Sacred Human Connections - A Brief Shiur In Honor and In Memory of Rabbi Morley Feinstein z'l with his Chevreh from RLI III (2007-2010)

ByJames Gibson

Tana deBei Eliyahu Rabba 26a as quoted in Sefaria: This is what God said to Israel: My children what do I seek from you? I seek no more than that you love one another, and honor one another, and that you have awe for one another.

Seder Eliyahu Rabba 26 (comment on the verse “and you shall love the L-rd your God”):

Make the Name of Heaven beloved by human beings. Do this by the way in which you conduct your business in the marketplace with others so that they will say, ‘Fortunate are those who have studied Torah! See how pleasant are their deeds, how lovely their ways! Let us also learn Torah and teach it to our children...’

Thus it has been said, ‘One should distance oneself from stealing from Jews and non-Jews, from anyone in the market. For if one begins by stealing from non-Jews, they will eventually steal from Jews as well...If they spill the blood of a non-Jew eventually they will shed that of a Jew as well. The Torah was not given for that but in order to sanctify God’s great Name...‘And you shall proclaim My greatness among the nations (Isaiah 66:19).’

משנה אבות א׳:ו׳

(ו) יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בֶּן פְּרַחְיָה וְנִתַּאי הָאַרְבֵּלִי קִבְּלוּ מֵהֶם. יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בֶּן פְּרַחְיָה אוֹמֵר, עֲשֵׂה לְךָ רַב, וּקְנֵה לְךָ חָבֵר, וֶהֱוֵי דָן אֶת כָּל הָאָדָם לְכַף זְכוּת:

Pirkei Avot 1:6

(6) Joshua ben Perahiah and Nittai the Arbelite received [the oral tradition] from them. Joshua ben Perahiah used to say: appoint for thyself a teacher, and acquire for thyself a companion and judge all men with the scale weighted in his favor.

רש"י על משנה אבות א׳:ו׳:א׳

יהושע בן פרחיה ונתאי הארבלי קבלו מהם. מיוסי בן יועזר ומיוסי בן יוחנן. יהושע בן פרחיה אומר הכי הוי מרגלא בפומיה והכי אמרינן בכולהו: עשה לך רב. שלא תהא אתה למד לעצמך מסברא אלא מן הרב ומן השמועה: וקנה לך חבר. אמרי לה ספרים ואמרי לה חבר ממש לפי שטובים השנים מן האחד וכן הוא אומר חרב אל הבדים ונואלו: והוי דן את כל האדם לכף זכות. על כל שתשמע עליו אמור שנתכוון לטובה עד שתדע בבירור שאינו כן שאם אתה תדין כן ידונו אותך מן השמים לזכות כמו שמפורש בפ' מפנין:

Rashi on Avot 1:6:1

...And judge every person as meritorious. On everything that you hear about a person, say that they intended for good, until you know with certainty that it is not so. If you judge thus, they will judge you from heaven as meritorious, as is explained in the 18th chapter of Masechet Shabbat ("Perek Mefanin").

וכן אמרו רז״‎ל והוי דן את כל האדם לכף זכות והוי מקבל את כל האדם בסבר פנים יפות ואמרו מאד מאד הוי שפל רוח ואמרו יהי אדם רך כקנה ואל יהי קשה כארז לפיכך זכה קנה לחתוך ממנו קולמוס לכתוב בו ס״‎ת תפילין ומזוזות. Similarly, our sages taught "judge every man favorably" (Avos 1:6), "receive every person with a cheerful countenance" (Avos 1:15), and "Be very, very lowly of spirit" (Avos 4:4), and "One should always be flexible as a reed and not unyielding as a cedar. This is why the reed has merited to have made from it a quill to write a Sefer Torah, Tefilin and Mezuzot" (Taanis 20b). From "Duties of the Heart," 6th Treatise on submission, 10.8, Bachya Ibn Pakuda

ברכות י״ט ב:ט׳-י״א

תָּא שְׁמַע: גָּדוֹל כְּבוֹד הַבְּרִיּוֹת שֶׁדּוֹחֶה [אֶת] לֹא תַעֲשֶׂה שֶׁבַּתּוֹרָה. וְאַמַּאי? לֵימָא ״אֵין חׇכְמָה וְאֵין תְּבוּנָה וְאֵין עֵצָה לְנֶגֶד ה׳״! תַּרְגְּמַהּ רַב בַּר שְׁבָא קַמֵּיהּ דְּרַב כָּהֲנָא בְּלָאו דְּ״לֹא תָסוּר״. אֲחִיכוּ עֲלֵיהּ, לָאו דְּ״לֹא תָסוּר״ דְאוֹרָיְיתָא הִיא?! אָמַר רַב כָּהֲנָא: גַּבְרָא רַבָּה אָמַר מִילְּתָא, לָא תְּחִיכוּ עֲלֵיהּ. כׇּל מִילֵּי דְרַבָּנַן אַסְמְכִינְהוּ עַל לָאו דְּ״לֹא תָסוּר״, וּמִשּׁוּם כְּבוֹדוֹ שְׁרוֹ רַבָּנַן.

Berakhot 19b:9-11

The Gemara cites an additional proof from a baraita: Come and hear: Great is human dignity, as it overrides a prohibition in the Torah. The Gemara asks: Why? Let us also say here: “There is neither wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel against the Lord.” Rav bar Shaba interpreted this prohibition, which is overridden by human dignity, before Rav Kahana as referring to the prohibition of: “According to the Torah taught to you and the ruling handed down to you, you shall do, you shall not deviate to the left or the right from that which they tell you” (Deuteronomy 17:11). The Yeshiva students laughed at him, as the prohibition of “you shall not deviate” is by Torah law, like all other Torah prohibitions. Why should human dignity override it any more than any other Torah prohibition? Rav Kahana replied to them: A great man has spoken, do not laugh at him. The Sages based all rabbinic law on the prohibition of “you shall not deviate”; however, due to concern for human dignity, the Sages permitted suspension of rabbinic law in cases where the two collide. All rabbinic decrees are predicated on the mitzva in the Torah to heed the judges in each generation and to never stray from their words. Therefore, when the Sages suspend a decree in the interest of preserving human dignity, human dignity is overriding a Torah prohibition. In any case, it only overrides rabbinic decrees.