5 Menachem Av 5768 – Parshas Devarim 6 August 2008

Trei Asar Series - Amos

Fortunately, over the last year I studied the Book of Amos relatively in depth as one of the set texts for my Biblical Hebrew A-level. This has not only speeded up my learning of the daily perek recently but has also given me a deeper insight into some of Amos’ prophecies. In truth, my studying of Amos for Biblical Hebrew was more focused on the linguistic and imagery aspects of the text and less-so on the religious messages emanating out of the nevuos. But fear not, as I am not going to bore you with a ramble about Amos’ use of the ‘lite motif’ or how the political situation of the time affected the economic conditions. Rather, I wish to share with you some of my thoughts from these perokim in view with that which I feel, that the purpose of these sheets is to try and extract from the Navi something relevant and meaningful to us. Therefore, please don’t expect an academic analysis of the Book as all I can offer are a few snippets of inspiration that lie within the Godly words of our Nach.

Although only a small sefer of nine chapters, Amos is considered one of our greatest prophets and according to Chazal he is also one of the eight greatest human beings to have ever walked the earth. Sefer Amos is surprisingly well known, even amongst those who do not study Nach This prophecy is structured as a pattern where Hashem addresses nation by nation with the infamous rebuke of, “For the three sins of [name of nation] I can forgive but for the fourth sin I cannot forgive.” The first six recitals of this reproach are only a prelude to the two main ones which come in chapter 2 and are directed at Yehuda and Yisrael. Amos, like Yeshaya his talmid, is a universal prophet and is God’s messenger to the nations of the world as well as to the Jews. However, his primary objective is to bring God’s chosen people, the Jews, to repent from their evil ways and therefore even though he prophesises to the other nations, this is also part of his message to the Jews themselves. (and yes unfortunately that are still many of those around), mainly because of his first prophecy of chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 2.

There is discussion amongst the meforshim about exactly what the three forgivable sins are. Metzudos Dovid explains that they are the three cardinal sins and that the fourth sin is only to rubber stamp the already impending punishment. Whereas Rashi and Radak are of the opinion that God is willing to forgive the first three sins, whatever they may be, due to His compassionate ways however the fourth sin is one step too far for Him to let off lightly. Saying this, what I really wish to explore is the exact nature of this ‘fourth sin’ that each time it merits such severe calamities to befall its perpetrator. The answer to this, I think, is the word אכזריות.

All eight peoples spoken about here committed different sins (with perhaps the exception of Azza and Tzur) but all invoke the same explosive reaction from Hashem. This is because, even though in practicality their sins differ, what lies at the root of all these sins is the same. Hashem This evil trait which lies at the root of all these sins is אכזריות. It is the unreserved cruelty in which man displays his inhumane capability to destroy in the most gruesome ways. In a world full of diversity, where each race struggles to overcome their competitors; conflict, war and even cruelty is understandable. But אכזריות is when man goes beyond this and brutally inflicts horrors to rob another person of their basic human dignity. This, Hashem cannot allow to go unpunished as it is a direct threat to the very existence of His world. is not looking at the externalities of these sins but rather what He is punishing them so severely for is what caused them all to sin.

If we take a look at the ‘fourth sin’ of each nation, it is blatantly obvious how it oversteps the label of cruelty and enters into the far more sinister realm of אכזריות. To ‘plough’ fellow men like one ploughs a field using instruments with metal spikes is not cruelty, its אכזריות. To hunt down and capture the few remaining escapees of a terrible exile is not cruelty, its אכזריות. To split open the wombs of pregnant women just to gain a meagre bit of land is not cruelty, its אכזריות. To burn to dust the bones of Royalty is not cruelty, its אכזריות. In all these cases, it’s the supposed elevation of man which has been utterly debased and replaced by the mostly lowly of animalistic behaviour. Therefore even though Hashem is willing to forgive time after time, even the worst of sins, but when it comes to אכזריות, in any form it may be, Hashem has no choice but to blot it out and hence, “But for the fourth, I cannot forgive.”

