Mussar su Isaia 5:2

Furthermore, we know and understand that the Creator did not create the world for the sake of the wicked or those who anger Him, for reason cannot lead us to such a conclusion, but He created it for the sake of the pious, who acknowledge His divinity and serve Him properly. His intent was only to create the pious, but the wicked were created by virtue of the nature of creation. Just as a piece of fruit has a peel³This metaphor seems to be Kabbalistic, especially the use of "peel" for "evil."²This is a possible allusion to a favorite theme in Jewish Mysticism. "Evil is the Kelipah, the ‘bark’ of the cosmic tree or ‘The shell of the nut’ ". Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (New York: Schocken, 1946), p. 239. and that which is choice is what is within the peel, so the pious are the fruit of the creation of the world and the wicked are the peel . Just as we see that the intent of the sower of the seed is to cause wheat alone to grow, but that the strength of the sprout brings forth evil weeds with the wheat⁴See Isaiah 5:2. and that with the rose come all sorts of thorns, thus it is the intent of the Creator to create the pious, but by the virtue of the nature of creation, the wicked are brought forth with the pious. There is nothing that is created that cannot be divided into three parts: the choice or the purest part, which is like the finest flour; the inferior part, which consists of offal and worthless parts, such as straw or rubbish, and there is the part in between⁵This refers to some kind of intermediary state between excellence and worthlessness.. Thus you find among human beings one part which is choice and pure, and these are the pious ones; they are like the fine flour or the choicest fruit. And then there is the less worthy and the rejected, and they are the wicked that are like the rubbish or straw. Therefore, we can say that the world was not created for the sake of the wicked, but for the sake of the pious. Just as in the case of a tree, its master did not plant it and labor for the sake of the peel, but for the sake of the choicest fruit that it will yield.⁶This paragraph sounds Kabbalistic, not only in the imagery but also in the idea that evil is a necessary part in the creation of the world. Theodore Friedman in his review of Ephraim E. Urbach’s The Sages—Their Concepts and Beliefs (Hebrew) Jerusalem, Magnes: 1969, in Judaism Vol. 21:4, p. 499 deals with the famous controversy between the Schools of Shammai and Hillel, whether or not it would have been better for man never to have been born (Eruvin 13b). Urbach said that the question that exercised the two Schools was whether or not it would have been better for [the wicked] never to have been born. Friedman feels "unconvinced" that such is the plain meaning of the text. It is interesting to observe that the text which Urbach uses (p. 226) taken from the Ethics of the Fathers VI: 11 "Whatsoever the Holy One, blessed be He, created in His world, He created it only for His glory", as it is written, Everything that is called by my name and that I have created, I have formed it, yea, I have made it (Isaiah 43:7) contains the very same verse which was cited by our author in the beginning of this chapter. See p. 10, lines 21-22.

Note that even though we will not itemize all the illnesses of the soul and their remedies in this book - like a peddler with his wares - nevertheless just like we spoke about the illnesses of laziness and laxness because they are so central and someone struck by them is unable to take the first step in the world of divine service; so too must we speak about the sickness of individualism here. For it is a hopeless illness; and one struck by it, God forbid, descends into the pit. And to our sorrow, it has spread a great deal today among those lads and young men who lack sense and have hearts of stone. Every such lad or young man thinks of himself as an independent self - he knows how to act and he knows what is good and bad for himself. So there are times when the teacher or the father will tell him something and guide him, yet it appears in the eyes of such a student that he knows better. And because of that, he looks at his teacher as a tyrant who is coming to force him to do something just because that's what [the teacher] wants. So the heart of the student is distanced from his rabbi through this - to the point that all of [the rabbi's] words, Torah and guidance will not [convince the student that the rabbi seeks his good]. So if the student does not hasten to expel this bad trait from his heart - to destroy it completely from within him to the point that nothing is left of it - his end will be bitter, God forbid: There is no hope for such a boy and no good virtue will come from him. And even the good things and good character traits planted into the hearts of all Jews will become corrupted, twisted and rotten in him; they will all turn to evil, God forbid. With his mind, he will actually learn the opposite [of what is intended], to call the bad, good; and the good, bad. He will use his traits for the bad - what we need to love, he will hate; and those things we need to distance, he will love and bring close. Also about him does the prophet lament (Isaiah 5:2), "he hoped it would yield good grapes; instead, it yielded bad grapes." The mind of a Jew and the good traits planted in him as a Jewish young man and that God had hoped would become good grapes - he made into bad grapes. Everything is corrupted and becomes poisonous grapes and bitter clusters.