Parshas Mishpatim - No Dogs Go to Heaven

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