Rabbi Dov Kramer on the Parsha

Taking a Closer Look (Rabbi Dov Kramer)

“For Hashem your G-d is repulsed by all who do these things.” Although I have translated the word “to’aiva” as “repulsive,” the most commonly used translation is “abomination.” This term is used by the Torah to describe numerous things, indicating that they are more than just “wrong,” but “repulsive.” The section of the verse quoted above actually appears twice in our Parasha. The first time (Devarim 22:5) it is used to describe G-d being “repulsed” by cross-dressing, i.e. men wearing women’s clothing or women wearing men’s clothing. The second time (25:16), it describes G-d being repulsed by dishonest business practices. However, when discussing how detestable cheating others is, besides saying “all who do these things” the Torah adds, “all who are involved in deception.” Why does the Torah use two phrases, rather than just one? What does the second phrase teach us that we wouldn’t know if there were only one phrase?
On one level, this added phrase indicates that dishonesty is considered worse than other “abominations.” It is interesting to note that while stealing is not called an “abomination,” stealing via deception is. Does it really matter how one cheats (or is cheated)? Why is taking something from others through misrepresentation worse than taking it behind their back, or by force? Why is G-d super-repulsed by those who cheat others through deception more than other forms of cheating and stealing?
Numerous suggestions have been given to explain the Torah using two phrases (e.g. Midrash Hagadol, Or Hachayim, Kli Yakar and Netziv). The context of the verses, which discuss having deceptive weights and measurements without any mention of actually using them, indicates that the “abomination” refers to “those who do these things,” i.e. have the tools with which to deceive others, even if they never use them. Merely owning an inaccurate scale, weight or measure is an “abomination,” let alone using it. The verse may therefore be telling us that it is an abomination to have the means of deceiving others, and an additional abomination to actual deceive others (a “double abomination”). Owning the tools to deceive is worse than just stealing because it is then much easier to become a repeat offender. The institutionalization of deception is therefore more of an abomination. Nevertheless, the second phrase, which refers to the deception itself rather than the institutionalization of deception, teaches us that stealing via deception (even if it’s not “institutionalized”) is an abomination. We would still need to explain why stealing via deception is more “repulsive” than other theft.
In Mishlay (Proverbs), Sh’lomo HaMelech (King Solomon) refers to the “repulsiveness” of deception several times. However, whereas one verse that mentions non-standard weights and measures being an “abomination” (20:10) is set in a context of kindness and honesty (20:6), innocence (20:7 and 20:9), and purity and being straight/just (20:11), the verse that speaks of “deceitful scales” being an “abomination” (11:1) appears in a context of righteousness and wickedness (10:30-32) and sin and modesty (11:2). Because the context here is “dayos” (how we mentally approach things) rather than action, the Ralbag understand it to be referring to thinking straight (not crooked) rather acting straight (not crooked). “For G-d is repulsed by those who weigh their thoughts with deceitful scales, meaning [those] who don’t know to be careful during contemplation from things that mislead, as this is among [the things] that bring one to making great (i.e. large) wrong arguments which will bring about a great amount of heavy destruction. However, [G-d’s] will is that they (the ideas being contemplated) be weighed with a ‘perfect stone’ that doesn’t have anything extra nor anything missing, and this is [accomplished] by watching the ways and the orders that straighten a person out by guarding from making mistakes in the thought process.”
Rabbeinu Yonah (Mishlay 20:10) says that Sh’lomo would not just repeat the commandments of the Torah, so each of the three mentions of deceitful weights, measures and scales much be teaching us an added dimension. According to Rabbeinu Yonah, the first mention in Mishlay of deceit being an “abomination” (11:1) refers to lying (even if the untruth doesn’t bring monetary gain), the second (20:10) refers to a “deceitful heart” (similar to the Ralbag’s explanation of the first mention), and the third (20:23) refers to taking back compensation from someone who cheated you through deceit; even if money was stolen from you, deceitful tactics can’t employed to get the money back since deceit is always an “abomination.”
It can therefore be suggested that reason the Torah added the second phrase of “all those who act deceitfully” in our Parasha is to include not just making (and using) deceitful weights and measures, but any kind of deceit, whether it be lying to others, or lying to oneself by being less than objective during contemplation.
The Talmud (Sanhedrin 92a) equates lying, or more specifically, misrepresenting things through words, with idol worship. The Maharsha says that this comparison is made because truth is the basis for the Torah, whereas other belief systems are built on falsehood. Therefore, dealing in falsehood is tantamount to giving credence to false beliefs. As the Talmud says in numerous places (e.g. Shabbos 55a), “the seal of G-d is ‘truth.”
If what separates the Torah (and worshipping the One True Creator) from everything else is its truth, deceit undermines its value and authority. Acting deceitfully either means not subscribing to the same value system as the Torah, or not believing it to be true. Either way, a supposedly Torah-observant person who acts deceitfully creates the biggest kind of “chillul Hashem,” profaning of G-d’s name, as the message it sends is that the G-d of the Torah is not truthful, and/or is not true. Stealing is bad enough, but when done through deceit, it is a complete “abomination,” and extremely repulsive to the One True G-d.