NUM298 In Judaism, it is clear that privacy is a very important value. In trying to curse the Jewish people, Bilaam continually blessed them. His greatest blessing, which was eventually put in the prayerbook (Prayer recited each morning when rising, found in the first few pages of every siddur) was [this] verse describing how good is the tent of Jacob. What was so special about this particular blessing and what was so special about the tents of the Jewish people? Rashi (commentary on this verse) explains that the doors to their tents did not face each other. Why is that so significant? Because by intentionally placing doors that would not face each other, the people were demonstrating that they could not and did not want to see what was happening in their neighbor's tent. This was the greatness of the people and demonstrates to us the importance of maintaining the privacy of each individual Jew. When a poor person owed money and the lender needed a security, the poor person would have to give a security for the loan, such as a blanket, every day (since the poor person was too poor to part with it permanently), and this would be returned each evening. However, when collecting the security, the lender was not permitted to enter the poor man's home, but had to wait outside until the poor man gave it to him (Deuteronomy 24:10–11). This guaranteed that no matter how poor a person was, his privacy was sacred and could not be violated. The Talmud (Pesachim 112a) states that privacy was so important that one was not even permitted to enter one's own house without knocking first, lest he should discover something private his wife would not want him to know about. And, certainly, each person must knock before entering someone else's home. There is even a concept in Judaism of legal damages for invading someone else's privacy, Hezek Re'iyah (Bava Batra 2b), a concept far more sophisticated then any twentieth-century statutes on this issue. This type of damage, invading someone's privacy, was incorporated into Jewish law (Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat 153:1). To guarantee privacy, one may not even open a window in one's own house if, by doing so, it allows a person to see into his neighbor's home (Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat 154:3,6). This type of damage was subject to monetary compensation. Later on, in the Middle Ages, when mail was not sealed in envelopes the way it is delivered today, in a famous dictum, Rabbeinu Gershom forbade anyone from looking at another person's mail, as a right of privacy. Therefore, the importance and right to privacy and a private life is paramount in Judaism.