Congregation Shema Yisrael

And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her. One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house. -Genesis 39:10-12

Here we see one of the Messianic figures of the Torah, Joseph, doing the right and honorable thing by God and by his (then) Master Potiphar, by resisting the temptation to have illicit sexual relations with Potiphar’s wife. I don’t think anyone who adheres to the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob or any person who claims Yeshua (Jesus) as Messiah and Lord, would have a problem with how Joseph handled himself in this situation. Under enormous pressure to have sex with Potiphar’s wife (we’re never completely sure of her name) and although she repeatedly attempted to persuade him to go to bed with her, he continually resisted sin and eventually ran from it, rather than give in.

In the short run, this noteworthy behavior doesn’t seem to do Joseph much good. Potiphar’s wife, Joseph’s garment still in her hand, claims that Joseph tried to rape her and that only her screams drove him off. The master of the house apparently believes his wife and has Joseph imprisoned. Of course, in the long run, this minor sojourn in a “white collar prison” sets the final stage for Joseph’s ascension as a Master over his former masters, second only to Pharaoh the King, and to becoming the savior of the known, civilized world.

However, is it enough to flee from sin? Is it enough just to make sure that you, as an individual, don’t fall into the trap? Even if you escape a snare, what about those who don’t? This may be a circumstance that, on the surface, doesn’t have a clear cut answer. But consider Bava Basra 50:

On today’s daf we find that sometimes a failure to protest demonstrates tacit agreement. Similarly, when one sees a spiritual flaw and he has the ability to protest it, failure to do so shows that he holds that he agrees that the sin is of no great consequence.

Although there were many great sages who protested the sins of others in a very effective manner, perhaps the most famous of these is the protest of the Chofetz Chaim, zt”l, against l’shon hara (the evil tongue). However, few are aware how the Chofetz Chaim come to write this epic work.

Rav Velvel Eidelman, zt”l, was able to share where the germ of the idea came from. “In my house, we had a Mishna Berurah which was marked in the Chofetz Chaim’s own hand: ‘checked.’ My father had purchased it directly from the author, who had proofread his work himself.

“Since my early life was so close to Chofetz Chaim, I remember hearing how his first work came to be written. It is clearly the halachah that one must literally flee to avoid hearing l’shon hara. Once, the Chofetz Chaim was in just such a position. He saw that the only way for him to possibly avoid transgressing this prohibition was to flee and he did so immediately. He ran and ran until he fell down from exhaustion. At this moment he decided that it was not enough to merely run away; if he wished to discharge his obligation he would have to write sefer Chofetz Chaim to promulgate these essential halachos.”

The Chazon Ish, zt”l, recounted that the Chofetz Chaim would say, “When a Jew gets to heaven and he is asked why he ate chadash he can respond that he held like the Bach, zt”l, who permits chadash out of Israel. But when he is asked why he spoke l’shon hara, he will have no compelling answer since the Bach does not permit speaking l’shon hara, and neither does any other serious authority!”

From Daf Digest
Stories off the Daf
Taking a Stand
Bava Basra 50

The daf records that it’s not enough to personally avoid sinning if you know your brother may fall under the sin. You must do something to try and prevent others from falling victim as well. In this case, the Chofetz Chaim’s response was to write an authoritative document outlining the inexcusability of spreading gossip or tales (l’shon hara). The cornerstone of this is one of the 613 commandments, the basis of which we find here:

Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt. -Leviticus 19:17

The sages interpret this scripture as a commandment from God to rebuke your brother of his sin. The implication is that, if you don’t rebuke him, you share in the guilt of the sin, even though you did not otherwise participate in the specific sin.

This doesn’t seem to apply to Joseph’s situation since, as far as we know, he didn’t see any of the other male slaves being tempted by the flesh of Potiphar’s wife. There’s also a question of who you are supposed to rebuke. The traditional interpretation of the commandment is that no Jew should allow another Jew to sin, if it’s within the first Jew’s power to prevent it. As grafted in people, we Gentile believers extrapolate this commandment to apply between us and other grafted in people. But is that the limit?

I recently wrote an article for this blog called Obligated or Encouraged, recording the theological shift of the First Fruits of Zion (FFOZ) educational organization, from the Torah applying to all followers of Yeshua, to just the Jewish followers (and Jewish non-followers). One of the reasons FFOZ gives for such a monumental change in viewpoint, is the “bad fruit” the One Law movement was producing among the Messianic Gentile believers.

The Messianic movement generally tends to be pretty judgmental. Never mind “Thou shalt not judge lest ye be judged”, we are, or tend to be, judgmental, both within our boundaries and outside of them. We tend to be rather picky about “the small stuff” such as how to tie a tzitzit, when to lay tefillin, whether to say “Adonay” or “Adonoi”, and so on. We also tend to be kind of picky when we see our secular or Sunday-going Christian neighbor mowing his lawn on Saturday, barbecuing pork ribs, and otherwise “desecrating the Name”.

Fortunately, for people who hang in with the Messianic movement long enough, keep studying, keep maturing spiritually, and associating with others willing to also follow “the straight and narrow” path of the Bible, we eventually figure out that God’s Word is our guidebook to righteous living and we have no right to behave in such an arrogant and superior manner (see Luke 18:9-14), either towards our brothers and sisters in Christ, or towards our next door neighbor who “worships” at the altar of secular humanism and liberal politics.

