Once there was a king who had an identical twin brother, the king’s twin brother was the worst kind of criminal. One day the king’s criminal brother got caught, he was hung for his crimes, and his body was left hanging as a warning for others to not turn to a life of crime. Leaving a body hanging was, and unfortunately still is, a common punishment in some societies as a way to deter undesirable behavior. The idea being that the horror of seeing the remains of the criminal will scare people away from following in the criminal’s footsteps.
Although the motivation for this practice might be well meaning as a way to inspire proper behavior, there is still an immoral element to this sort of practice. In this week’s parsha we are commanded against doing such an act. When it comes to creating a moral society, the ends do not ever justify the means. Doing an immoral act, even if well intentioned in the desired outcome, leaves a mark on a person and on that society.
This is what our sages were trying to teach us in the story of the king and his criminal brother. The problem with leaving the body of the King’s criminal twin brother was that, when people saw the body hanging, it looked identical to the king’s, they didn’t know it was the king’s brother. They thought that the king had been overthrown and killed. Leaving the body of the king’s brother hanging might have seemed like the right thing to do, but it turned out to be an affront to the respect and authority of the king himself.
This Midrash continues by drawing a parallel between the king and his brother and the relationship between God and human beings. In the story, the disrespect to the identical twin brother of the king resulted in disrespect to the king as well, since the torah tells us that man is created in the image of God, the disrespect shown to human remains is also disrespectful to God. The failure to do the right thing here, and bury the person as soon as possible, is an immoral act which causes corruption. Immorality, no matter what, goes against what we stand for and who we are as a people.
So what are we supposed to stand for? I believe that this law is really the key to understanding the central theme of the entire torah portion that we read today. And that this central theme is a FUNDAMENTAL statement of what we stand for as a people and what it means to be a good Jew. With this law the torah is saying, doing something bad, no matter the intention, will corrupt you. But the lesson isn’t just a commandment of what not to do. The rest of the laws in this week’s parsha are a guide to us of how to have a moral society and be moral people.
Compassion is always at the core of what the torah is teaching us when it reminds us to remember the needs of the people in society who are the most vulnerable, like the widow, the orphan, and the stranger as it does in this week’s parsha. But we are also taught the lesson of being compassionate to the vulnerable in all aspects of life; whether it’s the way we do business: as we learn this week about paying workers on time, and not deliberately deceiving customers; or if it’s how to treat animals as we see in the commandment to send away a mother bird from her nest before taking her eggs.
Another example is the command to put a fence around your roof. While it might seem strange that the torah would be giving us advice on how to build a house, there is a fundamental moral lesson here. When we are commanded to build a fence around our roofs when building a house, we are being taught that we must be conscientious at all times because you never know how an action or inaction might hurt someone. In addition, this week’s Parsha has commandments regarding the respect an individual should have of other people’s boundaries both private and public, respect for marriage, paying debts, keeping true to your word, and so many more.
The torah is trying to teach us that it’s not enough to just not do bad things; we are being commanded to train ourselves, at our core, to be moral people who are respectful, conscientious and compassionate in all that we do. Although this lesson may seem simple, it is by no means unimportant. This is the fundamental mission of the Jewish people. Being a light unto the nations means being the example of a moral society, it means being proactively positive.
This lesson is really driven home by the bookends of the parsha. The parsha begins with the laws of warfare and ends with the commandment to never forget Amalek. Wartime can unfortunately be a time when morality is put on the side for what a well meaning society considers to be for the greater good. The torah is saying the Jewish people ALWAYS need to be a beacon of morality, even during war; the ends NEVER justify the means. It then continues with a list of ways in which a society and people need to be moral in their day to day lives. Some of which I discussed earlier. And then the final lesson, remembering Amalek, is a reminder of what is at stake. Amalek is the symbol to the Jewish people of all that is wrong and immoral with the world. Amalek is our archenemy because they exist to sow disorder, immorality and chaos. The best way for us to defeat Amalek is to stand for a world of order and morality.
Our tradition tells us ","סור מרע ועשה טוב stay away from Evil and do good. Today’s parsha is saying be aware how doing bad no matter what is dangerous, therefore make a point to not only stay away from bad, but pro-actively seek to do good. This is always an important lesson, but now in the time leading up to the high holidays it is a lesson that should be ever more present in our minds as we prepare for the upcoming holidays.
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