Page 42 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

CHAPTER 1 THE STRUCTURE OF THE HEBREW LANGUAGE
CHAPTER 1 THE STRUCTURE OF THE HEBREW LANGUAGE 21 21

response is clear. The commonly accepted translation, as appearing in the title of
this subsection, simply does not appear in the original Hebrew text. The Bible is
precise—here as elsewhere—and Jewish interpretations, over the centuries, indeed
followed the exact phrase, as given in Hebrew, and not its somewhat misplaced
English translation.
The keyword to understanding what precisely this verse means by “blind” is
the word “put.” The latter does not appear in the original Hebrew text. Instead,
the word “give” is used. This changes the whole sense of the verse. “To put” (a
stumbling block ) conveys a scenario of passive cruelty. A stumbling block was
placed, and either the blind will stumble over it or not. “To give” is something else.
You are giving a present—or, at least, something that looks like one. The “blind,”
then, are not the physically sight-challenged. Rather, he or she is one who does not
realize that the present is in fact poisonous, harmful to the recipient. Furthermore,

it might be beneficial to the “giver.” There is an obvious active malicious intent in
the action: one gives his fellow man (or woman) an obstacle in the form of a favor-
able object or act, yet the taker is unaware (blind) of the real nature of the present,
or to its adverse ramifications. The Bible could not be more precise.

The Talmud and other Jewish sources classify “malicious presents to the blind,”

or acts committed that take advantage of a temporary situation of “blindness,”

into five well-specified categories. We will not detail these here, but nevertheless

convey a sense of what is meant by “to give a stumbling block to the blind.”
Examples:
• “Refrain from giving bad advice that is intended to benefit you on

account of the unsuspecting receiver of the advice.” For example, one

should not advise another party to sell his or her field in order to buy a

donkey, when the advisor wishes to buy the field for herself or himself
(Midrash Sifra, Lev. 19:14)!
• “Avoid introducing a prohibited, or harmful, temptation.” For example,
do not present wine to a Nazirite—a man who takes a vow to refrain
from wine, cutting hair, or ritually contaminating himself by coming
into contact with the dead (Babylonian Talmud, Pesachim 22b).
• “Do not lend money without having witnesses present lest the borrower
might be tempted to deny the loan, thus causing him/her self harm by
sinning” (Babylonian Talmud, Baba Metzia 75b).
• Do not sell a used item (car), hiding its defects.
• Nechama Leibowitz, a renowned Bible scholar, offers this wide inter-
pretation (Leibowitz 1983): “The Torah teaches us that even by sitting
at home doing nothing, by complete passivity and divorcement from