Isaías 5:14 Midrash: Kohelet Rabbah, Otzar Midrashim, Midrash Tanchuma & Midrash Tehillim

“Dead flies spoil and froth a perfumer’s oil; a little folly is weightier than wisdom, than honor” (Ecclesiastes 10:1).
“Dead flies spoil and froth a perfumer’s oil” – ben Azai and Rabbi Akiva: ben Azai said: Does one fly that dies not spoil and froth a perfumer’s oil? So too does a single sin that one performs will cause a person to lose much good.
Rabbi Akiva expounded: “Therefore, the netherworld has expanded itself, and opened its mouth without limit [ḥok]” (Isaiah 5:14). It is not written ḥukim, but rather “without ḥok,” one who does not have mitzvot to tip the scales in favor of his virtues.¹The word ḥok (plural, ḥukim) can mean limit or statute. Rabbi Akiva interprets the verse according to the second meaning, such that the verse means that the netherworld takes a person who is missing just one mitzva that would have tipped the scales in his favor.
Those who engage in allegorical interpretations of the Torah say: A person is judged on the basis of the majority of his [deeds]. A person should always assess himself as though he is half virtuous and half guilty; if he performs one mitzva, happy is he, as he tipped his scales in favor of virtue, if he performs one transgression, woe is he, as he tipped his scales in favor of guilt. Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar said: Because the individual is judged on the basis of the majority of his [deeds], and the world is judged on the basis of its majority, with the single transgression that this one [individual] performs, he causes himself and the world to lose much good.

Chapter 1: Rabbi Yochanan opened: "Those who pass through the valley of weeping (alluding to Gehinnom) turn it into a water spring; moreover, the early rain covers it with blessings." (Psalms 84:7). This teaches that the evil person confesses like the leper (who has to cover his upper lip) confesses, and says "I am so-and-so, son of so-and-so. I committed such-and-such sin in such-and-such place on such-and-such day in front of so-and-so in such-and-such and such-and-such gathering. There are three gates (reading שערים as per mss.) in Gehinnom, one in the sea, one in the wilderness, and one in settled land. From where is the one in the sea? As it is said: "From the belly of Sheol (another name for Gehinnom) I cried out, And You heard my voice." (Jonah 2:3). From where is the one in the wilderness? As it is said: "They went down [with all that belonged to them] alive into Sheol..." (Numbers 16:33). From where is the one in settled land? As it is said: "Declares the LORD, who has a fire in Zion, Who has an oven in Jerusalem." (Isaiah 31:9). There are five types of fire in Gehinnom: Fire that eats and drinks, that drinks and doesn't eat, that eats and doesn't drink, that doesn't eat and doesn't drink, and there is fire that eats fire. There are burning coals the size of mountains in it, and there are burning coals the size of hills in it. There are burning coals the size of the Dead Sea in it, and there are burning coals the size of large stones in it. There are rivers of pitch and sulfur in it, dragging and boiling hot coals of broom-wood. The sentence of an evil person: Angels of destruction push him so that he falls on his face and others receive him from them and push him in front of the fire of Gehinnom, and it opens its mouth wide and swallows him, as it is said: "Assuredly, Sheol has opened wide its gullet And parted its jaws in a measureless gape; And down into it shall go, That splendor and tumult, That din and revelry." (ibid. 5:14), to the one who doesn't have a single positive action that tilts him to the side of merit, but one who has in his hand Torah and good deeds and great afflictions come upon him is saved from the judgement of Gehinnom, as it is said: "Though I walk through a valley of deepest darkness, I fear no harm... Your rod and Your staff—they comfort me." (Psalms 23:4). "Your rod," those are the afflictions, "and Your staff," that is the Torah.

(Lev. 12:3:) “And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.” It is not written here that one lays out expenses over circumcision. See how much Israel loves the commandments, how many expenses they lay out in order to observe them! The Holy One, blessed be He, said, “You make the commandments joyful; I am increasing your joy, as stated (in Is. 29:19), ‘Then the humble shall increase their joy in the Lord.’” Beloved is circumcision, such that the Holy One, blessed be He, swore to Avraham that anyone who is circumcised will not descend to Geihinnom, as stated (Genesis 15:18), “On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Avram, saying.” And who does descend there? See what is written below (Gen. 15:19), “The Kenite, the Kenizzite ….” And so did Ezekiel see, as stated (Ezekiel 32:18-30), “Son of man, wail upon the masses of Egypt and make it descend, and the daughters of mighty nations, to the lowest lands and those that fall in the pit. Who do you surpass in pleasantness, go down and lay with the uncircumcised…. Assyria is there with all of her congregation, its graves are around it…. Meshech and Tubal and all their masses are there, its graves are surrounding it, they are all uncircumcised…. The princes of the North are there….” And so does Isaiah says (Isaiah 5:14), “And so does the pit widen itself and opened wide its mouth without measure (chok),” to he that doesn't have a statute [the words — "without measure" — can also be rendered "to he that doesn't have a statute"]. And where [do we see that] it (the commandment to circumcise) is called a statue? As it says (Ps. 105:10) "And He established it unto Jacob for a statute, to Israel for an everlasting covenant," because the Holy One, blessed be He, placed His name with Israel. And what is the name and the seal that He placed in them? It is Shaddai, the shin is placed on the nose, the dalet on the hand, and the yud on the circumcision. Therefore when he goes to his eternal home, there is an angel appointed in the Garden of Eden who takes him and brings him into the Garden of Eden. And regarding the heretics and sinners, The Holy One, “blessed be He, commands the angel to pull his foreskin (i.e. reverse his circumcision), as it says (Ps. 55:21) "He hath put forth his hands against them that were at peace with him; he has profaned his covenant." It happened that Tyrannus Rufus the wicked asked R. Aqiva, “Which works are the more beautiful? Those of the Holy One, blessed be He, or those of flesh and blood?” He said to him, “Those of flesh and blood are the more beautiful.” Tyrannus Rufus the wicked said to him, “Look at the heavens and the earth. Are you able to make anything like them?” R. Aqiva said to him, “Do not talk to me about something which is high above mortals, things over which they have no control, but about things which are usual among people.” He said to him, “Why do you circumcise?” He said to him, “I also knew that you were going to say this to me. I therefore anticipated [your question] when I said to you, ‘A work of flesh and blood is more beautiful than one of the Holy One, blessed be He.’ Bring me wheat spikes and white bread.”¹⁶Qeluska’ot, from the Gk.: kollikes (“long rolls of coarse bread”) or kollikia (the diminutive of kollikes). He said to him, “The former is the work of the Holy One, blessed be He, and the latter is the work of flesh and blood. Is not the latter more beautiful?” Tyrannus Rufus said to him, “Inasmuch as He finds pleasure in circumcision, why does no one emerge from his mother's belly circumcised?” R. Aqiva said to him, “And why does his umbilical cord come out on him? Does not his mother cut his umbilical cord? So why does he not come out circumcised? Because the Holy One, blessed be He, only gave Israel the commandments in order to purify them. Therefore, David said (in II Sam. 22:31 = Ps. 18:31), ‘the word of the Lord is pure.’”