Illustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio
Halakhah הֲלָכָה
Has anyone ever asked you for advice? And was there ever a time where it might have helped you to give someone else bad advice or information? If it hasn’t happened to you yet—it will.
Imagine you are playing a game with someone who is still learning the rules. They ask you if they should make a certain move, and you tell them, “Yes!” But actually, that move will help you win and you are taking advantage of them.
Or maybe they want to sell you something and they ask you for a fair price. You tell them a price you know is very low, and they agree. Is it allowed to do things like that?
Our parashah has something to say about it:
וְלִפְנֵי עִוֵּר לֹא תִתֵּן מִכְשֹׁל
And don’t place a stumbling block in front of a blind person
It sounds like this is about literally tripping somebody with an actual object on the ground. That’s certainly not allowed. But the Rabbis interpret the pasuk to also mean much more than that:
...וְכֵן כָּל הַמַּכְשִׁיל עִוֵּר בַּדָּבָר וְהִשִּׂיאוֹ עֵצָה שֶׁאֵינָהּ הוֹגֶנֶת...הֲרֵי זֶה עוֹבֵר בְּלֹא תַּעֲשֶׂה שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר "וְלִפְנֵי עִוֵּר לֹא תִתֵּן מִכְשֹׁל."
הַבָּא לִטֹּל מִמְּךָ עֵצָה תֵּן לוֹ עֵצָה הַהוֹגֶנֶת לוֹ.
…And anyone who leads astray someone who is “blind” about something and gives them bad advice… that person violates the prohibition of lifnei iver (“in front of a blind person…”).
If someone asks you for advice, give them good advice!
Some people can’t see because they lost their eyesight, or were born that way. But all of us sometimes can’t “see” in the sense that we don’t have all the information we need. When we turn to each other for help, the Torah expects us to be there for each other, to do our best to guide each other to good decisions.
It can be pretty easy to trick other people and get away with it. Our tradition calls this mitzvah a דָּבָר מָסוּר לַלֵּב (davar masur lalev)—something that is entrusted to each person’s heart. Only you know in your heart if you are giving good or bad advice—follow the Torah and help people out!
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