Parshas Acharei Mos-Kedoshim 5786
- Torah Tavlin
- Apr 24
- 2 min read
לא תלך רכיל בעמיך לא תעמד על דם רעך אני ה' ... (יט-טז)
MASHAL: Once, in the Satmar Bais Medrash, the baal korei halted the laining after spotting a flawed letter in the Torah. R’ Yoel Teitelbaum zt”l approached the bimah to inspect it.
Rather than rendering a swift verdict, he hesitated and requested several seforim. For a few minutes, he stood before the silent congregation, deliberating. Finally, he ruled: “I think it is better to return this sefer and take out another.”
Later, a perplexed student asked, “Rebbe, the halacha was clear-cut. The scroll was obviously pasul (invalid). What was it that you were deliberating over?”
The Rebbe replied, “Didn’t you see? The sofer who wrote that Torah scroll was standing right next to me in the room. If I had immediately declared his work pasul, imagine his crushing humiliation. I had to make it look like a difficult, uncertain case in order to protect his honor.””
NIMSHAL: Chazal (Bava Metzia 58b) equate public embarrassment to murder, stating that when a person is shamed, the blood drains from their face. Therefore, humiliating someone is akin to shedding their blood. This sensitivity is reinforced in the posuk: “You shall surely rebuke your fellow, but you shall not bear a sin on his account.” Chazal interpret this as a strict warning: even when you are obligated to correct someone, it must be done privately and gently, ensuring you do not “bear a sin” by causing their face to turn white with shame.
Indeed the gravity of this is enormous. Chazal (Sotah 10b) derive from the story of Yehuda and Tamar the dictum: “It is better for a person to cast himself into a fiery furnace than to publicly embarrass his fellow!”