by RABBI NOAM GROSS | April 21, 2026 8:34 pm
Negative Surroundings
‘Do not perform the practices of the land of Egypt in which you dwelled; and do not perform the practices of the land of Canaan to which I bring you…’ (Vayikra 18:3)
Before detailing the list of forbidden relationships the Torah instructs us: ‘Do not perform the practices of the land of Egypt in which you dwelled; and do not perform the practices of the land of Canaan to which I bring you…’ Rashi writes that Egypt and Canaan were the most morally decadent nations in the world, and in particular the areas in which the Jews dwelled were the worst places of these countries. Why did God deliberately place the Jewish people in the most corrupt places on Earth?
Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler answers this question in an essay in which he discusses how one should react to negative surroundings. He observes that a negative society can have a very detrimental effect on a person. However, if he is strong enough so that the negative influences do not affect him, it can actually strengthen him in his Divine Service. How is this so? Rav Dessler explains that when he sees the surrounding evil it becomes more disgusting in his eyes because he attains a greater recognition of its negativity. This enables him to strengthen himself even further in his appreciation of good. Based on this understanding of human nature, Rav Dessler makes the observation that can explain why God deliberately placed the Jewish people in the most degenerate places on Earth.
God deliberately placed the Jewish people in Egypt so that they could develop an intense hatred of its great impurity which, he writes, was indeed a motivation for crying out to God to free them from this terrible place. This intense disgust enabled them to rapidly rise from being on the 49th level of impurity to reaching the level of being able to receive the Torah. Had they found themselves in a less immoral environment then they would not have been able to rise to such a high level.
This too would seem to explain why the Jewish people had to go to a similarly abhorrent land. Seeing the highly immoral behavior of the Canaanite nations was intended to intensify their disgust at evil and in turn, heighten their appreciation of Torah morality.
Rav Dessler uses this concept to help understand another passage discussed in this week’s portion – the Seir l’Azazel (the He-Goat to Azazel). On the most holy day of the year, Yom Kippur, the Torah commands us to take a goat through the desert and throw it off a cliff (Vayikra 16:20). What is the significance of leading the goat through the desert? Rav Dessler explains that the desert is the place where people sacrifice goats to negative forces. By leading the goat through this impure place and being exposed to its impurity on Yom Kippur, the people become further strengthened in their Divine Service and offer this goat from a place of immense purity.
In today’s world, there is a constant danger of being effected in a negative way by various harmful influences. Rav Dessler’s principle can help us deal with these influences and perhaps even see them as an impetus for the greater good. By observing the negative that surrounds us we can enhance our appreciation for the beauty of the Torah’s instructions and boundaries, and the lifestyle that comes with it.
Going Upwards
‘Perform My Laws, and guard My Statutes,to go in them, I am God.’ (Vayikra 18:4)
In the midst of the Portion’s outline of various mitzvot, the Torah exhorts us with regard to our observance of the Torah in a general sense: ‘Perform My Laws, and guard My Statutes, to go in them, I am God.’ The meaning of the words, ‘to go in them’ is unclear; what is this adding to the command to observe the Torah? The Ktav Sofer (Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Binyomin Sofer) points out that the opposite of ‘going’ is the word ‘omed’, which means standing. It is used in relation to Angels, as it says in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (6:2): “The Serafim [a type of angel] stand opposite him.” Angels ‘stand’ in the sense that they remain stationary in their spiritual level, they have no connection to the concept of growth. Therefore, in contrast, the Torah tells us to be in a state of ‘going’, which means that we constantly strive to improve our spiritual level and to avoid standing still.
The Ktav Sofer makes a similar point in Parashat Bechukotai on the opening verse: “If you will go in My statutes, and keep my mitzvot, and do them.” (Vayikra 26:3) The Ktav Sofer writes: ‘It is not enough that you keep the mitzvot every day on the same level as on the previous days, rather you should constantly go from one level to a higher level, and perform the mitzvah in a better and more praiseworthy fashion.’
We see from the Ktav Sofer that in addition to keeping the mitzvot, one must constantly strive to go forward in his Divine Service and that ‘standing still’ is not an option. It seems further that with regard to human beings there is no such concept as ‘remaining on the same spiritual level’, rather one is either going forward or backward, and it is only angels who are able to remain stationary without going backwards. This idea is expressed in a homiletical explanation of the prohibition of going up steps when approaching the Altar in the Mishkan (the Tabernacle) to perform the Divine Service. Instead of steps they were to build a ramp going up to the Altar. Why must one go up a ramp as opposed to steps? When climbing up a steep ramp one must exert forward movement merely to remain still. If one tries to be stationary, the steepness of the slope will cause them to actually go backwards. You will only remain in the same place with a certain amount of forward pressure and will only advance with a greater display of forward movement. In contrast when one walks up steps, they are able to stay still without fear of falling back since the surface they are standing on is flat. This teaches us that when one approaches Divine Service, they must actively exert themselves in order to remain stable, and to go forward they needs to exert themselves even more. The modern day analogy of this is trying to go up an escalator that is moving down.
This explanation however begs a new question: why is it the case that when a person makes no active effort they actually go backwards as opposed to staying stationary? The reason is that the yetzer hara (negative inclination) makes a constant effort to bring a person down in their spiritual level. Therefore, if the person is not making any active effort to go forward then it is inevitable that they will be going backwards since the yetzer hara will be busy pushing them back and there will be no counteractive force to keep them steady.
