Judging Favorably
Student Summaries of Sichot of the Roshei Yeshiva
Yeshivat
Har Etzion
PARASHAT
SHELACH
SICHA OF HARAV YEHUDA AMITAL
SHLIT"A
Judging Favorably
Summarized by Shaul Barth
Translated by Kaeren Fish
In my Friday night sichot, I usually discuss the first
verse of the parasha. There are two reasons for this. One is that it is
simply easier to open the Chumash to the first verse and to speak about
it than it is to start searching through the parasha for some other
subject. The second reason is that there is usually an abundance of
midrashim and teachings of Chazal that are cited specifically in
connection with the first verse.
In any event, I will now deviate from my usual habit, since I want
to address a subject relating to current events. I would guess that this
Shabbat, the same subject is being discussed in almost every synagogue in
Israel: the sin of the spies, and that which led to it – a rejection of the
land. Everybody is talking about Ramban's famous teaching concerning the sin of
the spies, and the clear connections between his words and the imminent
Disengagement. I would like to address a different Ramban in our parasha,
which – to my mind – is more important than the one about the
spies.
Following the episode of the spies, the Torah discusses various
communal sacrifices, one of which is the sacrifice for a sin performed out of
ignorance:
"And if you shall err, and not perform all of these commandments
which God has spoken to Moshe – all that God has commanded you by the hand of
Moshe, from the day that God gave the command and forward, for your
generations…." (15:22-23)
The Rishonim debate the meaning of this unit: how is it
possible that the whole of Am Yisrael could transgress all of the
mitzvot of the Torah? Could there possibly be a situation in which we
would not fulfill a single mitzva, and transgress "all of these commandments…
from the day when God commanded and forward"? Rashi explains:
"'And if you should err and not perform' – [This refers to]
idolatry… [which is] one mitzva that is equal to all of the mitzvot."
In other words, Rashi senses this difficulty; he therefore
interprets the verse to mean that the entire nation has engaged in idolatry, and
this is considered as though they had transgressed the entire
Torah.
Ramban disagrees. He maintains that the Torah means exactly what
it is saying:
"This parasha is opaque, and those who seek to interpret it
according to its plain meaning are bound to err… What is means is that it is the
sacrifice of one who denies the entire Torah, by mistake, such as one who goes
and attaches himself to one of the nations, to act as they do, not wishing to be
associated with Jews at all, and that all of this happens unintentionally. For
example, in the case of an individual, and infant may be taken captive among the
nations, or in the case of the collective – they may think that the time of the
Torah is over, and that it is not meant for all generations. Or they may say, as written in the
Sifri, 'God says that if we do as He says, we will receive a reward, but we
choose not to do and not to receive the reward.'"
In other words, we are talking about an entire community that
thinks that the observance of Torah is a matter of choice. Even though they choose not to keep the
Torah, they fall under Ramban's category of one who "errs"! Are these people
simply mistaken? Surely they are complete heretics!
Ramban is teaching us what it means to give fellow Jews the
benefit of the doubt. Even when a person does something that is utterly
abominable, that appears to us to represent irredeemable heresy, Ramban is still
willing and able to seek his good and to judge him as one who
"errs."
Not long ago, Rabbi Yoel Bin-Nun and another rabbi were discussing
the subject of religious outreach amongst the secular Israeli population. His
partner in debate asked, "What does it matter whether we try to reach out or
not? Ultimately, we're talking about Hebrew-speaking goyim; why should we try to
convert them?" This was admittedly a rabbi of extreme views, but today I have
the feeling that this sort of perception is invading our sector, too. Over the
course of the debate over Gush Katif, I have heard some of our rabbis expressing
a view of secular Israelis as "Hebrew-speaking goyim." Therefore, it is
imperative that we keep in mind what Ramban is teaching us, and that we maintain
our ability to judge favorably even those people who might seem to be complete
heretics.
When I was young I used to go hear Rav Yaakov Moshe Charlap's
sicha every Shabbat, even though ever sicha dealt with the same
topic: segulat Yisrael, the uniqueness of the Jewish people. He
emphasized that every Jew must be regarded favorably; even if a Jew disagrees
with us, we must not look upon him as someone devoid of values and morality.
Rav Kook, too, imparted this message. He explained that the
concept of "judging favorably" is not based on sentimentality or emotion;
rather, it is something altogether rational. Reason demands that we look upon every
Jew as someone with merits and goodness. Rabbi Tzaddok, in his "Tzidkat
ha-Tzaddik" (54), makes a statement that was censored from some earlier
editions: "The crux of Judaism is being called a Jew." According to this, even a
person who does not fulfill the commandments may still be judged favorably, so
long as he regards himself as part of the Jewish
nation.
During the Second World War, I saw the difference between gentile
soldiers and Jewish soldiers, and there is no comparison between them. The
immoral actions of the gentile soldiers during the war were terrible; Jewish
soldiers did not act in that way. Years ago, the head of the Manpower Branch of
the I.D.F. told me that in a meeting with his American counterpart, he asked him
what the Americans do with a soldier who is killed. The general told him that
they pass the information on to the division commander, then to the brigade
commander, and so on up the ladder of ranks, until about two weeks later the
parents are notified. The way it works here is that within a few hours the
family is notified of the death of their loved one. The example that I cite here
is from the American army! It is clear beyond any doubt that Jews are a moral
people, and it is possible to find a way to judge every Jew favorably.
Despite all the talk about the lack of values among secular
Israelis, during Operation Defensive Shield we saw how all the reservists
suddenly showed up to fight for the country, how they were ready to give up
their lives for that ideal. This shouldn't come as any surprise to us; we see
this all the time when the 'hesder' students enlist for army service and
discover that there are secular people who regard their military service as a
way to contribute to the nation and the country.
Every Jew must be judged favorably, as we see from the Ramban in
our parasha. Instead of publicizing only the famous Ramban about Eretz Yisrael,
let us try to emphasize his no less important lesson about the obligation to
judge all our fellow Jews favorably, and let us act upon this
lesson.
(This sicha was delivered on leil Shabbat parashat Shelach 5765
[2005].)