פרשת כי תצא

The word התעלם is a very interesting component of these pesukim for a few reasons:

1. It appears in these three pesukim, but does not appear in any other halachik context in Tanach. These are the only mitzvot featuring this verb.

2. The word seems to be acting as a linguistic bridge between two different types of mitzvot. Why? What do the two mitzvot have in common?

3. The word holds a message that ties these pesukim to others in the parsha and illustrates their broader message.

1. The word עלם means "conceal." Something hidden from us is "נעלם". In our parsha, the word appears in hitpael, to mean "hide from oneself," or "ignore."

In pasuk א, the Torah is very honest with us and understands us well. It says "כי תראה," =when you see. Meaning, you will definitely find lost objects. You will see them with your eyes, and you will understand that someone is missing them. You will know that they are needed for a person's livelihood or his well-being. But there will be nothing forcing you to act - as a normal human being, you will likely ignore the lost animal or object, possibly express regret for its owner, but then go on with your life. The Torah is telling us to defy our instinct to take the path of least resistance, and make an effort to return the lost animal or object.

In fact, pasuk ג goes further, it tells us, לא תוכל להתעלם- we may not ignore what we see. Being passive may seem harmless, but the Torah does not condone it. It is not the reason that God gifted us with "כי תראה".

2. In pasuk ד , the word התעלם returns to address another mitzvah opportunity that busy people struggling to hold their lives together may want to avoid. The Torah uses the same combination of ראה and התעלם - you WILL encounter situations in which an animal (or a person!) is struggling and needs help along the road. You WILL be tempted to keep moving, for a variety of defensible reasons. It is natural. But your obligation is to acknowledge what you've seen and try to make things whole.

3. Why does the Torah demand this of us? It all goes back to the concept inherent in התעלמות. For a community to function, we must all be invested in it. We must care about the people around us and about the things that they hold dear. It is not enough for us to obey traffic laws, recycle our garbage, keep our lawn trimmed and do no harm to others. Such behavior does not build a community, nor does it even keep the community alive.

Later in the parsha, we see another seemingly random mitzvah that also demands our personal investment in one another:

In the ancient Near East, it was common for people to use their roofs (which were flat) in the way that we use our backyards today - people used them to eat meals and spend time together. So a roof without an enclosure was an accident waiting to happen. Notice the common language in pesukim ד and ח: in pasuk ד we have "נופלים" and in pasuk ח we have "הנופל". Both describe situations that are bound to happen - they are part of life. An animal with a load, a person relaxing on an unprotected roof garden- someone will inevitably fall. The question is, what are we going to do about it? We can't prevent the animal from having an accident, we can help out when he does. But we can prevent someone from falling off our roof. That is what it means to be part of a community- to protect your roof so that you can welcome friends and neighbors into your home and make them feel comfortable. It's the Torah's way of saying that our new homes are not complete if they haven't been built with the community in mind.

As we spend Elul repairing ourselves and our relationships with others, may we be zocheh to instinctively rush toward our communities - to see challenges with our eyes and have no temptation to hide.