Rav Elya Lopian says, when the Torah (Hakadosh Baruch Hu) judges, there are two distinct components to a person – the guf (body) and neshama (soul) – and both factor into the judgement. There is no such division for nations of the world, and therefore when judgement takes place in an earthly court, it is the lump of a body alone examined. No neshama comes into play. They cannot see into it. Therefore, the Torah tells us something very interesting. When a person steals an ox, and the ox is found at their premises, they must repay double. However, if they slaughtered and/or sold the ox, or slaughtered and/or sold a sheep – for the sheep they pay four times its value, and for the ox, five times. Why the different rates for oxen and sheep? Rabbi Meir says, it is because you didn’t disqualify or negate the sheep from work, for one simple reason – sheep don’t work, they graze all day! The ox, on the other hand, is a work animal and the thief negated its ability to work, so the repayment is higher.
Rabbotai, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai comes along and says this is not why the thief pays more for the ox. The real reason is there was no embarrassment when the ox was stolen. It was taken by leash and promptly led to its new home. The sheep, however, walks very slowly, and to get away quickly, the thief had to pick it up and shlep it on his back – adding embarrassment for the thief. The repayment is lowered because the thief experienced shame!
I have a question regarding this verdict: why is carrying a sheep seen as embarrassing? Moshe Rabbeinu performed the very same act and it led to his becoming the leader of Bnei Yisrael! And there is an even stronger question to ask, posed by Rav Lopian: since when are we concerned for a thief who embarrasses themselves? Why should a thief's self-inflicted embarrassment influence his punishment? If someone robs an old lady at home and while escaping out the window and down the gutter, rips his pants, setting up a scene of public ridicule as he runs five blocks with a gaping hole down below or an entire pant leg left behind... he can't possibly expect a judge to lessen the sentence based on embarrassment suffered. It was his own doing! The judge would surely respond, “Who cares?! Get out properly next time! Better yet, don't steal! Was it me that embarrassed you? You did it all yourself!” Had the thief fallen out the window and broken his spine, needing to spend months in the hospital and even longer at rehab only to regain partial bodily functions, perhaps the judge would say he paid a big enough price – a punishment from Heaven – and given he most definitely won’t do it again, the sentence could be relaxed. It’s very possible the police would drop all charges before it even reached court. But just because the thief was ashamed? No way!
Torah law is the opposite. It values the embarrassment and shame experienced by the thief as factors in the punishment. Bodily injury? Get his name and recite a misheberach for him while he repays the full amount required. The Torah does not look at damage to the guf, it looks at damage to the nefesh. When it comes to Moshe Rabbeinu carrying a sheep on his back, if we could look deep into his neshama we’d see there was no embarrassment or shame. He knew that is what his responsibility was at the time, and he stepped up to execute. If anything, there was a sense of humble pride in doing so! Deep down in the thief, however, we’d see he felt shame in having to perform the exact same act. His neshama would be expressing embarrassment at being in a position where the body was stealing. And that shame is what the Torah looks at, factors in, and compensates for.
But Hashem said to Shmuel, look not at his appearance, nor on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for it is not as a man sees; for a man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
Man sees through the eyes; Hakadosh Baruch Hu sees through the heart. Hakadosh Baruch Hu does not see a person as one single unit, but rather as a body plus a neshama. When such a neshama is embarrassed, Hakadosh Baruch Hu sees it. He sees the internal pain; the stain on one’s heart. We don’t see it, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu does. When someone feels that way inside, Rabbeinu Yona says in Sha’arei Teshuva: צַעַר הַהַלְבָּנָה מַר מִמָּוֶת – the pain of the embarrassment is more bitter than death.
