Episode Details

 “I know the rule—but my situation is different.” It may be one of the most dangerous sentences we tell ourselves. In this morning’s Breakfast & a Class, we
begin with Shlomo HaMelech, the wisest of all men, who believed he could
multiply wives without allowing them to turn his heart. From there we meet
Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha, who was certain he could read by candlelight on
Shabbat without adjusting the flame, and even Ulysses, who understood that the
only way to resist the Sirens was to tie himself to the mast before he heard
their song. 

We then turn to the Torah’s remarkable warning that שֹׁחַד — a bribe — “blinds the eyes of the wise.” Through a powerful Gemara and a memorable story attributed to Rav Chaim Soloveitchik, we discover something uncomfortable about ourselves: bias rarely feels like bias. We usually feel perfectly objective. Perhaps that is the deeper lesson of the Torah’s boundaries and the safeguards of our Ḥakhamim. They are not there because we are foolish or weak. They are there because the Torah understands the human heart better than we understand ourselves. Sometimes the beginning of wisdom is simply admitting: the rules apply to me too.