Parshas Ki Seitzei
Kavod Ha'adom vs. Kavod Hashem
Same Difference
By: Daniel Listhaus
“If a man will have committed a sin whose judgment is death and he shall be put to death, and you shall hang him on a wooden beam. His body shall not remain for the night on the wooden beam, rather you shall surely bury him on that day, for a hanging person is an insult of Hashem...”
-Ki Seitzei 21:22-23
Rashi1 comments that we do not leave the body hanging because man is made in the image of Hashem, and the Jews are His sons. To leave a body hanging would therefore be a degradation of the King. Rashi continues and gives the following moshol (parable): There were two identical twin brothers. One became a king, while the other became involved in thievery and was hung. Whoever would see him hanging would say, “The king is hanging!”
There are a couple of questions here which beg to be asked on this Rashi. Granted, man was created with the image of Hashem and we are His children. However, at the end of the day, this guy did an aveirah deserving of death2. Last week's parsha stated many times that we should show no mercy to those deserving of punishment for not following the laws of the Torah3. Why is it then that, when it comes to keeping the man hanging, the Torah suddenly seems to show mercy for his corpse? Furthermore, if we take everything Rashi says literally, then this whole concept seems difficult to understand. Is it really true that if one will see a man hanging that he will say about it that Hashem is hanging? Certainly not! So what exactly is going on here? What is the underlying reason why we do not leave the man hanging? And how could we understand Rashi's concern of people immediately associating man with Hashem?
Later on in the parsha, the passukim resume dealing with the halachos (laws) of going out to battle. The passuk4 tells us that there is a commandment for each soldier who goes out to battle to carry a shovel, in addition to the rest of his weaponry. The reason for this, as the Torah itself tells us, is in order to be able to use it to dig and cover one's excrement.
Let us think for a moment about this strange mitzva. It does not take a military expert to know that when going to battle one must pack only essentials. A gun5 is a good idea. A canteen of water is a good idea. A heavy solid metal shovel is not a bad idea...it is a TERRIBLE idea! Why tire out an entire army by making each soldier carry such an instrument?6
Furthermore, the Gemara7 learns out an amazing limud from this passuk. The passuk says, “There should be a spade among your weaponry”. The Hebrew word for “your weaponry” is “A'zei'ne'cha” which is very similar to the word for “your ears” - “A'za'ne'cha”. With this, the Gemara goes on to say a halacha; that we learn from here that if someone is about to hear something which is not nice [such as lashon harah or nivul peh], one should put his fingers – which are shaped as spades – into his ears.
There is obviously a connection between this halacha and the halacha that each soldier must carry a spade into battle, based on the similarity of words. This alone would certainly allow chazal to make their limud. However, is there perhaps a deeper connection linking these seemingly very different halachos together?
Perhaps there is an common denominator between the hanging man, digging excrement, and listening to evil speech. Let us start our analysis with the shovel one is required to carry during battle. From the fact that the Torah demands that it be part of the weaponry, it must be because it is just as important as the weaponry. We could try to understand this based on the following. We know that there are two elements to everything we do: our hishtadlus – the effort we put in, and siyata d'shmaya – aid from Hashem. Certainly the weaponry we bring with us to battle is the hishtadlus we put in. The shovel, on the other hand, is our symbol for siyata d'shmaya. The halacha8 is that it is assur (forbidden) to daven in front of excrement, since it is unfitting for Hashem to come to such a place. Since it is through tefillah that we ask for siyata d'shmaya, a spade or shovel is certainly a necessity in order to be able to utilize our real weapon - davening. Looking at this in a broader sense, another way of presenting this idea is that in order to create an environment of kavod Hashem (honor/respect of Hashem), a necessary prerequisite is the practicing of kavod ha'briyos (respect of creations [i.e. humans]).
Perhaps this is the underlying theme behind the hanging man, digging excrement, and listening to evil speech. All three are commandments guarding the basics of kavod ha'adom (respect of mankind). It is forbidden to say or listen to lashon harah because it is fundamentally disregarding others. Forgetting to exercise kavod ha'adom during battle has a direct positive correlation with not showing kavod Hashem. Therefore, the shechina will not fight alongside the hishtadlus of the army. The same is true when it comes to the death penalty. If the Torah demands the death of an individual, it is certainly mandatory to do so, and, as the Torah says, with showing no mercy. However, when it comes to leaving the corpse hanging – a most degrading thing, Hashem says you have gone too far. As Rashi9 states, “Leaving the corpse hanging is a degradation to the King, for man is made in the likeness of His image”. Again, we see that not showing proper kavod ha'adom automatically means not recognizing proper kavod Hashem.
