Parshas
Mishpatim
No
Dogs Go to Heaven
By:
Daniel Listhaus
וְאַנְשֵׁי
קֹדֶשׁ תִּהְיוּן לִי וּבָשָׂר בַּשָּׂדֶה
טְרֵפָה לֹא תֹאכֵלוּ לַכֶּלֶב תַּשְׁלִכוּן
אֹתוֹ
“People
of holiness shall you be unto me; and flesh in the field that has
been torn you shall not
eat;
you shall throw it to the dog.”
-Mishpatim
22:30
Rashi1
comments that the passuk
(verse) is not really precise because certainly, just as one could
feed the treif2
meat
to the dogs, one could also sell or give it to a goy
(non-Jew). Rashi
then
offers two reasons as to why the Torah did not just write that it
could be given to a goy.
The first reason is because the Torah is coming to teach that it is
better to be a dog than a someone
who
worships idols.3
Furthermore, Rashi
writes,
the passuk
is
trying to demonstrate that Hashem does not deprive any creature of
its reward.
When
the B'nei
Yisroel were
leaving Mitzrayim,
the Torah4
testifies that not one dog “sharpened its tongue” [i.e. -barked].
This was abnormal for a number of reasons. First, any dog owner knows
that when a stranger comes into a house, the dogs will start barking.
Certainly this should have happened in the case of B'nei
Yisroel,
who
were going into every house collecting all the valuables, jewelery,
gold, and silver. Furthermore, the Gemara5
states that at a time when the Malach
Hamaves (Angel
of Death) comes to a city, the dogs bark. The time that the B'nei
Yisroel left
Mitzrayim
was
by makas
bechoros (plague
of death to the firstborns). At that point, Mitzriyim
(Egyptians)
were dying left and right and under normal circumstances the dogs
should have barked. However, for the B'nei
Yisroel,
they kept their mouths shut. For this, Hashem rewarded all dogs to
come by mentioning in the Torah that treif
meat
be thrown to the dogs.
The
question is, however, why is it that Hashem considered this a fair
reward? The dogs did something out of the ordinary for B'nei
Yisroel.
Wouldn't it be more fitting for Hashem to create a “Dog Heaven”
filled of dog toys where they could chase their tails for as long as
they want? After all, a person who refrains from speaking lashon
harah (evil
speech) or uses his mouth for Torah or other good things is rewarded
in the eternal world to come. Yet the dogs, who on their level
basically did the same thing by refraining from barking at B'nei
Yisroel,
seem to be getting a cheap reward of mere scraps of treif
meat.
Why is this so?
Using
the above question as a spring-board, let us ask an even more potent
question along the same lines. The Gemara6
relates that Moshe rabbeinu
asked Hashem three things. The first was that Hashem's shechina
rest
on B'nei
Yisroel – and
Hashem granted Moshe this request. The second was that the shechina
not
rest on the goyim
– and Hashem granted Moshe this one as well. The third request was
that Hashem explain to Moshe His ways. There is actually a machlokes
(dispute)
in the Gemara
whether
Hashem answered this one or not. However, everyone seems to agree
what the specific question was. Moshe wanted to understand why it is
that there are tzadikkim
(righteous
people) to whom good things happen, yet there are also tzadikkim
who
experience disasters and are greatly challenged throughout their
lives. Along the same lines, Moshe wanted to comprehend why it is
that although, granted, there are certainly resha'im
(wicked people) to whom bad things happen, there are plenty of
resha'im
who
indeed live great lives with everything seeming to go their way. This
is a fundamental question which has bothered many since the beginning
of time and is often expressed at some point in everyone's life: Why
do bad thing happen to good people, and why do good things happen to
bad people?
According
to the one who holds that Hashem did in fact answer this third
request of Moshe, Hashem answered the following. The tzadikkim
who
only experience good in both this world and the next are those in the
category of tzaddik
gamur (complete
tzaddik), while the tzaddik
who
goes through hardships in this world is someone who is actually not a
complete tzaddik.
