The Salami

Translated by Rabbi Lazer Brody

A person has a great big salami. He wants to hang it up and let it age, but he can’t resist taking a thin slice every day. Before he realizes it, there’s no salami left. “Where did my salami go?” he laments…

The evil inclination doesn’t tell a person to go commit murder, for the person wouldn’t listen. The evil inclination (EI) says, “Go buy a computer so that you can type your Torah thoughts and nuances in a beautiful manner.” Now that the person has a computer, the EI says, “Hook up to the internet, so that you can have an easier time making a living. People are making tons of money on the web.” Now that the person has a high-speed internet connection, the EI says, “Join Facebook and all the other social media, so that people will get to know you and you’ll have more customers.” Then the EI says, “Download a few games to keep your kids occupied.” Ultimately, the evil inclination destroys entire families. These are the families that didn’t pay attention that the evil inclination was devouring their holiness like a salami – one thin slice at a time – until nothing was left.

Why does Rebbe Nachman emphasize that nothing is greater than a daily hour of personal prayer? Personal prayer is the only way to avoid becoming a salami in the evil inclination’s deadly teeth. Without personal prayer, a person won’t be able to implement the lessons of the Torah that he learns. For that reason, all the tzaddikim – Chassidic, Lithuanian and Sephardi alike – devoted much time and effort to daily personal prayer and self-assessment.

The latter five of the Ten Commandments all deal with commandments that govern relations between man and fellow man. Commandments six through nine, all heinous sins, are listed in utter brevity:“Thou shalt not murder. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal.  Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor” (Exodus 20:12). Yet, when the Torah gets to commandment number ten, the prohibition of coveting, it’s much more lengthy: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s.”

Apparently, coveting is umpteen times less serious than murder and stealing, so why is the Torah so much more elaborate in prohibiting it? It also seems that coveting a person’s servant, ox or donkey is not relevant to this generation. But, the Torah is not only talking about an ox or a donkey of the old days; it’s referring to one’s possessions today as well, like a yacht or a Maserati.

Company officials and industrialists violate “Thou shalt not covet” all the time. Every time they try to lure a competitor’s employee with a higher salary or benefits, they violate this commandment. Any time one person is jealous of another person’s income or business, he too is in violation. Any time a women wishes that she had a dress or a dining-room set like her neighbor, or “anything that is thy neighbor’s”, she too is guilty of violating this commandment. We are not allowed to covet anything that does not belong to us.

The root of all coveting is looking at things that don’t belong to us; in other words, opening our eyes when they should be shut.

One who never covets is the person who can be satisfied with his or her lot in life. Such people are far from theft, murder or adultery. Theft, murder and adultery are the outcome of people’s coveting of what is not there’s. We can now understand why the Torah is so much more elaborate in the commandment of “Thou shalt not covet”, because it leads to many more severe transgressions. The prisons are full of people who committed terrible crimes, all of which can be traced to coveting that which was not theirs.

Adultery is the direst result of coveting. As soon as a person covets another man’s wife, he begins violating the commandment against adultery. How? Our sages teach that a mitzva or sin has three aspects – thought, deed and speech. So, as soon as a person looks at another man’s wife and desires her in the slightest, he is already harboring an adulterous thought. Our sages, throughout the Gemara, warn that contemplating a sin is not only tantamount to committing a sin, but actually in certain ways worse than committing the sin itself.

Coveting and all the terrible sins that result from it all begin from one’s failure to guard his eyes. Again, that’s the salami at work. Just as one tiny slice seems to be “no big deal”, soon there’s no salami left. A person “merely” glances at a woman, and he thinks it’s also no big deal. Soon he covets, and soon after he loses all of his holiness.

The evil inclination’s “salami strategy” especially applies to one’s thoughts.A person might think, “What’s the big deal about looking at a woman or thinking about her? I’m not touching her; I’m not doing anything wrong!”

He certainly is doing something wrong. By looking at the woman, he is violating the commandment that prohibits “straying after your eyes” (Numbers 16:39). And, once the eye sees, the heart covets. Anyone who thinks that he is immune from this ironclad spiritual principle is fooling himself.

There’s a marked difference between coveting a man’s house or car  and coveting his wife. Suppose a person with an average income sees a rich man’s mansion with pool, tennis court and Rolls Royce parked in the garage. He realizes that it’s ridiculous to covet something that’s way beyond his reach, especially when he already has his own house, as humble as it might be. So, he tells himself to forget about the mansion, for it’s a silly pipe-dream, and soon he does. But the EI works differently when it comes to women: it tells a person that the woman is within his reach; it sends pop-up images of the woman to the person’s brain constantly, especially during the most inopportune of times such as during prayer or Torah learning, Heaven forbid. The pondering of the strange woman, which all started with looking at her or even looking at an image of her, contaminates his mind and soul like the worst form of venom.

With the above in mind, the only way to escape the transgression of “Thou shalt not covet” is by closing our eyes. Inasmuch, one’s entire observance of Torah depends on guarding his eyes. There is no other way to guard one’s eyes than to close them. You’re not a salami! You’re a beloved son of Hashem and you can be holy.