The sins of the fathers

In the Ten Commandments' injunction against idolatry, the Torah states that God is "pokeid avon avot al banim al shieihim v'al ribe'im l'sonai", "visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me."

(This contrasts with God's reward of the descendants of the righteous to the thousandth generation, but that is not the subject of this post).

What is the subject of this post is a problem which is noticed by our Sages, and answered, but a first-glance at their treatment of the problem doesn't seem to solve anything.

The problem: God seems to punish the children, grand-children and great-grand-children (2nd, 3rd and 4th generations) for the sins committed by the first generation of the wicked.  This seems to contradict various assertions in Torah and the prophets that God is just and punishes each person only for his or her own misdeeds, not for anything inherited.   

The answer of our sages:  The verse says that God visits this to the third and fourth generation "of those who hate Me"-- i.e., those who continue in the first generation's wicked ways.   God obviously doesn't punish righteous descendants for the wickedness of the first generation.

This answer doesn't really help, though, at first glance.  Think of it this way.  There are two possibilities as to what the verse means.  Either A)  God punishes the wicked 2nd, 3rd and 4th generations for their own sins PLUS the  sins of generation #1, OR B) God punishes wicked 2nd, 3rd and 4th generations only for their own sins and doesn't add any punishment from generation #1.

Possibility B means that the verse says nothing.  God punishes each person as he or she deserves, and really visits nothing on the future generations.   But possibility A is problematic-- Why should generation 2, 3 or 4 be punished MORE than they deserve?  Why should a wicked person whose father was wicked suffer more punishment than an equally wicked man whose father was righteous?  This still seems to fail the justice test that bothered our Sages.

Here is my suggestion as to what our Sages were getting at.   If one's parents are wicked, then the children are also likely to be wicked because this is the behavior and attitude modeled for them when they grew up.  One might think that generations 2, 3 and 4 really have little or no choice, that they are patur, not really responsible for their wicked actions.  The Torah comes to dismiss this assumption and tell us that the 2nd, 3rd and 4th generations really are responsible for their actions.  There are other relatives, other people in town, teachers, etc., who can serve as role models.  They are not fully trapped in the model of their wicked forbears.   After the 4th generation, however, the Torah seems to exculpate such people from (heavenly, not human) punishment.   It's just too ingrained to really say people have freedom of choice.

So the verse actually doesn't mean to convey possibility A above, that God gives the first generation's punishment to the subsequent generations in addition to whatever they deserve.  It actually describes possibility B, that God punishes each person only for his own behavior.  The chiddush--what makes this significant-- is that the Torah disregards any excuses because of upbringing and asserts the freedom of the individual's choice, up until after the 3rd or 4th generation.

A quick thought on Megillat Esther

וַיֹּאמֶר מָרְדֳּכַי, לְהָשִׁיב אֶל-אֶסְתֵּר:  אַל-תְּדַמִּי בְנַפְשֵׁךְ, לְהִמָּלֵט בֵּית-הַמֶּלֶךְ מִכָּל-הַיְּהוּדִים.  יד כִּי אִם-הַחֲרֵשׁ תַּחֲרִישִׁי, בָּעֵת הַזֹּאת--רֶוַח וְהַצָּלָה יַעֲמוֹד לַיְּהוּדִים מִמָּקוֹם אַחֵר, וְאַתְּ וּבֵית-אָבִיךְ תֹּאבֵדוּ; וּמִי יוֹדֵעַ--אִם-לְעֵת כָּזֹאת, הִגַּעַתְּ לַמַּלְכוּת


What does Mordechai mean when he says "ומי יודע אם לעת כזאת הגעת למלכות"?  Who knows if for a time like this you arrive(d) at the malchut (monarchy/majesty)?

I always understood it to mean, and my informal poll of 5-6 people in town confirms it, that Mordechai is saying to Esther:  Maybe this is why you are here, as the Queen-- to save the Jews at a time like this!

Indeed, this is how Ibn Ezra explains it.

However, Rashi seems to take a very different explanation.  He understands Mordechai as saying:
Who knows if --לעת כזאת at another time like this one--
הגעת למלכות--you'll get the chance to be close to the King's favor.

Rashi notes that the decree, and this scene, happen in Nissan, and the actual date set for the destruction of the Jews is almost a year later, in Adar.

What drives Rashi to an explanation like his instead of taking the more obvious reading of the Ibn Ezra (and everyone else I've asked)?

I think it's because at the beginning of verse 14, he says "If you are silent at this time, salvation to the Jews will come from somewhere else."   The words בעת הזאת mean "at this time".   But the verse would mean the same thing without those words, i.e. if it said "If you are silent, salvation to the Jews will come from another place."

Rashi, I think, sees the words  "at this time" as superfluous according to Ibn Ezra's understanding, and understands Mordechai in a way that gives them meaning:

If you are silent at this time--the time of the decree--salvation to the Jews will come from somewhere else.  . . . And who knows,    אם לעת כזאת if at the next time like this--the time of the killing-- you will have access to the King.



Note: I have some things that I published after each Shabbat for Parashat Yitro and Mishpatim.  Drop me an email if you think I should post them, even though the time for those parshiot is past for this year.