Musar zu Hoschea 14:10

And from this, we will understand very well what has disappeared from the eyes of researchers in what they have examined regarding, heaven forbid, a change in God's will. The Almighty decrees a decree and then repentance, prayer and charity can change that to the better; and sometimes it changes from good to bad. But they walk in darkness because there can be no change, heaven forbid. Rather all is one and is only a matter of one desire. That is to say this inquiry is a matter of faith. I will also copy what I wrote as a child in my pamphlet, even though it is a little different. In any event, it all goes together in one place. These are my words. Written in section of Godliness in the gate of unity. And the whole faith of unity is complete; as there is no body nor strength of the body, nor a separate mind, and will not change from thought to thought or from action to action or from one leader to another. It is a complete intellect and simple and unique in all parts of His names and in all attributes. And a change in actions on the part of the leadership only exists from the side of the recipients. Because the one who walks in innocence and straightness, and keeps a good home, receives goodness derived from God Almighty. And he who perverts his path and distances himself, is distanced from the good derived from God and the opposite is derived from Him.

This does not preclude a change in the future. Jacob was אוחז בעקב "holding on to the "heel" (Genesis 25,26) i.e. to humility already from the moment he was born. This is also the mystical dimension of ויבא יעקב שלם, that "Jacob attained perfection" (Genesis 33,18). When Jacob was called ישראל because he prevailed in a struggle with the Divine, this is an allusion to the World to Come, a domain even closer to G–d than the domain of the angels. This is alluded to in Numbers 23,23 by Bileam who said: כעת יאמר ליעקב ולישראל מה פעל א-ל. "Jacob is told at once, Yea, Israel, what G–d has planned." [The author tries to demonstrate that when manipulating the spelling of the name יעקב the name ישרון which is the name used to describe the Jewish people on their highest spiritual level, can be obtained. When one omits the first letter of a "word" representing the "full" spelling of a letter such as the letter י being spelled יוד, this is called a concealed way of spelling the word, נעלם. In our example, if you spell the word יעקב "full" i.e י"וד-ע"ין-ק"וף ב"ית, and you then omit the letters I have highlighted i.e. י-ע-ק-ב, you will be left with ו"ד-י"ן-ו",-י"ת. The numerical value of the last 8 letters is 566, the same as the numerical value of ישרון. Ed.]. This is the mystical aspect of Isaiah 40,4: והיה העקוב למישור, "and the crooked will become straight," an allusion to the perception of Jacob as devious and engaging in deception as claimed by Esau. The "concealed" spelling of these names is a hint of the great good in store for the Jewish people. The three names יעקב-ישראל-ישרון correspond to the שלמות of Jacob in three areas: his body, גוף, his relationship with the material goods of this world, ממון, and his spiritual life, נפש (cf. Rashi on Genesis 33,18). These three areas are the subject of the manner in which we are to relate to G–d with love, i.e. "בכל לבבך, ובכל נפשך, ובכל מאדך. The body will be as much part of an everlasting life in the future we speak of as is the soul in our times. All the Kabbalists are agreed that this is so because the body has been created בצלם אלוקים, in the image of G–d. The names ישראל and ישרון allude to this dual "perfection" of body and soul, i.e. that both will gain everlasting life. The name ישרון symbolizes ישר, that G–d has created man ישר, upright, honest. He could not have done otherwise for ישרים דרכי ה', "the ways of the Lord are upright" (Hosea 14,10). It is relatively easy for a soul, רוח, to return to the Celestial Regions it has come from. When we speak about שלימות ממונו, the Torah means אלוהי כסף ואלוהי זהב לא תעשו (Exodus 20,23), that one must not elevate the value one places on silver and gold as something akin to a deity.

There cannot be a question of G–d intentionally misleading anyone. What is frequently the case is that someone deceives himself. Hosea 14,10, writes: כי ישרים דרכי השם, וצדיקים ילכו בם, ופושעים יכשלו בם, "For the ways of the Lord are upright, and the just walk on them, whereas the sinners will stumble on them." The prophet is quite explicit in placing the blame on the sinners, not on G–d or His ways. Here too G–d intended to enter into dialogue with Bileam when He asked him about "these men." Bileam the wicked, jumped to the conclusion that G–d did not know everything, else He would not have asked, and used this to try and deceive G–d. Rashi's comment here that G–d wanted to deceive Bileam seems to contradict his comment on Genesis 3,9, when G–d asks Adam: "Where are you?," and Rashi says that G–d knew full well where Adam was, but wanted to enter into dialogue with him without frightening him by punishing him without preamble. One must understand therefore, that when Rashi wrote on our verse: "in order to mislead him," the subject of "him" is not G–d but the invitation of these men to curse Israel. The invitation of Balak was the מכשול, the stumbling block which caused Bileam's sins to deceive him into thinking he could deceive G–d. He did not understand the truth of G–d's intentions when He asked him rhetorically: "who are these men?" This whole incident is similar to one recorded in the Talmud Yuma 87a, when the great scholar Rav went to the house of a butcher on the eve of the Day of Atonement in order to give that butcher a chance to apologise for something that had occurred between them. This was unusual, since the butcher should have come to Rav to beg his forgiveness for the wrong he had committed. On the way he met Rabbi Hunna his disciple who asked Rav where the latter was going. When told that he was on his way to reconciliation with a certain butcher, Rabbi Hunna said "Rav went to kill a person," for he could not imagine that a butcher who had insulted Rav should not be punished. When Rav arrived at that butcher's he found him busy cutting off the head of an animal. The butcher raised his eyes and exclaimed in wonderment "you are Abba! Go away! I do not want to have anything to do with you!" At that moment a bone from that animal hit the butcher in his neck causing his death. Therefore, if the butcher died, it was his obstinacy in refusing to accept Rav's offer at reconciliation that made him a candidate for death, since in such circumstances the Day of Atonement would not protect him from the judgment due him. Rabbi Hunna's having said that his teacher was on his way to kill someone certainly was not the cause of this butcher's death. The same explanation applies to Rashi's comment in Parshat Korach, 16,6 that the incense contained a lethal poison. Mistaking the function of incense would lead to the death of the person who willfully abused that instrument of service to G–d. G–d's intent in asking Bileam was fair.