Musar zu Jeschijahu 42:78

The first path is [that] when a man encounters troubles, he will consult his heart and say [that] it is only his ways and his plots that have caused this to him, and that his sins have caused [the pain] to his soul. So he repents to God; and He has mercy upon him, like the matter that is stated (Deuteronomy 31:17), "and many evils and troubles shall befall them; and they shall say on that day, 'Surely it is because our God is not in our midst that these evils have befallen us.'" But note that the custom among men is [that] if one sins to someone, and [later] at a time of trouble for him regrets it and submits to him because he needs him; such regret will be inferior in the eyes of his fellow - like the matter that Jephthah said (Judges 11:7), "How can you come to me now when you are in trouble?" However it is one of the kindnesses of God, may He be blessed, that He accepts repentance [motivated by] trouble and it is desirable in front of Him. And He will generously love the sinner when he returns to Him on the day of his rebuke and from amidst trouble, as it is stated (Hosea 14:2-5), "Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have fallen because of your sin. Take words with you, etc. I will heal their affliction, generously will I take them back in love." And it is stated (Proverbs 3:12), "For whom the Lord loves, He rebukes, as a father the son whom he favors." But if the man does not repent from his evil on the day of evil, and the rebuked does not repent to the Rebuker, his iniquity grows and his punishment will be doubled. Do you not see that if a king rebukes someone who has sinned to him and he has not become chastised, [the king] will make his punishment harsher and be very hard on him. And it is written (Leviticus 26:18), "And if, for all that, you do not obey Me, I will go on to discipline you." And it is [also] stated (Job 36:13), "But the impious in heart become enraged; they do not cry for help when He afflicts them." And if he does not know and does not contemplate that the events have found him because of sins, but rather says like the Philistines (I Samuel 6:9), "it was not His hand that struck us; it just happened to us by chance" - there will be fury in front of Him for this, and his iniquity will grow. And the iniquity of this group will be greater than the sin of the first group. Therefore it is written about the first group (Leviticus 26:18), "I will go on to discipline you." And it is written afterwards about the other group [we] mentioned (Leviticus 26:21), "And if you remain hostile toward Me and refuse to obey Me, etc." For every group that is later in the section is more problematic than the one [above it]. So it is written afterwards (Leviticus 26:23-24), "And if these things fail to discipline you for Me, and you remain hostile to Me, I too will remain hostile to you." And afterwards, it is written (Leviticus 26:27-28), "But if, despite this, you disobey Me and remain hostile to Me, I will act against you in wrathful hostility." Its explanation is "you remain hostile to Me," because you will say, "It was just chance that [it] happened to us." But when a man does not recognize his deeds and does not know that he has the iniquity in his hands from his sinning, he must examine his actions and search his ways, as the matter is stated (Lamentations 3:40), "Let us search and examine our ways." But if he surely ignores his eyes and his ideas become foolish and deluded (from the expression in Scripture [Isaiah 19:13], "The nobles of Tanis have been foolish, the nobles of Memphis deluded"), and he does not investigate his ways and does not know the acts of his hands and that which his fingers have done and says, "I have not sinned" - his sin is very weighty, as it is stated (Jeremiah 2:35), "lo, I will bring you to judgment for saying, 'I have not sinned.'" And it is stated (Isaiah 42:25), "it blazed upon them all about, but they heeded not; it burned among them, but they gave it no thought." And it is stated (Proverbs 19:3), "A man’s folly subverts his way, and his heart rages against the Lord."

