Parashat Yitro 5782
Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, Rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites
In Parashat Yitro, we read the description of the most awesome event in human history: the giving of the Torah by G-d Himself. Fifty days after the children of Israel left Egypt, this incredible revelation of G-d’s presence took place. The Torah and commandments given at Mount Sinai reveal the deepest secret to us: how to live a complete life.
The Ten Commandments were given at Mount Sinai; ten commandments that are the core of the Jewish nation’s covenant with G-d. At the end of this event, for forty days and nights, G-d began to teach Moses all the commandments, laws, rules and lifestyle directives included in this covenant between G-d and His nation.
The tenth and final of the ten commandments is perhaps the hardest to implement:
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, his donkey, or whatever belongs to your neighbor.
(Exodus 20, 14)
Following a series of commandments dealing with recognizing G-d’s presence and the proper behavior between people comes a commandment that delves into man’s most hidden desires and wishes: “You shall not covet!” Man is commanded not to feel the feeling of desiring something that isn’t his, even if it is something very desirable.
This commandment sounds like one that only a select few would be able to apply. Even those who believe in free will and in man’s ability to control himself and his behavior still conceive of hidden urges and desires as instinctive, and therefore not subject to restraint.
Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra was a poet, philosopher, scientist and great biblical commentator in Spain of the 12th century. In explaining the tremendous significance of this commandment, he offered a wonderful parable:
Many people are amazed at this commandment. They ask, how is it possible for a person not to covet in his heart all beautiful things that appear desirable to him? I will now give you a parable. Note, a peasant of sound mind who sees a beautiful princess will not entertain any covetous thoughts…for he knows that this is an impossibility. This peasant will not think like the insane who desire to sprout wings and fly to the sky, for it is impossible to do so…So must every intelligent person know that a person does not acquire a beautiful woman or money because of his intelligence or wisdom, but only in accordance with what God has apportioned to him…The intelligent person will therefore neither desire nor covet. Once he knows that God has prohibited his neighbor’s wife to him she will be more exalted in his eyes than the princess is in the eyes of the peasant. He will therefore be happy with his lot and will not allow his heart to covet and desire anything which is not his. For he knows that that which God did not want to give him… He will therefore trust in his creator, that is, that his creator will sustain him and do what is right in His sight.
(Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra Exodus 20, 14)
The Ibn Ezra describes a parable drawn from the world of class distinctions. A peasant meets a beautiful princess. Assuming he is of sound mind, he will not develop any desire for her since he knows there is no chance for someone of his status to marry the princess. He does not desire the princess just as he does not desire to have wings so he can fly in the sky.
The moral is just as wonderful as the parable and is relevant today as well. Our property and assets, our partners and the people we are privileged to have present in our lives, are all gifts from G-d. No matter how much we strive to attain something that G-d did not intend for us to have we will not succeed, just as we will never grow wings. In the commandment of “You shall not covet,” G-d is asking us to adopt this world view that sees everything we have as G-d given. This will lead us to not coveting something that isn’t ours.
The Torah given to us at Mount Sinai teaches us that man’s desires and urges are not disconnected from his thoughts and way of life and are the direct result of how he sees the world.
