Parshat Behar - How to Defraud - A Must Know
by Rabbi Lobel

(Leviticus; Chapter 25, Verse 14) "When you make a sale to your fellow or when you buy from the hand of your fellow, do not victimize one another."

Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai, Talmud, Baba Basra (89b), was contemplating if he should or should not teach how to defraud or swindle your fellow man. "If I teach it, then the thieves would learn how to be better in their trade; If I do not teach it, people will say that the pious and righteous do not know the art of theft and fraud."

According to the Maharsha, people will say the righteous do not steal because they don't know how. Still, the idea sounds odd. Why would pious people need to know how to steal? On the contrary, wouldn't it be better that the pious not know how to steal?

Too often, a person enhances his self-image by diminishing his perception of others. How often have we heard that Rabbis don't have "real jobs"? Or that the it's easy to be pious when you're a Rabbi because Rabbis don't live in the "real world". When we degrade a righteous man's accomplishments, we also make it that much easier to excuse our own faults. "It's easy for the Rabbi to say that. He doesn't . . ." Just fill in the blanks.

Stealing is such an obvious crime, yet even thieves would argue that Rabbis would steal if they only knew how. This is no different than doctors, lawyers, professors, businessmen, and others who pride themselves thinking the Rabbi would have chosen the same profession if only he had the ability.

What a horrible way to think. To build yourself by reducing another is shameful. But it's even worse when you rob a man of his righteousness because you not only attack him but you attack the Torah he seeks to uphold.

As the Maharsha explains, Rabbi Yochanan was concerned with the reputations of the righteous. How do you show the world, from the most prominent people to the lowest of the lows, that the righteous are just as capable as them? That the righteous are even capable of being world class thieves? Yet, they choose to remain righteous.

Perhaps, Rabbi Yochanan said, the only way to do that is by educating the righteous in the ways of the world so that there is no denying they are righteous because they choose to be. And, those who would challenge the righteous will now recognize that their failings are their own.

The Talmud is teaching us that even men of G-d should learn the ways of the world so that others are not tempted to justify their actions by claiming the righteous are only righteous through their provincialism. Once people recognize that even the righteous are worldly, perhaps they'll realize they, too, can be righteous.