Abominations come in threes

I recently wrote about how the commandment forbidding keeping dishonest weights or measures (Deut. 25:13-16) is one of only three places in the Torah where an individual is termed "an abomination to God" (תועבת ה׳). In this post I'd like to explore what may connect these three rare instances of enormous opprobrium.

The first place we see this is in Deuteronomy 18:10:

לֹא-יִמָּצֵא בְךָ, מַעֲבִיר בְּנוֹ-וּבִתּוֹ בָּאֵשׁ, קֹסֵם קְסָמִים, מְעוֹנֵן וּמְנַחֵשׁ וּמְכַשֵּׁף. וְחֹבֵר, חָבֶר; וְשֹׁאֵל אוֹב וְיִדְּעֹנִי, וְדֹרֵשׁ אֶל-הַמֵּתִים. כִּי-תוֹעֲבַת יְהוָה, כָּל-עֹשֵׂה אֵלֶּה; וּבִגְלַל, הַתּוֹעֵבֹת הָאֵלֶּה, יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, מוֹרִישׁ אוֹתָם מִפָּנֶיךָ.

There shall not be among you those who pass their children through fire, a diviner, soothsayer, fortuneteller, sorcerer, demon summoner, one who consults ghosts or familiar spirits, or a necromancer. For anyone who do these is an abomination to God, and it is because of these abominations that the Lord your God is removing them [the Canaanites] from before you.

The second is in Deuteronomy 22:5:

לֹא-יִהְיֶה כְלִי-גֶבֶר עַל-אִשָּׁה, וְלֹא-יִלְבַּשׁ גֶּבֶר שִׂמְלַת אִשָּׁה: כִּי תוֹעֲבַת יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, כָּל-עֹשֵׂה אֵלֶּה.

A woman may not wear a man's thing, nor shall a man wear a woman's garment, for anyone who does this is an abomination to the Lord your God.

And the third is in Deuteronomy 25:13-16, as aforementioned:

לֹא-יִהְיֶה לְךָ בְּכִיסְךָ, אֶבֶן וָאָבֶן:   גְּדוֹלָה, וּקְטַנָּה.

לֹא-יִהְיֶה לְךָ בְּבֵיתְךָ, אֵיפָה וְאֵיפָה:   גְּדוֹלָה, וּקְטַנָּה.

אֶבֶן שְׁלֵמָה וָצֶדֶק יִהְיֶה-לָּךְ, אֵיפָה שְׁלֵמָה וָצֶדֶק יִהְיֶה-לָּךְ - לְמַעַן, יַאֲרִיכוּ יָמֶיךָ, עַל הָאֲדָמָה, אֲשֶׁר-יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לָךְ.

כִּי תוֹעֲבַת יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, כָּל-עֹשֵׂה אֵלֶּה:   כֹּל, עֹשֵׂה עָוֶל.

Do not keep multiple weights for yourself in your pocket, large and small. Do not keep multiple measures for yourself in your house, large and small. You must have a complete and just weight; you must have a complete and just measure - so that you may live long in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. For anyone who does such things, anyone who does injustice, is an abomination to the Lord your God.

Is there some common thread that connects these three seemingly very different commandments which all share this rare level of divine reproach? I believe that there is - a thread twisted from two strands.

First, the fact that there are precisely three of these personally abominated activities is reminiscent of the three supreme prohibitions, for which one is obligated to give up one's life, viz.: idolatry, murder, and sexual immorality. There is a simple and plausible parallel:

Big Three	Person is an Abomination
Idolatry	Divination and necromancy
Murder	Keeping dishonest weights and measures
Sexual immorality	Crossdressing

These three are the ultimate exemplars of the three general categories of transgressions: against God (idolatry), against one's fellow (murder), and against one's self (sexual immorality). Similarly here we have a sin against God - seeking guidance from soothsayers and necromancers in his place; a sin against one's fellow - keeping equipment to secretly cheat in business; and a sin against oneself - cross-dressing (by analogy to the clearly related sexual sins).

Second, in a previous post discussing the prohibition of keeping dishonest weights and measures, I suggested that the reason that the person who keeps dishonest weights or measures is an abomination, and not just the action, or the objects, is that while simply keeping something in one's house seems quite harmless, whereas what the Torah is teaching us is that in fact it is pernicious and can lead over time to a total transformation of one's personality.

In each of these three cases, the action involved is one that, on the surface, seems entirely harmless. Do you think that if I (a man) put on a skirt that I'll immediately run out and join an orgy? Crazy talk. Or that getting my fortune told will cause me to go and sacrifice a goat to Baal? Ridiculous!

