Shoftim: The Danger of a Bribe “And you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe will blind the eyes of the wise.”
(Deuteronomy, 15:19)
The Vilna Gaon asks: why does this verse use the word “wise,” whereas in the Book of Exodus (23:8) it says, “For the bribe will blind those who can see”? The Torah should write in both places either “wise” or “those who can see” - why is there an apparent inconsistency?
The Vilna Gaon answers, that there are two conditions that a judge must have to be competent. One, that he is an expert in law and knows each law perfectly; and two, the judge needs to understand the ways of the world so that he wil know when someone might be trying to cheat him. We can therefore understand that someone who is called “wise,” is wise in Torah laws, and “one who can see” is someone who understands the ways of the world.
The Torah is therefore telling us that a judge who takes a bribe will be blinded in two ways: he will be blinded in his Torah law knowledge and in the ways of the world. This explains why the Torah uses both the terms “wise” and “those who can see.”
An additional question regarding this verse is: who are these wise men who are likely to be blinded by a person who bribes?
The Chafetz Chaim explains, that if Reuven says that Shimon is wealthy, in order to estimate the wealth of Shimon it is on us to know how rich Reuven is first and only then can we work out how rich Shimon is. If Reuven is in fact poor, than even someone with only a slight amount of money will be called rich in his eyes. However if Reuven is extremely rich and he says that Shimon is rich, then it is possible to assume that Shimon’s wealth is even greater. We can then say that Shimon is truly wealthy.
This is similar to wisdom. If Reuven would say that Shimon is wise, we first need to estimate the wisdom of Reuven. Indeed if a very wise person, like Rebbi Akiva Eiger wrote that someone is a wise man (and all the more so if the Rambam said so), there would be no doubt that this person is a truly wise man. How much more so if King Solomon, the wisest of all men, was to write that this person is wise. It would be a clear fact that his wisdom is unlimited. Now think, if Hashem Himself testifies that someone is wise, then there is no doubt whatsoever that this is true.
Even through all this, the Torah still writes that a ‘bribe blinds the eyes of the wise’. And the wise people about whom the Torah is talking are not those who ordinary people call wise, but those who Hashem Himself has testified to be wise.
We can learn a very important lesson from this. The bribe has such a great power that even the wisest man, of whose wisdom Hashem has testified, can not withstand a bribe.
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