The prohibition ‘You shall not covet’
1. The Torah states (Deuteronomy, 5:18): “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male slave, his female slave, his ox, or his donkey — anything that belongs to your neighbor.” The Sages explain that at first a person simply thinks about something, then develops a desire to acquire it, and eventually his hands begin reaching for it of their own accord, even if it belongs to someone else.
Here is how this process is described in the Prophets (Micah, 2:2): “They covet others’ fields and seize them, and covet houses and take them.” The passages quoted above use the words chemdah and taavah. Chemdah is the stage when a person’s desire has already become fixed and his attention is focused on how to acquire the desired object, while taavah means passion, a passionate desire to acquire and possess (the Russian translation uses the word ‘lust’).
In his Book of Commandments, Rambam explains in greater detail the difference between ‘desire’ (chemdah) and ‘lust’ (taavah), which is mentioned in the Ten Commandments in the portion Va’etchanan.
Commandment 265 forbids us to resort to stratagems to acquire something in the possession of one of our brothers. It states: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.” Commandment 266 forbids us to harbor in our thoughts a craving for what our brother possesses, for this will drive us to seek ways to appropriate his property.
Unfortunately, people often do not stop at theft and robbery. The next step is murder, because people will try to stop the thief. When our Sages spoke of this, they cited the case of Ahab and Naboth:
**** During the First Temple era, when the Northern Kingdom (Israel) and the Southern Kingdom (Judah) existed in the land of Israel, the Northern Kingdom was at one point ruled by King Ahab. He was married to Princess Jezebel, who introduced the foreign cult of Baal into Jewish society, and the king himself helped her spread this pagan belief. Despite this, the Almighty granted Ahab military victories, because he cared for his people and was a good ruler in matters unrelated to religion.
But after Ahab seized Naboth's vineyard, which he had long had his eye on (Jezebel accused Naboth of a crime he had not committed, Naboth was executed, and his property went to the royal treasury), the Almighty turned away from him, conveying through the prophet Elijah that Ahab would soon die and his blood would be spilled in the very vineyard that had previously belonged to Naboth.
2. The prohibition “Do not covet” is violated when the property in question belongs to any Jew. The property of people with disabilities, such as those who are deaf and unable to speak, blind, or mentally ill, is no exception.