Then who are we supposed to rebuke, if anyone at all? The point to be taken, is there is a difference between a rebuke, motivated by a desire to help others and to obey God, and a judgment designed to make us feel better about ourselves and our chosen method of worship and study. Messianics have a tendency to feel isolated, even among the larger believing world, and, being human, we can give in to the temptation to elevate ourselves at the expense of others. I don’t think we can say we are serving God or honestly trying to prevent our neighbor from sinning, by snatching that ham sandwich out of his or her mouth before it’s too late.

Fleeing from sin, like charity, starts at home. Before you intervene in the life of another, you must be at right standing before God yourself:

Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. -Matthew 7:1-5

There’s no “hidden Messianic” meaning to this scripture. Yeshua is being quite plain. He’s saying “don’t judge” but he’s saying a few other things as well. He’s saying that you should remove the speck from your brother’s eye but only if you’ve first removed the plank from your own. In other words, you do have a responsibility to correct a brother who is in error, but only after you have removed the error (probably the same error) from your own life. Otherwise, you’re nothing but a hypocrite.

But who is my brother and my neighbor? Hopefully, your knowledge of the Bible from Cain and Abel to the Good Samaritan has long since answered that question for you, but let’s take a look at it anyway. I think it’s safe to say that you can include your Messianic brother and sister in the population pool. Once you’ve cleared up your own vision problems, look within your own worship group. Are you condoning sin within your congregation? Have you turned a blind eye to a transgression among you because you don’t want to offend someone? If so, I think this article, as it’s been written up to this point, speaks for itself. Certainly the scriptures do.

“If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector. I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” -Matthew 18:15-20

This saying of the Master tells volumes. Here we see that we are to show a fundamental respect towards even a brother who is sinning against us. When we confront him, do so privately, to avoid embarrassing him. Only involve two or three others, if he refuses to listen to a private rebuke. Only involve the rest of the congregation if he continues to not listen and to sin. If he still doesn’t listen, he must be sent away like an unbeliever.

Yeshua makes another point and it’s so important, he repeats himself. In verses 18-20, he states that if you do not confront sin in your group, it’s as if you are agreeing with it. Actually, the statement is much stronger. Yeshua is really saying that if you don’t confront sin among you, you are agreeing with it. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t committing adultery yourself. If you know a member of your congregation is committing adultery and you do not address it, you are agreeing that the sin isn’t “that bad” and you shoulder part of the guilt for the sin yourself.

What about all those ham eating, Sunday church-going brothers and sisters in the Messiah? Do we have the same responsibility to call them on their “sin”? This is where the FFOZ argument may have some small merit (though not as much as they think).

What shall we say, then? Is the Torah sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the Torah. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the Torah had not said, “Do not covet.” -Romans 7:7

Even Paul says that we are accountable only for what we know to be a sin (although in the times of the Temple, there was a sacrifice for unknown sin, and during Yom Kippur, we ask God to forgive us of sins we do not remember). If a believer hasn’t been “convicted” of the Leviticus 11 kosher food laws, who are we to hold him or her accountable? Sure, we can share our convictions and why we hold them, but it’s God that convicts and changes the heart, not people. I believe we should be paying less attention to that bowl of pork and beans our neighbor sometimes consumes, and more attention to our example to our neighbor in our own life, including any offers we can make to help him and his family, should we see a need.

How about unbelievers? What do we do about them? Should we stand on a street corner wearing a sign that says, “Sinners Repent, for the end is near because you shop on Saturday”? I’m sure we’re all aware of how the secular world believes we are all judgmental, narrow-minded, bigots, eager to beat “rational” people over the head with the nearest, heavy Bible.

We aren’t required to judge the world, or our neighbor, or our brother. We are required to do something when we see injustice. We are required to do something when we see suffering. We are required to help. When we see someone tempted to sin, we aren’t to slap his wrist and say “Bad boy”, we’re supposed to offer a helping hand to someone who’s suffering. Yes, our version of help; the Bible’s version of help; God’s version of help is often misunderstood, but we are obligated to offer food to the hungry and clothing to the cold and naked. When we see wrong, we are supposed to stand up against it, not because it makes us feel better about ourselves, but because it’s the right thing to do when we see someone in trouble.

When we are tempted into committing sin, we are to flee from the temptation. When we see a brother or sister falling into that temptation, we are obligated, not to run away, but to gently confront them and help them. Think of it as being a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. You are a sponsor to someone who has less recovery time than you have. You see him slipping towards a relapse in the form of a quart of Vodka. You’re supposed to help him resist the bottle without beating his brains out with it.

Running from sin and personally resisting evil is only the starting point. You and I have a responsibility to “get involved” in the lives of others who are straying onto the wrong path, but only once we are clear of our own issues and are sure of our own motivations. This isn’t about shrimp scampi and tzitzit knots, it’s about learning to be a guiding light, first by making sure we have taken our own blinders off and can see Yeshua’s light, and then by taking the bowl away from our own light and letting it shine into the world around us.

Fleeing from sin isn’t enough. We must show the path away from sin to those who don’t have enough light to see it for themselves. We must also not be afraid to shine that light into the dark corners of our own worship halls. Compassion, like dropping a pebble in a pool, starts at the center, then ripples out as far as we’ll allow it.