Group None

Chapter Fourteen: ON ENVY

Envy is a branch of anger, and no man escapes from it completely. For we see that among men each one tries to keep-up with one's neighbor. For when he sees that his neighbor acquires food or clothes, or a home or amasses money, then he too endeavors to attain the same, thinking, "My fellow has all this; I must also have it." And concerning this matter, Solomon hinted : "Again, I considered all labour and all excelling in work, that it is a man's rivalry with his neighbor" (Eccl. 4:4).

Now any man who has this quality strongly within him, is very despicable, for jealousy brings a person to lust, for when a man does not pay attention to what his companion acquires, he does not lust. And the Torah said, "You shall not lust after the wife of your neighbor… and anything that belongs to your neighbor" (Exod. 20:14). A man who is overpowered by lust, is very close to transgressing the Ten Commandments. A parable that will illustrate this is the story of a man who had a neighbor and there was a wall that separated them and their property. Now the wicked man coveted the wife of his neighbor, and also some of his possessions. One day he overheard the man say to his wife, "I shall have to leave for a while for business," and thus he did. What did the wicked man do? On Sabbath eve, he went and broke the wall that was between them. And thus, he had already transgressed the commandment to "remember and keep the Sabbath." He then forcibly attacked the wife of his neighbor, and in that way transgressed the commandment that "You shall not covet" and he lay with her, and thus he transgressed the commandment "You shall not commit adultery." And after that when he began to plunder the possessions of his neighbor, the woman cried out, and when she cried out, he slew her — and so he transgressed the commandment "You shall not commit murder." And after he had robbed and stolen what he lusted for, he had already transgressed the commandment, "You shall not steal" as well as "You shalt not covet." Then his father and his mother stood up and rebuked him. He arose up against them and struck them, and thus he transgressed the commandment "Honor your father and your mother." And afterwards, when he was brought to court, he and his worthless companions testified that the property found in his possession had been left with him as a pledge by his neighbor and that he had permitted his neighbor to take them back in trust even though he had not paid. He had trusted his neighbor with the pledge and had never been able to obtain possession of them until now when the robbers had broken the wall which was between their properties and had slain the woman and that when he heard the commotion he had entered and taken back his pledge. Now by this testimony, he transgressed against the commandment "You shall not utter false testimony against your neighbor." Then continually, wherever he went, he swore that he had done nothing wrong, and so he transgressed against the commandment, "You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain." Finally, his crimes were revealed and his wrong became known far and wide. Because of this disgrace, he became utterly depraved, denied the living God and thus he transgressed against the First Commandment, "I am the Lord thy God." Finally, he became attached to idolatry and thus he transgressed the command "You shall have no other gods, you shall not bow down before them and you shall not serve them." And all of this was caused by his lust! Thus we find that lust can bring one very near to transgress against all of the Torah.

There is another way to intelligently understand how jealousy and lust are very ruinous qualities, and in this vein Solomon said : "Let not thy heart envy sinners, but be in the fear of the Lord all the day" (Prov. 23:17). When a man envies sinners seeing their wealth and prosperity and sees righteous men growing poorer and being sore afflicted, and, from all of this, his soul rejects reverence for God and His judgements, and rejects those who study the Torah and fulfill it, as it is said : "Your words have been all too strong against Me, saith the Lord. Ye have said : 'It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked mournfully because of the Lord of Hosts? And how we call the proud happy, yea, they that work wickedness art built up; yea, they try God and are delivered" (Malachi 3:13-15).

This type of thinking leads to folly in the minds of people, and causes their hearts to retreat from the truth when they see the wicked prospering and the righteous suffering. Because of this they walk in the hardness of their heart and say, "So and so do thus and they are rich. We'll do the same thing and what happens to them will happen to us." All this they resolve to do because of jealousy, for such a man envies the wicked, and covets their wealth and their security. Therefore, such people cast off from themselves the yoke of the commandments. But the righteous do not envy the wicked, their money or their security, for they reflect that the wealth of the wicked is guarded only for their ultimate ruin, and their security is given them only to deprive them of the great good which is treasured up for the righteous. And they know that the poverty of the righteous and their distress purifies and cleanses them to increase their worthiness for the world to come. There is no doubt that one who thinks thus will not envy, but will on the contrary, rejoice when he sees the apparent security of the wicked, for he will say. "If those who enrage God are rewarded thus, then how much greater, will be the reward of those who do His will!" To the righteous He will give and continue to give reward.

Envy is the result of a feeling of inferiority. If one envies another's beauty, strength or wealth, then he is unhappy with what the Creator, blessed be He, has decreed for him. This is similar to a servant who complains concerning the deeds of his master, and is not pleased with his master's matters. Such a one is not a faithful servant. All the more so, ought he not to complain against the Creator, may He be Blessed, for all His deeds are righteous and proper, and one ought never to dispute them.

