CENTER JEWISH LEADERSHIP Coveting, Craving and Being …

[Pages:7]Center for Jewish Leadership and Ideas Parashat Devarim (Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11) ? Av 5774

CENTER for JEWISH LEADERSHI

Coveting, Craving... and Being Free and IDEAS

Rabbi Shai Held

at MECHON HADAR

The last of the Ten Commandments is in many ways also the most

elusive. The book of Exodus teaches: "You shall not covet (tahmod)

your neighbor's house: You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or

his male or female slave, or his ox or his ass, or anything that is your

neighbor's" (Exodus 20:14). This prohibition raises as many

questions as it answers. Exactly what is being proscribed here, and

for what reason? "The importance of this text is beyond dispute, its meanRinagb[,bhoi wShevaei rH,] eisld

[decidedly] not."1

"One of the keenest minds in Jewish theology Interpreters both traditional and modern have struggled to understand justinwohuart t"icmoev."eting"

primarily refers to--an attitude or an action. At first glance, context would seem to point in --Jon D. L

the direction of a prohibition on concrete behavior. Since the other four interpersonal

commandments focus firmly on deeds--murder, adWueletekrlyyd, itvhreefitT, oarnadh bfreoamrinRgabfbailsSehawi iHtneeldss--it

stands to reason that this one does too. Accordingly, some schodliarercsthtaovyeouinrsiinsbteodx that the in text and audio formats

commandment prohibits desire and action together--wanting something so badly that I

wrest control of it from its proper owners. In support of Sthiegirnpuospitihoenr, eth:ey adduce an array

of verses where coveting and taking are closely entwined. For example, after instructing the

ShaiHeld

Interpreters both traditional and modern Israelites to consign the images of the

have struggled to understand just what

gods of Canaan to fire, Moses warns: "You shall not covet (tahmod) the silver

"coveting" primarily refers to--an

and gold on them and take (ve-lakahta) it

attitude or an action.

for yourselves" (Deuteronomy 7:25).

1 Marvin L. Chaney, "You Shall Not Covet Your Neighbor's House," Pacific Theological Review 15 (1982), pp. 3-13. Passage cited is on p. 3

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Center for Jewish Leadership and Ideas Parashat Devarim (Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11) ? Av 5774

Here, coveting and seizing appear to go hand in hand.

But many scholars maintain that coveting means what it sounds like--the internal state of desiring something (or someone) that belongs to someone else. While it is true that the other four commandments in the second tablet refer to actions, the concluding commandment could well be different. Perhaps it concerns the attitude that makes the rest of the violations possible. As Bible scholar John Durham writes, "The tenth commandment... functions as a kind of summary commandment, the violation of which is a first step that can lead to the violation of any one or all of the rest of the commandments. As such, it is necessarily allembracing and descriptive of an attitude rather than a deed."2 In other words, coveting may well lead to taking, but it does not denote it. With the last commandment the Torah reaches inward, beyond our actions to our inner life and the motivations that animate our behavior in the world. "All peoples acknowledge that it is forbidden to commit adultery or steal, but here the commandment goes further... it is even forbidden to desire in one's heart another's wife or property."3 In any case, the verses often cited to connect coveting and acting may well prove just the opposite: "If hamad [covet] had meant `covet and seize,' a second verb [like l-k-h, take] would have been unnecessary."4

This modern debate echoes a longstanding dispute in Jewish sources. A Rabbinic midrash insists that the heart of the prohibition is on taking (Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, BaHodesh 8). In a similar vein, Moses Maimonides (Rambam, 1135-1203) ties the prohibition on coveting to concrete attempts to acquire what we desire: "Anyone who covets his neighbor's servant, maidservant, house and utensils, or any other article that he can purchase from him, and pressures him through friends and implores him until he acquires it, transgresses a

2 John I. Durham, Exodus (1987), p. 298. 3 Moshe David (Umberto) Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Exodus, trans. Israel Abrahams (1964), p. 249. 4 Durham, Exodus, p. 298.

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Center for Jewish Leadership and Ideas Parashat Devarim (Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11) ? Av 5774

negative commandment, even though he pays good money for it, as scripture states: `You shall not covet.' He does not transgress this prohibition until he acquires the object" (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Theft and Loss, 1:9). Note the care with which Maimonides constructs his illustration. Had the coveter simply seized his neighbor's property or spouse, he'd have violated the prohibition on theft or adultery. Instead, he lives on the boundary of coercion, doing something technically licit--after all, he pays for the object in question--but exerting pressure in a way that constitutes an interpersonal violation.

But other commentators hew closer to the simple meaning of "coveting" and insist that the prohibition is violated

The Torah cares deeply about our inner lives; character matters.

first and foremost not in the deed but

in the heart. R. Isaac of Corbeil (13th century), for example, writes that coveting in the heart

is itself forbidden, even though one is not technically liable until one has in some way acted

upon one's longing (Sefer Mitzvot Katan, #19). Similarly, R. Abraham Ibn Ezra (1089-1164),

committed to the simplest, most straightforward meaning of the biblical text, interprets our

verse as referring to an internal state of wanting. Dismissing what he sees as the destructive

notion that Judaism cares only about what we do but not about what we think or feel, Ibn

Ezra insists, radically, that "the main purpose of the all the commandments is to straighten

the heart. This is evident from the fact that we distinguish between one who sinned

intentionally and one who sinned in error" (Commentary to Deuteronomy 5). The danger, in

other words, is not just where covetousness can lead,5 but what covetousness itself represents.

The Torah cares deeply about our inner lives; character matters.6

5 Cf. Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Theft and Loss, 1:11. 6 Cf. what I have written about character in "The Importance of Character, Or: Why Stubbornness is Worse than Idolatry," CJLI Parashat Ki Tissa 5774, available here.

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Center for Jewish Leadership and Ideas Parashat Devarim (Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11) ? Av 5774

Deuteronomy's presentation of the tenth commandment differs slightly from that of Exodus. "You shall not covet (tahmod) your neighbor's wife.7 You shall not crave (tit'aveh) your neighbor's house, or his field, or his male or female slave, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor's" (Deuteronomy 5:18). Here we encounter two separate verbs-- tahmod, or covet, which we have seen in Exodus, and also tit'aveh, or crave, which Deuteronomy introduces. Even scholars who take "coveting" to have an actional dimension tend to concede that "craving" is a purely internal state. As Brevard Childs puts it, "The emphasis of hamad falls on an emotion which often leads to a commensurate action, whereas the focus of hit'aveh rests more on the emotion itself."8 Others take the two verbs as synonyms, and since craving unambiguously suggests an internal state, they turn to its use here to bolster their interpretation of our prohibition as focused on the inner life.9 Some traditional Jewish sources take coveting and craving to be two separate prohibitions (e.g. Maimonides, Laws of Theft, 1:11-12); others see two ways of expressing the same prohibition (e.g. Rashi to Deuteronomy 5:17; Sefer Mitzvot Katan 19).

We should indeed be careful lest "you shall not covet" be used as a bludgeon against the weak.

Despite its obvious benefit for building moral character, is there an aspect of the prohibition on coveting that unfairly preserves the socio-economic status

quo? Might it be used to keep the

oppressed and downtrodden from demanding what they need, and what is theirs by right?

After all, the wealthy and powerful can say, one is forbidden from wanting what other people

7 Some scholars suggest that Deuteronomy deals with the neighbor's wife separately from his possessions because it wants to make clear that "the law does not regard the woman as merely one commodity among others comprising a house." Bernard Levinson, "Deuteronomy," in Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, eds., Jewish Study Bible (2004), comment to Deuteronomy 5:18, p. 378. Cf. also Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy 1-11 (1991), pp. 317-318.

8 Brevard S. Childs, Exodus: A Commentary (1974), p. 427.

9 See, for example, Peter Craigie, The Book of Deuteronomy (1976), p. 163.

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Center for Jewish Leadership and Ideas Parashat Devarim (Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11) ? Av 5774

have. We should indeed be careful lest "you shall not covet" be used as a bludgeon against

the weak. But strikingly, the Torah's concern is elsewhere: "Where one encounters instances

of coveting in [Tanakh], they are largely acts of royalty and the wealthy." In Tanakh's telling,

coveting--and acting to get what one wants--are the temptations of the rich more than the

poor, of the mighty rather than the defenseless. King David's longing for the wife of one of

his soldiers leads him to commit adultery and murder (2 Samuel 11). David has the power to

take what he wants when he wants it, and he does just that. Similarly, King Ahab yearns for

the vineyard of Naboth, and when the latter will not sell to him, Ahab--actually, his wife

