Someone with sensitive vision can discern when a black
flag flutters over a particular sin, with blinking warning
red lights. This is when the surrounding causes of that sin
augment its severity a thousandfold. The Yetzer Tov warns and
pleads: You are jeopardizing your entire future world in one
moment. Flee for your life!
And there are those commandments which appear to be
innocently routine, but anyone who has developed finely tuned
sensors can feel and see where and when those factors
increase the commandment to mighty dimensions of very far-
reaching implications and consequences.
*
We were given 613 commandments in the Torah. Everyone —
even if he is no scholar — knows that they are not
equal in importance, severity or require absolute compliance
at all times and under all circumstances. Some commandments
are categorized as "yeihoreg ve'al ya'avor — die
rather than transgress," while others are laid aside for
lifesaving reasons. Prohibitive commandments must be honored
at any price, while there are some positive commandments that
one is absolved from keeping if they require extreme outlay
beyond a certain limit.
Halacha deals at length with the clarification of conflict
between two commandments. Which supersedes which? There are
many indications to hint to us the degree of a mitzva's
severity. We also find a reward label attached to certain
commandments in the Torah or punishment decreed for
transgressing certain prohibitive commandments, both
indicating the status of that commandment.
Mitzvos differ from one another in many details, such as:
Upon whom are they incumbent? When must they be performed?
Constantly? Once daily? Once yearly? Only under certain
circumstances — and so on.
Then there is the venue of their obligation: Commandments
dependent upon living in Eretz Yisroel. And despite all this,
we have never heard of anyone who actually made a chart
analyzing the whole list of commandments and dividing them by
a rising or falling degree of their importance.
We will attempt here to point to certain factors that are
outside the actual body of the commandment but whose presence
can change its size and importance, be they positive or
prohibitive, in a very polar way.
Eating a kezayis of treif meat is a severe sin
which contaminates the soul of the transgressor, as is
written in the Torah. Despite its stringency, this sin
remains within the realm of the transgressor alone. But a
buyer for a hotel or for a wedding hall who buys meat and
chicken from a dubious source because of its lower price is
deceiving the public and causing it to sin unwittingly, and
his sins are compounded by the thousands, even if he,
himself, is a vegetarian.
Sometimes, a person is asked about the kashrus of a certain
place and he replies without thinking twice, very offhand,
that he believes it to be completely kosher on a high
standard, for he once saw the son of the owner several years
ago, and he seemed `quite up to our standards,' i.e., `one of
us.' If that establishment is not really up to par, then the
informer is (dis)credited with all those who subsequently
rely on his report and eat forbidden food. How foolhardy and
stupid it was of that person to so blithely endanger his soul
just so that someone can make a profit, or to posture as a
know-it-all who always has the needed information at his
fingertips.
The entry of a tomei meis, one who is impure for
having come in contact with the dead, to the Har Habayis was
explicitly forbidden by the Torah under punishment of
koreis. There was once a philanthropist from abroad
who visited Eretz Yisroel and joined a tour of Har Habayis. A
well known rabbi wrote to him and informed him that all of
his charitable activities over many years for the sake of the
Yishuv, and the millions that he donated, did not
outweigh the severe transgression of his one-time entering
the forbidden area of Har Habayis in an impure state.
Try now to imagine the blameworthiness of the tourist bureau,
the tour guide who arranged the visits for large groups which
certainly included Jews, and all those who aided and abetted
that act, even if they sported a kippah on their head
and bore a deep love for Eretz Yisroel, and the mountain of
terrible sins which they bore upon their records for having
caused so many to sin.
A century or so ago, a Maskil wrote his thoughts in a book
that gained wide distribution. His chances of ever completing
his term of punishment in the World of Truth are absolutely
nil. Whenever the book is sold out and no longer available,
there are people who are quick to reprint a new edition and
disseminate it to students and the general public, generation
after generation. All the adverse effects of his heresy are
tacked on to his record and this is very, very long. The sins
of his impact increase and multiply in a wide ripple effect.
Every sin committed by anyone who was influenced by his
teachings, and the sins of his children and grandchildren
that ensue as well for generations to follow, are all
registered to his name. Every shehakol blessing
overlooked, every commandment transgressed or ignored, is all
recorded. Every bittul Torah, every four cubits walked
without proper headcovering and myriad sins are unloaded
frequently at the depot of that heretical writer, whose fire
in Gehennom will never be doused.
