'"You shall not place a stumbling block before the blind," and as our sages have taught us, the Torah was not intended to warn a person not to place a rock or pebble in the path of a blind person walking down the street, carrying a walking stick or a walking dog in front of him, when his entire evil purpose is to see the blind person stumble, get hurt, and be harmed.
Things are more abstract and much more moral. The blind man and the stone that our Holy Torah spoke of can be in the form of a healthy person with eyes like those of a hawk and a cat whose gait is sure and upright, and the stone...not a physical stumbling block nor a rock hewn from the earth, but refers to a person with a heart of stone who paves the way for his neighbor and is not afraid of stumbling.
The courts and the general law have also adopted the interpretation of the Sages to the extent that many civil court rulings, financial and damage claims, exempted a person from being charged with a penalty or fine on the assumption that it was clear that it was the plaintiff who prepared the ground for the defendant's stumbling block and stumbling... and did not hesitate to accuse him and file a lawsuit against him.
Under the guise of police actions to eradicate crime among youth, a law was enacted about five years ago prohibiting the sale of cigarettes and alcohol to minors under the age of 18. The assumption was that since a significant portion of crimes were committed under the influence of alcohol, preventing its legal sale to minors would help eradicate crime, even if only partially.
The law has set deterrent penalties for violators - a fine of nine thousand shekels, administrative closure of the business for two consecutive weeks, and even six months in prison.
And when there is a law... it is a law! And justice is equal for all! It does not discriminate between blood and blood, it does not allow Dov Ber Shtiafmashyn from the delicatessen in 'Zichron Moshe' to sell a bottle of wine to the guys from the 'Shemo'ot M'Shimon' yeshiva who want to dine on the 'end of Torah', while at the same time Eitan Mizrahi from a Tel Aviv kiosk will be prohibited from selling alcohol to a group of high school boys who want to 'start a fight'.
And where I will live, come
Wednesday last week - around 9:00 PM... Yanki is the one on duty at my store. With energetic and confident steps, a teenage boy stepped into the store. His outward appearance was quite misleading compared to his young and true age. He pulled a bottle of beer out of the fridge, approached the cash register, held up a bill, and asked to pay.
Yanki Habibi looks at him deeply, blinks deeply at his features, is satisfied and wonders to himself, 'Should I ask for an ID card to prove my arrival at Lehi or not?'... More hesitation here, hesitation there, and the obstacle has arrived. Yanki, the dedicated one who wants to leave his employer with a full cash register without missing a single sale, stumbles over a stone placed in front of him as an obstacle... He takes the bill, takes out an invoice, expresses gratitude for the purchase, and follows the boy as he walks away with anxious glances.
And just as Job said, "And where I will dwell, I will have pleasure." Immediately after the boy leaves...two serious men in civilian clothes enter the store, present the stunned Jacob with their police ID cards, solemnly announcing that at this moment he is accused of committing a crime punishable by a fine, administrative closure, and actual imprisonment.
The store was defined by the police as a 'crime scene', and therefore - the 'brain' of the security cameras was confiscated out of necessity 'collecting evidence of the commission of a crime' in order to extract a video documenting the commission of the crime to be attached to the indictment. To top off the event, the frightened Yanki was given a summons for the next day for further investigation.
I knew that Yankee the Saw represented himself and me with honor - after a deep apology and a detailed explanation that put the investigator's mind at ease, the officer was content with a warning. At the end of his interrogation, I was also summoned to sign that I was aware that next time, my store would be locked up for two weeks in an 'administrative order' accompanied by a heavy fine without appeal.
And you young customers who are not yet 18, if you didn't understand... read the column again carefully, don't ask, don't beg, don't 'play' on the emotion, don't mention that you are at the end of the 'Seder' and you need the beer to continue your studies, don't turn us into bad guys, internalize the severity of the punishment and know that the bottle of beer you are begging for is the stone and the obstacle, and in fact, by your actions, you are consciously and blatantly violating the Law of the Torah of 'You shall not put a stumbling block before the blind.'.
The column is published in the Religious Press line.
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