Bais HaVaad on the Parsha, Parshas Naso

Green with Envy

June 11, 2024

Excerpted and adapted from a shiur by Dayan Yosef Greenwald

You shall not covet your fellow’s house. You shall not covet your fellow’s wife, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, his donkey, nor anything that belongs to your fellow.

Shmos 20:14

The Rambam (Sefer Hamitzvos, Lo Sa’aseh 265; Hilchos Gzeilah Va’aveidah 1:9) explains that lo sachmod prohibits desiring something belonging to another and devising a plan to obtain it, but one violates the prohibition only if an act of acquisition follows the feeling—e.g., if he pressures the owner to sell it to the point that he does so, unwillingly. (If he just steals it, he violates gzeilah rather than chemdah.) The Rambam also writes that lo sis’aveh (in the second Dibros) includes scheming to coerce someone to sell without following through.

The Ra’avad disagrees, maintaining that chemdah forbids acquiring the item by brute force, so it is only violated by giving the owner money and seizing the object. If the owner is persuaded, even under duress, lo sachmod was not violated.

The Ibn Ezra takes a third approach: One violates lo sachmod just by scheming to take another’s possessions. This is because a person must realize that Hashem has given him everything he needs, and someone who recognizes this does not covet.