The weekly Torah portion Ki Teitzei contains the largest number of commandments in the Torah – 72. The second-to-last commandment in the portion is especially unusual for the level of detail the Torah devotes to it, and even more unusual because the Torah labels it as an “abomination.”
“You shall not have in your pouch diverse weights, a larger and a smaller. You shall not have in your house diverse measures, a larger and a smaller. You shall have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure, so that your days may be lengthened on the land that the Lord your God gives you. For anyone who does these things, anyone who commits injustice, is an abomination to the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 25:13-16).
Two types of enemies
Immediately following this stern warning comes the commandment to blot out Amalek, the bitter and eternal enemy of the Jewish people. Our Sages in the midrashim (Midrash Devarim Zuta and others, and so, too, the early Torah commentators) explain the juxtaposition: If you, the people of Israel, harbor within your homes or in your possession the “hidden enemy,” I will bring upon you the “open enemy” – Amalek.
The hidden enemy is the small stone and the large stone – the classic example of deceit and dishonesty.
In the past, merchants would weigh their goods on scales against a stone of known weight. Some dishonest traders falsified these stones, claiming, for example, that one weighed a full kilogram, when in fact it was less. This was the problem of the “small stone.” But why does the Torah also forbid the “large stone,” which would seemingly give the customer more than what he paid for?
The Talmudic sages explain that the large stone also had a role in the deception. Courts would appoint inspectors to verify the merchants’ weights. The swindlers would use the small stone when selling to customers, and when questioned by inspectors, they would brandish the large stone to demonstrate their supposed fairness. Thus, the large stone was also part of the scheme.
Possibility of sin
If we read further in the portion, we find offenses that seem at first glance far more severe. Yet the Torah reserves the term “abomination of the Lord” precisely for this form of dishonesty.
Renowned Torah commentator Don Isaac Abarbanel points out that this prohibition does not refer to one who actually cheats a customer by giving less for more – that person is simply a thief, and the Torah has already explicitly forbidden theft. Rather, the prohibition applies even to someone who merely possesses such false weights in his pocket. Even if they are never used, the very fact that one holds such a possibility in reserve makes it already “an abomination to the Lord.”
Moreover, from this ruling Maimonides (the Rambam) learns in his Mishneh Torah that it is forbidden for a merchant to display fruit in a way that makes the fresher, more attractive produce more visible, while concealing the old or rotten produce at the bottom of the crate. Such conduct is deception. Even if the customer does not notice and no sale occurs, the act itself is already “an abomination to the Lord.”
This abomination is the hidden enemy against which the Torah warns us. Because of it, we may be delivered into the hands of the open enemy, Amalek. According to the Torah portion, integrity in business dealings is the guarantee for our continued dwelling in the Land of Israel: “...so that your days may be lengthened on the land that the Lord your God gives you” (Deut. 25:15).
Preparing for the High Holy Days
In these days of mercy and forgiveness, on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, it is fitting to engage in soul-searching regarding our honesty in financial matters. Our sages taught that flaws in monetary integrity prevent prayers from being accepted.
It is no coincidence that in the most exalted prayer of the year – Ne’ila on Yom Kippur – we declare: “...so that we may cease from the oppression of our hands, and return to You to carry out the decrees of Your will with a perfect heart.” For the prerequisites for accepted repentance and prayer are uprightness of heart and clean hands. ■
The writer is rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites.