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AUGUST 12, 2021 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home
From the Fire Parshas Shoftim
Trust Me By Rav Moshe Weinberger Adapted for publication by Binyomin Wolf
T
he Sefer Mitzvos Katan (“Smak”) counts one seemingly ambiguous mitzvah as one of the 613 mitzvos (Devarim 18:13): “You shall be wholehearted, tamim, with Hashem your G-d.” The Hebrew word translated here as “wholehearted” does not always have a good connotation. We are accustomed to hearing it in the context of one of the four sons in the Haggada, the Tam, the simple son. When he asks, “What is this,” we recognize that this simple son is not very bright. It seems he is “not the sharpest tool in the shed.” The Yerushalmi even identifies the son as the “fool,” rather than the “simple son.” Even the Maxwell House Haggada’s illustration of the simple son is not very complimentary. In addition, the Even Shoshan dictionary explains that a tam is a “simpleton, naive, not proficient in the ways of the world.” Can it be that one of the 613 mitzvos of the Torah is that we must be naive simpletons?! That is clearly absurd. While the connotation of the
word tam in recent millennia is not complimentary, we see a completely different usage in Tanach. The Torah (Bereishis 6:9) glowingly calls Noach a “righteous man, perfect, tamim, in his generations.” Onkolus, in his Aramaic translation of the Torah, translates tamim as “a righteous man, perfect.” The Torah even calls Yaakov (ibid. 25:27) “a simple man, tam, dwelling in tents.” Onkolus again translates the word tam as “perfect.” Hashem even tells Avraham (ibid. 17:1), “Be wholehearted, tamim.” And the pasuk describes Iyov as “perfect, tam, and straight” (Iyov 1:1). How did the word tam go from describing a perfect tzaddik to connoting a naive simpleton? What is the connection between these two meanings? Let us return to the meaning of the mitzvah in this week’s parsha. Onkolus, as expected, translates the commandment to be tamim as: “You shall be perfect in your service of Hashem your G-d.” But Rashi, who normally follows Onkolus’s translation, abandons it here, instead ex-
plaining as follows: “Go with Him with simplicity and hope in Him. Do attempt to predict the future. Instead, accept whatever happens to you with simplicity. Then, you will be with Him as His portion.” Why did Rashi choose not to follow Onkolus’s explanation of the mitzvah? Why did he say that it means to accept Hashem’s will simply without trying to predict the future? Why did he not explain, as Onkolus did, that it is a mitzvah to be a perfect tzaddik to the extent one is able? To understand the answer to this question, we must examine the context of this mitzva to be tamim. It follows a long list of prohibitions against sorcery, witchcraft, divining auspicious times, soothsaying, necromancy, and fortune-telling. Following those prohibitions, the pasuk preceding the mitzvah says, “Because of these abominations, Hashem your G-d is dispossessing them [the nations living in Eretz Yisroel] before you.” According to Onkolus, who maintains that tamim simply means
“perfect,” it was not necessary for the Torah to use that word here. It could have simply said, “And you shall fear G-d” like it does after many other mitzvos. But the use of the word is completely understandable according to Rashi’s explanation. Each of the prohibitions which preceded this mitzvah share a common denominator: G-d does not want us to seek out tricks or schemes to predict the future. Our actions must be guided by what the Torah teaches us is Hashem’s will – not that which will allow us to achieve or avoid some prediction made by a fortuneteller. Rashi explains as he does because of the context of the pasuk. Rashi’s understanding of the pasuk also jibes with the Smak’s explanation of the mitzvah: “To be simple; meaning not to ask sorcerers or astrologers to know the future. Rather, one should say, ‘Whatever Hashem desires will happen.’ As the Gemara in Brachos (10a) says, ‘Why are you concerning yourself with the secrets of Hashem?’”
