Parshas Vayikra
In this week’s sidra, the passuk (4:27) states that the perpetrators of certain severe sins require a korban chata’as (sacrifice atoning for inadvertent wrongdoing) in order to absolve themselves of guilt.
There is a basic difficulty regarding the logic and fairness of this obligation. Why would Hashem hold people accountable for unintentional sins? Take, for instance, a person awoken in the middle of the night by a branch rustling loudly outside his bedroom window; for a single moment, as he groggily turns over his pillow and attempts to fall back asleep, he forgets it’s Shabbos and unthinkingly bites down on his lip to peel off a tiny piece of chapped skin. Can such a person be considered to actually bear guilt for violating the halacha prohibiting cutting an object from its life-source on Shabbos? He didn’t purposely try to desecrate the laws of Shabbos – he simply forgot that it was Shabbos for one second! What is so truly terrible about that?
In his sefer, Mishneh Torah (Hilchos Shegagos 5:6), the Rambam addresses this issue.
He explains that one is obligated to offer a korban chata’as because the performance of unintentional aveiros reveals a lack of caution regarding one’s Torah obligations and is viewed by Hakadosh Baruch Hu as almost an indifference to the strictures of halacha.
Rav Eliyahu Dessler, zt’l, presumably attempting to clarify the Rambam’s answer, points out that one does not make a mistake about something which is truly a part of him. A Jewish person, Rav Dessler writes, is obligated to instill the reality of G-d’s existence into every fiber of his being. Just as one would never forget his child’s name, a Jewish person cannot be excused for unintentionally transgressing G-d’s will. One who truly internalizes the fact that there is a G-d in the world, will acquire a mental block against transgression and never come to perform even unintentional aveiros.
The Maharil Diskin once forgot to recite Ya’aleh V’Yavoh. His wife expressed surprise that her saintly husband could have skipped the prayer and began to suspect that the Maharil had taken ill – indeed, it was soon discovered that he was running a fever. Incredibly, when Rav Shalom Schwadron attempted to relate this story to the Brisker Rav, he was not even permitted to continue past the first few words – the moment that the Brisker Rav heard the assertion that the Maharil had forgotten to recite Ya’aleh V’Yavoh, he protested that the story could not possibly be true. The Brisker Rav understood that someone like the Maharil Diskin, who kept Hakadosh Baruch Hu so deeply ingrained upon his being, could never have erred in his prayers.
Delving further into the question with which we began, however, the Ramban in our parsha (4:2), presses that it still appears unjustifiably severe to obligate accidental sinners in a korban.
The Ramban therefore adds another concept which further demonstrates the severity of aveiros. He writes that aveiros are inherently bad. One who sins, even inadvertently, has nevertheless physically performed an aveirah. Without the atonement of a korban, such acts attach themselves to one’s soul and remain a black stain blocking any attempt to draw closer to the Creator.
We must try to internalize the message of this Ramban and realize that every sinful action which we perform – whether purposefully or accidentally – becomes indelibly branded upon us. If one truly recognizes the horror which physical acts of sin command, the very concept of sin will become entirely foreign to him and he will be able to more strongly guard himself from even unintentional aveiros.
The following story about the Vilna Gaon demonstrates the fear of sin which a person can attain. When he was still young, the Gaon once accidentally moved a crumb during the Shabbos meal. Although most authorities do not regard a crumb as muktzeh – and we indeed pasken that it is not – he immediately fainted at the thought of having performed even such an inadvertent sin.
May we all be zoche to truly distance ourselves from aveiros.