Do Not Wrong a Fellow Israelite
The 613th Commandment — Closing the Circle
Leviticus 25:17: “You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the LORD your God.” Commandment #613 closes the complete enumeration of the 613 Torah commandments. The verse “lo tonu ish et amito” — do not wrong a man his fellow — appears in the Jubilee chapter (Leviticus 25), immediately after the laws governing land sales and redemption. In context, “amito” (his fellow, his associate) refers specifically to a fellow Israelite involved in a commercial transaction — the verse prohibits exploiting someone through deceptive pricing or false representation in the context of the Jubilee's land-value calculations.
Maimonides (Mishneh Torah, Mekhirah 14:1) extends this to the prohibition of ona'at mamon — financial oppression through exploitative pricing. When a seller charges significantly more than market price, or a buyer pays significantly less, the wronged party can demand cancellation of the transaction. The standard is approximately one-sixth deviation from market price. But the prohibition “do not wrong one another” carries a deeper resonance as the final commandment: the entire Torah, beginning with the creation of heaven and earth and ending with “do not wrong one another,” is bounded on one side by divine creation and on the other by the obligation of human decency.
Ona'ah — Financial and Verbal Wronging
The Talmud (Bava Metzia 58b) identifies two forms of ona'ah (wronging): ona'at mamon (financial wronging through exploitative pricing) and ona'at devarim (verbal wronging through hurtful words). The prohibition of Leviticus 25:17 is applied to the verbal form: “You shall not wrong one another — this refers to verbal wronging: reminding someone of his past sins, saying to a convert ‘remember what your ancestors did,’ reminding a penitent of his former ways.”
Verbal wronging is treated as more severe than financial wronging. The Talmud continues: “financial wronging can be remedied through money, but verbal wronging has no remedy.” The one who shames another in public is compared to one who has shed blood: the color drains from a shamed person's face as blood drains from a wound (Bava Metzia 58b). The 613th commandment thus encompasses both the transactional ethics of commerce and the deeper ethics of how human beings address and regard each other.
Fear of God and the Limits of Human Law
Leviticus 25:17 closes with “you shall fear your God, for I am the LORD your God” — the same divine-fear anchor that appears throughout Leviticus 19 and 25 in the context of prohibitions that escape human enforcement. Verbal wronging cannot be adjudicated by a court. The one who uses public shaming, who reminds a penitent of his past, who exploits a convert's vulnerability — these violations are invisible to human judges. The Torah responds with divine fear: your God sees.
The closing of the 613 commandments with “you shall fear your God” is not incidental. The entire structure of the Torah's law — from the creation narrative through the wilderness, the Sinai covenant, the Levitical legislation, and the Deuteronomic review — is built on the premise that God sees what human courts cannot, rewards what human systems cannot compensate, and judges what human law cannot reach. The 613th commandment embodies this: treat your fellow with justice and humanity, not because a court enforces it, but because you fear the God who sees.
The Jubilee Chapter as Frame
Leviticus 25 is the Torah's great chapter on economic reset: the Jubilee year restoring land to original families, releasing slaves, canceling accumulated indebtedness, and returning Israel to the equitable distribution of the original inheritance. The prohibition on wronging one another in verse 17 appears within this framework as both a specific rule (fair pricing in Jubilee-year land calculations) and a principle (the Jubilee's entire logic is to prevent one Israelite from systematically wronging another through economic accumulation over time). The 613th commandment is thus the capstone of the Torah's economic vision: a community where God's creation, equitably distributed, is not subverted by deceptive transactions or exploitative power.
The 613 commandments form a complete system — beginning with “Be fruitful and multiply” and ending with “do not wrong one another.” Creation and community. The first and last commandments together define the Torah's scope: from the generation of life at the beginning to its protection in relationship at the end.
- Ona'at Mamon — Financial wronging through exploitative pricing. Maimonides codifies the one-sixth market-price deviation standard as the actionable threshold. Below this, the transaction stands; above it, cancellation may be demanded.
- Ona'at Devarim — Verbal wronging: reminding someone of past sins, shaming a convert, exploiting a penitent's vulnerability. Treated as more severe than financial wronging because it has no monetary remedy. The Talmud compares public shaming to bloodshed.
- The Jubilee Context — Leviticus 25: the economic reset chapter. The 613th commandment appears within the Torah's fullest statement of economic equity. The prohibition on wronging one another is both a specific pricing rule and the principle of the entire Jubilee chapter.
- You Shall Fear Your God — Leviticus 25:17: the closing divine-fear anchor. As the final phrase of the 613 commandments, it encapsulates the entire Torah's premise: all law rests on the premise that God sees what humans cannot judge.
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Open in Reader — Leviticus 25:17