5785/2025
In an often overlooked section in Parashat Nasso (5:5-11), the Torah tells us the Halachah of a person who steals and then swears falsely denying his theft. Such a person needs to bring a Korban Asham Gezeilot to atone for his sin. As Rashi points out on the spot, this is an almost Korbon copy (pun intended) of a Halachah that we already know from the 5th chapter in VaYikra. However, as Rashi also points out, there are a few halachot that the Torah slips into the verses here, most prominently what to do when one steals from a Ger, a convert, who then dies without leaving any inheritors. Normally when a thief tries to do Teshuvah, he needs to return the stolen object or its value to his victim, and should the victim die the thief must return what he stole to that victim’s closest remaining relative. Here, however, the Torah writes that in a case where a thief stole from a Ger who dies without any relatives that are halachically related to him, the thief must return the stolen money “LaHashem, LaKohen,” “To G-d, to the Kohen.”
Whereas at first glance this may seem to be an almost trivial detail in the Torah’s laws of how to return stolen objects - almost along the lines of “if you have no one to return it to, you might as well return it to G-d” - a closer analysis reveals that the Torah here is expressing something much deeper: that Hashem feels a particularly closeness to a Ger, and considers himself a Ger’s closest relative. The commentaries of Seforno and the Chizkuni each point out that the Torah doesn’t just write that the stolen money goes to the “Kohen” but rather to “Hashem to the Kohen,” to indicate that really G-d is the “father” of the convert, and thereby his closest relative and entitled to the inheritance. The Kohen is merely receiving the money on G-d’s behalf.
Additionally, many other sources point out that theft from a Ger is a particularly heinous affront to Hashem, one which requires an extra level of atonement to rectify. Along these lines, Rava (Bava Kamma 110a) says that the money returned to the Kohen in cases of Gezel HaGer takes on some level of the status of a Korban. He writes that one cannot return the Gezel Hager to the Kohen at night for that reason, nor can the thief return the money a little at a time. He learns this from the fact that the Torah calls the returned money an “Asham”: just like an Asham cannot be returned at night or little by little, nor can Gezel haGer. Tosafot add that the money returned is so close to a Korban that it needs to be returned to the Kohen only in Yerushalayim, just like a Korban cannot be accepted anywhere else in Israel.
There’s much more to say about this connection, and the specifics of which situations this Korban becomes relevant, but one thing is abundantly clear: stealing from a Ger, someone who has taken upon himself, of his own volition, to join Hashem’s nation, is a particularly offensive crime. A Ger will often feel alone in the world, having left behind his family and friends from his upbringing, and one can only imagine the pain felt when on top of that his property rights are not respected. Hashem, as expressed through the Torah’s Halachot of Gezel haGer, felt the need to step in to emphasize that the Ger is not alone - I myself am with him, and an affront against a Ger is an affront against G-d himself.