Which One is Greater?

Transcription

1 - אדם למקום and אדם לחברו Which One is Greater? אדם relationships: The Torah addresses two different types of history, and Jewish תנ "ך However, throughout. אדם לחברו and למקום there often appears to be tension between the two relationships. For example, ' ה visited אברהם after his circumcision, but then three 1.הכנסת אורחים men came to visit him and he ran to do the mitzvah of We then see throughout יח,פרק that אברהם kept running back and forth between the guests and '.ה 2 Additionally, אברהם went and smashed his father s idols, which was good in the eyes of ',ה but not good according to his father. 3 Similarly, רחל took her father s idols away from him to prevent him from serving.עבודה זרה 4 This was viewed highly in the eyes of ',ה but not looked at positively by אדם למקום her father. These cases illustrate the tension between and אדם לחברו. The question now remains, which relationship is greater? There are many examples within the תורה that seem to stress אדם לחברו to be of greater value and substantiate its importance. For example, ' ה brought the מבול onto the people as a consequence for their actions to one another. 5 In contrast, with the story of בבל,מגדל the people built a tower to try and reach the heavens. As a result, ' ה confused all their languages and spread 1 בראשית יח:א-ב 2 שם יח:יג, טז, כב 3 בראשית רבה פרק לח פסוק ח 4 שם לא:ל-לד 5 שם פרקים ו-ז 157

2 158 ה ' against them across the entire earth. 6 When the people rebelled like in בבל,מגדל He only mixed up their languages and scattered ה ',דור המבול them, but when they went against each other like the destroyed them and the whole world. This certainly implies that. אדם למקום is regarded more highly than אדם לחברו In יתרו,פרשת when referring to the reason for שבת within the 7 The reason.כי ששת ימים עשה ה את השמים ואת הארץ states פסוק the,לוחות for שבת is to commemorate the six days of creation from '.ה Then in stated. is שבת an additional reason for,פרשת אתחנן 8 If one,למען ינוח עבדך ואמתך כמוך... וזכרת כי עבד הייתה בארץ מצרים remembers what it was like in,מצרים then they will take pity on שבת their servants and allow them to rest. These reasons for include both a Godly and human aspect. As 9 רמב "ן explains, the recognition of God can be accomplished through the remembrance of our slavery in.מצרים Since even the Godly aspect is expressed through our interaction with our fellow humans, this is yet another indication that אדם לחברו is of greater importance. is another example of something where the reason שמיטה appears to be for ' ה but in reality it is a source of צדקה for other people. In פרשת,משפטים the תורה gives us reasons for leaving the land untended once every seven years 10. It says that we must do so for the sake of the poor, to allow them to come and take what is in the field to eat. However in 11 לה states, it שמיטה in reference to פרשת בהר At first glance, this appears to be conflicting, going back and.שבת forth between אדם לחברו and אדם למקום. However, upon further examination, it appears that from here as well that אדם לחברו is a 6 שם פרק יא 7 שמות כ:ח-ט 8 דברים ה :יב- יד 9 דברים פרק ה:יג 10 שמות כג :יא 11 ויקרא כה:ד

3 Greater? Which One is אדם למקום and אדם לחברו לה as שמיטה after describing,פסוק stronger obligation. Later in the declares that the produce of the land in this year is תורה the,שבת designated for all people, including slaves and maidservants. Since the charitable nature of שמיטה is considered to be of great value and is mentioned twice, it appears that אדם לחברו seems to be on a higher level. אדם Other sources also demonstrate the primacy of s 'רבי students died עקיבא For example, we are told that.לחבירו because of how they treated each other, not because of a lack in their relationship with '.ה 12 His students were engrossed in intense Torah learning reaching tremendous heights in their ' ה,עבודת but since they lacked respect for one another, they were killed..ה ' against was destroyed due to sins committed בית ראשון Similarly, These sins include murder, adultery, and idolatry, the three cardinal sins. 13 This exile lasted for seventy years until the building of שני.בית Due to the hatred people had towards each other, חינם,שנאת the second בית הקדש was destroyed. The שנאת חינם that this demonstrates that 14 states גמרא is equivalent to these three cardinal sins. However, given the fact that this second exile is still in effect, even after almost two thousand years, perhaps this shows that sins against our fellow man are even more serious. In life, we sometimes find it hard to befriend someone who is not worshipping ' ה properly, but if אדם לחברו is a greater value, then there appears to be a conflict. So, then, which one should we? אדם למקום or אדם לחברו importance, view to be of the most The תורה mentions,יובל the year after the seventh cycle of יובל הוא says, it פרשת בהר in connection to man and God. In 15,שמיטה 12 יבמות סב: 13 יומא ט: 14 שם 15 ויקרא כה:י

