Parshat Ki Tetzei
The Torah requires us to place a ma’akeh, a fence or girding, around rooftops of our homes, Devarim 22;8. Rambam’s Obligation 184 understands the Torah more broadly, thinks it commands us to protect against all dangers, to the extent possible. In his view, the barrier we put around our rooves, wells, ditches, and backyard pools are an example of how to do so, not the definition of the mitzvah. Arukh HaShulchan Choshen Mishpat 427;6 adds that for in-ground dangers, like wells or cellars, a good covering is as effective as a railing, because the worry is falling into, not off of.
The ‘aseh is paired with Prohibition 298 (retzach, murder, is the way the number is written, as it happens), we are proscribed from leaving dangerous items around, lest people be killed (note: it seems only mortal danger counts as danger, because is there any other kind?). The prohibition is established by other words in the same verse, ve-lo tasim damim be-veitekha, do not place blood/death in your house.
Sefer HaChinukh 546 (547 is the prohibition, with nothing new) phrases it more prescriptively, we are to rebuild and repair any wall or fence where there is likely a problem brewing. He adds what seems clearly to have been Rambam’s assumption, too, the Torah used the roof only because it was a common example. Arukh HaShulchan extends the responsibility to all weakened structures, to remove the danger they present.
Believing in Providence, Acting in Nature
I always enjoy/am stimulated by considering Sefer HaChinukh’s reasons for a mitzvah; here, I think he outdoes his usual high standard. Our mitzvah seems to require us to attend to danger, where we believe in hashgachah, Divine Providence, and Sefer HaChinukh accepts a notably expansive version of it. He quotes Chullin 7b, people do not injure their fingers unless decreed upon them from Above. If God guides all, he wonders why we need to take care of possible dangers. Only those God decides should be hurt would be so anyway.
Nonetheless, he says, the Torah is telling us we all must take action to protect ourselves from “natural” events. Hashem built His world to run and function with natural rhythms, decreed that fire burns, water extinguishes, and so on, including death (one of his examples: if a boulder falls on someone, it is going to crush their skull). At the same time, God gave people intelligence to find ways to secure their surroundings, set up safe environments, and commanded us to use our intellects to avoid dangers that might come our way.
[I haven’t seen this mitzvah in too long, and I think it sets up a balance to other comments of Sefer HaChinukh’s on providence that would be easy to miss. I’m not going to try to decide where he comes out, but for all he many times says Hashem decides what happens to us, he also thinks Hashem decreed the world should work naturally, for us to act within it naturally, I think to spur us to develop our intellects. Many remarkable achievements started with the search for healing or comfort.]
There’s Still Providence
Not that God has abandoned us all to “nature.” There are people so good, so dedicated to God’s purposes in the world, they do not need to pay attention to Nature. Avraham, Chananiah, Mishael, and Azaryah, Sefer HaChinukh says, were all thrown in a furnace and emerged without a hair having been singed.
Vanishingly few of us can count on that, though, because of our sins [it’s not even clear Avraham and the others counted on that; they just had no other option]. For us, the Torah said to be careful about approaching dangers, not to rely on miracles. We go to war with the same balance, knowing all is in God’s hands while yet also
