Never Get Used to Injustice

The Talmud (Sotah 13) teaches that when Yaakov’s family reached Mearat Hamachpela in Chevron and were about to bury him, Eisav appeared and protested, claiming that as Yitzchak’s heir he was the rightful owner of the last burial plot in the cave. Yaakov’s sons claimed that they had a document that proved Yaakov’s ownership of the plot, but the deed had been left in Egypt. Eisav insisted that proof be brought. So the brothers dispatched their speedy brother Naftali back to Egypt to retrieve the ownership deed. The Talmud continues that while the family waited for Naftali’s return, Chushim took matters into his own hands. Chushim was the son of Dan, and he was hard of hearing. Unaware of the discussions that had caused the delay, Chushim asked a family member why Yaakov had not yet been buried. After the situation was explained to him, Chushim was outraged at the thought of Yaakov’s disgrace due to a delayed burial. Out of outrage he killed EIsav thereby resolving the problem in a different, quicker way. Rabbi Chaim Shmulevitz asked: Why was Chushim the only family member who reacted? He answers that because the other family members had heard Eisav’s initial protest and then engaged in a back-and-forth negotiation with Eisav, they had become desensitized to the gravity of the disgrace that it represented for Yaakov’s to remain unburied. Their sense of outrage faded. They unwittingly became more comfortable with the situation and were therefore not inspired to react immediately. Since Chushim did not hear any of the negotiations, he felt a full sense of outrage and felt compelled to act. Rabbi Shmulevitz says that from here we can learn the danger of losing a sense of outrage. Just because we hear about mass shootings regularly on the news doesn’t mean we should ever get used to it. Just because we hear about scandals and bad behavior on a regular basis does not mean we should ever get used to it. Even if we hear everything, we can try to be like Chushim and never lose our sensitivity towards wrongdoing. We must never be indifferent to injustice.