Parsha:

Shelach 

Description

The Talmud in multiple locations warns us against a mitzva haba’a ba’avera, a mitzva ensconced in a transgression. If we have stolen assets, how dare we use them to purchase a lulav, or a sukkah, or even make a charitable contribution to a worthy cause? The Torah refuses to assign holiness to objects that have come into our hands through forbidden means. Yet perhaps there is another paradigm of stealing to which we also must be sensitive.