The parsha has many mitzvos. Amongst them is the issur to have false, or contradictory weights.
{יג} לֹא יִהְיֶה לְךָ בְּכִיסְךָ אֶבֶן וָאָבֶן גְּדוֹלָה וּקְטַנָּה: {יד} לֹא יִהְיֶה לְךָ בְּבֵיתְךָ אֵיפָה וְאֵיפָה גְּדוֹלָה וּקְטַנָּה:
Devarim 25:13–14
Seemingly this issur is a variation of the classic issur of theft. If you sell less than a pound of meat and you charge the customer the price of the full pound, that’s theft. However, Chazal detect a degree of severity in this issur more so than we find by classic theft.
Chazal say this issur is worse than arayos! Why? Because arayos a person can do teshuva, but here they cannot do teshuva.
I don’t understand – Why can’t he do teshuva? Just give back the stuff he stole? Just like regular theft, you can do teshuva by giving back the stuff he stole. Why is this different?
One way of understanding this is that his false weights may have been used with many people so it’s impossible to keep track of everyone affected. But that doesn’t intrinsically make it impossible to do teshuva – let’s say he only had one customer in his store the day he used his false weights. He can simply return it to that one person. On the other hand, if we have a straight-up gazlan who stole from many people, he too should seemingly not be able to do teshuva because there are too many people involved.
So what exactly do Chazal mean that the one with false weights cannot do teshuva?
The Rambam explains that this issur of false weights is not just using them, but merely owning them. Even if you didn’t use them to steal, owning them is a problem. So, clearly this issur is not just a variation of theft, but something more. Let’s explain.
We use conflicting terms when speaking about HKBH. On the one hand we say HKBH is Echad, one. However, on the other hand we say HKBH has different middos, for example the 13 middos of rachamim (h’, h’, kel, rachum v’chanun). We have many different names for Hashem, corresponding to His different middos (H, E-lokim, Shakai, etc).
How can HKBH have these different middos if He is One? The answer is, that even though they are different middos, they are all designed to accomplish one goal.
For example: If you see someone who has mood swings – one moment he’s happy, another moment he’s angry, and then sad, and then pleasant. If these moods have no common goal, then you’ll either conclude he’s an unstable, moody person or he’s got multiple personalities.
However, it could be this person is a fantastic teacher, and as a teacher he realizes you need to relate to different students with different approaches in order to make the student grow. This teacher may use all the same moods we just described – happiness, anger, sadness, pleasantness – but since they are all methods used to accomplish one goal, we won’t describe this person as moody. Instead, we’d say he’s measured. He uses conscious measure of each mood to achieve his singular goal.
So, too, by HKBH. HKBH has many different hanhagos, which we describe as different middos with different names. However, all of HKBH’s middos are designed to accomplish one goal.
The one goal the all HKBH’s middos are designed for is Emes.
The chosem of HKBH is Emes. What that means is even though HKBH has many ways to express Himself, all expressions are really an expression of one singular middah – the middah of Emes.
Because HKBH has this one central middah of Emes, all other middos and hanhagos are weighed and measured against that central metric. Every hanhaga is essentially a tool of the central middah of Emes, carefully used by and measured against the central middah of Emes.
(That’s how we can say “haShaveh u’mashveh katan k’gadol.” HKBH equates the small and the big. How are they equal – One is small and the other is big? Yes, they look different, but HKBH deals with them with his singular middah of Emes – in that regard, they’re all the same middah.)
More than that.
HKBH’s middas haEmes is embedded in Tzuras Adam. Adam was created b’tzelem e-lokim, and just as chosomo shel HKBH Emes, HKBH’s central middah is Emes, so too, Adam’s central middah is Emes. Rabbeinu Yonah says Emes is the Yesod of the Nefesh.
What this means is that each person has a central middah of Emes, where everything the Adam does gets weighed and measured against a central metric.
Even in halacha, we find there are universal metrics that apply to everyone equally, but there are other metrics which are relative to each person themselves.
For example: We have Amos, and c’zayis, and 40 sa’ah, and beis cur. Those are the same metrics for everyone. But then we have personalized metrics like, malo lugmav, malo kumtzo, malo chofnav which vary from person to person.
Now, you can ask “how could we have personalized metrics, which means different metrics for different people – isn’t that a double standard, ins’t that inconsistent?” The answer is no, it’s one metric – it’s a personalized metric, that gets applied each person according to their own measure. And a personalized measure is no less Emes-dik than a universal measure.
There’s a beautiful gemara that illustrates this:
The Gemara in Shabbos tells a story about a Ger who came to both Shammai and Hillel and asked them to teach them Torah. The gemara describes Shammai pushing them away and Hillel was m’karev them with the famous line “mai d’sani l’ei lo sa’avod l’chavrei” “what you don’t like, don’t do to others.”
This gemera is classically understood as Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel l’shitasam – Beis Shammai was middas HaDin which relates more harshly to people, and beis Hillel is middas haChessed, which is warmer and more welcoming to people. It’s true, it’s l’shitasam, however, it’s not just about their middas hadin and middas hachessed, but rather how their middas hadin and middas hachessed were calibrated to their central middas haEmes.
