(Devarim 16:19 - 20) "Don’t lean, don’t show favor, and don’t take a bribe; because a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise, and perverts the words of the righteous. You should surely chase righteous…"
The Torah is clearly giving us a logical reason why not to take a bribe. The question is, why does the Torah point out these specific consequences? Why doesn’t the Torah say, "because bribes stuff up the ear," or, "because bribes trip up the leg?" Why does the Torah go out of its way to specify the blinding of the eyes and the perverting of words?
Rav Tatz always explains the concept of beauty as when the outside of something perfectly reflects what’s inside. In the beginning, Adam and Chava had a "body" that revealed their innermost selves. Chazal tell us that Adam had such light emanating from him, that the body could hardly be seen. His "body," here a clothing of light, a glow from his Neshama, his soul, perfectly reflected his spiritual content. Rav Tatz says that, "When the inner reality is perfectly reflected (or expressed) in the outer; when the spirituality of the Neshama animates and energizes the body so that it glows visibly, shame is not possible." That’s why the Torah tells us that Adam and Chava didn’t wear clothes - and they weren’t ashamed. But sinning was surrendering to their bodily drives, not their soul’s desires. They expressed a bodily Taavah (lust), not a spiritual one. So once they sinned, their outside ceased to accurately reflect, or express their inside. Their bodies stopped reflecting their holy Neshamas, and this glow disappeared. Instead of their bodies expressing their soul, their body expressed their body! This caused tremendous shame because their bodies no longer had that glow, and were no different from any animals body. The soul was no longer the bodies master, the body had rebelled treacherously. It was a traitor to it’s Neshama - instead of revealing what is truly inside, it revealed the outside, it revealed its self.
When someone says an untruth, we call him a liar. Here, the body was lying; it said, "All I am is a body, nothing more." The body ceased to reveal anything deeper about its self. When a person says he’s President of a company, when in actuality he’s only a lowly manager, he’s a liar. Here the body did the opposite, instead of saying that it is greater than it appeared, it denied what it really was. It denied that it is only a tool to express the innermost self, the Neshama.
When the outside doesn’t accurately express the inside, it’s called Sheker, lying, or falsehood. This is demonstrated by the Hebrew words themselves: Beged, which means an article of clothing, is the same word as Begidah, treachery. Clothing doesn’t accurately express what it’s covering, it doesn’t reveal the inside, so in effect it is treacherous. Even the word for skin its self demonstrates this idea: Or, with an Ayin means skin. Or with an alef means light. Before the sin, Adam and Chava’s bodies were Or with an alef. After the sin, their bodies became Or with an Ayin. The same letters which spell Or, Ayin Vav Reish, also spell the word Eever, which means blind; because that is what skin does, it blinds us from the inner truth, all we see of a person is his skin. The covering which originally revealed the Neshama, (light), became a covering which hid the Neshama (skin). This is called Sheker, lying.
We can see this in the Gemarah (Sanhedrin 69b), which tells us that, "Another name for Sarah, was Yiscah. Why was she called Yiscah? Because everyone saw through her beauty." What does it mean? She was beautiful because she was transparent?! It means clearly that she was beautiful because they saw something deeper through her (in this case the Gemarah means that her beauty wasn’t an expression of her body, but her beauty was that her body expressed her Neshama.). Sarah was beautiful, because her outside expressed her inside. This is the Torah concept of true beauty, when the outside accurately reflects the inside. Muddy water is ugly, it’s dirty, one can’t see through it, all one sees is the water its self. Clear water, on the other hand is beautiful, it’s transparent , you can see everything through it (the bottom, the fish, etc.).
The Pasuk is telling us to be beautiful, to chase righteousness. If a judge takes a bribe, the necessary result is blindness, because his decision won’t be a reflection of an inner truth, but only of an outer drive for money, or acceptance, or whatever. Bribes cause blindness, because it’s Sheker, it’s only seeing the skin, the outside, and not the light, the Neshama, the truth, the inside.
I think that’s why the Pasuk tells us that bribes blind the eyes. Why does it tell us that it perverts words?
Speech contains the same idea. Speech is a gift from G-d enabling us to reveal our innermost self in the most eloquent fashion. Imagine trying to express your innermost thoughts without speaking! It would be very difficult to accurately express a thought through body motions. Speech is to accurately reveal that which is hidden inside the mind. When it does that, it is a faithful tool, but when it doesn’t reveal our true thoughts, when words lie - when the tool of expression is used to misrepresent what’s inside, they are treacherous. We have to use our speech to reveal what’s inside, who we really are. If we don’t, we are lying.
Obviously, speech is to express ourselves to others, there is little point in talking to ones self (even though we may all do it from time to time…). It is no coincidence that the same letters that spell Sheker, when rearranged spell Kesher, a connection. When we use words correctly, we connect our innermost selves to someone else’s. Animals can connect using their bodies, humans have the gift of connecting on a higher plane, with words to express thoughts. We can express something deeper then just our bodies themselves. When we use words to express our inner selves, we make a Kesher. When we use words to express our outer selves, our bodily drives, we make Sheker. That is how we pervert our words. A bribe is an appeal to the outer self (money, acceptance, etc.), and is also obviously not chasing righteousness. Once a judge gives a false verdict, he has perverted his words. Instead of making the Kesher, he made Sheker.
With the onset of the month of Elul, we should begin to seriously asses who we are, and whether or not we are reflecting that. This way all of Klal Yisroel can be beautiful, and once again wear Or with an alef, and not Or with an Ayin.
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