Illustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio
Commentary פַּרְשָׁנוּת
וְכִי־תִמְכְּרוּ מִמְכָּר לַעֲמִיתֶךָ אוֹ קָנֹה מִיַּד עֲמִיתֶךָ אַל־תּוֹנוּ אִישׁ אֶת־אָחִיו׃
…לְפִי רֹב הַשָּׁנִים תַּרְבֶּה מִקְנָתוֹ וּלְפִי מְעֹט הַשָּׁנִים תַּמְעִיט מִקְנָתוֹ כִּי מִסְפַּר תְּבוּאֹת הוּא מֹכֵר לָךְ׃
וְלֹא תוֹנוּ אִישׁ אֶת־עֲמִיתוֹ וְיָרֵאתָ מֵאֱלֹקֶיךָ כִּי אֲנִי ה' אֱלֹקֵיכֶם׃
When you sell property to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, do not wrong one another.
…the more years (remaining before yovel), the higher the price; the fewer years, the lower the price. What is being sold is the number of harvests.
Do not wrong one another, but fear your Lord; for I God am your Lord.
Our פַּרְשָׁנִים (parshanim, commentators) notice that there is a double warning about not wronging one another: אַל־תּוֹנוּ (al tonu) at the beginning, and וְלֹא תוֹנוּ (ve-lo tonu) at the end. They wonder: why does this warning appear twice?
אַל תּוֹנוּ – זוֹ אוֹנָאַת מָמוֹן.
וְלֹא תוֹנוּ אִישׁ אֶת עֲמִיתוֹ – כָּאן הִזְהִיר עַל אוֹנָאַת דְּבָרִים.
The first warning is about harming someone financially.
The second warning is about harming someone with words.
וְטַעַם וְלֹא תוֹנוּ אִישׁ אֶת עֲמִיתוֹ – אַזְהָרָה לַמּוֹכֵר, כִּי הָרִאשׁוֹן לַקּוֹנֶה.
The second warning is directed to a seller. The first warning is directed to a buyer.
Both commentators think the repetition means that the Torah is talking about two different kinds of harm, but they break it down differently. Rashi sees our pesukim as referring to two completely different categories of אוֹנָאָה (ona’ah, harming someone). Harming someone in business is called אוֹנָאַת מָּמוֹן (ona’at mamon). But you’re also not allowed to harm someone emotionally, like with words. This is called אוֹנָאַת דְּבָרִים (ona’at devarim).
Ona’at devarim includes teasing people or calling them names. It also includes any kind of making someone feel bad, for example by excluding them, by embarrassing them, or by raising their hopes and then disappointing them–even if you do it without any words at all! The Talmud discusses ona’at devarim for pages and pages and warns us to be extremely cautious about other people's feelings.
- Think about Rashi: how are ona’at mamon and ona’at devarim similar to one another? How do they differ?
- Think about Ibn Ezra: how can a seller take advantage of a buyer? How can a buyer take advantage of a seller? Is one of these scenarios more likely?
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