Livnei ever
![]() | Template:Wikify is deprecated. Please use a more specific cleanup template as listed in the documentation. |
You must add a |reason=
parameter to this Cleanup template – replace it with {{Cleanup|January 2006|reason=<Fill reason here>}}
, or remove the Cleanup template.
![]() | This article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject. |
"Lifnei Iver Lo Titein Mikhshol" ("You Shall Not Place a Stumbling Block Before the Blind") is the prohibition of "lifnei iver," or "placing a stumbling block before the blind" (Vayikra 19:14), is generally understood as forbidding one to assist another in the violation of halakha.
Questions Can you go someplace where one will talk loshon hara about you? May you leave a website up on shabbat if you know it appeals mostly to Jews who will go there on shabbat? May you sell food to Jews who do not recite blessings? May you invite to a bar-mitzva friends or relatives who will most likely come by car on shabbat? May a rabbi officiate at a wedding of a couple that will not observe the laws of family purity?
the Rambam writes (Sefer Ha-mitzvot, Frankel edition, "lo ta'aseh" 299):
"It warns against any of us leading anyone else to stumble through offering advice. Meaning, if someone asks you for advice involving some matter, he can be persuaded in this regard. The prohibition is issued against tricking him and leading him to stumble. You should rather lead him straight to the matter as you feel is good and correct, and this is what is meant when He said, 'You shall not place a stumbling block before the blind'… They said that this prohibition includes also one who offers assistance in the committing of a sin or who brings it about… But the simple meaning of the verse is what we mentioned first."