לֹא תְקַלֵּל חֵרֵשׁ וְלִפְנֵי עִוֵּר לֹא תִתֵּן מִכְשֹׁל וְיָרֵאתָ מֵאֱלֹקיךָ אֲנִי ה'
You shall not curse a deaf person. You shall not place a stumbling block before a blind person, and you shall fear your G-d. I am the Lord.The Torah warns us not to curse someone who is deaf. Ramban wonders: Why are we commanded not to curse someone who is deaf, as they can't hear the curse anyway?
His first answer is that we learn by extension that this
mitzvah applies to everyone, and not only to someone who is deaf. The Ramban observes that this entire warning seems to be an extraneous command, since in Sefer Shemot the Torah already cautions us not to curse leaders of the nation. In שמות כב כז the Torah states:
אֱלֹקים לֹא תְקַלֵּל וְנָשִׂיא בְעַמְּךָ לֹא תָאֹר
You shall not curse a judge, neither shall you curse a prince among your people.The Ramban questions: What are we supposed to learn from this dual admonition to not curse both the deaf and the leaders? He answers:
הזהיר הכתוב בנכבדים בעם הדיין והנשיא . . . וחזר והזהיר באמללים שבעם והוא החרש, ומהם ילמדו בנין אב אל כל שאר העם, כי מן הראש ועד הסוף הכל בכלל האזהרה.
The Torah warns us not to curse the honorable people in the nation and then the Torah cautions us not to curse the individuals with a disability in the community, namely someone who is deaf. From both of these verses we learn to apply this to all people. Everyone, from one extreme to the other, are included in this warning not to be cursed. From this
mitzvah we learn that all human beings, no matter their class or social status, are included in this admonition.
The Ramban also offers a second answer:
הזכיר החרש בקללה, כי אע"פ שלא ישמע ולא יתקצף בקללתו הזהירה התורה עליו, ואין צריך לומר בשומעים שיתביישו ויחר להם מאד.
The Torah chose someone who is deaf as the object of the pasuk lest one think that it's permitted to curse someone who can't hear the curse and therefore won't become angry with the one who said the curse. The Torah is specifically warning us about this case. And certainly one cannot curse someone who can hear and thereby be embarrassed and become upset.
We are commanded to be careful and extra-sensitive regarding what we say about others, even if the words won't cause hurt feelings or shame to the one spoken about. Objectively, cursing someone is objectionable, even if it won't have a negative emotional effect on the target. The Torah demands that we refrain from this deleterious behavior in all situations.
Seforno says that the problem with cursing someone -- which is expressing a desire that that person should suffer some evil fate -- is that it denigrates and sullies the honor of that person. As he states, we are not allowed to do this because:
הזהיר שלא יזיקהו בחלול כבודו
we are warned not to profane the honor of another. This is the root problem of this behavior.
Kavod is demanded even if your words will not cause pain or embarrassment to the person to whom you are referring. Even if that person (and others), for whatever reason, will never hear or know that it was said, we have to be concerned and careful about treating everyone with
kavod at all times. Cursing the deaf could cause one to be less mindful of the respect due to that person because, as we discussed in class, your words will have an effect on you. When you say a curse about another person, and you hear your own words, that will cause you to treat this person with less
kavod than you did before you said the curse. The Torah, by using a deaf person as the example, isolates the speaker as the only person who will be transformed by this experience. A person has to make sure they don't engage in any behavior or words that will cause another to be treated with less
kavod, even an iota, and even by the speaker himself.