Similarly, those
who
experiences only bad in this world and the next are those in the
category of rasha
gamur (complete
rasha),
while the rasha
who
experiences goodness in this world is in fact someone who is not a
complete rasha.
This
Gemara
seems
to contradict itself. Imagine a spectrum where on the extreme left is
the world-class rasha
and
all the way on the right is the biggest tzaddik.
Hashem causes only the best things to happen to the biggest tzaddik
and
only the worst to the biggest rasha.
Yet, when dealing with those in the middle of the spectrum, the
Gemara
sounds
quite confused. Why should the person who is not the biggest tzaddik
be
any worse than the one who is a few aveiros
(sins)
away from being the worst rasha?
They are both in the same uncategorized gray area in the middle area.
Even if we were to draw invisible lines within the spectrum and put
the semi-tzaddik
closer
to the right and the quasi-rasha
closer
to the left, still, how could we understand their respective
destinies of the tzaddik
suffering
for his aveiros
while the rasha
is
successful and merry from his mitzvos?
The
Maharsha7
comes to address this issue and explains Hashem's answer to Moshe in
the following way. Those who are really tzadikkim
but
who have done a few aveiros
indeed
need to be punished. However, Hashem does the tzaddik
a
favor by instead punishing him in Olam
Ha'zeh
(this world) in order that he be able to get his complete reward in
Olam
Habbah
(the next world) with no deficiencies. The quasi-rasha,
on the other hand, despite the fact that he is really a rasha,
still, since he managed to do a few mitzvos,
he must be rewarded. However, Hashem would rather reward him with the
small stuff in this world in order that the rasha's
punishment
truly be maximized in Olam
Habbah.
The
question on this which begs to be asked is that this system does not
seem fair at all. The mishna8
declares
that one moment of time in Olam
Habbah is
better than all the time a person could possibly live in Olam
Ha'zeh.
So, imagine that the rasha
did
some mitzva
everyday
of his life – he put on tallis
and tefillin
each
morning. The tzaddik
certainly
did so as well. So why is it fair that the tzaddik
will
be rewarded for this in Olam
Habbah
whereas the rasha
will
be forced to get an incomparably smaller reward in this world?
Furthermore,
leaving this unfair comparison aside, the Gemara9
says
that it is not possible to reward a mitzva
in
this world, rather because of the greatness of doing a mitzva
its
reward is only possible to give in Olam
Habbah.
If so, even if somehow it would be considered fair that the
semi-rasha
be
rewarded differently for doing the same mitzva
as
the semi-tzaddik,
shouldn't it still be impossible for the rasha
to
be rewarded for his mitzvos
in
this world?
In
order to understand these contradictions, we must return to the fact
there is no such thing as Dog Heaven. Unlike a person who is
partially made of ruchniyos
(spirituality
[i.e.- a Holy spirit from Hashem]), a dog is completely comprised of
gashmiyus
made
from earth without a neshama
(soul).
A dog does nothing on the ruchniyus
scale
nor could it ever appreciate it, therefore it is never rewarded in
any way other than through gashmiyus.
This
is an idea that is not foreign to us. Take the following example.
Imagine you lost your wallet and in desperation put up a sign saying
that you will offer a one-hundred dollar reward to anyone who could
find your wallet. Later that day, your four-year-old son loses a toy
under the couch and while searching for it pulls out the missing
wallet along with some other junk which found their way under the
couch. You see this and are so happy with your son for finding your
wallet, even though it was completely accidental, and so you go and
buy him a special candy. The child, not even sure what he did good,
is ecstatic and enjoys the special candy immensely. In this example,
what happened to the one-hundred dollar reward you offered? You were
willing to give that amount of money to anyone who could find the
wallet, so why are you cheating your son out of all the cash just
because you could get away with it? The answer is simple. In the
child's eyes, the money is worthless, whereas the special candy is
worth all the money in the world.