Similarly, one who speaks loshon hora is liable to
find himself in the same situation. He says his evil slander
to several people. The tale is true but the Torah forbids him
from spreading it. His audience carries that tale to others
— neighbors, relatives, friends and acquaintances. And
these do likewise. A simple calculation shows that such a
story, progressing from mouth to mouth, can encompass a city
of one hundred thousand people in mere days. And even if the
first tale bearer regrets his sin, he will no longer be able
to erase its effect and the ramifications thereof from the
minds of the hearers. The dangerous germ which he released
into the atmosphere has multiplied and increased, and is
disseminating its poison in all of its details, and these are
accredited to the account of the original tale-bearer, which
grows and inflates itself from day-to-day to huge
proportions.
Someone once broadly interpreted the words of our prayer,
"And `plant us' [vesito'einu — which can also
stem from the root `to err'] within our boundaries" as
follows: "Hashem, even if we err, please see to it that these
errors do not outstep their bounds." For example if, many
years ago, a person stated that he treated burns successfully
by smearing oil, and to this day causes burn victims untold
pain and suffering because of his harmful advice, it is
difficult to erase the mistaken information from people's
minds, and he is to be held responsible, to some extent, for
all that suffering.
Kiddush Hashem is a mighty and powerful commandment.
Tens of thousands of Jews have sacrificed their lives for
Hashem's Name over the ages. On the other hand, today, many
people who sanctify Hashem's Name are alive to tell the
story. Their Kiddush Hashem is an ongoing act of
honesty, truth, exemplary character, kindness etc. They
radiate goodness and are shining examples of superior human
beings to all who come in contact with them, Jews and
gentiles alike, even heretics. These people were not burned
at any stake in the public square of some Christian country
in Europe with the cry of Shema Yisroel upon their
lips. And yet, they are listed alongside those very martyrs
who did die sacrificing their lives for Hashem's sake. For
their very lives are a sanctification of Hashem, a
glorification of His Name. Every simple act of theirs
highlights the Divine image of Hashem in which they were
created.
Chillul Hashem is a terrible sin. One who desecrates
His Name creates a void in the world or in the minds of men
and shucks off the sanctity of Hashem which fills the entire
earth. He creates a lacuna, a vacuum of the reality of the
glory of Hashem and His holiness. This is the complete
opposite of the condition which we strive to maintain and
which we pray shall be augmented in this world: "We wish for
You, Hashem our G-d, to speedily see the glory of Your might
. . . that all flesh and blood call upon Your Name . . . To
You shall all knees be prostrated . . . and to the glory of
Your Name shall tribute be given . . . And He shall let us
hear, again, in the presence of all living creatures `to be
unto you a G-d.' "
Whoever desecrates Hashem's Name is not only that `rabbi' who
converted to Christianity in a flourishing ceremony in the
Vatican in Rome. Take the politician interviewed by the media
who throws in some phrases in crass language, blaspheming
Hashem and His Messiah and those who study His Torah, and
forthwith — he is inscribed in the Book of the Wicked
who desecrate Hashem's Name in public. Those words were said
at a supper in his home and he deserves to be punished
stringently for them, but since tens of thousands were
listening to him in the media, and the headlines testified to
it in the following morning papers, his blasphemous words
carried so much more weight that he is forever doomed and he
has lost his portion in Olom Habo.
One with finely attuned sight can sense when a particular sin
has a black flag waving over it and flickering warning red
lights above it. This is when the circumstances of that sin
accentuate its severity a thousand and millionfold. The
yetzer hatov will plead and warn him: You are
endangering your whole world in one split moment! Flee for
your life!
And then, there are some mitzvos which appear routine,
ordinary, but one who has developed fine tuning will feel and
see where and when the particular circumstances increase that
mitzva to huge proportions with very far-reaching
ramifications. (A neighbor advises how to clean a garment
from tar stains and incidentally, asks: Which kindergarten do
you recommend for my daughter?)
Fortunate is the one who hears those bugles trumpeting the
opportunity of gaining an eternal treasure!
