Reply To: Lo'eg Larash

Although Lo’eg Larash applies to anything, including not being Melave, we usually only quote it for Mitzvos, that we don’t do in front of them so as not to make them jealous, or more correctly, not to disgrace them by pointing out what they lack.

The Mishna in Avos says that all the time in Olam Habaa does not compete with one hour on this world. This is a world of opportunity. Once a person dies he can’t do any more Mitzvos. To drive home that fact is disgracing the Niftar. It does not apply to bodily functions. I’m not sure that a Mes misses that so terribly (perhaps those guys do). What I wrote on that other thread was a joke. But, now that we are talking about it, Bizui Hames definitely falls under Lo’eg Larash.

When Beis Din has to kill someone with Skila they hang him until night. After that they must take him, for as the Torah says, Killelas Elokim Taloi. The Gemara explains that when a person, that has a Tzelem Elokim, hangs for a sin it is not Kavod to Hashem. You see that Lo’eg Larash wouldn’t tell you to take him down, since there is a point to what you are doing. You aren’t merely laughing at the fact that he is dead.

If a poor man insults you and you yell at him, that is not Lo’eg Larash, either. It means to take advantage of is dire situation and mock it. The Pasuk implies that you are mocking Hashem’s system by ridiculing a pauper or a corpse.

The story of last week was bad taste, in my view. The enemy was dead and past the point of return. As far as those bodies were concerned, the fight was over. However, it obviously doesn’t fall under Lo’eg Larash. (And even if it did, I don’t think we would condemn the marines for showing Tzitzis to some dead Talliban.)

I think it is appropriate for the US to respond appropriately, in order to disassociate that behavior from government policy. Did they? They over reacted.