We have discussed elsewhere that the צדיק is linked to the emanation יסוד, and that this emanation is linked to מלכות through the covenant of circumcision. Noach's position in the world was demonstrated by the fact that he was born circumcised, i.e. without foreskin, according to Avot de Rabbi Nathan 2,8. Our sages say that "he guarded the covenant," and that though he did not succeed in reversing the decline of mankind to the extent of restoring man's stature to what it had been prior to Adam's sin, i.e. to have man clothed in garments of light so that individual immortality would be restored, at least he succeeded in restoring the immortality of the species. The reason that Noach did not succeed beyond this is that he drank afterwards from the vineyard he had planted, something not unlike Adam who had squeezed the juice from the grapes of the tree of knowledge. Actually, when he planted the vineyard (the tree that G–d Himself had planted in גן עדן), Noach had intended to repair the damage done by Adam, but he sinned by indulging in too much wine. Proverbs 25,27: "It is not good to eat too much honey” alludes to that incident^{Author's comment}The author mentions in an annotation that Pardes Rimonim describes the whole subject matter of the vineyard, wine, etc as something that can either be a fountain of spirituality or a source of debauchery, drunkenness. Although Noach strove to regain the יין המשומר, the reservoir of spirituality which Adam had lost by imbibing from what had been forbidden to him, Noach debased himself when he planted that vineyard; the fruit of its wine did not become his כוס ישועות, cup of salvations, but turned out to be the גפן סדום, the vineyard of Sodom, and its grapes turned out to be ענבי רוש and אשכלות מררת למו, "the grapes for them are poison, a bitter growth their clusters" (Deut. 32,32). In short, Noach had drunk the wrong kind of wine..

And on this subject it is said : "And I will bring the blind by a way they knew not in paths that they knew not I will lead them" (Is. 42:16), and he says further : "And look (understand) you blind, that you may see!" (Ibid: 18). And he says further: "Who is blind, but My servant? or deaf, as My messenger that I send? Who is blind as he that is wholehearted and blind as the Lord's servant?" (Ibid. : 19).

There is an interesting Midrash on Psalms 2,2, יתיצבו מלכי ארץ, "The kings of the earth will take their stand, and regents will intrigue together against G–d and His anointed." Rabbi Berechyah quotes Rabbi Levi as saying that the wicked are cursed, since they conspire against Israel. Each one claims to outdo the other in his devious plot. Esau describes Cain as having been foolish, since he killed Abel during Adam's lifetime, enabling Adam to replace Abel with other children. He, Esau was going to wait to kill Jacob until after his father had died and Jacob could no longer be replaced by Isaac siring any other children (Genesis 27,41). Pharaoh considered Esau as having been foolish, since he had overlooked the fact that while he waited, Jacob himself had a chance to sire many children, thus ensuring survival of the Jewish nation. He, Pharaoh, would not go about in in this way, but he would kill the Jewish males as soon as they emerged from their mother's womb (Exodus 1,22). Haman, on the other hand, considered that even Pharaoh had been foolish, since the latter had not realised that when the Jewish girls would marry they would multiply, the children being considered Jewish in Jewish law. Hence he decreed death for all Jews (Esther 3,13). In the future Gog and Magog will consider all former enemies of the Jews as having been fools for having ignored the fact that the Jews have a Patron in Heaven who may come to their rescue. Hence Gog and Magog plan to first contend with said Patron of the Jews, i.e. G–d, and only afterwards to attack Israel itself. This is why the verse in Psalms we quoted, reads "against G–d and His Messiah." G–d is reported as smiling, saying to Gog and Magog that their undertaking is both foolish and arrogant, since they have no idea how heavily outnumbered they will be when G–d employs His lightning, etc. After all, it is written (Isaiah 42,13): "G–d will go forth like a warrior, like a fighter. He will awaken His jealousy like a man of war." It also says (Zachariah 14,9) that "G–d will be king over the entire universe" (after having battled Gog and Magog).

