In this week’s parsha we are introduced to two of the biggest Tzadikim in the whole Torah. No, not Avraham or Yitzchak, not Rivkah and, Yaakov isn’t even a thought in his parents’ head yet. So, who am I referring to? Lavan and Efron.

We see, in his encounter with Eliezer, that Lavan runs – וירץ לבן – to invite Eliezer into his their home. In fact, the wording used with regard to Lavan is strikingly similar to that used when Avraham runs to greet his angelic visitors. As we continue to read about Lavan’s righteousness, we see he invites Eliezer into their home to sleep and eat and drink in the same way that Avraham does with his guests. Furthermore, Rashi tells us that he even cleared out the house from all their idols! Again, in the same way Avraham removed the idols from his father’s home many years earlier.

The same is true of Ephron, the great Tzadik. Ephron offers the Maarat Hamachpela to Avraham for free. He is so concerned with the Mitzvah of burying the dead that he doesn’t hesitate to give over this valuable plot of land for free. What a Tzadik!

Of course, I am being facetious, we know that both Lavan and Ephron are regarded as evil people – in the Pesach Haggadah Lavan is credited with trying to destroy the entire Jewish nation and with regard to Ephron the Torah leaves out a letter of his name, the vav – one of the letters on Hashem’s name, to show us that his actions are deplorable.

So what did they do wrong? Again, from the simple reading, as we outlined above, they look like great Tzakim. If we look more carefully at the story of Lavan, we see what is really going on, the pasuk says:

ויהי כראת את-הנזם, ואת-הצמדים על-ידי אחתו…ויבא, אל-האיש, והנה עמד על-הגמלים, על-העין
And when he [Lavan] saw the nose-ring and the bracelets that were on his sister’s arms…he came to see the man [Eliezer] who was standing by the well with the camels

Rashi explains based on a midrash (Breishit Rabbah 60:7)

למה וירץ ועל מה רץ, ויהי כראות את הנזם, אמר עשיר הוא זה, ונתן עיניו בממון
Why did Ephron run? Once he saw the nose-ring, he said to himself, “This man is rich.” He had his eyes on the money.

The true motivations of Lavan were those of greed and theft.

We see the same thing with Ephron. When Avraham presses Ephron, he backhandedly names a price for the field and Ephron gladly takes the money. The fact that in the end he takes Avraham’s money, even though at the outset he was offering the field for free, reveals to us his true intentions.

Because of their improper motivations, even their actions, which on the surface appear righteous, are regarded as and retroactively converted to acts of deception and evil. We see this concept beautifully exemplified in the story from last week’s parsha of Avraham and Avimelech. When Avraham goes to live in Avimelech’s land he tells the people that Sarah, his wife, is his sister. He does this so that the people will not kill him and take her. Thinking that Sarah is a single girl, Avimelech takes her to his palace, but before anything happens Hashem stops Avimelech and tells him that Sarah is, in fact, Avraham’s wife. Let’s see the interaction between Hashem and Avimelech (Breishit 20:5):

הלא הוא אמר-לי אחתי הוא, והיא-גם-הוא אמרה אחי הוא; בתם-לבבי ובנקין כפי, עשיתי זאת.  ו ויאמר אליו האלהים בחלם, גם אנכי ידעתי כי בתם-לבבך עשית זאת
[and Avimelech said] “He told me she was his sister and she also told me that she was his sister! I did everything with a pure heart and clean hands.” And Hashem responded to him in a dream, “I also know that you did everything with a pure heart.”

If we look carefully we will notice that although Avimelech claims to have “a pure heart and clean hands”, Hashem only affirms that he has “a pure heart”. Why is this so? If we continue to read the story, we see that Avimelech confronts Avraham and asks him, ‘Why did you lie to me and tell me she was your sister? I almost sinned with her!’ Avraham’s response is very telling:

ויאמר, אברהם, כי אמרתי רק אין-יראת אלהים, במקום הזה; והרגוני, על-דבר אשתי
And Avraham said, “I said to myself, ‘There is no awe of Hashem in this place and they will kill me to take my wife.'”

Avraham tells Avimelech, ‘Even though you thought your actions where righteous (ie. clean hands) because they stemmed from your moral code (ie. pure heart) because they didn’t stem from an “awe of Hashem” they are not regarded as righteous actions. This is because ultimately if your morality is based on your own logic as opposed to awe of Hashem, you will “come to kill me to take my wife”.’ This is why Hashem tells Avimelech that his ‘heart was pure’ but that his ‘hands were not clean’, because although his society was upright and moral, and had pure intentions, as long as a person’s motivation is not based on awe of Hashem his actions are ultimately not 100% perfect and can eventually lead down a depraved path.

If a person’s motivations are based on his own constructed morality, he can ultimately redefine that morality as he sees fit and still be regarded in his own mind as being “moral”. To borrow an expression from the Talmud, “הפה שאסר הוא הפה שהתיר – the mouth which forbids is also the mouth which permits”. If you need a proof for this concept, you don’t need to look very far back in our history. Germany was the pinnacle of morality and justice in the world. It was the most refined and cultured society in the world. But, that same morality and refinement justified and constructed a moral code which lead to the death and torture of six million Jews and millions of other innocent people. This wasn’t against their value system, there was no cognitive dissonance, they constructed a system in which it made sense to exterminate and exploit a certain type of “sub-human”. Because their values and motivations were man-made their actions eventually descended into the ultimate depravity.

For us, we need to keep a simple idea in mind as we go through life, it is important to develop ourselves and refine our character traits, actions and behaviors, to ensure that we are becoming better people, but in all of this we must remember the teaching of Rebbi Yossi in Pirkei Avot (2:12), “וכל מעשיך, יהיו לשם שמיים – all your actions should be for the sake of Hashem”.

If all our actions are for the sake of Hashem, this will lead us to a proper and just moral code and to proper intentions in all areas of life. This is why the pasuk in Tehillim (24:3,4) reverses the order of Avimelech,

מי-יעלה בהר-יהוה; ומי-יקום, במקום קדשו נקי כפים, ובר-לבב
Who will ascend the mountain of Hashem? Who will stand up in his holy place? Only a person who has clean hands and a pure heart…

If we focus on making sure our ‘hands are truly clean’ by ensuring that all our motivations are ‘for the sake of Hashem’, then and only then, will we have a ‘pure heart’ and be able grow, ‘ascend’ and ‘stand in Hashem’s holy place’.