If someone hits his neighbor, causing him to lose an eye, he is “owed” an eye. The Torah seems to suggest that the consequence for the attacker or negligent damager is that he must forfeit his own eye. Chazal explain, however (Bava Kama 83b), that we are dealing with monetary value and not an actual eye, as it was difficult back in biblical times to ensure that the removal of an eye did not kill a person, and what would one do if the attacker was already blind, and so on.
The Maharal of Prague, zt”l (Gur Aryeh), explains that in reality, a person should have to pay with his own actual eye to teach him that no monetary equivalent could compensate for the loss of a living limb or organ. However, a person might come to mistakenly believe that once he pays, his debt is finished; he has completely compensated his neighbor for the damage that was done. In reality, though, such crimes can never be compensated for, and the damager must seek the forgiveness of the victim. In Parshas Emor, deep in the midst of the mission of the Kohanim who were meant to be our role models, we are reminded of how important it is to be sensitive to the “blemishes” we sometimes inflict on our fellow human beings: physical, emotional, and even psychological scars that cannot always be fixed or healed so easily.
Rabbi Binny Friedman recalled a visit he made years ago to the Old Synagogue of the Maharal (known as the Altneu Shul in Prague). He immediately noticed its most distinctive feature: With the exception of some Hebrew letters very high up near the ceiling, the walls are completely blank, devoid of any art or decoration. Standing in stark contrast to all the other Jewish synagogues of Prague (not to mention synagogues all over Europe), this detail demanded an explanation.
There is an intensity to this shul with its history of hundreds of years in existence; eventually, Rabbi Friedman learned why.
On April 17, 1389, Easter Sunday, a Catholic priest leading a procession past the Jewish community of Prague was hit with some sand thrown by a few Jewish children as they were in the midst of playing. Claiming they had denigrated Christianity and desecrated his lord, the priest incited the clergy to encourage savage mobs to pillage, ransack, and burn the Jewish quarter for two days in what became known as the Prague Pogrom. Three thousand Jews were killed by their Christian brethren; all but the youngest children were murdered, with countless more injured and maimed, many of whom had their limbs cut off and eyes put out. Practically the entire Jewish community of Prague was wiped out in a matter of 48 hours.
As there were not enough able-bodied Jewish men left to give the dead a proper burial in a short period of time, the 3,000 Jewish bodies were stacked in the shul until, little by little, they were able to be given a proper Jewish burial to prevent further desecration. By the time they were all buried, however, the blood from their bodies had seeped into the walls of the building all the way up to the top of the windows. For over two centuries, this was how the walls were left; the red-stained stones were a constant reminder of the price the Jewish community of Prague had paid for their faith.
When the Maharal came from Poland to Prague in the latter half of the 16th century and saw the blood on the walls, he told the Jewish community they could not pray there as the blood needed burial. Eventually, they compromised by plastering the walls to “bury” the blood behind the plaster. But every 100 years or so, the blood seeps through, and the walls need to be replastered. As part of a compromise, the walls remained blank without decoration out of respect for those who lost their lives. Eventually, the Noda B’yehuda convinced them to decorate the top of the walls with verses, but only using the first letters of each word.
Think about who those 3,000 murdered Jews of 1389 might have been today. Millions more Jews would be alive. The loss is staggering. The same goes for the kedoshim of the Holocaust, pogroms, and countless other tragedies. We live in a generation that is witnessing an attempt by some of the countries responsible for the most sinister destruction of a people in human history as they attempt to “compensate” for those crimes. But at the same time, it is important to remember why the Torah states the consequence as “an eye for an eye”: because we need to always be aware that such things can never truly be fixed.
Rabbi Dovid Hoffman is the author of the popular “Torah Tavlin” book series, filled with stories, wit and hundreds of divrei Torah, including the brand new “Torah Tavlin Yamim Noraim” in stores everywhere. You’ll love this popular series. Also look for his book, “Heroes of Spirit,” containing one hundred fascinating stories on the Holocaust. They are fantastic gifts, available in all Judaica bookstores and online at http://israelbookshoppublications.com. To receive Rabbi Hoffman’s weekly “Torah Tavlin” sheet on the parsha, e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.