Watch What You Pray For
‘Acts Befitting Your People’
(Sanhedrin 85a)
Our sugya states that a person who curses a fellow Jew violates a Biblical prohibition (Vayikra 19:14 – “Do not curse…”) and is punished with 39 lashes for doing so. However, someone who curses a sinner is exempt, as the Torah states (Shemos 22:27), “Do not curse a leader in your people.” These words exclude a sinner who is not acting like one of our people.
Is a person allowed to curse a sinner or is he merely exempt from lashes if he does so? The Minchas Chinuch (mitzvah 231, #4) derives from our sugya that, rabbinically, one may not curse a sinner. That’s why the Gemara uses the word “exempt” instead of “allowed.”
Regardless, many poskim permit cursing a sinner. Supporting this opinion are the words “cursed are all the wicked” in Shoshanas Yaakov, which we chant at the conclusion of reading Megillas Esther on Purim:.
L’rei’acha Kamocha (Hilchos Lo Tekallel) in Nir LeDavid, #47, as well as the footnotes on Minchas Chinuch, ibid., #2, citing the Chazon Ish, Rav Shach, and others, also proves that cursing a sinner is not prohibited.
Calling The Kettle Black
The Chossen Yosef (Kiddushin #296), in a novel interpretation, argues that only a virtuous person may curse a sinner whereas a sinner may never curse another sinner. After all, our sages remarked that one who curses a sinner is exempt because he does not “act befitting your people.” In other words, a sinner is not on the same level as regular Jews who are not sinners; that’s why the latter may curse him. A fellow sinner, however, is on the same level and therefore may not curse him.
Pray For The Evil To Repent
Although cursing a sinner is not prohibited according to most poskim, the Midrash Hane’elam (Zohar, Vayeira, p. 105) states: “Rabbi said, ‘A person is forbidden to pray that the evil should die, for if Hashem had removed Terach from the world when he worshiped idols, Avram would not have been born, the tribes of Israel and King David would not have been born, the Torah would not have been given, and all those tzaddikim and chassidim and prophets would never have existed.”
The Chafetz Chaim: Remove Sin
The Chafetz Chayyim, zt”l (Al HaTorah, Vayeitzei), cites the Gemara (Berachos 10a), that King David prayed (Tehillim 104:35) that sin be removed from the face of the earth and that we should pray for sinners to repent rather than die. Yaakov Avinu followed this directive. When he heard from his sons that the heavy-handed Egyptian viceroy (whom he did not know was actually Yosef) was subjecting them to extreme hardships, he did not pray that the viceroy should die. Had Yaakov done so, he would have unwittingly killed his own son. Thanks to his learned caution, Yosef was saved.