Date: August 18th 2017

This week’s dvar is being sponsored by Matya and Anna Schachter in honor of the anniversary of Matya’s Bar Mitzvah and in honor of the upcoming Yamim Noraim.


PAESHAT REEH – THE TRAGIC OUTCOME OF ILL-ADVISED KINDNESS
Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (12th century – AKA “the Rambam”) wrote in his introduction to Pirkei Avot that human character traits are neither exclusively good nor bad. What is critical is that they be exercised in their appropriate measure. When this occurs, the trait is commendable. But too much or two little of a personality trait, is harmful. For example, generosity is widely seen as a virtue. Nevertheless, the Torah teaches that although being miserly and not charitable is definitely a shameful trait and being charitable is praiseworthy, being too charitable is a character flaw.

Parshat Reeh contains a prohibition of a specific type of kindness: It often happens that when people lend money and the borrowers have trouble paying on time, they request an extension of the due date. Presumably, if the lender has the wherewithal to oblige, extending the payment date is an admirable kindness. However, in the case of a borrower who is a Gentile idolater, the Torah (Parshat Reeh 15, 3) specifically prohibits postponing the due date.

The Sefer Hachinuch (published anonymously in 13th century Spain) explains the reasoning behind this halacha (Torah Law): “At the root of this law is that we should not learn from their deeds or their ideas pertaining to anything.”

In other words, there is a unique psychodynamic underlying this halacha: When one person acts with significant kindness toward a second person, to some extent, how that second person acts and thinks will somehow be imbibed by the one doing the favor. Accordingly, a Jewish lender may not kindly extend the due date for an idolatrous Gentile borrower. The Torah sought to assure that Jewish souls will not be poisoned by the thinking and practices of idolatry.

The Sefer Hachinuch does not say why this cause and effect follows. A possible explanation is that once a person extends a helping hand to a cause or another individual a psychological process then sets in. The thought that one’s precious time or hard-earned money was used to help an undeserving recipient is discomforting. Consequently, once that help was already given, the subconscious mind adjusts one’s perceptions and creates the mistaken idea that the assistance went to a person or cause that is indeed worthy. To illustrate: an Orthodox Jew may feel that a certain movement within Judaism improperly defies certain millennia-old Torah traditions. But if that same person was somehow convinced to make a donation to that movement, he or she might later come to “realize” that it really isn’t all that at odds with Torah thinking.

Whatever the explanation may be, the Sefer Hachinuch’s idea remains unchanged: a consequence of helping a deviant sinner is that the morality of the one being helped will somewhat infect the helper. The Torah therefore forbade extending the due date of a loan to a Gentile idolater.

In truth, there are other possible reasons for not extending the payment date of a loan to this type of the borrower. Helping an idolater might lend support to his ongoing sinning and, by extension, to the deviant religion itself. One might think that avoiding this concrete outcome is a more compelling reason for not extending the loan than avoiding the seemingly minute transfer of depraved values from the borrower to the lender. Also consider that this prohibition holds true even in the case of a supremely pious lender who would likely hardly be affected by the idolatrous borrower.

The Torah is therefore saying that aiding and abetting societal idolatry is indeed a terrible sin. However, an even greater tragedy occurs when the heretofore pure and correct of thinking of righteous people is corrupted – even minutely.


Examples of this dynamic can be readily seen in world and national events. For example: brutality prevails in the Muslim World that scorns the human rights championed throughout Western Society. Nevertheless, acting with extreme humanism, many European countries welcomed millions of Muslim refugees, immediately granting them political rights and government aid that they never dreamt of back home. Due to the new citizens, there has been an uptick of violent crime in these host countries, especially murder and assaults upon women. Based on this Dvar, Europe might soon face a far greater problem. The criminality prevalent among the radical Muslims will gradually come to be “understood” and even somewhat tolerated among indigenous Europeans. Once that happens, it won’t just be aggrieved Muslims who drive trucks into crowds of innocent people. Having accepted the justification for radical Muslim savagery, disaffected European Christians will begin doing the same as well.

Within the U.S., over 50% of the American federal budget is spent on entitlements. This includes tens and hundreds of billions that are charitably given to many very undeserving recipients, such as able-bodied young people with criminal records who refuse to work and yet produce babies who will be raised in single parent families in order to maximize the eligibility for public assistance. This ill-advised governmental generosity has produced a measure of society-wide acceptance of this hopeless and horrific modus vivendi. The wide popularity of ghetto-centric rap music bears out that millions of young people now see or even glorify the lamentable ghetto lifestyle as being cool and hip. This broad-based moral acceptance of the unacceptable will eventually beget equally broad-based aftereffects that are simply tragic.


The idea of this Dvar has personal application as well. However, when dealing with human interactions, numerous complicating factors can impact upon what should otherwise be done. To cite one example: If an observably Jewish person doesn’t help a Gentile idolater for the reasons mentioned above, it could create a major chillul Hashem (desecration of G-d’s Name), Heaven forbid, and that must be avoided at all costs.

Suffice it to say that, if one can “get away with it,” when the potential recipient is profoundly sinful, there are times when the normal inclination to kindness should be restrained.

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