Parshat Kedoshim Rabbi Chaim Brovender

Let us learn a posuk with Rashi.

The verse has three parts: it begins "do not hate your brother in your heart..." (19: 17). This directive seems relevant to some circumstance, an unspecified provocation perhaps, that might result in hating someone. The verse continues: "you shall reprove your fellow...", indicating that indeed a sin has occurred.

In its third part the verse concludes: "you shall not bear a sin because of him...", leaving us uncertain about its concern.

The Hebrew verb 'to bear' (lo tisa) is not uncommon and often means "to accept". If so, our verse might present two options: 1) rebuke your fellow or 2) accept his sin. The talmudic principle that all the Jews are responsible for each other (arevin ze laze), suggests just such a notion. We then have a good choice and a bad choice: reprove the transgressor, that is the Torah preference; but if we choose to ignore that responsibility, we can accept responsibility for the sin itself. The verse advises us to decline that second option. "Do not bear sin because of him."

Rashi however, based on the Gemara (Arachin 16b), takes us in a different direction and reminds us: "Do not make his face pale." In other words, if you embarrass him by scolding him in public you will bear sin because of him.

There is a clear danger in admonishment, in doing the mitzvah called by the Torah tochacha. If our reproach embarrasses the transgressor more than he deserves, we are culpable. If his shame becomes public, even if we accomplish our immediate goal and convince him to quit his transgressive behavior, we bring about a new act of wrongdoing. Our religious obligation to air our grievances and reprimand others will not justify that undesirable secondary accomplishment.

For Rashi, the verse means something close to this: "Do what you must; reprove the sinner and get him to straighten out, but do not create a new transgression that would belittle the achievement and nullify your success."

The Rashbam, in a one word comment, disagreed. He explains: "you shall not bear a sin... in your heart!" He understands the verse as warning not to avoid the obligation of rebuke and thereby be culpable for sin in our own hearts. This takes us back to our initial description of the verse: that that one who sees the transgression can "bear the sin" which may also imply that the sinner becomes absolved from the punishment. For Rashi, pshat accords with the Gemara's teaching about the mitzvah. For the Rashbam there is a more literal interpretation.

There is no doubt that censure can backfire. We have to be very careful in administering it. (See Rambam, Hilchot Deot 6: 7-8). We know that sinhat chinam, pointless hate, led to the destruction of the temple. However, another reference in the Gemara (Shabbat 119b) teaches that the temple was destroyed because people did not reprove one another. Perhaps, taking both of the explanations together, we learn that if we hate the people we rebuke, it doesn't work.

Tochacha is not a political statement, but a way of returning ourselves to the desired state of things as planned by Heaven. It requires honest concern that the situation improve and, moreover, a belief that the people we speak to can improve. Rebuke is not only about you and your fellow. It is a method of avoiding calamity and insuring the stability of our collective religious vocation. It is especially important for those of us living in Israel (cf. the comment of the Ibn Ezra, 19:17).

Gut shabbos,
Chaim Brovender

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