Similarly,
the Ma'bit10
writes that as the Gemara
says,
it is truly impossible to reward a mitzva
in
this world. Doing a mitzva
means
carrying out the word of G-d and the reward for doing so is infinite.
As he explains, the s'char
v'onesh (reward
and punishment) system is in place for those who do or transgress
mitzvos
of the Torah. The Torah comes from the Olam
Ha'Elyon (upper
world) and therefore, by extension, its rewards and punishments must
also be from there in the same currency.
Following
this idea, when it comes to those who are being rewarded or punished
in this world, it must be that their rewards and punishments are not
actually from keeping or transgressing the Torah but rather for doing
other things. What are these other things? What is there to be
rewarded or punished for if not the based on the Torah? The answer is
that rewards in this world are for people who do mitzvos
shelo lishma.
In other words, people do mitzvos
all
the time – we come to shul
because others may notice if we miss, we make berachos
subconsciously
because that's the way we grew up, we throw our tefillin
on
each morning because that is the habit we got used to, and the list
goes on. However, when we do the mitzvos
in
this fashion, we are not truly fulfilling the mitzvos
in
the way they are supposed to be done commanded from the Olam
Ha'Elyon,
and therefore the reward for doing mitzvos
in
this way does not come from there either. Rather, the reward comes
from Olam
Hazeh.
The
opposite holds true as well. People who are overall trying very hard
but just cannot make it to being a complete tzaddik
because
they get caught up in some aveiros
along
the way. These aveiros
are
not ones which such a person is trying to do, on the contrary, he is
trying very hard to work on himself and strives to be the complete
tzaddik.
Therefore, although there must be consequences for these actions, the
punishment will not be the harsh punishments of Olam
Ha'Elyon,
but rather will be carried out through inconveniences and troubles in
this world.
With
this in mind we could now understand Hashem's answer to Moshe. The
tzaddik
gamur (complete
tzaddik)
experiences only good in both this world and the next, while the
rasha
gamur experiences
only bad in both worlds. When it comes to the gray area in the
middle, it depends on who you really are which will define the rest
of your actions. The semi-rasha
who
happened to have done a few mitzvos
clearly does not care about the mitzvos
as
being direct commandments from Hashem, otherwise he would have tried
to work himself towards being a tzaddik.
Therefore, although his good deeds require reward, they will be
rewarded for in this world. However, the semi-tzaddik
who
spends his life working towards the right side of the spectrum,
although he may have a number of aveiros
on
his list, those will be punished in this world rather than in the
next world because they are really lower-leveled aveiros
since
they were not done purposely or specifically to go against the word
of Hashem.
May
Hashem help us do the mitzvos
for
the right reasons and help us turn all of our mitzvos
she'lo lishma's into
lishma.
This way we will be on the path of at least the tzaddik
she'eino gamur
instead of the rasha
she'eino gamur,
and ultimately achieve the level of the tzaddik
who
only experiences good in both this world and the next.
1Shemos
22:30
2Treif
here in he passuk
does not mean like the way we
incorrectly use the term now-a-days to simply mean “non-kosher
meat”, rather it specifically means torn meat which cannot be
slaughtered properly.
3See
Gur Aryeh (Shemos
22:30). This does not mean that
it is better to be a dog than a goy,
after all, all people were created b'tzelem Elokim (in
the Image of Hashem) (Avos 3:18
[editions may vary]). Rather, Rashi is
saying that better be a dog than someone who chooses to worship
idols (something which is forbidden even for non-Jews) because such
a person has misused his potential whereas at least a dog is neutral
because it does not have free will.
4Shemos
11:7
5Bava
Kamma 60b
6Berachos
7a
7Ibid.
8Avos
4:22 [editions may vary]
9Kiddushin
39b
10Ma'bit:
Beis Elokim, Sha'ar Ha'yesodos 42
Photo Credit: http://inventorspot.com/articles/whats_in_those_50_calorie_dog_treats_12640
Photo Credit: http://inventorspot.com/articles/whats_in_those_50_calorie_dog_treats_12640
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