every parent that their children will never seriously quarrel and will instead always love and help each other.

In fact, when discussing the virtue of parental honor, a Kaballastic work of mussar titled Pele Yoetz ( by Rabbi Eliezer Papo, 1785-1826) writes that even after both parents die, their children can still fulfill the commandment of parental honor by remaining friendly and helpful toward each other.

Our Rashi in Kedoshim however demonstrates that this same practice of family members helping each other can beget a potentially ruinous downside. The otherwise laudable impulse of loyalty to family can lead people to inappropriately favor or protect one of their own who has gone astray. This wrongdoing can be so iniquitous that it can bring down G-d’s wrath upon the entire family.

It is wonderful to have a large and loving family. But people must make certain that this otherwise praiseworthy unit does not become a construct that promotes wrongdoing.

Editor’s note:

I thought this was a particularly appropriate mussar schmooze with which to recommence Rabbi Ganz’s weekly dvar torah email. The Rabbi’s methodology was to extract moral lessons hidden within the words of chazal, allowing the Torah to teach us its wisdom and morality, rather than using the Torah to support our own a-priori ideas and principles.

Case in point, the ideas in this d’var, when I read them the first time, struck me as slightly incongruous with my own de facto perspective. ‘Never take sides against the family’ is an American aphorism. Also, the idea of someone being punished for merely supporting a criminal family member is anathema to our Western sensibilities.

This chazal, with the Rabbi’s insight, is readjusting our moral compasses. Aiding or abetting a criminal, in the Torah’s perspective, is worthy of direct punishment. We have an obligation to be virtuous, and it seems we have additional obligations with regards to the people around us.

I think it’s only a small extension to say that the Torah understands that our impulses run strongly in the other direction. Our tendency is to take family members’ sides even when they’re wrong, and even when that support will result in evil. We’ve probably all seen these types of family wide conflicts where two people have a falling out, and then all the members of each of their families join the fray in support of their family member. These fights can last generations. Considering this type of scenario, the idea of this d’var, which was at first difficult for my default moral ears to hear, suddenly starts to make a lot of sense. This is the light of the Torah’s wisdom, with the Rabbi’s facilitation, illuminating and enriching my understanding of the world, humanity, and morality.

Yaakov ben Hamichaber


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