The Short Vort

Good Morning! 

Today is Wednesday the 15th of Marcheshvan 5777 and November 16, 2016 

Guilty by Association 

The Medrash (Sifrei Pinchas 137) relates an incident regarding two women who being publicly flogged for their respective transgressions.

One of the women was being flogged for the sin of adultery while the other was being punished for having eaten unripe figs during the Sabbatical Year (Pagei Shiviis).

The woman who was being flogged for the eating of the unripe figs requested that unripe figs be hung around her neck to inform all that her sin was not comparable to the other woman’s crime of adultery.

She also requested that the town crier announce to all that it is because of eating unripe figs during the Sabbatical year she is being punished and not for anything else.

Why would this woman make sure an unusual request of having unripe figs hung on her neck and having the crier publicly announce her transgression?

The answer is that the woman who ate the unripe figs was well aware of the problem of being pronounced guilty by association.

By the fact that two women are being punished and one of them is clearly because of adultery, people who find out or watch the flogging will undoubtedly connect the two and incorrectly assume that if one is being flogged for adultery, her friend cannot be too different.

 In order to dispel such incorrect assumptions, the woman who ate the unripe figs asked that figs be hung from her neck.

How often in life do we assume that if one person is guilty of some heinous crime his friend must also be guilty of the same offence?

While it is true that we must be careful as to whom we associate with, nevertheless, we must be careful not to indict and judge a person simply because he happens to be found in the company of another guilty party.

Too often we assume that if a person has been in the company of another person than they must share the same sins. This is not always the case.  As we learned in the Sifrei, sometimes you may see two people being punished on the very same day; however, there transgressions are totally separate and different from each other.

Don’t fall prey to the temptation to declare guilt simply by association.  

“If Not Now, Then When?”- Hillel

Ron Yitzchok Eisenman, Rabbi, Congregation Ahavas Israel, Passaic, NJ