EXODUS | 20:14 covet — EXOD483 The negative commands of the Torah dealin...
EXOD483 The negative commands of the Torah dealing with human relations attempt to restrain a person from harming or causing any loss to another individual. This includes his life, limbs, possessions, and even his reputation and ego. (A. Kariv, Shivas Amudei Ha-Tanakh, p. 231). The range of these rules as indicated on the second table of the Decalogue, which begins with "Thou shall not murder" and ends with "Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's house… nor anything that is thy neighbor's" [this and previous verse; see also Deuteronomy 5:18). But coveting is hardly a crime punishable by a court of law and can hardly be considered something which in itself causes harm to one's neighbor. And indeed, in terms of the Halakhah one violates this commandment only when some particular action follows upon the "coveting." Yet Judaism, wished to penetrate to the root of the evil and in the process revealed the profound depth of its moral sensitivity. The Pentateuch, in declaring, "Thou shall not covet" and "Thou shalt not desire," teaches us that to cast an envious eye on the possessions of our neighbor is already to cross the line between mine and thine (See Sefer ha-Chinnukh, Mitzvah 38 ... the Chinnuch, in mitzvah 416, following the Rambam (Hilkhot Gezelah ve-Aveidah 1:10-12), considers lo titaveh, "Thou shalt not desire" in Deuteronomy 5:18 as prohibiting the desire alone even if it is not followed by any action designed to acquire the object). But even if it does not bother my neighbor, Judaism would have us rid ourselves of such feelings because there very presence within a human being is destructive of human personality and pollutes the self. "Rabbi Eleazar ha-Kappar said, 'Envy, desire, and ambition drive a man out of the world,' (Avot 4:28) and the rabbis noted that there is a sense in which "thinking about transgressions is worse than the transgression itself" (Yoma 29a, see Rashi).
Source Key | SPERO |
Verse | 20:14 |
Keyword(s) | covet |
Source Page(s) | 136 |