מן ‘לה קרבן מכם יקריב כי אדם אלהם ואמרת ישראל בני אל דבר” (ב א) “קרבנכם את תקריבו הצאן ומן הבקר מן הבהמה
Chazal explain (Vayikra Rabbah 2 7, cited in Rashi) from the fact that the passuk calls the makriv an “adam” and not an “ish” that “Your korban should be similar to that of Adam Harishon; like Adam Harishon, who possessed everything, did not bring from stolen property, you as well...should not bring [korbanos] from stolen property.”
Why was this explanation needed to reject a stolen korban? Can we not learn this from a clear passuk in Yeshayah (61:8): “Ki Ani Hashem ohev mishpat sonei gazel b’olah, for I am Hashem Who loves justice and hates robbery in the offerings”?
The Chofetz Chaim explained:
Indeed, the diminution of “adam” is not needed to reject the stolen animal for a korban, but rather to add a warning to a person that he should not bring even an animal that his friend gave him willingly, if the friend did so because he mistakenly thought the recipient was a talmid chacham and tzaddik, to whom it is a mitzvah to give of one’s possessions. Adam Harishon certainly did not sacrifice from money that came to him mistakenly, because his needs were provided by Hashem, Who knew what his true status was. Likewise, we have to be careful about money given to us because people mistook our real status, as this money can be considered misbegotten.
Based on this, the Chofetz Chaim explained what we say in Birchas Hamazon: “Vena al tatzricheinu...lo liyedei matnas basar vadam...shelo neivosh velo nikalem l’olam va’ed.” “L’olam va’ed” means l’Olam Haba (see Rada”k Tehillim 119:44) and we need to understand: Why should we be embarrassed in the World to Come from the gift of another human? Because as noted, when a person needs “matnas basar vadam,” he may be taken to task for this in the World of Truth, if people mistook his true status, and this can cause him shame in Olam Haba.
Lev Eliyahu – Bereishis p. 211
