This week’s Torah portion deals with the laws of acquiring an object. This Sicha analyzes Rambam’s formation of these laws and discusses the spiritual significance of them as they relate to the models of service of the tzadik and the beinoni.
In this week’s parsha the Torah deals with the laws of acquiring objects. The verse states, “And when you make a sale to your fellow Jew or make a purchase from the hand of your fellow Jew, you shall not wrong one another.” In this verse is embedded the mechanisms of procuring an object. Of the rules concerning the means of obtaining an article, Rambam (Maimonides) states the following:
Text 1
A person cannot transfer ownership over an article that has not yet come into existence. This applies with regard to a sale, with regard to a present or with regard to the disposition of an oral will. What is implied? If a person states: "What my field will produce is sold to you," "What this tree will grow is given to you," "Give so and so the offspring that this animal bears," the recipient does not acquire anything. Rambam, Laws of Sale 22:1
While one may not transfer an item prior to its coming into existence, one may transfer an existing object to his fellow for its produce that it is yet to yield (though these goods have not yet been produced). Rambam explains the reason for this:
Text 2
A person can transfer ownership over a property itself with regard to the produce it yields... This is not considered to be transferring ownership of an entity that has not come into existence. For the article itself exists, and the person is transferring ownership over its produce...Similar rules apply to a person who sells or gives away a tree for its fruit, a sheep for its shearings, an animal or a maid-servant for her offspring, or a servant for his work. In all such instances, the sale or the present is binding. Rambam, Laws of Sale 23:1-2
Though the above guidelines are the general regulations concerning transferring ownership of an item that does not yet exist, there are various exceptions to these rules, where in those instances, although the object has not yet come into existence, the transferor will still be liable to fulfil his obligation:
Text 3
The laws applying to transactions involving property consecrated to the Temple, the poor, and vows are not the same as those involving ordinary people. If a person says: "All the offspring of my animal will be consecrated to the Temple treasury," "... will be forbidden to me," or "... will be given to charity," although the offspring does not become consecrated— because it does not yet exist—the person making the statement is obligated to keep his word, as it states: "He must act according to the statements that he utters." Rambam, Laws of Sale 22:15
When a person consecrates an object to the Temple that has yet to exist, he is nonetheless obligated to keep his word, although concerning mundane statements his words would not create any obligation.
Deeper significance
Every law in the Torah, in addition to its practical application, has a deeper significance and lesson in one’s spiritual life as well. Rambam expresses this concept as follows:
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Most of the Torah's laws are nothing other than "counsels given from distance" from "He Who is of great counsel" to improve one's character and make one's conduct upright. Rambam, Temura 4:13
While mitzvos indeed have their simple meanings, they contain a deeper message as well, concerning one’s service to the Almighty. So too in regard to the specific laws of acquisition. Within them lies profound meaning relating to one’s G-dly service. In particular, the significance of the following two contrasting rules can be investigated: a) The difference between a person saying, “What this tree will grow is given to you,” which is not considered a proper transaction, and a person selling “a tree for its fruit,” which would be regarded as a proper arrangement. b) The difference between the laws of transaction “involving ordinary people,” where the individual is not obligated to keep his word in an instance that the transaction is not binding, and the laws of “to the Temple and the poor” where an individual is required to keep his word, although the transaction itself is not binding.
Making a transaction
To understand these specific laws as they relate to one’s service of G-d, the significance of the laws of acquisition in a spiritual sense must first be prefaced. In general, the concept of serving G-d is expressed in the idea of “acquisition.” When an individual serves G-d, he transfers ownership of himself and all that he has to the Almighty, through his service of Him. When all his expressions—whether they be in thought, speech or action—are in accordance with G-d’s will, it is recognizable that he and all that belong to him are in reality, under G-d’s jurisdiction.
Text 5
I was created to serve my Possessor. Talmud, Kiddushin 82a
When describing G-d, instead of the Mishna using the word “Creator,” or other term to describe the Almighty, it instead identifies G-d as “my Possessor.” The reason that this expression is used as opposed to any other, is because at the crux of all service of G-d, is the objective to reveal that G-d is the true owner over all that exists and that the entire world and all that is in it, is in truth, under G-d’s dominion. This idea that G-d is ultimately the proprietor of the Jewish people will ultimately be expressed at the time of the coming of Moshiach, as the prophet Yeshaya states:
Text 6
And it shall come to pass that on that day, the Lord shall continue to apply His hand a second time to acquire the rest of His people, that will remain from Assyria and from Egypt and from Pathros and from Cush and from Elam and from Sumeria and from Hamath and from the islands of the sea. Yeshaya 11:11
Two types of transactions
Concerning the way in which an individual becomes acquired by G-d and becomes His possession, there are two different manners which parallel the abovementioned forms of physical acquisition: The acquisition of the article: This is when the person’s essential identity becomes acquired by G-d, in which his body, soul and all its characteristics—its intellectual and emotional attributes, as well as its thought, speech and action—are “in the possession” of the Almighty and expressive of His dominion. The acquisition of the produce: This is when the person himself does not become an article that is expressive of G-dliness, rather, only his “produce” is communicative of the Almighty. This means to say, that although the essence of the individual is not G-dly, the thought, speech and action that “grow” from his heart and mind are expressive of G-dliness. The difference between whether a person himself becomes acquired by G-d or only his “produce” is under G-d’s jurisdiction is the distinction between the manners of service of a beinoni (intermediate individual) vs. the tzadik (righteous individual). The beinoni is meticulous in all his thought, speech and action. All of these are “acquired” by G-d and are expressive of His will alone; however, his actual person has not become a possession of the Almighty, as in his heart and mind there still remain a desire to transgress G-d’s will. The above description of the beinoni are described in Chassidic thought as follows:
Text 7
The beinoni is he in whom evil never attains enough power to capture the "small city," [i.e. the body] so as to clothe itself in the body and make it sin. That is to say, the three "garments" of the animal soul, namely, thought, speech and act, originating in the kelipah, do not prevail within him over the divine soul to the extent of clothing themselves in the body — in the brain, in the mouth and in the other 248 parts— thereby causing them to sin and defiling them, G-d forbid...He has never committed, nor ever will commit, any transgression; neither can the name "wicked" be applied to him even temporarily, or even for a moment, throughout his life. Tanya, Ch. 12
While everything that the beinoni does is G-dly and all his “produce” has been acquired by the Almighty—his heart and mind are not free from the possibility of evil thoughts and desires. It’s not that he is unable to have evil thoughts since he has transformed his person, it is rather that he does not allow the evil at his core to be expressed in his thought, speech or action. The tzadik, on the other hand, is an individual who has eradicated the evil in his heart and mind to the extent that his only desire is to do things that are good and holy. Not only does the tzadik do goodness, he is good. It is because his very essence has been acquired by G-d, that by extension, all the “produce” that he generates are G-dly property. He does not need to fight with himself in order not to transgress G-d’s will, since there is not any evil in his heart to begin with.
It is because of this that the Torah describes the tzadik, the righteous individual, as a “servant of G-d:”
Text 8
And you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves G-d and him who has not served Him. Malachi 3:18
The tzadik is referred to as a servant of the Almighty, for just as a slave is the property of his master, so too a tzadik’s very identity is the possession of G-d. Since there is a halachik clause that “whatever a slave owns his master owns