Respect for humans is something so basic and so necessary, it is required to be rehearsed even during the hardest of times. Without it – and therefore without the basic understanding of chashivus ha'adom (greatness of man) – Hashem will not come to help.
Why is this so? Why is it that kavod ha'adom and kavod Hashem are so closely interconnected?
The Alter of Slabodka writes in his incredible work, Ohr HaTzafun10, that the passuk in Beraishis tells us that Hashem created man in His image and His likeness. Hashem created man as his own miniature world11. Just as the world has a King – Hashem, so too each of our own little worlds has a king – the neshama which Hashem breathed into us. The neshama, which connects every person with Hashem, is so precious that when man was created, the melachim wanted to sing praises12.
The Gemara13 relates the famous story of a man who came to Hillel and asked him to teach him the whole Torah while standing on one foot. Hillel responded, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah while the rest is commentary; go and learn it.” Hashem, and his Torah, is the source for all kavod. Yet, man resembles Hashem and therefore, kavod ha'adom and kavod Hashem overlap on many fronts. This is why the Gemara14 has a whole discussion as to which laws we would push away if they would conflict with kavod habriyos. At one point the Gemara even wants to say that kavod habriyos is docheh (supersedes [literally: push away]) even a lo sa'aseh (negative commandment)! This is not because kavod habriyos is better than the Torah, rather because it is the Torah and is kavod Hashem.15 When one honors his fellow man (for the proper reasons), he is in essence honoring Hashem. It is based on this that Rabbi Akiva taught16, “v'ahavta l'rei'acha ka'mocha zeh k'lal gadol ba'torah – You shall love your fellow as yourself. This is a great rule in the Torah.”.
Anything that goes contrary to the axiom of “v'ahavta l'rei'acha ka'mocha 101” - the basic principle of loving one's friends as one loves oneself - is by definition against the Torah. It disregards kavod ha'adom and therefore, by definition, kavod Hashem as well. This is why we cannot leave the corpse hanging, must carry a shovel into battle, and are required to stick our fingers in our ears when we are at risk of hearing lashon harah.
An even more basic element contained in v'ahavta l'rei'acha kamocha is that each of us has an obligation to love ourselves17. Only once we respect ourselves for being created in the image of Hashem, could we be prepared to respect others. And only once we have an appreciation for others, could we be ready to honor Hashem. In this way, kavod ha'adom is not just a prerequisite to kavod Hashem, but is really itself kavod Hashem.
1Devarim 21:23
2Not to mention the process it takes to actually prove someone deserving of the death penalty. The person has to have been warned, and the two people who witnessed him doing it anyway go through a strenuous cross examination by Beis Din to verify that their stories match. The Mishna in Makkos 7a states that because of this process, a Beis Din that killed more than one man every seventy years was known as a “bloody Beis Din”.
4Devarim 23:14
5They probably had more swords, spears, and bows and arrows than guns, but that is beside the point.
6The seriousness of the commandment that each solider must carry a shovel, could be seen quite clearly because Rashi explains the passuk to mean, “Take the shovel besides the other implements you use”. The Be'er B'sadeh comments that Rashi uses the word besides instead of in addition to in order to bring out the following point: Even though the solider has other instruments with him which could perhaps be used to dig holes in the ground as well, still, do not rely on those tools because sometimes in battle the ground will be hard and one may choose not to put so much pressure on his weapons and will therefore not make a deep enough hole to fully cover his excrement.
7Kesuvos 5a-5b
8Shulchan Aruch Ohr HaChayim Siman 79
9Devarim 21:23
10Cheilek Alef: “D'mus Ha'adom”
11See commentaries on Koheles 9:14 as well as Orchos Tzadikkim: Sha'ar Yiras Shamayim
12Bereishis Rabbah 8
13Shabbos 31a
14Berachos 19b
15And even according to the end of the Gemara that kavod habriyos is only docheh a de'rabannan b'kum ve'asheh and de'oraisah only by a shev ve'al ta'aseh, we only come to that conclusion by learning it from a passuk, which the Gemara explains is coming to teach that if there would be a chilul Hashem, we do whatever we must to stop it. But this further agrees with our point. Kavod habriyos and kavod Hashem are the same. So in cases where doing kavod habriyos may cause chilul Hashem, then obviously that would not fall under the category of kavod habriyos.
17This is obvious because how could we love others as we do ourselves, if we do not love ourselves.
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