Jezebel, but with Ahab's acquiescence--has him murdered so that he can have his long-

coveted field after all (1 Kings 21). The word "covet" does not appear in Ahab's story, and

yet it is "the classic scriptural example of consuming desire combined with political power

that will not stop short of doing whatever is necessary to get what is coveted. And once again

a stratagem by the powerful and wealthy accomplishes what the Tenth Commandment

prohibits."10 The prophet Micah declares: "Ah, those who plan iniquity and design evil on

their beds; when morning dawns they do it, for they have the power. They covet (hamdu)

fields (sadot) and seize them; houses (batim), and take them away" (Micah 2:1-2). This is the

only place in Tanakh besides the Decalogue where "covet" comes coupled with "fields" and

"houses"--and the attack is on the avarice of the powerful. Bible scholar Marvin Chaney

therefore suggests that the original thrust of "you shall not covet" was "you shall not covet and/or attempt to expropriate your fellow Israelite's share of the God-given right of access to a stable, healthy livelihood."11

In Tanakh's telling, coveting--and acting to get what one wants--are the temptations of the rich more than the poor, of the mighty rather than the defenseless.

10 Patrick D. Miller. The Ten Commandments (2009), pp. 396-398. Passages cited are on pp. 396, 397.

11 Chaney, "You Shall Not Covet," p. 8. Cf. also Isaiah 5:8. 5

Center for Jewish Leadership and Ideas Parashat Devarim (Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11) ? Av 5774

Micah's words suggest that the Torah's concern is not just spiritual but also (and, according to Chaney, primarily) socio-economic and political. The Torah's charge may make us uncomfortable, since it implicitly raises difficult questions about economic and political justice--questions which, I hasten to add, do not usually have easy answers, but which are for that reason all the more important to ask. Are there ways in which the lives we lead deprive other people of their livelihood, and if so, what concrete implications does that fact have? One thing is clear: This is not just a political question but a deeply religious one as well, since the Torah never tires of telling us that "the most profound experience of the living God and the most constant concern for our neighbor's well-being in all its facets cannot be separated."12

But if Torah's concerns are not merely spiritual, they are surely also spiritual. Why, asks R. Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972), does God begin the Decalogue by reminding us that God "took us out from the land of Egypt, the house of bondage" (Exodus 20:2; Deuteronomy 5:6) and end by admonishing us not to covet? R. Heschel suggests that God wants us to learn something critical about freedom: Although God has liberated us from externally-imposed slavery, the task of liberating ourselves from internal slavery is given over to us. Heschel writes:

Nothing is as hard to suppress as the will to be a slave to one's own pettiness. Gallantly, ceaselessly, quietly, man must fight for inner liberty. Inner liberty depends upon being exempt from domination of things as well as from domination of people. There are many who have acquired a high degree of political and social liberty, but only very few are not enslaved to things. This is our constant problem--how to live with people and remain free, how to live with things and remain independent.

12 Chaney, `You Shall Not Covet," p. 12. 6

Center for Jewish Leadership and Ideas Parashat Devarim (Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11) ? Av 5774

In a moment of eternity, while the taste of redemption was still fresh to the former slaves, the people of Israel were given the Ten Words, the Ten Commandments. In its beginning and end, the Decalogue deals with the liberty of man. The first Word--I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the Land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage-- reminds him that his outer liberty was given to him by God, and the tenth Word-- Thou shalt not covet!--reminds him that he himself must achieve his inner liberty.13

The words of the tenth commandment challenge us to purify our inner life, both for its own sake and in order that we not deprive others of what is rightfully theirs. We are taught not to pressure other people to let go of what they have, not to scheme to acquire their things, and not even to fantasize about possessing what they do. We are warned about the dangers of greed, especially when coupled with the power to inflict great harm. And we are reminded that real, deep freedom is not a one-time gift but a hard-won struggle. God gives us political freedom at least in part so that we can embark on achieving inner freedom as well. Shabbat shalom.

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13 Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath (1951), pp. 89-90. 7

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