Musar על ישעיהו 2:23

[Continuation of the Zohar:] וגללו את האבן. The combined forces of the emanations will roll away the heavy stone, the harsh decree from the mouth of the well, i.e. the lowest of the emanations מלכות, so that the Torah in the באר will be able to sustain us during the remainder of the exile and our flocks (people) will be watered, (sustained by Torah). At the end of this long "day," G–d will lead us back to ארץ ישראל. When Bileam speaks about the אחרית הימים, "the end of days" during which Israel is described as revenging itself on Moab (Numers 24,14), he refers to the period during which Israel has suffered in exile and at the end of which G–d will take revenge on those nations who have mistreated Israel while the latter were in exile. The "day" which Jacob speaks about to the shepherds is an allusion to that אחרים הימים. Thus far the Zohar.

ואתחנן אל ה' בעת ההיא . Our פרשה begins by extolling the virtues of the Holy Land, i.e. the second of G–d's gifts to the Jewish people. The atmosphere of ארץ ישראל which our sages (Baba Batra 158) have described as contributing to one's knowledge and intelligence is a necessary step for someone who wishes to acquire the "crown" of Torah, i.e. become a true Torah scholar. We have it on the authority of Isaiah 2,3 that: כי מציון תצא תורה, ודבר ה' מירושלים, "Torah comes forth from Zion and the word of G–d from Jerusalem." Thence it proceeds to the Celestial counterpart of ארץ ישראל, also known as עולם הבא. We know that this is so from Isaiah 60,21: ועמך כולם צדיקים לעולם יירשו ארץ, "As to your people, they are all righteous and will inherit ארץ forever." This is the context in which the land of Israel is mentioned at the beginning of our portion. The middle and last sections of the portion deal with the subject of how the Torah was given to the Jewish people.

And this is the language of the holy Zohar (Parshath Tetzaveh) on the verse (Isaiah 2:22): "Leave off from the man asher neshamah be'apo, ki bameh nechshav hu." Here, the Holy One Blessed be He has commanded a man and warned him to guard himself against those men who have inclined their ways from the way of good to the way of evil and who have defiled themselves with that uncleanliness of the sitra achara ["the other side"]. And how shall a man know how to distinguish between one he should draw near to and one he should separate from? By his anger itself he can know that man and distinguish him [from the other]. If he guards his holy soul when his anger comes upon him, not to uproot it from its place and repose in its stead a foreign god — that is the man who is worthy, etc. And if he does not guard it, but uproots this celestial holiness from its place and reposes in its place the sitra achara ["the other side"], then certainly that is the man who rebels against his Master, and it is forbidden to draw near to him or to befriend him. And this is the intent of (Iyyov 18:4): 'Toref nafsho be'apo,' viz. He tears [toref] and uproots his soul because of his anger [be'apo] and reposes within himself a foreign god. And concerning this it is written: 'Leave off from the man asher neshamah be'apo" — whose soul [he tears] in his wrath [be'apo], whose soul he exchanges in his wrath [for a foreign god], ki bameh nechshav hu. With what [bameh] is that man to be distinguished? He is to be accounted a worshipper of idolatry [bamah, an altar to idolatry (like 'bameh'), etc.]"

If now we proceed to represent the qualities of the senses according to number, the result is that every sense has four qualities. We would attribute, firstly, to the sense of sight four, and a like number to the other senses, so that the sum would amount to twenty qualities for the five senses. Accordingly, we assign to the eye Pride, Meekness, Pudency, and Impudence.³Maimonides appears to me to have been familiar with this enumeration of good and evil qualities. Cf. Wolff (pp 6 and 20). Our reason for putting pride in connection with the sense of sight is clear, as has been remarked above, while treating of it; also because thou perceivest the haughty glance of the proud and boastful of spirit. The very reverse of that we behold in the lowly of spirit, that is, meekness. Scripture says with reference to the unduly lofty (Isa. ii. 11), "The lofty looks of men shall be humbled," and again (id. v. 15), "The eyes of the lofty shall be humbled," and so forth.

Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai in Sotah 4b compares an arrogant person to an idol worshiper. This exegesis is based on the Torah applying the word "abomination" to both of these types of individual. Rabbi Yehudah castigates haughtiness as being the equivalent of heresy of the first order. He quotes a verse from our portion. It is written: ורם לבבך ושכחת את ה' אלוקיך "When you become haughty you forget the Lord your G–d." Different sages in the Talmud heap more scorn on arrogant people, each one supplying scriptural proof. The common denominator for this universal condemnation of the haughty person is that, inasmuch as G–d is our Master and we are His servants, how could a servant arrogate to himself importance in the presence of his master?

Isaac said to Esau: "Take your gear, your quiver and your bow," i.e. tools of this world (27,3). Concerning the world of the future, it is written in Isaiah 2,4: וכתתו חרבותם לאתים, "They will beat their swords into plowshares," that such lethal tools will be eliminated. Isaac instructed Esau to commence his hunt in sanctity (performing a command of his father). He hinted that the delicacies he had in mind were of the kind that would be served to the righteous in the world to come (Baba Batra 75).