Commentaire de citation sur Les Proverbes 25:17

“Command Aaron” [6:2]. King Solomon, of blessed memory, said. “Visit your neighbor’s house sparingly, lest he have his surfeit of you and loathe you” [Proverbs, 25:17]. The verse teaches us that the person should be careful to have friends and engage with them all the time. He should go to their homes sometimes, but should not go to their homes too often, even though the engagement with the friend is very good. It makes great peace between them. It is known that the one who can have good friends, that he can gather them to himself, he must have two good attributes. One is that he must be humble and not arrogant. When he is haughty, then all the people will separate themselves from him and hate him. The second one is that he should not be afraid of any person. However, in any event it is good to have many good friends. King Solomon also warns the people that they should not always go to their friend’s house, since it will become repulsive because he goes to his house often. Just like honey is sweet, but when one eats too much, then it is unhealthy. Too much of the good things of the world is not good. Even the rain which is the life of the world; the whole world depends on the rain. When there is too much rain, it is very bad and it does much damage, as the verse says, “your neighbor’s house.” That is to say, do not go too often to the house of your best and most beloved friend. How much more so, a middling friend, you should not go to your friend’s house when he is eating, drinking, sleeping, or when he is working or engaged in business. The Midrash says, “visit sparingly.” Do not go too often to the Temple. Here one asks a question. It is written, “I enter Your house with burnt offerings” [Psalms, 66:13]. This means, I will come to the Temple often with sacrifices. The explanation is that you should not commit sins, that you will bring sacrifices for them. The Holy One does not desire your sins and also not your sacrifices. When it is written that one should come often to the Temple, this means that when a person committed sins with his thoughts, since a person cannot completely protect himself from sins that come unexpectedly. Therefore, he should come often with a burnt offering that applies to the thoughts of the person. However, the sin offering or guilt offering which come because of sins that the person does through deeds; he steals or engages in illicit sexual relations. God does not desire these sacrifices. It is known that thoughts occur primarily at night. Therefore, the Torah wrote in this portion.¹Bahya, Tsav, Introduction.

הוקר רגלך מבית רעך פן ישבעך וישנאך, “Visit your neighbor's house sparingly, otherwise he will become fed up with you and hate you” (Proverbs 25,17).

A Midrashic approach to Proverbs 25,17 (based on Rashi, Chagigah 7): On the one hand Solomon wrote הוקר רגלך מבית רעך, “visit your neighbor's house sparingly;” on the other hand David wrote in Psalms 66,13 :אבא ביתך בעולות, “I enter Your house with burnt-offerings.” The apparent contradiction is resolved by applying the “house” mentioned in Proverbs to the occasions when one has to offer sin-offerings or guilt-offerings. One should strive to minimize the need for such visits to the Temple. On the other hand, the verse in Psalms refers to the occasions when one approaches G’d bearing burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, i.e. voluntary gifts, not offerings in order to obtain atonement and forgiveness. The message of this Midrash is that both Solomon and David refer to the Holy Temple as “the house of your friend.” We find a similar comment by our sages when they said that the Israelites are called “friends” i.e. ריעים of the Lord, citing such verses as Psalms 122,8 למען אחי ורעי, “for the sake of my kin and friends...for the sake of the house of the Lord.” Solomon also says of G’d: רעך ורע אביך אל תעזוב, “do not abandon your friend or the friend of your father” (Proverbs 27,10), and in Song of Songs he speaks of זה דודי וזה רעי, “this is my beloved, and this is my friend” (Song of Songs 5,16). The thought behind all these verses is that a person should be careful not to sin so that he does not have to abuse his friendship with the Lord by entering His house too frequently in order to offer sin-offerings. It is best not to have to offer such offerings altogether.
We find that the prophet Samuel (Samuel I 16,22) expresses similar sentiments when he says: “it is better to listen to G’d’s commandments (observe them) than to offer meat-offerings to the Lord (in the Temple).” The reference was to the animals captured from the Amalekites. which the people and Saul offered to G’d as sacrifices, consuming their meat. When Solomon counseled not to be a frequent visitor in one’s friend’s house he referred to the House of G’d who should remain one’s “friend.” When Solomon wrote in Proverbs 21,27 that the meat-offerings of the wicked are an abomination, he meant that at the time when a wicked person brings an offering to G’d, G’d automatically thinks of his sins turning the entire procedure into an abomination. However, when the offerings are not connected to sin but are brought by righteous people and this is reflected in the kind of animals being offered, David tells us that such offerings are welcome, i.e. אבא ביתך בעולות, “let me enter Your house with burnt-offerings.” One of the temptations we must resist is taking advantage of having a “friend” in the house of G’d to whom we bring זבח i.e. meat-offerings, as if it were something “He” needs, until “He gets fed up” with these frequent unwelcome intrusions by us. When David speaks about bringing burnt-offerings to the Temple, he means offerings which are to atone for sins not actually committed but contemplated. Such sinful thoughts occur mostly at night, and they are difficult for a person to be saved from as there are no social restrictions to man thinking sinful thoughts. He is not found out and his image with his peers is not affected by what he merely thinks about. This is one of the reasons that the time for bringing such an offering is the night when the sin is still fresh and can be forgiven immediately.

I am sated with the burnt-offerings of rams This is similar to: “Lest he have too much of you and hate you,” (Proverbs 25:18).

ואם תלכו עמי קרי — Our Rabbis said (Sifra, Bechukotai, Chapter 5 5): this word signifies “irregularly”, “by chance” (מקרה), which is a thing that happens only occasionally; thus this means: if you will follow the commandments irregularly. Menachem explains it as an expression for “refraining”. Similar is, (Proverbs 25:17) “Refrain (הוקר) thy foot [from thy neighbour’s house]”; (Proverbs 17:27) “of a refraining (יקר) spirit”. This meaning approximates to the translation given by Onkelos which is a term denoting “stubbornness” (קושי) — that they harden their hearts so as to refrain from coming near unto Me.