Out of envy come quarrels as you see in the case of Korach, who envied the honor of Elizaphan, the son of Uzziel (Midrash Rabbah on Numbers 18), and because of this circumstance, he and all of his party were destroyed, even the tender infants. Jealousy is like a sickness of the body. It brings consumption. The wise man said to his son, "Guard yourself from jealousy, for it can easily be recognized when your facial expression changes because of the gloom in your heart and why should an enemy of yours rejoice and obtain his vengeance by seeing you in such a state?"

An envious man does violence to his own soul, for he is constantly grieving and his intelligence grows less because of the abundance of jealousy concealed within him. His heart is not free to study and to pray with earnest intent and to do good deeds.

Every man finds a certain tastiness in his food, aside from the man who is jealous, for he cannot savor his food until good fortune departs from the object of his envy.

For every hatred there is hope that it will change, for if a man hates his companion because his companion has robbed him of something, then when the companion returns the plundered object to him, his hatred will vanish, And so it is with all hatred that is caused by a specific thing. When the matter is adjusted, then the hatred vanishes. All this is true of every hatred or dislike outside of the hatred caused by envy. The wise man said to his son, "Do not envy your brother for the things which he has, for he will enjoy his life, while you, satiated with worry and pain, will not." And the wise man said, "The envious and lustful man was born only for a life of anger."

The early Sages used to pray, "May we not have any envy against others, and may others not envy us!" Now why would they pray that others should not posses this quality more than other evil qualities? But this is the explanation of the matter : — Many men cause others to envy them and covet their possessions. Therefore, the early wise men used to pray that others not envy them because of anything that they, the Sages, were responsible for. And the Torah has said, "Nor put a stumbling block before the blind" (Lev. 19:14).

Therefore, it is good for a man not to wear conspicuous or expensive garments — neither he nor his wife nor his children, and so should it be with food and other matters so that others will not envy him. Let that man who has been blessed bountifully by the Creator see to it that others get some enjoyment from his possessions whether they be rich or whether they be poor. Let him conduct himself with his companions gently and deal kindly with them. We have already dwelt at length about this matter — the matter of a man being loved by his fellow creatures — if he is loved by everyone, then they will not envy him, and they will not covet anything that belongs to him. However, it is fitting for a man, that he should attempt to excel in good qualities, so that others may envy him and long to do as he does. And he who is careful not to envy others, — his body will not wither, and no worms will rule over him. As it is written : "But envy is the rottenness of the bones" (Prov. 14:30), "Any man who has envy in his heart, his bones rot; every man who has not envy in his heart, his bones do not rot" (Shabbath 152b).

Therefore, a man should remove himself from envy and lust, and should not covet anything that belongs to others, and he should not say : "I covet some of the possessions of my companion, and I'll give him money so as to obtain those things," for if he does not want to part with these possessions, then it is prohibited to press him for he will be ashamed to turn him away empty handed. If a person does this, then he is like a robber — like one who compels another to do something against his will. All the more so if the one who covets is a respected man, for whom it is forbidden to ask anything of a companion if one does not know beforehand that he will give this gift to him with a willing heart.

A parable concerning this describes a lustful man and an envious man who were met by a certain king. The king said to them, "One of you may ask something of me, and I will give it to him, provided I give twice as much to his companion." The envious did not want to ask first for he was envious of his companion who would receive twice as much, and the lustful man wanted everything — wanted what belonged to both of them, so when the lustful man finally pressed the jealous man to ask for something, the jealous man asked the king to pluck out one of his eyes, because then his companion would have both eyes plucked out.

How many evils are dependent upon envy?The primeval serpent was envious of Adam and brought death to the world, and concerning him it was decreed. "Upon thy belly shalt thou go and dust shall you eat" (Gen. 3:14). Likewise see what happened to Cain and to Korah and to Balaam and to Doeg and to Ahithophel and to Gehazi and to Adonijah and to Absalom and to Uzziah, who hankered after that which did not belong to them! It wasn't enough that they were punished in that what they wanted was not given to them, but what was already in their hand was taken from them. From all of these instances, a man ought to learn to separate himself from jealousy and lust. If whatever a man has is not really his, for when tomorrow comes it may vanish, then what good will come to him from something that doesn't belong to him?

Great reward will come to a man who guards himself against envy and lust, for in most of the sins or transgressions which a man commits, he tries to avoid committing these transgressions because he is ashamed, he holds himself back because of fear of disgrace, and therefore he restrains himself from robbery and theft, for he is afraid that it may become known, it may be revealed, people will publicize it, and he will be so shamed that he will lose much. But envy and lust are concealed within the heart. No man can detect that he covets or is jealous. It is a matter of the heart, and that is why it is said : "But you shall fear your God" (Lev. 25:17).

