Thought of the Week: Ki Tetse - 5774

A NUMBER AS A CONCEPT

Towards the end of Pareshat Ki Tetze the Torah addresses the topic of lashes given to a sinner. The Torah remarks that, “If the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a certain number. Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed: lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee.”

Although the simple reading of the verse indicates that forty lashes are given, the sages of the Talmud (Makot 22b) note that the appropriate reading of the verse is that the court render lashes by a number that leads to forty: namely thirty-nine. What we must try to understand is why the Torah uses the number forty if indeed the tradition teaches that only thirty-nine are given.

In Judaism, when a number appears in a specific context, it is not a coincidence but rather the number represents a concept. A perfect example is the number forty. Forty always symbolizes complete change. When the pre-flood world was corrupt and required a new beginning, it rained for forty days. Likewise when the children of Israel left Egypt and were required to change from slaves to conquerors, they required forty years in the desert.

Accordingly, when the Torah remarks that the sinner receives forty lashes, the message is clear: he must transform himself and become a new person. However, the sages of the Talmud tell us that the court, by giving thirty-nine lashes, is indicating to the person that others can only place the sinner on the brink of change. The real change (forty) cannot come from an external source but rather must come from within. In other words, the sinner, metaphorically speaking, must give himself the last lash to reach forty.

Shabbat Shalom