4 160 It.והיה השדה בצאתו ביובל קדש לה ' states, it פרשת בחקותי Then, in 16.תהיה לכם seems that the תורה is showing us two different sides of the same exact מצוה (for man and for '.(ה Perhaps this can give us a different. אדם למקום and אדם לחברו perspective on the relationship between Maybe these are not conflicting values but rather, complementary ones, each one leading to the other. כיבוד אב of מצוה is the עשרת הדברות, included in the 17 פרשת יתרו In As their children, we are obligated to treat our parents with.ואם honor because they were partners in our creation 18 and provided us with life and sustain us. Therefore, we should honor them as part of our הטוב.הכרת This מצוה appears to fall under the category of is grouped מצווה However, it is worth noting that this. אדם לחברו with the first five of the הדיברות,עשרת the אדם למקום group. Rav Hirsch explains this anomaly by connecting the role of parents with that of God. God is revealed to the Jewish people through the many facets of our history. But the only way He is acknowledged through these events is if Judaism is sustained. Therefore, the role of parents is to transmit the Jewish past and mission onto their children in order to bring about knowledge of God. If the parents fail to do so, the Jewish past will be lost and the nation will become non-existent. Parents are the vehicles through which recognition of God is imbued within their children, and for this reason, they must be honored and loved deeply by their children. This is another example from which we may conclude that there is no tension between אדם לחברו and אדם למקום ; rather they are one in the same within the bigger picture. The relationships of אדם לחברו and אדם למקום cannot be placed on different rungs on the ladder. To the contrary, they must be placed upon the same rung. People need to first work on their relationship with others, solidify them and grow from them. 16 ויקרא כז: כא 17 שמות כ:יב 18 קידושין ל:

5 Greater? Which One is אדם למקום and אדם לחברו Only then can they work on connecting and getting closer to God because, once they know how to act towards each other, then they will know how to act before ',ה making a relationship with Him much more accessible. It appears, therefore, that is not actually אדם לחברו greater than אדם למקום. Rather, its primacy comes from the fact מצוות 19 a few ספר ויקרא In. אדם למקום that it is a means to the goal of אדם לחברו that are אני ה ' are listed and after several of them, the phrase is repeated. This is stated four times throughout this section. as imitating God s והלכת בדרכיו of מצוה דארייתא explains the רמב "ם 20 actions. In general, one is closer to someone that they are similar to. In order to come close to ',ה one should fulfill מצוות that are and become a better, more compassionate person. The,אדם לחברו two cannot be separated. If one neglects אדם לחברו, then he has erred in their the basis for all our ה ' from everything is is אמונה believes that נצי "ב as well. The 21 אדם למקום If people believed that.מצות אדם לחברו and that He is constantly present, then they would not steal, or speak הרע,לשון etc. If this is true, then the opposite can be said as well. Our אדם למקום can lead us to better אדם לחברו and אדם למקום end, In the. אדם לחברו our relationships go hand in hand and can both lead us to the ultimate relationships in both respects, as it says, 22.ואהבת לרעך כמוך אני ה ' 19 ויקרא יט:יא-יח 20 ספר המצות מצות עשה ח 21 העמק דבר דברים כה:יז 22 ויקרא יט:יח