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In other words, the passuk means, “Lest you be confused to follow
them and are drawn to emulate their deeds.”
Rashi adds:“‘For even their sons and daughters’ – [the word] ‘even’
includes their fathers and mothers:‘Rabbi Akiva said,“I saw a gentile
who tied up his father in front of his dog and it ate him.”’” The neg-
ative influence of friends or of a bad environment is liable to lead to
mentally imbalanced behavior and to performing acts of tremendous
cruelty that are completely out of character for an intelligent person.
Although these young men are mentally sound, society’s influence
is leading them to throw away their most precious possession – their
ability to procreate. They resemble the miser who has his own mon-
ey but doesn’t want to use it and only wants to benefit from others,
concerning whom the Shulchan Aruch rules (Yoreh De’ah 253:10) that
he is not given tzeddakah even if as a result his life is endangered and
he may die of hunger. He is not considered a shoteh, rather a corrupt
character who loves his money more than his life. The cure for such
a person doesn’t lie in pills or medications but in keeping company
with tzaddikim and intelligent people of fine character. Concerning
the above young men, my impression is that they are normal in all
respects, except in regard to this spirit of folly.
Proposed Solutions to this Problem, based on
our Holy Writings
1. This friendship should be broken and they should be separated,
for such friends draw encouragement from one another. As is known,
every person who commits a sin naturally seeks to do so in company;
it is difficult for a sinner to be on his own. As soon as he realizes he is
on his own he comes to his senses and understands the implications
of what he is about to do.
We encounter this pattern in our holy and eternal Torah, which
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