Daf Yomi, Marriage Counseling, Psychotherapy, Rabbi Simcha Feuerman, Torah and Psychology
Our Gemara on Amud Aleph discusses the principle of k’vod haberiyos, which we can translate as human dignity. There are cases where extreme embarrassment or disgrace exempts a person from a ritual obligation, such as if one’s tzitzis tore in public. He would be required to remove the garment if he were in a private place. If he is in a public place, he may still wear the garment without full tzitzis. The Gemara originally asserts:
So great is human dignity that it overrides a prohibition in the Torah.
After some discussion, the Gemara concludes that this is not quite so. Human dignity will override rabbinic mandates, but not Torah laws. What did it mean, then, when the teaching stated that it “overrides a prohibition in the Torah”? It really meant the prohibition in the Torah (“lo sasur,” Devarim 17:11) to follow rabbinic rulings. Thus, if he discovered this tear in a carmelis (a domain which is only public according to rabbinic rules), he can still wear the garment on Shabbos, although he is technically carrying the non-valid tzitzis fringes, since they serve no purpose for the clothing.
I wonder why the teaching was worded in a deliberately misleading way. After all, it actually is not overriding a Torah prohibition. I believe this language was deliberately chosen to emphasize the importance of human dignity—to say it is almost as if it is important enough to override a Torah prohibition. The Torah Temimah (ibid) makes an interesting and possibly related observation. He says that even though, as a rule, human dignity does not override a full Torah law, there are exceptions:
(1) A person is not obligated to return a lost object if tending to the object is beneath his dignity—imagine a respectable elderly sage returning someone’s lost poodle.
(2) The reason that even a kohen or Nazir may become impure to tend to an abandoned corpse.
It is interesting that the Torah Temimah assumes the reason for these exemptions is k’vod haberiyos, even though the Torah does not say so explicitly. Perhaps he too derives it from our Gemara’s choice of words, to hint that there are certain cases which even override a Torah law.
Related to this Torah view on human dignity, at the end of Bircas Hashachar we pray that “we not be brought to disgrace.” Rav Kook (Olas Reiyah, Bircas Hashachar) observes that this is not a mere prayer for material comfort or success. Rather, it is a form of spiritual mindfulness:
“Honor is what gives a person’s spiritual life its form and character. The dignity of human beings is great in and of itself, because it testifies to the superiority of the human soul, with which honor is intrinsically bound. Therefore, any disgrace that befalls a person entails a lowering of his human worth in general, and thereby also causes an overall diminishment of all the values of his spiritual life. For this reason, the request is so profound—that Hashem not bring us into disgrace.”
Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation
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Rabbi Simcha Feuerman, Rabbi Simcha Feuerman, LCSW-R, LMFT, DHL is a psychotherapist who works with high conflict couples and families. He can be reached via email at simchafeuerman@gmail.com