24 Jul VAETCHANAN: ARE YOU A JEALOUS PERSON? WHY ENVY IS IGNORANCE

The tenth and
final of the Ten
C o m m a n d m e n t s
recorded in this week’s
parsha (Vaeschanan)
reads: “You shall not
covet your neighbor’s
wife; you shall not
covet your neighbor’s
house, nor his field, nor his manservant,
nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his
donkey, and anything that belongs to your
neighbor.”(Devarim 5:17; Shemos 20:14).
The structure of the verse seems strange.
In the beginning, the torah specifies seven
things we should not covet: “You shall not
covet your neighbor’s wife; you shall not covet
your neighbor’s home, nor his field, nor his
manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox,
nor his donkey.” But then, at the conclusion
of the verse, the torah states: “And anything
that belongs to your neighbor.” Why the
unnecessary redundancy? Why not just state
at the onset “You shall not covet anything
that belongs to your neighbor,” which would
include all of the specifics? And if the Torah
does not want to rely on generalizations and
wishes to specify details, why does it specify
only a few items and then anyhow revert to a
generalization, “And anything that belongs to
your neighbor?”
A Holistic Story
In Hebrew, the word employed for “anything”
and “everything” is identical, “Kol.” Hence,
the above verse can also be translated as, “You
shall not covet your neighbor’s wife; you shall
not covet your neighbor’s house, nor his field,
nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor
his ox, nor his donkey, and everything that
belongs to your neighbor.” By concluding
the verse with these words, the Torah is not
just instructing us not to covet anything of
our neighbor, but also helping us achieve this
difficult state of consciousness.
How could you demand from a person not to
be jealous? When I walk into your home and
observe your living conditions, your cars, your
bank accounts, and your general life style, how
could I not become envious?
The answer is, “Do not covet everything that
belongs to your neighbor.” What the Torah
is intimating is that it is indeed easy to envy
the home and spouse of your neighbor, his
servants, his ox and donkey; yet the question
you have to ask yourself is, do you covet
“everything that belongs to your neighbor?”
Are you prepared to assume his or her life
completely? To actually become him?
You cannot see life as myriads of disjointed
events and experiences. You can’t pluck out
one aspect of somebody’s life and state “I wish
I could have had his (or her) marriage, his
home, his career, his money…” Life is a holistic
and integrated experience. Each life, with its
blessings and challenges, with its obstacles
and opportunities, constitutes a single story,
a narrative that begins with birth and ends
with death. Every experience in our life
represents one chapter of our singular, unique

story and we do not have the luxury to pluck
out a chapter from someone’s story without
embracing their entire life-journey.
When you isolate one or a few aspects of
someone else’s life, it is natural to become
envious. But when you become aware of

“everything that belongs to your neighbor,”
your perception is altered. Do you really want
to acquire everything that is going on in his or
her life?
So the next time you feel yourself coveting the
life of the other, ask yourself if you really want

to become them.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was correct when he
observed that “envy is ignorance.”