How much is enough? When can a person be satisfied?
On the face of it, never. We have some people in our society who store up wealth at a staggering rate, while others struggle to get by working multiple minimum wage jobs. What is society’s responsibility to its citizens, both rich and poor?
This week’s Torah portion addresses this question with a strange mitzvah: “When you reap the harvest in your field and overlook a sheaf in the field, do not turn back to get it; it shall go to the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow—in order that the LORD your God may bless you in all your undertakings.” (Deuteronomy 24:19)
What a strange commandment. When you forget a sheaf and leave it in your field, don’t go back and get it. How is this possible? How can one forget something and then go back for it?
The great Israeli Torah commentator, Nechama Leibowitz, points out that the Torah does not leave the support of the poor to bad memory, i.e., to chance. Rather, we are commanded to “forget” some of what is ours.
Commenting further, Rabbi Stanton Zamek writes, “We are not meant to put property before people, even if we are technically within our rights to do so. It is beneficial to the soul to loosen our grip and forget what we own from time to time. The Torah aims to open our hands and so our hearts, for ‘mine’ isn’t even close to the highest Jewish value.” In other words, a singular focus on wealth and property, on getting as much as we can corrupts the soul.
A righteous person makes sure there is enough for everyone.
Ki Teitze – Deuteronomy 21:10 – 25:19, The Parashat Ha Shavua for Shabbat, Saturday, September 14, 2019
September 13, 2019 by tbhrich •
How much is enough? When can a person be satisfied?
On the face of it, never. We have some people in our society who store up wealth at a staggering rate, while others struggle to get by working multiple minimum wage jobs. What is society’s responsibility to its citizens, both rich and poor?
This week’s Torah portion addresses this question with a strange mitzvah: “When you reap the harvest in your field and overlook a sheaf in the field, do not turn back to get it; it shall go to the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow—in order that the LORD your God may bless you in all your undertakings.” (Deuteronomy 24:19)
What a strange commandment. When you forget a sheaf and leave it in your field, don’t go back and get it. How is this possible? How can one forget something and then go back for it?
The great Israeli Torah commentator, Nechama Leibowitz, points out that the Torah does not leave the support of the poor to bad memory, i.e., to chance. Rather, we are commanded to “forget” some of what is ours.
Commenting further, Rabbi Stanton Zamek writes, “We are not meant to put property before people, even if we are technically within our rights to do so. It is beneficial to the soul to loosen our grip and forget what we own from time to time. The Torah aims to open our hands and so our hearts, for ‘mine’ isn’t even close to the highest Jewish value.” In other words, a singular focus on wealth and property, on getting as much as we can corrupts the soul.
A righteous person makes sure there is enough for everyone.