Musar su Isaia 50:78

We have set forth a little of the eminence of a man who is habituated to praying with a minyan, and the great increase of his mitzvoth and merits. The major thing here is that this mitzvah be a steady one, and not one that he slackens in. But if sometimes he performs it and sometimes slackens in it, G-d forbid, then he is in the class of (Vayikra 26:21): "But if you walk with Me by chance, etc." (see Rashi there). And thus have our sages of blessed memory said (Berachoth 6b), that when a man is accustomed to come to the house of study, and once does not come, the Holy One Blessed be He "inquires" after him as to why he has not come. And this is intimated in (Isaiah 50:10): "Who among you who fears the L-rd — who listens to the voice of His servant — has walked in the darkness, where it is not light for him?" (If he had gone to perform a mitzvah, it would have been light for him, but having gone on a mundane errand, it was not light for him) (Ibid.): "Let him trust in the name of the L-rd." Why has this befallen him" Because he should have trusted in the name of the L-rd and did not. R. Yochanan said; "When the Holy One Blessed be He comes to the synagogue and does not find ten men there, He becomes angry, viz. (Ibid. 2): 'Why, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there no response?'" The intent is that even if a man were presented with an opportunity for profit at the time of his going to the synagogue, he should not pay heed to it, but trust in the name of the L-rd that what was set aside for him by Heaven will not be detracted from him. And, indeed, very often this is a test from Heaven for him. As our sages of blessed memory have said: "There is no man who is not subjected to tests. A rich man is tested; a poor man is tested, etc." And when a man reflects upon this, he sees this in his experience. He may sometimes stand a whole day in his shop and see very few customers, and when the time for the minchah prayer arrives [or on Sabbath eve before sunset], new customers come, whom he had never seen before, and beg him to sell to them — and all this, as a test, the Holy One Blessed be He testing him to see if his [Divine] service is dear to him [to be performed] with all of his heart and all of his soul.

We have set forth a little of the eminence of a man who is habituated to praying with a minyan, and the great increase of his mitzvoth and merits. The major thing here is that this mitzvah be a steady one, and not one that he slackens in. But if sometimes he performs it and sometimes slackens in it, G-d forbid, then he is in the class of (Vayikra 26:21): "But if you walk with Me by chance, etc." (see Rashi there). And thus have our sages of blessed memory said (Berachoth 6b), that when a man is accustomed to come to the house of study, and once does not come, the Holy One Blessed be He "inquires" after him as to why he has not come. And this is intimated in (Isaiah 50:10): "Who among you who fears the L-rd — who listens to the voice of His servant — has walked in the darkness, where it is not light for him?" (If he had gone to perform a mitzvah, it would have been light for him, but having gone on a mundane errand, it was not light for him) (Ibid.): "Let him trust in the name of the L-rd." Why has this befallen him" Because he should have trusted in the name of the L-rd and did not. R. Yochanan said; "When the Holy One Blessed be He comes to the synagogue and does not find ten men there, He becomes angry, viz. (Ibid. 2): 'Why, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there no response?'" The intent is that even if a man were presented with an opportunity for profit at the time of his going to the synagogue, he should not pay heed to it, but trust in the name of the L-rd that what was set aside for him by Heaven will not be detracted from him. And, indeed, very often this is a test from Heaven for him. As our sages of blessed memory have said: "There is no man who is not subjected to tests. A rich man is tested; a poor man is tested, etc." And when a man reflects upon this, he sees this in his experience. He may sometimes stand a whole day in his shop and see very few customers, and when the time for the minchah prayer arrives [or on Sabbath eve before sunset], new customers come, whom he had never seen before, and beg him to sell to them — and all this, as a test, the Holy One Blessed be He testing him to see if his [Divine] service is dear to him [to be performed] with all of his heart and all of his soul.

To what may this be compared? To a groom who is being brought by his groomsmen to the marriage canopy, and, on the way, is accosted by some empty fellows who bespatter him with mud and mire from the soles of his feet until his head. When the groomsmen shout at them: "Empty ones, where did you get so much filth?" they show all [who are assembled there] that the groom is one of their companions and that he himself prepared all the mud and mire. So is it, exactly, in our instance. A man himself, through the filth of his sins, creates this revolting, unclean vestment, and, perforce, dons it and cannot rid himself of it, since he himself prepared it. As Scripture states (Isaiah 50:11): "Walk in the flame of your fire and in the brands that you have kindled. By My hand has this come to you." And Chazal have said, similarly (Avodah Zarah 20b): "Let a man not think [lewd thoughts] in the daytime and come to uncleanliness at night." They have hereby taught us that if he had not first put the thought into his mind, the spirits of uncleanliness could not have cleaved to him and defiled him.

Even though most kings' occupation and speech is in matters of grand accomplishments and pleasures and David who was also a king, would seem to be embarrassed to speak words of Torah and ethics while in their company instead of great feats and pleasures like them. Nevertheless, he did not care at all. His heart was not enticed for these vanities after he had already attained the truth. Rather, he states explicitly: "I will speak of Your testimonies before kings, and will not be ashamed". Likewise Isaiah says: "I have set My face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed" (Isaiah 50:7).

Behold, Shlomo repeatedly exhorted many times on this in seeing the evil of laziness and the greatness of the harm resulting from it. He said "a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. Then shall your poverty come as a traveler" (Mishlei 24:33). For behold, even though the lazy person is not doing evil actively, nevertheless he brings evil on himself through his very inactivity.

"nettles had covered the face of it" - since he did not labor sufficiently in the Torah, he sits in judgment and declares the pure, unclean and the impure, clean, thus breaching the fence set up by the Torah Sages. What is his punishment? Shlomo revealed it: "one who breaches a fence will be bitten by a snake" (Kohelet 10:8).

He who believes in God with a perfect heart and trusts in Him with a strong trust, his trust will bring him to the point where he will never fear man or evil circumstance and he will never serve a man in order to please him and he will never place his hope in man, and he will never agree with people in a matter that is contrary to the Service of the Creator, may He be Blessed, and none of their affairs will frighten him and he will not fear their quarrels and if he rebukes them will not worry about their pride and if he finds it necessary to shame them he will not be shy before them, and he will not make their falsehood beautiful or acceptable as the Prophet said : "For the Lord God will help me, therefore, am I not confounded, therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed" (Is. 50:7).

But, here too one needs to discern and make distinctions, for all this was said regarding the mitzvot themselves which we are completely obligated in. In those one should "set his face like flint" (Isaiah 50:7).

However, one must know of another practice that facilitates the acceptance of one’s prayers, namely, praying with the congregation. Thus the continuation of that same passage of the Zohar (ibid. 196a) discusses a passage from Berachos (6b). The Gemara reads: Whoever is accustomed to come to the synagogue to prayer with the congregation every day and then fails to come one time, the Holy One Blessed is He asks after him, “Who is there among you that fears Hashem … that went into darkness and has no illumination?” (Yeshayahu 50:10). If he went for the sake of a mitzvah — then he has illumination; but if he went for something discretionary — then he has no illumination. It is not clear from this passage why the Holy One Blessed is He uses the expression, “that went into darkness and has no illumination.” But the explanation, according to the Zohar, is as follows: As long as we remain in this bitter exile, on account of our sins, shells of impurity separate between us and Heaven. Even though the windows of Heaven are open, nevertheless these shells intervene and create a barrier. However, three times daily they fly off to the Mountains of Darkness to their meeting place to hold a gathering of the forces of impurity including all types of abominable beings. At those times because they do not darken and intervene and the light is able to shine and sparkle through the windows.