Bais HaVaad on the Parsha, Parshas Ki Savo

Boundless 

Excerpted and adapted from a shiur by Dayan Yitzhak Grossman

August 31, 2023

Accursed is one who moves the boundary of his fellow…

Dvarim 27:17

This curse upon the masig gvul refers to an issur in Parshas Shoftim: “You shall not move a boundary of your fellow…” (Dvarim 19:14).

The Sifri offers four different interpretations of hasagas gvul:

The first, quoted by Rashi and the Ramban, is expanding one’s property in Eretz Yisrael by moving back his neighbor’s boundary. The Sifri explains that according to this pshat, hasagas gvul was already prohibited under gzeilah, and the separate prohibition is to impose an additional lav upon the transgressor.

The second pshat, cited by the Ramban, is uprooting the border of one of the shvatim in Eretz Yisrael. The Ramban explains that this lav also prohibits challenging the allotment one receives in the division of Eretz Yisrael (see Bemidbar 33:54).

The third pshat of the Sifri is reversing the views of R’ Eliezer and R’ Yehoshua on a particular question of tum’ah. Some say this is just an asmachta, but others say it’s a true lav.[1]

The fourth pshat is selling ancestral property containing a cemetery.

The Radvaz notes that although many assume hasagas gvul means improper business competition, this explanation is not found in Chazal (though it may still violate an issur deRabanan). Moreover, it is only found in passing in the Rishonim, in a teshuvah of the Rambam and a comment of the Rokeiach. But the Maharshal defends this explanation and says the arur here adds business encroachment to the issur of hasagas gvul in Parshas Shoftim. A number of Acharonim accept this Maharshal and maintain that improper competition violates this arur mideOreisa.

[1]The mefarshim differ about whether this prohibition encompasses any reversing of views in a dispute, or only those of R’ Eliezer and R’ Yehoshua, because R’ Eliezer followed Beis Shammai, whom the halacha doesn’t follow.