Rambam In-Depth: Why a False Weight Is Forbidden Even as a Chamber Pot
Welcome to Rambam In-Depth: Hilchot Geneivah, Chapter 7, Halacha 3
If a faulty measuring cup is only ever used as a chamber pot and never touches a sale, why does the Rambam still forbid keeping it?
The Torah says “Lo yihyeh lecha b’kischa” — you shall not have two sets of weights in your pocket. The Rambam rules that anyone who keeps an imperfect weight or measure in his home or store violates a negative commandment, even if he turns it into a chamber pot. The reason: someone who doesn’t know it’s defective may come along and measure with it in a sale. Yet the Rambam also rules there are no lashes for this lav, because no action is involved.
That short halacha opens a rich discussion. Is the chamber-pot ruling a rabbinic decree (Minchat Chinuch) or Torah law (the Alter Rebbe and other Rishonim)? If buying chametz on Pesach earns lashes because purchase is an action, why doesn’t buying a false weight? And what does it mean for the Torah itself to forbid one thing because it might lead to another?
🔎 In this video we explore:
- Why simply keeping a faulty weight at home is a Torah prohibition
- The chamber-pot case: forbidden even when it’s never used for sale
- Why there are no lashes for this lav: no action is involved
- Minchat Chinuch (Mitzvah 602): is the extra prohibition only rabbinic?
- The Alter Rebbe and Rishonim who treat it as min haTorah
- Minchat Chinuch’s challenge from buying chametz on Pesach
- The Or Sameach: with chametz, ownership is the whole sin; with weights, it isn’t
- The Even HaEzel: buying in order to destroy, and what that proves
- A Torah-level gezeirah: “you can’t do X because it might lead to Y”
💡 Key Insights:
- The prohibition is to keep (lehashhot) a false measure, not to buy one.
- Chametz is forbidden only when it’s yours, so acquiring it is part of the sin; a false weight is a hazard whoever owns it.
- Buying a false measure in order to destroy it violates nothing, so the purchase alone can’t carry lashes.
- If the chamber-pot ruling is Torah law, the Torah itself is making a protective fence.
⏱️ TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Welcome: Rambam, Hilchot Geneivah 7:3 00:08 Keeping a false weight: “Lo yihyeh lecha b’kischa” 00:27 Even as a chamber pot? Why it’s still forbidden 01:00 No lashes: a lav without an action 01:19 Minchat Chinuch: only a rabbinic decree? 02:02 Alter Rebbe and Rishonim: forbidden min haTorah 02:24 The question: what about buying chametz on Pesach? 03:21 Or Sameach: ownership is the heart of chametz 04:31 Even HaEzel: buying in order to destroy 05:30 A Torah-level gezeirah: don’t do X lest Y 06:16 Bal yera’eh, the Ran, and the takeaway
🙏 If this shiur gave you a new way to see honesty in business, hit like, subscribe, and tell us in the comments: is there anything in your own home or office that could become a “stumbling block” for someone else?
📚 Sources discussed: Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Geneivah 7:3; Devarim 25:13 (Lo yihyeh lecha b’kischa); Minchat Chinuch, Mitzvah 602; Shulchan Aruch HaRav (Alter Rebbe), Hilchot Geneivah; Rambam, Hilchot Chametz U’Matzah; Or Sameach; Even HaEzel; Tosafot; the Ran on bal yera’eh
#RambamInDepth #HilchotGeneivah #MishnehTorah #BusinessEthics #HonestWeights #MinchatChinuch #OrSameach #Halacha #TorahStudy #RabbiGreenberg
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