K’vod HaBriyos – Human Dignity
‘… Excluding Where He Was Preoccupied’
(Shavuos 18b-19a)
Our sugya discusses R. Eliezer’s interpretation in the Mishna (14b) that one is liable for transgressions concealed from him. In those instances – such as where, for example, he unwittingly touched a sheretz and only became aware of it afterward – he is required to bring a Korban Chatas. However, he does not have to bring a Korban Chatas if he entered the Temple unwittingly in a state of tumah and only became aware later.
He derives this from the pasuk (Vayikra 5:2-3), “Or if a person touches anything that is defiled, whether the carcass of a beast that is defiled or the carcass of an animal that is defiled or the carcass of a creeping creature that is defiled, and it was concealed from him, and he was defiled and he became guilty; or if he touches a human defilement in any manner of its defilement through which he can become defiled, and it was concealed from him, and then he knew and he became guilty…”
Ketzirah
R. Yehoshua in our sugya cites yet another pasuk (supra, Vayikra 4:23), “Or if it was made known to him that which he sinned in it…” and derives that one can only be liable if he knows specifically what his sin was. R. Eliezer derives from this verse that a person is excluded from liability when he is otherwise preoccupied – mis’asek. An example of mis’asek (Rashi 19a s.v. “prat l’mis’asek”) is where on Shabbos two plants (vegetables) were before him, one being yet attached to the ground while the other was already detached, and he cut the one thinking it was that which was detached. In that case he unknowingly – and unwillingly – violated the labor of reaping (ketzirah), and in such a case there is no Korban Chatas.
The Temple’s Sanctity
However, l’halacha, we follow the view of R. Yishmael (supra, 14b) that if one entered the Temple either unaware that he was ritually defiled or unaware that the area was part of the Temple, he is liable for a Chatas (a certain kind called an Oleh ve’Yored – a variable sacrifice depending on his financial circumstance).
Utterly Confused
Rabbi Akiva Eiger (Responsa, first edition, siman 8) posits that one who enters the Temple thinking that he has entered an ordinary house is truly in a state of mis’asek because he is entirely unaware of the significance of his act, similar to the example cited from Rashi above (the two plants, one attached, the other detached).
However, he notes that this exclusion is limited to the Chatas obligation, but the sin (even though it might only be rabbinical) would nevertheless remain. To prove this, he cites the Gemara (Berachos 19b) that if one becomes aware that he is wearing kil’ayim (a forbidden mixture of wool and linen), he must remove the garment even in the street.
The Mechaber (Yoreh Deah 303:1) understands this to include also where he remained unaware, but it was his friend who noticed it and notified him. The friend must inform him even though this will cause him substantial embarrassment. The concern for k’vod habriyos, human dignity, does not supercede (an active transgression of) a Biblical law.
Rabbi Akiva Eiger comments that there is no greater mis’asek than this situation and yet it is still considered a sinful act. For otherwise, why must we notify him to remove it and cause him embarrassment?
Caught In The Street
Rema (in his glosses, Yoreh Deah ad. loc.) limits the above halacha. He notes that if the wearer of the kil’ayim is acting b’shogeg and they are in the marketplace, he need not notify him because of k’vod habriyos and should not stop him.
Shabbos
Magen Avraham (Orach Chayyim 13: s.k. 8) rules similarly in the following case: If on Shabbos one sees that his friend’s tzitzis is torn, he is not required to inform him to remove it even where he is in the public side domain – karmelis. This rule applies even though tzitzis (on a four-cornered garment) is Biblical and usually a Biblical command is not shunted aside for the sake of k’vod habriyos, as the Torah did not say “Do not wear a garment without tzitzis” – rather it is a Biblical requirement to place tzitzis on a four-cornered garment.