Next, G–d proceeded to the stage of ויהי. The creation of the original raw material, the אין or hiyuli in Greek. Next, came the transformation of this hiyuli into what we call יש, i.e. "something." Last, there occurred the transformation of one kind of יש, something, into a whole variety of יש. When we examine it more closely, we will find that the first two categories i.e. רשימו and חקיקה, are actually much like twin brothers in that they are both parts of a totally abstract, spiritual world. In order to be converted into a physical, pulsating world such as we inhabit and perceive, the energies of these abstract spiritual worlds were transformed through the insertion of a layer of what we call the עולם הגלגלים, the world of the planets. The מצות, too, are divided into four different "worlds." Some are of a totally rational, functional nature, which even the nations of the world are not only able but willing to perform. Examples are legislation against stealing, murdering, adultery, the duty of honoring father and mother and others. Similarly we find Gentile philosophers postulating ethical mores, virtues to be acquired, etc. The rationale underlying all those philosophies is known, available to all, in other words "revealed." Those מצות are the ones we consider as belonging to the category of עשיה. Secondly, we have the category of מצות that contain symbolisms though performance of specific deeds is commanded. They include such commandments as the Passover lamb legislation, the eating of unleavened bread, the eating of bitter herbs, the building of and dwelling in huts on the festival of Tabernacles, etc. These commandments fall under the heading חציבה. The third category are other commandments which we cannot understand in their entirety, or even their essence. These are the category called חקיקה דק מאד, "legislation of a spiritually very refined nature." Finally, there is the fourth category, the law of פרה אדומה, the meaning of which has not been revealed to any person while alive with the exception of Moses and Rabbi Akiva. This is what is known as רשימו. The latter must be described as דק היטב הדק, "something infinitely refined." Rabbi Yossi son of Rabbi Chaninah in his commentary Bamidbar Rabbah 19,6, explains the words in 19,3: "they shall take to you an unblemished red heifer,” as meaning that G–d had said to Moses: "To you I shall reveal the deeper meaning of this law, whereas to others it shall remain a חק. He bases this on an interpretation by Rav Huna of Psalms 75,3: "At the time I choose, I will judge equitably." It is also written in Zechariah 14,6: "On that day there shall be neither sunlight nor cold moonlight." Since the prophet does not say קפאון, but וקפאון, and the spelling is יקפאון, this is an indication that matters which are concealed from you in this world will be revealed to you when the time arrives which the prophet discusses in that paragraph. This is in line with Isaiah 42,16: "I shall guide the blind by a road they did not know, and I will make them walk by paths they never knew." The same verse continues: "These are the things I have done [promised] and I will not forsake them." The remarkable thing is that the prophet, i.e. G–d, does not speak about אעשה, i.e. "I shall do," but he speaks about עשיתם, "I have done them." What is meant is that G–d had already done this for Rabbi Akiva and the likes of him. [revealed the mystery of the red heifer legislation]. Matters that I have not revealed to Moses, I have revealed to him, and he has seen everything that is precious to Me. So far Rabbi Yossi son of Rabbi Chanina.

The fact that her age is alluded to first in the name צחק is to indicate that she was not merely an appendix to her husband. We have a similar situation when the Torah reports that Moses first relayed G–d's words to the women at Mount Sinai. We read in Exodus 19,3: "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob (women), and tell the children of Israel." The reason that the women were addressed first, and of course expressed their willingness to accept Torah first, was to prevent anyone thinking they had done so only to please their husbands rather than to please G–d. Sarah similarly proselytized independently from her husband. Since Genesis 12,5 is the beginning of the gift of Torah, it is appropriate to mention the part a woman played first. The word צדיק spelled as words, צדיק-דלת-יוד-קוף, contains an allusion to the giving of the Torah as we know from ה' חפץ למען צדקו יגדיל תורה ויאדיר.

We have a clue to this in verse 7,84: "זאת חנוכת המזבח ביום המשח אותו." "This is the consecration of the altar on the day it was anointed." It is strange that the verse should commence with the feminine זאת, whereas it concludes with the masculine "אותו." Why did the Torah not simply say "זה חינוך המזבח ביום המזח אותו?" The reason for this unusual combination is that we view the Tabernacle on earth as essentially feminine, i.e. receiving its input from the Tabernacle in the Celestial Regions which is viewed as masculine. The relationship between the two is analogous to the relationship of man and wife. In the future, everything will be masculine as our sages have said, because G–d Himself will build the Third Temple. This is the meaning of the שיר חדש new song, (masculine) with which we will greet that event (compare Psalms 33,3, Isaiah 42,10). At that time, G–d will "lower" the Temple from the Celestial Regions and establish it here on earth. This is what the Zohar says in Parshat Pinchas where he adds that this is the way it should have been after the Exodus from Egypt, a plan thwarted only on account of the sin of the golden calf. In the messianic era, however, this original intention will be carried out.