21 Apr ACHAREI MOS-KEDOSHIM: THE DECLINE THE PROSPERITY OF EGYPT AND CANAAN CONTRIBUTED TO THEIR MORAL DECLINE

The end of Parshas
Achrei Mos contains
the section of the
Parsha that deals
with forbidden
relationships
(Arayos).

This parsha, which is also read during the
Mincha service of Yom Kippur, is introduced
with the exhortation “Like the deeds of the
land of Egypt wherein you have dwelt, you
shall not do; and like deeds of the land of
Canaan where I am bringing you thereto,
you shall not do. You shall not walk in the
ways of their practices.” [Vayikra 18:3]
The Jews were going “from the frying pan
into the fire” in terms of the moral depravity
of the surrounding population. Both the
land of Egypt and the land of Canaan were
known for their despicable and nauseating
forms of immorality. G-d therefore warned
the Jewish people not to mimic the activities
or mores of the societies that they have
witnessed or will be witnessing. The Torah
then listed the different forbidden
relationships.

Rav Dovid Feinstein zt”l notes an apparent
anomaly in the Torah’s language. The Torah
does not warn against mimicking the deeds
of the Egyptians or the Canaanites. It rather
warns against mimicking the deeds of the
LAND of Egypt and the LAND of Canaan.
Rav Dovid Feinstein zt”l deduces that the
activities of the people of Egypt and the
people of Canaan must have had something
to do with the LAND of Egypt and the
LAND of Canaan. The land added some
facet that enabled the people to be engaged
in such moral depravity. What facet did the
land add to the moral depravity?
We know from several sources that these
two lands were exceptionally fertile and
affluent. For thousands of years, Egypt
prospered by virtue of the fact that the Nile
would overflow every year, flooding its
banks, causing the surrounding land to be
extremely fertile. Egypt was an extremely
prosperous country.
We learn from the spies’ visit to the Land of
Canaan that the fruits of the land were so
huge that it took eight people just to carry
back a cluster of grapes [Sotah 34a]. The

land of Canaan was blessed
with tremendous agricultural
success, and that brought
affluence to the entire
country.
This is the reason why the
people were so disgustingly
immoral. There is an inverse
connection, unfortunately,
between prosperity and the
level of a nation’s morals.
One does not have to be a
social scientist to come to the
conclusion that western
society in general and
America in particular is very
prosperous and very affluent.
But at the same time, we are
witness to a society that has
lost its moral compass.
We are experiencing a replay of “the actions
of the LAND of Egypt.” When things are so
abundant and society has it so well, people
tend to lose their moral standing.
Unfortunately, we, the inhabitants of such a
society, get caught up in this. It has been

said that Jews over the centuries have
learned to cope with the trials and
tribulations (“nisoyonos”) of poverty. But
we have not learned to deal with the
“nisoyon” of affluence. The morals of
society rub off on us. The Torah is hinting at
this idea through the unique formulation of
its warning concerning the actions of the
LAND of Egypt and the LAND of Canaan.