Comentario citado sobre Isaías 10:3

According to Tanchuma Vayigash 5 Joseph said to them: “did you not say: ‘this one’s brother is dead?’ I shall call upon him now and he will come to me.” Thereupon he started calling: “Joseph, son of Yaakov, come to me!.” The brothers looked at each of the four corners of the room and nothing happened. Then Joseph said: “what are you looking for, I am your brother Joseph!” When the brothers heard that they lost consciousness. This is why they could not answer him. Rabbi Yochanan used this experience of Joseph’s brothers to exclaim “woe to us on the day of our death, woe to us when we will be called upon to answer for our sins.” If the brothers were so stricken when they heard Joseph reveal himself to his them, how much more will we be frightened when we stand before G’d to be judged! This is what is meant by the verse in Isaiah 10,3: “What will you do on the day of punishment, when the calamity comes from afar?” Another verse on the same theme is found in Maleachi 3,2: “But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can hold out when he appears?”

And our Sages said (Bereishit Rabbah 93:11) that from this state of bewilderment, a lesson can be derived about the Day of Judgment, as Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah said, “Woe to us from the Day of Judgment, woe to us from the Day of Rebuke!” For if Joseph’s brothers could not answer him when he merely said I am Joseph, how much more so when the Holy One, Blessed be He, stands in judgment, as it is said, And what will you do on the day of reckoning, etc. (Isaiah 10:3). For the brothers thought that Joseph was reminding them of their sin in the way that was explained, so what will a person do on the day of reckoning when their dwelling place, their business dealings, and their interactions will be examined, and He makes the hand of every man sign, saying “Look at your ways, what have you done.” And Rabbi Elazar’s opinion is that the Torah wrote for us that his brothers were bewildered so that the wise person would take to heart the trembling of the Day of Judgment, and learn a fortiori [all the more so] from Joseph’s brothers.

... And 'that which I see' is that the understanding of the verse is certainly that God visits the iniquity of the parents even upon righteous children. And such was the faith of our fathers; and so did the Sages, may their memory be blessed, say - "A righteous one who has bad befall him is a righteous one that is the child of an evildoer!" And it is something to which [our] senses testify, that the father gives over to his child quite a few good and bad things. And perforce his ways and deeds bring good or bad to his offspring after him. And this phenomenon is one of the secrets of hidden providence in all of the events that happen in the world. 'And God did that they should fear before Him' - as every father loves his offspring; and the worry, lest his sins bring woes also to his children, stops him from always 'following his willful heart,' to one extent or another. And even if it does not stop him, behold those that see his children tormented because of his iniquity will cry out bitterly about him, and that man will 'become a parable and a byword.' And many 'will hear and fear and not do like his acts'... And behold, that which I said that the matter of the visiting of the iniquity of the fathers upon the children is something to which our senses testify, etc., is similar to that which Ralbag explained - that the punishment of the parents continues to the children by happenstance, in the way of "Our fathers sinned and are no more; and we must bear their guilt." And I also know that the understanding of the expression, "visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children," is not that the punishment should continue to the children by happenstance, but rather that God punishes the children with a clear intention - as in (Exodus 32:34), "and I will visit their sins upon them"; (Hosea 4:9) "and I will visit its ways upon it." Likewise, the content of the word, "visit," is a directed punishment and not one by happenstance - as in (Hosea 9:7), "The days of visiting have come, the days of repayment have come"; (Isaiah 10:3), "And what will you do on the day of visiting." Nevertheless, this is the way of the Torah, to describe to us the the bad and the good as if they intentionally came down from Above as reward and punishment; even if they come about naturally, according to the way of the world. As there truly is nothing in the world that is by happenstance. For everything is the result of His causes, and everything is an outgrowth of the First Cause (see Kuzari 5:9). And just like God inscribed it into the laws of nature that the iniquities of the father bring bad to his offspring after him to threaten people, and just like the Torah said that the Lord is a jealous God, and vengeful and angry to threaten the Children of Israel; so too did it also say that He visits the iniquity of the parents upon the children - as if He did this by way of vengeance and fury - even though the thing happens naturally and is not revenge, God forbid. Rather, it is all for the good of people...