Hillel, the Convert and Egla Arufa

On another occasion it happened that a certain heathen came before Shammai and said to him, “Make me a proselyte, on condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot.” Thereupon he [Shammai] repulsed him with the builder's cubit which was in his hand. When he went before Hillel, he [Hillel] said to him, “What is hateful to you, do not to your neighbor: that is the whole Torah, while the rest is the commentary thereof; go and learn it.”                Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a

Hillel’s comment to the would-be convert appears misleading, as “what is hateful to you, do not to your neighbor” seemingly applies only to the mitzvot bein adam l’havero, those which govern interpersonal relations, not to mitzvot bein adam laMakom (those between man and God). However, the Talmud comments:

One must always see himself, and the entire world, as being in balance between merits and obligations; should he commit an additional sin, he tips the balance for himself and for the entire world, and causes its destruction; should he perform an additional mitzva, he has tipped the balance favorably for himself and for the entire world and brought salvation to himself and to the world.

        [Babylonian Talmud, Kiddushin 40b, codified by Maimonides in Laws of Repentance 3:4]

Thus, my saintly teacher, Rabbi Mordechai Rogov, explains that every sin against God is also a sin against fellow-men, since the sin can tip the balance towards destruction of the entire world. Therefore, the maxim “what is hateful to you, do not to your neighbor” indeed applies in the realm of bein adam laMakom as well as in bein adam l’havero.

This elucidation also explains the final verse of the portion of egla arufa: “And you shall remove the innocent blood from the midst of you, when you shall do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord.” [Deuteronomy 21:9] The verse implies that failure to “do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord” leads to the shedding of blood, which is true because every sin potentially impacts on the entire world.

Every mitzva bein adam l’havero is also a mitzva bein adam laMakom, since it is divinely ordained. Rabbi Rogov’s insight teaches us that there is reciprocity: in essence, every mitzva bein adam laMakom is also a mitzva bein adam l’havero.