One may still ask that we look at many people who do not seem to be making any active effort to grow and yet they seem to remain on the same level. It doesn’t appear that they are deteriorating spiritually? It seems that there are two aspects to the decline that takes place. One is that on a very subtle level the yetzer hara does gradually weaken a person in their Divine Service. This is such a subtle process that it is not evident to onlookers, and normally even the people themselves are unaware of their gradual decline! The second way in which they go down is that the longer they don’t work on areas where they are lacking, they fall deeper and deeper into the trap of habit. The more a person continues with their bad habits the harder it becomes to pull themselves away from their erroneous behavior. Only by great effort will they be able to break their bad habits.
We have seen how fundamental active growth is to Divine Service and how there is no option of standing still in one’s spirituality. This lesson is very pertinent as we strive to learn the lessons from the recent Yom Tov of Pesach; Pesach was the time when the power of renewal is at its highest level. A person who resolved to make a strong effort to grow in their Divine Service will receive great Siyata Dishmaya (Heavenly help) on Pesach. Even after Pesach is over we are now in the time period of Sefirat HaOmer (Counting of the Omer), a time that is particularly powerful for working on one’s character traits in preparation for the Receiving of the Torah on the Yom Tov of Shavuot. Obviously, it is important that a person not take on too much in their efforts at growth, perhaps it is more advisable to take one area where one feels that they are in somewhat of a rut, and make a concerted effort at growing in that area, whether it be Shabbat observance, Torah learning, prayer, guarding our speech, marriage, parenting or any number of areas. When we really dedicate ourselves to grow then surely The Almighty will enable us to succeed.
Who Comes First
You shall not take revenge and you shall not bear a grudge against the members of your people; you shall love your neighbor as yourself – I am God. (Vayikra 19:18)
Rashi on You shall love your neighbor as yourself: “Rebbe Akiva says, this is a fundamental principle of the Torah.”
The Torah famously instructs us to relate to our fellow man in the same way that we relate to ourselves. Rashi quotes Rebbe Akiva who explains that this is a fundamental principle of the Torah, which the commentaries explain to mean that numerous other commandments are built on the foundation of the commandment of ‘love your neighbor’. The Chatam Sofer (Rabbi Moshe Sofer) notes a contradiction between Rebbe Akiva’s words here and another principle that he expounds in another place.
The Gemara in Bava Metzia (62a) discusses a situation where two people find themselves in the desert and only one of them has a bottle of water. There is enough water available to enable one of them to survive until they reach civilization. What should the person with the bottle do? Ben Beteira argues that he cannot leave his fellow to die alone, rather they must share the bottle. Rebbe Akiva argues, and derives from the Torah a concept known as ‘chayecha kodmim’ (your life comes first) – that a person has the right to put his life before the life of his fellow. Accordingly, Rebbe Akiva rules that the person with the bottle may keep it.
The Chatam Sofer writes that these two sayings of Rebbe Akiva seem to contradict themselves. His elucidation of the commandment of ‘love your neighbor’ seems to imply that one must treat his fellow man in the same way as himself, whereas his principle of ‘chayecha kodmim’ suggests that a person can put himself before his friend.
He offers a fascinating answer to this question by differentiating between the physical and spiritual realm: The case in Bava Metzia is in the physical realm – there Rebbe Akiva holds that one can put his own physical needs before those of his friend. However, in parashat Kedoshim Rebbe Akiva is referring to the spiritual realm; with regards to spirituality he argues that one must treat his fellow exactly the same as himself. To buttress his point, he says that is why Rebbe Akiva says that ‘this a fundamental principle in the Torah’. Why couldn’t Rebbe Akiva simply say that this is a fundamental principle and stop there? The fact that he added the words, ‘in the Torah’ alludes to the fact that in the realm of Torah, that is, the spiritual sphere, one must take the words of ‘love your neighbor’ literally and treat his friend the same as himself.
One implication of his explanation, he argues, is that a person should be willing to stop his own learning in order to teach someone else. This seems difficult to understand because he seems to be telling us to put our fellow before us by teaching them; this goes further than treating them equally. He explains, however, that when a person teaches someone else, they both benefit – the student for being taught, and also the teacher benefits from his teaching as well.
A further question on the Chatam Sofer’s explanation is why should there be a difference between the physical and spiritual realms with regard to how one treats his fellow? Why, in the spiritual realm, must he treat his fellow like himself, whereas, in the physical realm, he can put himself first? It seems that the answer is based on the metaphysical concept that the Jewish nation is one spiritual entity. The commentaries compare it to one spiritual body where each Jew represents a different part of that body. This gives rise to the concept of ‘kol yisrael arevim zeh lazeh’- that each Jew is responsible for each other. This goes so far as to mean that when one Jew fails spiritually, then it is considered as if other Jews also fell. In contrast, on a physical level each person is separate simply because each person’s body is separate from every one else. Accordingly, whilst there is an obligation to care for your fellow Jew’s physical needs, it does not reach the extent where one must treat his fellow exactly as himself.
The explanation of the Chatam Sofer and its halachic implications are subject to great debate. Yet its philosophical ramifications are relevant to all of us. They remind us that while it is obvious to us that the physical well being of our fellow Jews must be taken care of, the spiritual well-being of our fellow Jew is something that should also be at the forefront of our concerns, because their failings are our failings and their achievements are our achievements.
3000 years ago our ancestors stood at Sinai ‘as one man with one heart’ (see Rashi on Shemos 19:2). Today the Jewish people are still in it together in every way. May we all experience G-d’s miracles together as well.
Source URL: https://partnersjewishlife.org/parshas-acharei-mos-5786/
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