Even though jealousy is a very bad quality, there are instances where it can be a very good quality and, in fact, it can be a most noble quality, — when one envies those who revere God, as it is said : "Let not thy heart envy sinners, but those that fear the Lord all the day…" (Prov. 23:17). And in the same way our Sages said : "that the jealousy of wise men increases wisdom" (Baba Bathra 21a). When one sees another studying, it should excite his envy and he should say "This man studies all day, I shall do the same!" And similarly in the matter of all he commandments. Everyone should envy his companion and try to emulate the good deeds of his companion. If he sees a wicked man who has even one good quality, he should envy him for that and should emulate it. But a man who envies his companion when he sees him occupying himself with Torah and with good deeds and does not envy him in order to emulate him, and does not say to himself, "This man is doing thus; I will also do thus!" but rather thinks in his heart enviously, "Because this companion has more good qualities than I, because of all this he is more honored by men," and then this envious man will plot how to confuse and take his companion away from the study the Torah and good deeds, such envy is a grievous disease, and he who deals in such envy is a sinner and one who causes others to sin. He is truly a partner of Jereboam, the son of Nebat.

A man should always honor those who revere God and occupy themselves with His commandments, and he should give them help. He should help them with his person and with his money, and then others will envy them and they will think, "If we also will do thus, then people will honor and help us!" and from doing good "not for its sake" (but only for the sake of honor) they will eventually come to do it "for its own sake."

The Holy One, Blessed be He, said : "Be jealous for My sake, were it not for envy, the world would not stand. A man would not plant a vineyard, marry a wife or build a house (Shoher Tob 37a). For all of these matters come about because one man envies his companion. If he builds a house, then another person will have it in mind to do likewise, and thus it is concerning a wife. And since the perpetuation of the world depends upon envy, let him dedicate all these envious qualities to God. If he builds a house let him build in it room for the study of Torah, a gathering place for the wise, a place where guests are welcomed, and a place where he does kindness to men. And thus did they say (Shohar Tov ibid). Had not Abraham been jealous he would have not acquired both worlds. And how was he envious? He asked Melchizedek1See Nedarim 32b, where Melchizedek is identified with Shem, the son of Noah., "How did you emerge from the Ark?" And Melchizedek answered, "Because of the charity that we did there," Abraham said to him, "What kind of charity could you do in the Ark; — were there any poor people there? There was no one there except Noah and his sons, so to whom were you doing charity?" Melchizedek answered him : "With the animals, with the beasts and with the fowl. We did not sleep but were constantly giving food to all these living creatures all night long." At that moment Abraham said, "If these people had not done charity with the animals, beasts and fowl, they would not have emerged from the Ark, but because they did justice with them, they did emerge safely, then I who will do justice with all the children of man who are in the image of the Holy One, Blessed be He, will not this be all the more favorable in God's eyes?" At that moment "And he planted a tamarisk (eshel) in Beersheba" (Gen. 21:33). (The sages take each letter of the Hebrew word Eshel and they say that the word Eshel means a place where strangers can eat, drink and lodge.) In this manner, a man ought to, indeed, increase his zeal.

One ought to be zealous against sinners and the wicked, to strive with them and to rebuke them. As our Sages said : "A man who cohabitates with a heathen woman, the zealous ones should smite him" (Sanhedrin 81b).

Moses was jealous of the Egyptian, as it is said, "And he smote the Egyptian" (Exod. 2:12). And so we find in the case of Elijah, when he said, "I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant" (I Kings 19:10). And so is it said, "In that he was very jealous for My sake among them" (Num. 25:11), and the Lord, may He be Blessed, gave him his reward for this as it is said : "Behold, I give unto him My covenant of peace!" (Num. 25:12). And it is said, "… Ye shall not be afraid of any man …" (Deut. 1:17). Now he who reveres the Lord, may He be Blessed, will gladly offer his life for the sanctification of God's name. As it is said, "Whoso is on the Lord's side, let him come unto me. And all the Levites rallied to him" (Exod. 32:26), and it is further said, "And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from the midst of the congregation, and took a spear in his hand" (Num. 25:7).

It is an obligation on everyone who reveres God and who is pure of heart to arouse jealousy in himself when he sees that "the power of the princes and the nobility is used to trespass." And our Sages, their memory is for a blessing, said : "Every wild outbreak that does not begin with the great ones, cannot be called an outbreak" (Genesis Rabbah 26:5). As it is said "Yea, the hand of princes and the rulers hath been first in this faithlessness" (Ezra 9:2).