Bais HaVaad on the Parsha, Parshas Va’es’chanan

The Great Beyond

August 15, 2024

Excerpted and adapted from a shiur by Dayan Dovid Grossman

You shall do what is fair and good in the eyes of Hashem…

Dvarim 6:18

Rashi says this is the source for acting lifnim mishuras hadin (beyond the letter of the law). Tosfos (Bava Metzia 24b s.v. Lifnim) says there are three categories of lifnim mishuras hadin, each with a different source:

1. One who finds a wallet in a large marketplace is exempt from the mitzvah of hashavas aveidah (ibid.), but he must return it under “ve’asisa hayashar vehatov” because he incurs no financial loss by doing so.[1]
2. The Gemara (Bava Metzia 30b) implies that a talmid chacham should go lifnim mishuras hadin and perform the mitzvah of te’inah (loading an animal), even though he is exempt from it because eino lefi chvodo (it is beneath his dignity). The Gemara derives this from hama’aseh asher ya’asun (Shmos 18:20). Tosfos explains that this type of lifnim mishuras hadin applies where others do have to perform the mitzvah, but this person has a specific exemption, in which case the mitzvah applies even if it will cause financial loss.
3. The Gemara (Bava Metzia 83a) discusses workers that broke barrels in transport, and says that Rabbah bar bar Chanah, their employer, should not demand compensation and should even pay their wages. As the source, it cites the pasuk, “lema’an teileich bederech tovim” (Mishlei 2:20). Tosfos explains that this category includes cases where there is a financial loss and no one else in this situation would be obligated to suffer the loss. In such a case, ve’asisa hayashar vehatov and hama’aseh asher ya’asun do not apply, but one should still pay because of “lema’an teileich bederech tovim.”

[1] See also the Ramban, who describes this category of lifnim mishuras hadin as being one where a new halacha is created that did not otherwise apply. For this reason, one is not obligated to suffer a financial loss. The Ramban says Chazal placed the rule of bar metzra (a neighbor’s right of first refusal) in this category.