Mishpatim, Shemos 22:6. The Oath of the Custodian

The Torah here teaches the duties of shomrim (custodians, bailees, people with whom a pikadon- a bailment of any property- is entrusted.)   They are the Shomer Chinam (Gratuitous Bailee,) the Shomer Sachar (Bailee for Hire,) the  Shoeil (Borrower,) and the Socher (Renter.)  

כִּי יִתֵּן אִישׁ אֶל רֵעֵהוּ כֶּסֶף אוֹ כֵלִים לִשְׁמֹר וְגֻנַּב מִבֵּית הָאִישׁ אִם יִמָּצֵא הַגַּנָּב יְשַׁלֵּם שְׁנָיִם. אִם לֹא יִמָּצֵא הַגַּנָּב וְנִקְרַב בַּעַל הַבַּיִת אֶל הָאֱלֹקים  אִם לֹא שָׁלַח יָדוֹ בִּמְלֶאכֶת רֵעֵהוּ. עַל כָּל דְּבַר פֶּשַׁע עַל שׁוֹר עַל חֲמוֹר עַל שֶׂה עַל שַׂלְמָה עַל כָּל אֲבֵדָה אֲשֶׁר יֹאמַר כִּי הוּא זֶה 

The Likutei Shichos (1962) here brings and expands upon the Tzemach Tzedek. The Ribono shel Olam entrusted each and every Jew with a precious and beautiful thing: his neshama.  He is given the pikadon of a perfect neshama and obliged to keep it in perfect condition, even to elevate it to a higher level of kedusha.  He accepts this stewardship with an oath, a shevuah— שמשביעין אותו תהי צדיק ואל תהי רשע (Niddah 30b) be righteous, do not be wicked!  


If the soul is damaged, this is because its steward was negligent.  He was poshei’ah, — “al kol dvar pesha.”   How does such a thing happen?  “Al shor al chamor al seh ve’al salmo,” for the cattle, for the sheep, for the garment;  all these things lead to “al kol aveida,” to losing the holiness of the G-dly soul, because “asher yomar ki hu zeh”, he mistakenly thought that the ‘ki’ was ‘zeh.' he thought the means were the ultimate purpose, he thought that the appearance was the reality.  He explains that ‘zeh’ can only refer to the Ribono Shel Olam, (Mi Hu Zeh, Zeh Eili Ve'anveihu) because nothing else has any real being.  
‘Shor,’ the ox, refers to the destructive instinct, the evil impulse that exults in destruction, that drives a man to destroy himself and others; 
'Chamor,' the donkey, refers to ‘chamra afilu bitekufas Tamuz kerira lei,’ a donkey is cold even in the time of intense heat, which means that even in a time of clear hashgacha pratis, self evident divine providence, he remains cold and unmoved; 
‘Salma,' the garment, is the trait of rebelliousness, as it says “ubeged bogdim bagadu (which shows that the word 'beged' is a homonym for both 'garment' and 'rebellion'); This is the resistance to  the concept that we are servants of Hashem and should accept the direction of Gedolei Torah.
‘Seh,’ the sheep, is “seh pezura Yisrael,” sheepishness.  This is when the Jews adopt the character of the nations in which they are mixed, and forget their unique mesora.  

What is the best strategy for a person who sees that he is being poshei’a in the pikadon, that he is failing in his stewardship of his soul?  He should go to the gadol hador, to Elohim, to beis din, and learn to do teshuva.  His teshuva is “yeshaleim shnayim lerei’eihu."  A chozeir betshuva has to do twice as much as others do, as it says in the Iggeres Hateshuva “ragil likros daf echad yikra shnei dafim;" if he used to study one page, now he must study two.  If he does this, then these nefesh habehamis qualities will turn to avodas Hashem: when he does so, all these powers that drove him away from Hashem will change to methods of greater service to Hashem.  Rav tevu’os bekoach shor; Yisachar chamor garem; Rei’ach salmosa’yich ke'rei’ach levanon (Shir Hashirim 4:11), and instead of seh pezurah, mashceini achareicha, and he will serve Hashem with both yetzarim.

My father zatzal often quoted the Gemara there in Nidda later on that daf, and when I told this to him, he expanded on it and added it to this vort.  Tehillim 24:

מִי יַעֲלֶה בְהַר ה' וּמִי יָקוּם בִּמְקוֹם קָדְשׁוֹ. נְקִי כַפַּיִם וּבַר לֵבָב אֲשֶׁר לֹא נָשָׂא לַשָּׁוְא נַפְשִׁי וְלֹא נִשְׁבַּע לְמִרְמָה

מִי יַעֲלֶה בְהַר ה who will go up on the mountain of Hashem?   נְקִי כַפַּיִם— even one unjust penny stains the hands, and only a person with clean hands can go up.  וּבַר לֵבָב— this is about what the person thought about doing to other people.  Only a person with a pure heart, a person whose desire was to help others, not to take advantage of them.  לֹא נָשָׂא לַשָּׁוְא נַפְשִׁי— who is saying this?  If it is the person talking about his own nefesh, which fits into “nafshi,” then it should say “asher lo nasasi,” not “lo nasa.”  It is the Ribbono Shel Olam, who says eidus that the person didn’t use the neshama for nothing.  It is called nafshi because “mahn denafach migarmei nofach,” the neshama comes from Hashem.  What did the person use it for?  To eat kugel?  Every animal eats straw, and since people are smarter, they eat better straw!asher lo noso lashov nafshi velo nishba lemirma.  The Ribbono shel Olam gives each person a neshama for a purpose.  The purpose is to use it to accomplish good in the world, to become an adam gadol, to be mizakeh the rabbim.  Hashem has to be able to testify that this person לֹא נָשָׂא לַשָּׁוְא נַפְשִׁי, he did not carry around the holy neshama ‘lashav’, for nothing, that he accomplished his tafkid in the world.  And, as the Gemara in Niddah says, he did not make a Shevuas Shav, a false oath, when he promised to be a Tzadik.

NG added something nice to his discussion.  He mentioned that according to the Shem Mishmuel in Beshalach, we can explain the passuk in 22:14, אם בעליו עמו לא ישלם, if the owner is with him, he shall not pay (see Bava Metzia 94).  According to the Shem Mishmuel, this means that even if a person has failed in his duties to his neshama, even if he has sinned, if he achieves Dveikus with the Ribono shel Olam, he will be absolved.  If he comes to a dveikus of בעליו עמו, his slate is wiped clean, לא ישלם.