Hagaon
Rav Naftali
Tzvi Yehuda Berlin (Netziv) zt”l on Parshat
Ki
Teitzei
(from
Haamek
Davar on Devarim 22:8)
A
House's Foundation
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Version
"When
you build a new house you should build a protective
fence ('maakeh') for your roof." (Devarim 22:8)
According to the Sifrei, this halakha also applies
to an old house: "[From the beginning of the verse]
I would only have known that this applies to a newly
built house. What is the source obligating a bought
or inherited house, or one received as a present?
The word 'house (bayit)' teaches us that these are
also obligated." Why, if so, does the Torah speak
about a new house?
The Torah is alluding to a crucial principle: A
house should be built on a mitzvah foundation. This
approach is brought out in a passage in the Zohar
Parshat Metzora.
Why, though, did the Torah choose to teach this
in conjunction with maakeh and not through mezuza?
Why didn't the Torah say, "When you build a new
house place a mezuza on the door"?
The reason is because a house is more halakhically
dependent on a maakeh than on a mezuza. One who
is not able to obtain a mezuza is still permitted
to live in the house and, when he later gets one,
affixes it (see the Netziv's Haamek Sheela on Sheilta
126:7). This is not the case for maakeh, where it
is prohibited to live in a house that is obligated
to have one but does not.
[prepared
by Eliezer Kwass]
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