With possuk 6 of perek 2 starts the haftora for Parshas Vayeishev. It is chosen due to the tenuous link between the brothers selling Yosef and a hint to this in the possuk in Amos. After rebuking all the other nations the Navi finally turns to Yisrael and proclaims that the ‘fourth sin’ of Yisrael for which Hashem cannot forgive is “for the selling of a righteous person for silver and a poor man for a pair of shoes.” Chazal explain that the poor man is Yosef and that the brothers sold him for the small sum of two silver pieces each – enough to buy a pair of shoes. But where is the אכזריות in selling a person for the small value of a pair of shoes? What is so bad about this sin that Hashem deems it the one step too far for which He cannot forgive? Furthermore, the brothers’ sin of selling Yosef, which this possuk is in some way referring to, had major repercussions throughout Jewish history. The ten spies, whose sin caused us this everlasting galus, correspond to the ten brothers who sold Yosef. The climax of these repercussions was the terrible deaths of the legendary עשר הרוגי מלכות who were tortured to death in part, as an atonement for the ten brothers who sold Yosef. What was in their selling of Yosef for ‘a pair of shoes’ that such tragedies befell Klal Yisrael because of it?

Shoes represent the exalted status of man over the rest of the entire creation. The shoes on our feet separate us from the ground and raise us up above the earthliness of everything else. The Kuzari famously explains that there are four levels within creation and in a pyramid fashion each ascending level is greater than the one it rests on. The first and most basic level in creation are the inanimate objects, דומם, like stones and earth. The next level up is צומח, the most basic of life forms such as vegetation and trees which grow on top of the inanimate ground. Above that is the level of the animal kingdom, חיה, which sustains itself by consuming the vegetation. The fourth and loftiest level of creation is man himself who puts the lowest point of his body, his foot, into a shoe made from the leather hide of an animal. By wearing shoes we show that we are the pinnacle of creation and that all else is only there to service us.

But on the flip side, that is also why when Moshe is confronted by Hashem at the burning bush he is immediately commanded to remove his shoes as the possuk says, “של נאליך מעל רגליך”. This is because when man comes in front Hashem, his Maker, he can no longer boast his exaltedness over the rest of creation and therefore is required to remove his shoes, to show his true lowliness in the face of God. This also why in the Beis HaMikdash the Kohanim went around bare foot, as in the House of God there is no place for us to demonstrate our greatness. Similarly, at any time when the prominence of the human being is lost we remove our leather shoes. The אבל who is mourning the death of his close family member removes his shoes during shiva to show the loss of an exalted human life and to make him aware of his vulnerability. On Tisha B’Av as well, we remove our leather shoes to show that however great the human being is, we still are not immortal, we still can befall tragedy. On Yom Kippur when we enumerate all our shortcomings and beg for our lives in front of the Master of the Universe we remove our shoes to demonstrate our fallibility.

Our shoes represent our human dignity, our special status. Our shoes tell the story of our exaltedness. Now we can understand why the fourth sin of Yehuda falls under the category of אכזריות. Why the brothers’ sin of selling Yosef for ‘a pair of shoes’ is the catalyst for so much of our suffering. What it means, “For the selling of... a poor man for a pair shoes” is to rob another person of their humanity, to deny them of their basic right to their human exaltedness. This is first class אכזריות and is no different in essence to the unreserved cruelty of the other nations’ ‘fourth sin’. Yehuda may be Hashem’s chosen child, but like the other children when he thwarts the very bedrock of human existence by eradicating the human race’s predominance over the rest of creation, he too must be punished. When the brothers sold Yosef for a pair of shoes they were revealing a desperate lack of appreciation of man’s royalty and dignity and therefore merited the most severe of punishments for this אכזריות.

For many people the most moving experience when visiting the concentration camps is seeing the mountains of shoes. Whether it be the 80,000 shoes in Majdanek or the infamous mass of shoes in Auschwitz, it is hard not to be moved to tears. But why is it that the shoes more than anything else affect us so emotionally? The answer is because when you see these shoes, which represent human dignity and the human exaltedness, they are a testimony to how the Nazis robbed us of that. They represent the אכזריות of the Nazis who totally disregarded the dignity of man, who overstepped any marker of acceptable human behaviour. These shoes tell us the story of what man is capable of doing and more importantly what there is to lose when man loses his humanity.

We find ourselves learning Amos in a difficult time of the year and when we remove our shoes this Motzei Shabbos we can remember the possuk we learned last Wednesday. But it is not all despair, as Chazal tell us that on Tisha B’Av itself the Moshiach will be born and as we move into learning Ovadiah, the message of our impending redemption is clear. May this day of tragedy be transformed into a day of simcha like the finishing words of Amos, “And I will return the remnant of my people Yisrael... They will be firmly settled on their land and they will never again be displaced from their land that I have given to them, says Hashem your God.”

Shmuli