Musar su Isaia 64:63

Nachmanides has this to say on the expression of לכבוד ולתפארת, in 28,2: "As far as the mystical dimension of these instructions, i. e. ועל דרך האמת, is concerned: They should make prestigious garments for Aaron so that he could perform service in them to the G–d who represents true glory and splendour and who dwells amongst the Israelites. The might and glory of the Jewish people is their G–d, as we know from Psalms 89,18: כי תפארת עוזמו אתה, "For You are their strength in which they glory." We also know this from Isaiah 64,10 בית קדשנו ותפארתנו אשר הללוך אבותינו, "Our Holy Temple and the site of our glory where our forefathers praised You." The word קדשנו refers to our כבוד, honour, the word תפארתנו to the glory of Israel. We also have a verse in Psalms 96,6: עוז ותפארת במקדשו, "Strength and glory in His Sanctuary." Isaiah 60,13 speaks of לפאר מקום מקדשי ומקום רגלי אכבד, "To glorify the site of My Sanctuary and the place where My feet rest." The prophet evidently describes that the site of the Temple is to reflect G–d's splendour and honour. G–d is glorified through Israel viz: Isaiah 49,3: ישראל אשר בך אתפאר, "I glory in you Israel."

The worst of all of them is for one to not be serving at all for the sake of divine service, but rather in order to deceive others and to gain money or honor. On this type of person it was said: "it would have been better had his placenta turned over his face (died in the womb)" (Yerushalmi Berachot 1:5). On such a person, the prophet said: "we are all as one unclean, and all our righteous deeds as like a discarded garment" (Yeshaya 64:5).

Let us now return to our subject. Anyone who sleeps with a Gentile woman has desecrated the holy covenant through introducing forces of impurity. This is the deeper meaning of ובעל בת אל נכר, "who has slept with the daughter of an [adherent] of an alien religion" (Malachi 2,11). In practice this means, that the sinner has put his own G–d and other deities on the same footing. The same applies concerning sins committed with other organs. Repentance needs to commence with confession, remorse, etc. We must appreciate the statement in Sanhedrin 37 that גלות מכפרת עון, "exile achieves atonement for sins committed." This means that the sinner should move to a place where he is not known. By cutting himself off from his home, he is considered as having imposed upon himself the penalty of כרת הנפש, a penalty which fits the crime of his נפש having attached himself to someone totally alien. We understand then why exile can cure the disease for which it has been decreed. By imposing upon his body the kind of penalty that really should have been inflicted on his soul, he demonstrates that his repentance is based on love for G–d. Such repentance is accepted far more readily than the repentance of a person who has to be disciplined by G–d against his will. This is what our sages meant when they said: "hail to the person who suffers afflictions, and suppresses his strength, and does not complain against the attribute of Justice at the time of suffering afflictions." If Job had done so at the time he was subjected to his afflictions he would have risen to a higher moral level. If Job had not challenged the ways of G–d when he suffered his afflictions we would have included his righteousness alongside that of the patriarchs in our daily prayers, i.e. אלוקי אברהם … אלוקי איוב (Torat Kohanim 18). Taanit 8a, interprets Isaiah 64,4, בהם עולם ונושע, "through them the world can be saved," to mean that those who enjoy their afflictions help bring redemption to the world.

Therefore, the deeper and more diligently he delves in his thoughts into recognizing the lowliness of the physical and its pleasures, the easier it will be for him to purify his thoughts and heart so that he does not turn at all to the evil inclination in anything whatsoever. Rather, his physical deeds will be as one forced and not otherwise.

However, just like we have divided purity of thought into two divisions, namely, the bodily actions and the actions of Divine service, so too the in-depth contemplation necessary to acquire purity in them divides into two divisions.

Even though generosity is a good quality, a person should be careful not to be a spendthrift in order to attain the desires of his heart, in all manner of food and drink or to give of his wealth to harlots, or to have expensive garments made, or to scatter his money in all sorts of schemes that do not lead to reverence of Heaven. A man who is generous should not scatter his funds for nothing or pursue desires which can only bring him all sorts of evil. But he should be very careful to be liberal with the deserving poor, to dress them, to feed them with the best, as it is written, "All the fat is the Lord's" (Lev. 3:16). His reward shall be that which is good and treasured, which "Neither hath the eye seen, save God, who worketh for him that waiteth for Him" (Is. 64:3).

Rabbi Yochanan said in the name of Rav: When the Holy One Blessed is He exits those worlds that He desires and enters Gan Eden together with the righteous, He pauses to see whether He hears the sound of Torah study. For it was taught: That sound is more pleasing to Him than all the songs and praises that are recited by the ministering angels On High, as it is written, “I descended into the Nut Garden to see, etc.” (Shir HaShirim 6:11). What is meant by “to see”? To observe those engaged in study. Rabbi Yitzchak asked, “Is Gan Eden then called the ‘Nut Garden’?” Rabbi Yochanan replied, “Yes, certainly Gan Eden is called the ‘Nut Garden.’ Just as a nut is sealed up from every side and is surrounded by many shells, so is Eden sealed up on every side and surrounded by numerous defenses so that it cannot be seen by any angel, saraf .. Chashmal and beheld by the prophets. Thus it is written, “No eye has seen it except for You, O God” (Yeshayahu 64:3). Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai said: One time I was standing before Rabbi Beroka and he said to me, “So shall I merit the level of the Nut Garden together with the pious of Israel.” But I did not understand what he meant until I heard from Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai that the Holy One Blessed is He refers to Gan Eden as the Nut Garden. Just as a nut is surrounded by many shells while the fruit is situated in the middle, so too Gan Eden — the garden is on the outside while Eden is on the inside.

Therefore, you must set your heart and all your mind on the Torah at all times. For in the Torah a man learns wisdom, proper conduct, humility, modesty, and all good deeds, and Heaven will provide him his necessities. And the Torah guards him and uplifts him and exalts him, as the Sages taught : Rabbi Meir said, "Everyone who occupies himself with the Torah for its own sake merits many things ; and not only this, but he is worthy of all the world. He is called friend, beloved … and it raises him and exalts him over all created things" (Aboth 6:1). And lo the fruit of the reward for this devotion to Torah is in this world, and in the world to come the reward is such that no eye has seen it but the eye of God (see Is. 64:3), and there is nothing greater than that reward in the world to come. They said in the Midrash (Ruth Rabbah 1:1 letter 2) : Rabbi asked Rabbi Bezalel, "What is the meaning of what is written in Hosea 2:1, 'For their mother had played the harlot' "? And he said to him, "When do the words of the Torah become like harlots? When those who study them shame them by their conduct. How would that be? A wise man sits and learns 'you shall not incline or wrest judgment' (Deut. 16:19), but he does in fact wrest judgment. He studies, 'You shall not be prejudiced in favor of the mighty,' but he does respect the presence of a wealthy or powerful person in court. 'You shall not take a bribe,' and he does take a bribe!"

Abraham did not offer wine, though Adam had his wine sieved by the angels while he was still in גן עדן, is that the Talmud describes that heavenly wine as something no one on earth has ever seen the like of, something משומר בענביו, "preserved within its grapes," i.e. it exists as yet only in the potential. (Berachot 34).