Comentario citado sobre Isaías 40:10

THEIR REWARD⁵⁶We have translated the Hebrew sachar as “reward” in the text of the mishna. Throughout the text of the commentary, and in other mishnayot, we found different renderings more appropriate. [Heb. matan sachar lit. “the gift of their reward”]. G-d will reward you for your deeds.⁵⁷A play on Isaiah 40:10, which will be quoted further on. You will often find that someone who serves an earthly king for some fixed wages will receive a much greater payment from the king than had been agreed upon if the king is especially pleased with his work (or for some other reason). Such payment is not, strictly speaking, a wage [Heb. sachar], because it is not the market value of such work. It would be more correct to refer to it as gift-wages, because a large part of it is a gift, but it is not entirely a gift, because some of it really is the earned wages. “The heavenly kingdom parallels the earthly one,” and these gift-wages are what is meant by matan sachar. For G-d will increase the gift given to a person with the pleasure He receives from his performance of the commandment.
This, in fact, is the meaning of the verse, “Behold! His⁵⁸The antecedent of “his” in each case is a person. wages are with Him, and his deed is before Him” (Isaiah 40:10). The word “behold” indicates something clear and known, as the wages are certainly with Him. In addition, “his deed is before Him,” for the actual deed is certainly before Him, and for that he will receive reward many times over, as above. So it seems to me.

In this verse Solomon told us something about the power of the tongue (speech), be it for good or for evil. If man employs the power of speech to speak words of Torah, to admonish people to live according to Torah and to thereby help Jewish society to acquire spiritual merits for themselves, then his reward is with him, and his works are a beacon shining before him.” [He will be recognized for his true worth. Ed.] (Isaiah 40,10). On the other hand, if he uses the power of speech to engage in slander, character assassination, and the like, his punishment will be served up to him and he will have to consume it to his being more than sated with it. We must therefore understand the beginning of this verse as applying to the dissemination of evil gossip and the like; and the end, i.e. the words “his mouth will be filled by the produce of his lips,” as referring to the reward in store for those who use their power of speech judiciously, providing spiritual merits for the society in which they live. This is also the meaning of another saying of Solomon in Proverbs 18,21 “Death and life are in the power of the tongue; those who love it will eat its fruit.” What the author is saying is that seeing the tongue controls death and life, if someone loves the tongue, i.e. is anxious to keep talking at all times, he should endeavour to choose subjects which are liable to enhance his life, i.e. speak words of wisdom, moral and ethical exhortation, etc. If he does so he will get to eat (as a reward) the fruit of the power of speech. Only in that case will people who are fond of talking increase their own merit in proportion to their frequent use of the tongue.
In the reverse case, i.e. someone who loves to talk but uses his tongue indiscriminately, so that he engages in gossiping and worse, as his punishment he will eat “the fruit of that punishment.” Considering all this it is important to be most circumspect in the use of one’s tongue. The Torah has shown us on several occasions that if someone abuses his power of speech and uses it negatively he will be afflicted with the disease of tzoraat. Our sages in Vayikra Rabbah 16,2 have found that the very words introducing the subject of the מצורע could be paraphrased as זאת תורת המוציא שם רע, “this is the law about people who indulge in character assassination.”

The Torah’s report of how the camp of the Israelites was positioned is very important even though it was altogether something which existed only for a very limited period. Even though we do not have a Temple nowadays, study of and familiarity with all these numbers and measurements is mandatory and people who take the trouble to familiarize themselves with these numbers are certain to receive a great reward. There is nothing in the Torah which is not worth studying regardless of whether one can appreciate the practical value of such knowledge (Berachot 62). The same applies to study of all the various animal offerings and the rules about who may eat what and where and when. Every person who makes study of these subjects his personal priority will be given credit as if he had personally offered the sacrifices whose laws he had studied. This is what the sages meant when they said in Menachot 110 that whoever busies himself with the rules of the burnt-offering is considered as if he personally had offered same, etc. [The actual wording in the Talmud is in regard to sin offerings. Ed.] This is also what the prophet Isaiah 40,10 had in mind when he said: “see, his reward is with Him, his recompense before Him.” The same applies to people who tell of the details of the Tabernacle, the Temple, etc. It is incumbent upon us to understand both the revealed and the hidden aspects of the details the Torah has revealed about all these materials and measurements of the Tabernacle. King David already mentioned this when he said (Psalms 48,13-14) ”walk around Zion, circle it, count its towers, take note of its ramparts; go through its citadels, that you may recount it to a future age.” The merit of doing what David suggested will help restore the Shechinah to our midst as we know from verse 15 immediately after the verses just quoted. David concludes by saying: “for G’d, He is our G’d forever, He will lead us evermore.”