We find Beis Shammai & Beis Hillel argue elsewhere about what was created first Shomayim or Aretz. Beis Shammai says Shomayim was created first, and Beis Hillel says Aretz was created first. What they’re saying is what is the tchila, what is the primary standard, what is the primary metric that we measure Adam against? Is it the Shomayim metric, or the Aretz metric? Shomayim metric means a universal metric should be applied to Adam. Whatever applies b’derech klal should apply to each individual. That was Beis Shammai’s position.
However Beis Hillel’s position is that Aretz is tchila, meaning we don’t use the universal metrics when measuring Adam, we use a personalized metric l’chol ish v’ish.
Back to the story of the Ger. When Shammai pushed the Ger away, the gemara says he pushed him away with “Amas HaBinyan” “A builder’s measuring stick.” What a strange detail. I didn’t know Shammai was in the construction business that he carries around a builder’s measuring stick. What is that detail doing here?
The answer is this is Shammai l’shitasam. Shammai’s middas HaEmes was Shomayim-dik, meaning we don’t approach people with a personalized measure of Emes. We use a universal metric that everyone must live up to. Whatever applies b’derech klal should apply to each individual.
However, Hillel’s approach was not based on a klaiyas-dik metric, but rather it was very personalized. “mai d’sani l’ei lo sa’avod l’chavrei” “what you don’t like, don’t do to others.” Meaning, be consistent with yourself. If you don’t like it – don’t do it to someone else! The starting point was be consistent with yourself! The Omek of Hillel’s shitta is that so long as you are consistent with yourself, from that one small emesdik starting point you can calibrate around that point and build an entire emesdik edifice. Every chelek of Torah can connect you with kol haTroah koola, so long as you are consistently applying emes. However, if you do not apply a consistent metric, if you have a double-standard, then there’s no central point for you to calibrate everything to, and you’ll end up with an edifice of nonsense where anything goes!
Let’s return to our questions:
We asked what do Chazal mean that the one with false weights cannot do teshuva? Why can’t he do teshuva? The answer is, if the person has one standard that he can hold himself to, then he could at least correctly identify right as right and wrong is wrong. He can recalibrate himself and get back on track. But when you have contradictory weights, that means you have different ways of measuring rights and wrongs. How can you do teshuva when you have a part of you saying “I’m not wrong?” How can you recalibrate yourself? What is going to be your point of calibration if you have two conflicting metrics?
We asked why owning the weights is assur, even if you didn’t use them to steal? The answer is because just having the double-standard, just having two conflicting metrics is a hashchasa of Tzuras Adam. There’s no longer a single middah of Emes governing the person. You have uprooted the Yesod of Emes in the tzuras Adam!
We are standing on the cusp of Rosh Hashana, the Yom Hadin. We envision the whole process of Din as HKBH taking out a giant Shulchan Aruch and going thru every siman and seeing if we kept every halacha.
As intimidating as that sounds, we don’t really feel fully accountable. Because these are HKBH’s standards. It’s a little unfair holding us to HKBH’s standards.
L’mashal: If you say to someone “how come you don’t give as much tzedakah as Reuven?” That’s not a tayna on the person because there may be many reasons why he’s different than Reuven – Reuven has more money, the charitable cause is more meaningful to Reuven’s family, Reuven has a more giving personality, etc. Holding them to Reuven’s standards is not a real din. The only way you can judge a person is against their own standards. Were you consistent with yourself?!
Chazal say “oy lanu m’yom hadin, oy lanu m’yom hatochacha.” The ultimate example of rebuke was Yosef to his brothers. The reason why it was so powerful is because he wasn’t comparing them to other people, but rather he used their own standards against them.
They said “How can we return to our father without his son with us?” We really care about our father, and we know he loves his son, and we can’t do this to him. Yosef’s response was “Oh really? I am Yosef, your father’s son.” Where was your compassion then? He used their own standard against them. That is Real Din, that is Real Tochacha!
Rosh Hashana is the Yom Hadin on your middas HaEmes. Were you consistent, did you have a single metric, or did you apply double-standards?
When someone spoke Lashon Hara about you, it pained you. And yet you go and speak lashon hara about someone else? HKBH doesn’t need to bring the sefer Chofetz Chaim against you. It’s your own double-standard that brings the rebuke!
You’re studying in Yeshiva. You say “ki hem Chayeinu.” You’d think you would be as diligent in Yeshiva as you are in college. Yet in college you take notes, you studied for hours, you did chazarah. Did you do the same for Talmud Torah?
On the Yom Hadin, who’s going to testify against you? Chazal say it’s not malachim, it’s not even the walls of your house, but rather “Chosem yad kola dam bo!” A person’s own signature is what damns him.
Our parsha is telling us that each person needs to hold himself accountable to himself. Tzuras Adam is not a multitude of middos but rather one central midda of emes. That is the Yesod of our nefesh. And applying that middah singularly and consistently is what will make us zoche on the yom haDin.