Temple Beth-El Torah Study - October 10, 2015

The New Wife: This humane military rule may stem from a tradition separate from the one in 20:7. In any event, it appears to acknowledge sexuality as a part of marriage separate from procreation.

When a man takes a new wife. The thematic connection with the previous law is the issue of sexual consummation in marriage.

shall not cross over on its account for any matter. The "it" may refer to the army--i.e., the man shall stay put and not go off anywhere for military purposes--but the Hebrew is rather cryptic, as this literal translation indicates, and no one has provided an entirely satisfactory interpretation. (Note: Alter translates this verse as: "When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out in the army and shall not cross over on its account for any matter. He shall be exempt in his house for a year and gladden his wife whom he has taken."

gladden his wife. The verb here could refer specifically to giving her sexual pleasure, though it does not exclude the more general pleasure of conjugal sociability. This law differs from the parallel law of exemption from military service for the newlywed in chapter 20 in introducing a humane concern for the bride.

a hand mill or an upper millstone. Although the Hebrew reihayim is the general term for mill, the large agricultural mill, several feet in diameter, would be too massive to move, so the reference must be to a hand mill. Even in that case, the heavy netherstone (shekhev) would have been hard to carry off, but it would have sufficed to seize the much lighter upper millstone (rekhev) in order to disable the mill.

for one would be taking in pawn a life. A household typically ground its own grain for bread, and hand mills were thus a necessary tool in even the poor home, as the great number of them uncovered by archeologists confirm.

Pledge: Even debt is a situation that must be handled sensitively; unfair collateral is not to be taken.

This law mandates that certain tools are not to be taken as pawns. If the millstones used to grind flour were accepted in pledge for a loan, the family would lack the tools needed to sustain itself.

והוא ימשל בך, “he shall rule over you.” We find a statement in B’reishit Rabbah 20,7 by Rabbi Yossi Ha-g’leelee, (the Galilean) according to which this statement is supposed to be restrictive, -i.e. the husband not having complete control of his wife; he bases himself on an interesting comparison between the upper and lower millstones in Deuteronomy 24,6. He views the prohibition of a lender taking both of these millstones as security for an overdue loan, and the previous verse ordering a husband to please his wife for a whole year after they get married, and the Torah describing taking both millstones as equivalent to robbing the lender of his life, נפש, as proof that the husband–wife relationship must at all times remain one in which the wife continues to love her husband to the point of seeking physical union with him. He adds that we know that a woman is compared to the lower of the two millstones by citing a verse from Job 31,10: תטחן ואחר אשתי, “may my wife grind for another.” According to the Talmud tractate Sotah, Judges 16,21, where Samson’s suffering at the hands of the Philistines is described with the words: ויהי טוחן בבית האסירים, “he had to act as a grindstone in the jail,” which Rabbi Yossi understands as a chore that a husband must not impose on his wife, even so he is described as “ruling over her.”

The Jerusalem Talmud interprets Deut. 24,6 as referring to anything that is a basic necessity for a person’s economic survival as being prohibited to be taken as a pledge, a millstone serving as an example of such necessities.

a living person. The term used here, nefesh, is the same one used for "life" in the previous verse concerning the poor man and his hand mill and thus provides a link between the two laws. A human life is not to be disregarded for the purpose of profit.

Kidnapping: The capital crime here would appear to be the sale of specifically an Israelite as a slave.

השמר בנגע הצרעת, “be most careful in the matter of a skin affliction.” The reason why the Torah repeats the same warning twice is because this disease is apt to afflict anyone, kings not excepted. King Uzziyahu was afflicted by it, as we know from Chronicles II 26,21. Being afflicted by this disease is most shameful for the person concerned, so that even if he is a king he must remain in isolation and cannot function in his palace and must be obedient to what the priest tells him concerning the length of time of this disease. This is also the reason why the Torah adds that we must remember how Moses’ sister Miriam was afflicted by this disease because she had been guilty of badmouthing her brother Moses. Even though she was socially one of the most highly placed people, the priests had to put her in isolation just like an ordinary person struck by this disease.

(2) ככל אשר יורו אתכם, for you are to remember what happened to Miriam, certainly a highly placed person, who, in spite of being a prophetess, and the leader of all the Israelite women, and Moses’ own sister, was not accorded preferential treatment in this regard. She was segregated for seven days, as we know from Numbers 12,14.

Tsaraat is a name given collectively to many different matters that are not similar to each other. As, behold, the whitening of a person's skin is called tsaraat and the falling out of a little bit of head or beard hair is [also] called tsaraat and [even] the change of the hue of clothing or houses is called tsaraat. This change mentioned with clothing and houses that the Torah collectively called tsaraat is not [like] the way of the world, but rather it is a sign and a wonder that [existed] in Israel to caution them about evil speech (lashon hara), such that the walls of the one that spoke evil speech would change [color]. If he repented, the house would become pure. [But] if he persisted in his evil until his house was broken down, the leather vessels that he would sit and recline upon would change [color]. If he repented, they would become pure. [But] if he persisted in his evil until they were burned, his skin would change [color] and he would become infested with tsaraat, and he would be isolated and [his condition would be] publicized until he would not be involved in the speech of the evildoers, which is mockery and evil speech. And about this matter the Torah cautions and says beware of the plague of tsaraat: "Remember that which the Lord, your God, did to Miriam on the way" (Deuteronomy 24:9). Behold, it is saying, "Reflect upon what happened to Miriam the prophetess, who spoke about her brother." She was older than him and raised him on her knees and endangered herself to save him at the sea, and she did not speak in his derision but rather erred in comparing him to other prophets - and he was not [even] exacting about all of these things, as it is stated (Numbers 12:3), "And the man, Moshe, was very humble." And nonetheless, she was immediately punished with tsaraat. All the more so is it with silly evil people who frequently speak boastfully and about [supposed] wonders. Therefore, it is fitting for the one who wants to guide his ways to distance himself from their gatherings and from speaking with them, so as not to be snagged by the net of evildoers and their foolishness.

A Reminder about Skin Disease: As detailed in Lev. 13-15, tzaraat was some kind of skin condition that rendered a person temporarily unfit to be in the sacred camp. It was formerly identified with, and translated as, leprosy, but that is now felt to be incorrect by virtually all scholars. The law recurs here, among examples of injustice, because the disease was often viewed as the result of a person's wrongful behaviors.

Here we see the severity of the sin of gossiping. Look at what happened to the prophetess Miriam who had indulged in an ordinary conversation with her brother Aaron, making some remark about her brother Moses! We are reminded to recite the verse זכור את אשר עשה יהוה אלוהיך למרים בדרך בצאתכם ממצרים, "Remember what the Lord your G'd has done to Miriam on the way when you had come out of Egypt" (Deut. 24,8). It is one of the six זכירות, commemorations, a person is to recite daily.