{"id":38184,"date":"2018-08-20T08:21:26","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T05:21:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=38184"},"modified":"2022-03-13T16:40:18","modified_gmt":"2022-03-13T14:40:18","slug":"sacred-ends-do-not-justify-crooked-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/sacred-ends-do-not-justify-crooked-means\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacred Ends Do Not Justify Crooked Means"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[501,391,490,436],"acf":{"old_id":"38184","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":37918,"related_cahpter":"27","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Theft is a crime even if the victim is no saint: the Torah takes an extremely dim view of Jacob's trickery","content":"

The Mishnah teaches that human beings are always held responsible for their actions. The Torah seeks to impart this lesson through the often sordid story of the patriarch Jacob.<\/span><\/p>\n

One day, as Jacob is cooking a lentil stew, he is approached by his older brother, who asks for some \u201cred stuff to gulp down\u201d (25:30). We would expect that Jacob be kind, hospitable, or even loving to his brother, but he is none of those things: Jacob responds to his brother by coldly demanding, \u201cFirst sell me your birthright.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

What comes next is even more distressing. Rebekah hatches a plot for Jacob to trick his father into blessing him instead of Esau, and Jacob willing goes along with it. When Esau finds out what happens, he cried out: Jacob \u201ccheated (<\/span>va-ya\u2019akveini<\/span><\/em>) me these two times! First he took away my birthright and now he has taken away my blessing\u201d (27:35-36). <\/span><\/p>\n

Jacob\u2019s name, Ya\u2019akov, had been explained as deriving from the word heel (<\/span>Ya\u2019akov<\/span>–<\/span>akev<\/span><\/em>), one who grabbed his brother\u2019s heel (26:26). But now Esau offers a brutally critical alternative etymology, connecting Ya\u2019akov to the word <\/span>akov<\/span><\/em>, and means \u201ccrooked one\u201d (27:36). <\/span><\/p>\n

The Torah takes an extremely dim view of Jacob’s trickery; he is made to pay for his deception for the rest of his life with his marriage to Leah in place of Rachel and when his sons use a garment dyed with kid\u2019s blood to convince him that his beloved Joseph has died. These are clear cases of poetic justice, or measure-for-measure (<\/span>midah ke-neged midah<\/span><\/em>).<\/span><\/p>\n

Esau is a problematic character, but theft is a crime even if the victim is no saint. Sacred ends do not justify crooked means, and even those who enact God\u2019s will are punished for their sins (15:14).<\/span><\/p>\n

Most of us are not consciously defiant when we go astray. We are not brazen sinners\u2014but we <\/span>are<\/em> <\/span>inveterate rationalizers. We tell ourselves that what we did was not actually so bad or that it was not really our fault. Like Jacob, perhaps, we think the person we mistreated had it coming to her or we construct a narrative showing that what we did was necessary in order to achieve some compelling goal. In the face of all this the Torah declares: You cannot \u201cspin\u201d your way out of moral responsibility, even when something as important as God\u2019s blessing is on the line. Our patriarch Jacob tragically learns this the hard way.<\/span><\/p>\n

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