And yet, what we do has a subtle influence on how we think and how we view the world. Someone who keeps dishonest weights will come to see nothing wrong with having them, and then nothing wrong with using them, and will slowly and imperceptibly lose sight of the humanity of his fellows. Occasional crossdressing will become habitual and will lead, over time, to losing respect and sensitivity for sexual boundaries of all kinds. And playing with occult rituals will lead to a blurring and eventual obliteration of one's spiritual fealty to God, and so to idol worship (in spirit, if not in deed).

One must always remember that what we do creates who we will be, and thus not to mock the influence on us of actions that are seemingly trivial and harmless in themselves. It is through our habits that we become either great, or slowly, imperceptibly into abominations.

Who is an abomination?

The second-to-last mitsva in Parashat Ki Tetse reads as follows:

לֹא-יִהְיֶה לְךָ בְּכִיסְךָ, אֶבֶן וָאָבֶן:   גְּדוֹלָה, וּקְטַנָּה.

לֹא-יִהְיֶה לְךָ בְּבֵיתְךָ, אֵיפָה וְאֵיפָה:   גְּדוֹלָה, וּקְטַנָּה.

אֶבֶן שְׁלֵמָה וָצֶדֶק יִהְיֶה-לָּךְ, אֵיפָה שְׁלֵמָה וָצֶדֶק יִהְיֶה-לָּךְ - לְמַעַן, יַאֲרִיכוּ יָמֶיךָ, עַל הָאֲדָמָה, אֲשֶׁר-יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לָךְ.

כִּי תוֹעֲבַת יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, כָּל-עֹשֵׂה אֵלֶּה:   כֹּל, עֹשֵׂה עָוֶל.

Do not keep multiple weights for yourself in your pocket, large and small. Do not keep multiple measures for yourself in your house, large and small. You must have a complete and just weight; you must have a complete and just measure - so that you may live long in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. For anyone who does such things, anyone who does injustice, is an abomination to God.

On its face, this is a straightforward commandment: Be honest in your business dealings. Do not use a large weight or measure with which to buy merchandise and so cheat your suppliers, while using a smaller weight or measure to sell merchandise, cheating your customers. It is indeed striking that such practices are, like the paramount sin of idolatry, termed here as an "abomination to God," one of the strongest forms of opprobrium in the Torah.  This in itself draws our attention and demands our consideration as a powerful and timely lesson to those who wish to fulfill God's will.

And yet there are two oddities in this passage that demand further explanation, and which, I believe, teach us an even greater and more far-reaching lesson.

First, rather than state the prohibition simply, "Do not use dishonest weights and measures," the Torah uses what seems at first to be an oddly idiomatic phrasing - "Do not keep ... in your pocket; Do not keep ... in your house." Why?

Second, while the term תועבה, "abomination" appears quite a few times in the Torah, it nearly always applies to either an action or an object, rather than a person. This passage is one of only three places in the Torah where a person is called an "abomination to God." (The other two are Deuteronomy 18:12 and 22:5, about which more another time.)  Why is this particular violation, as important as it is, singled out, such that the person who engages in it becomes him/herself an abomination to God?

I believe that the key to answering the second question is given by answering the first. The phrasing of "Do not keep ... in your pocket" indicates that this passage does not forbid dealing unfairly in business, but rather it prohibits just keeping the tools for doing so even if you do not use them (a fortiori, if you use them).

But why?

One who does so may think that they are doing nothing wrong. After all, one could say, I'm not actually using them! But by having them around, one is keeping the possibility of using them open. And this secret knowledge is pernicious. The person may not at first use them, but eventually will do so, but only in times of (so he thinks) of great need. Slowly his mindset will change, and the very wrongness of dealing dishonestly, of secretly cheating others, will not seem so very wrong, will, in fact, seem to be the natural order of being. Indeed, the one who keeps these dishonest weights and measures will likely come to assume that everyone else does as well, normalizing, in his mind, the dishonesty and the theft.

Thus, by keeping these seemingly harmless possessions, a person will inexorably be transformed into an inherently dishonest creature who is, the passage explains, an abomination to God.

The act of keeping these weights or measures is not, in itself, terribly problematic. But the inevitable psychological and spiritual effects on the keeper are. The verse warns us to take great care not to put ourselves into situations that will exert small but inexorable pressures upon our personality so that, like the proverbial frog in boiling water, we ourselves become abominable without ever noticing.

This principle applies not just in the realm of business. One must take great care to choose one's mentors, friends, and neighbors carefully (to the extent possible), to maximize positive, and minimize negative, influences. What we read or watch also has subtle, but significant influence on who we are. Indeed, every decision we make, every experience we seek out, influences the person that we become.

Even a decision as small as keeping a couple of dishonest measuring cups in a back cupboard.