Musar su Geremia 7:78

Modesty is indeed a good quality and is the opposite of arrogance. And he who possesses this quality has already turned away his soul from all sorts of evils, and he who has reached this honored lofty degree performs a precept and receives his reward according to the greatness of his humility. For Modesty is the root of Service to God, and a small deed done with Modesty is received by God, Blessed be He, a thousand times more readily than a great deed performed with arrogance. And thus did our Sages say: "The one who sacrifices much and the one who sacrifices little have the same merit, provided that the heart is directed to heaven" (Berakoth 5b Menahoth, 110:a). But a work done with arrogance is not welcomed by God, Blessed be He, for it is an abomination to His Spirit, as it is said: "Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord" (Proverbs 16:5). "And because of this he cries and is not answered, as it is said: "Yea, when ye make many prayers I will not hear" (Isaiah 1:15). And a man of arrogance may perform the precepts and they tear them to pieces before his eyes, as it is said: "Oh, that there were even one among you that would shut the doors (of the Temple so that the arrogant would not presume to serve Me!)" (Mal. 1:10). And when an arrogant person brings a sacrifice it is not received, as it is said: "Who hath required this at your hands, to trample My courts?" (Is. 1:12). And, it is said: "Add your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices and eat ye flesh" (Jer. 7:21). (That is to say. "Don't offer your burnt offerings to Me; I do not want them.")

And what really is modesty? It is humility and lowliness of the spirit, regarding oneself as nothing. And a man must feel this constantly — to be low in his own eyes, humble of soul, tender of heart, and broken in spirit. The root of modesty is that he shall consider, while he is at peace and quiet, healthy and rich, that the Creator, Blessed be He, has done much good to him, and that he is undeserving of all that God has given him. And he should think about the greatness of God and the exaltation of His glory, and should consider, "What am I? Am I not a small humble creature and I am in a lowly transitory world." And he should further think, "All the good deeds that I am able to do are nothing but a drop in the ocean in contrast with what I ought to do." And he must do all of his deeds for the honor of Heaven, and not to flatter any man, or for the sake of pleasure, but he must do everything for the sake of God's Great Name. This is the root of modesty

The concept of שלמות הבנין and the acquisition by Jacob of the merit of חסד של אמת converge into one overall concept. The word ארץ appears here three times, (verses 3-4-7) We also encounter the expression היכל השם three times in Jeremiah 7,4. The Sanctuary called היכל השם is situated in a sacred ארץ. In commenting on Isaiah 12,6: כי גדול בקרבך קדוש ישראל, "For The Holy One of Israel will be great in your midst," our sages state that G–d will not take up residence in the Jerusalem "above" until He has been able to do so in the Jerusalem "below." The plain meaning of that statement is that the Jerusalem "below" is the Sanctuary in the Holy Land, ארץ ישראל, the Temple whose speedy rebuilding we pine for every day. This Temple is on a site that corresponds to the Sanctuary in the Celestial Regions. The Sanctuary in the Celestial Regions in turn is the סוד, mystical dimension of the ארץ העליונה, the "Earth" of the upper regions, also known as ארץ חפץ. Chabakuk 2,20 says of that land: וה' בהיכל קדשו הס מפניו כל הארץ, "And the Lord is in His Sanctuary, be silent before Him all the earth!" The Sanctuary of G–d, היכל, discussed here is that of the attribute known as א-ד-נ-י, the numerical value of which equals 65, the same as the numerical value of the word היכל. These two words also have the same numerical value as the word הס in the verse from Chabakuk quoted. The היכל is the ארץ של ישראל סבא, the land of the founding father of the Jewish people, Israel, otherwise known as תפארת ישראל a mystical dimension of the Ineffable Name.

The sixth thought is that he should take it into his heart to fulfill what God has commanded him and to avoid all that He has warned him not to do. If a man desires that the Creator, may He be Exalted, should do that which he depends upon Him to do, then he must act according to the words of the Sages : "Make His will thy will in order that He shall do thy will as His will. Nullify your will before His will in order that He should nullify the will of others before your will" (Aboth 2:4). But he who trusts and depends on the Lord, may He be Exalted, and does not fulfill what He has commanded him — what a simpleton and fool is he! And of this it is said : "For what is the life of the flatterer, though he gets profit or gain, when God takes away his soul? Will God hear his cry?" (Job 27:8,9). And it says: "Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely and offer unto Baal and walk after other gods whom you have not known, and come and stand before Me in this house upon which My name is called?" (Jer. 7:9-10). And it says : "Has this house wherein My name is called become a den of robbers in your eyes?" (Ibid. : 11).

It is also good to cause bridegroom and bride to rejoice, as it is said, "The voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride" (Jer. 7:34), but one must be very careful not to amuse them with vulgar speech or jests for this type of rejoicing brings Divine Wrath. Nor should men and women mingle in the precept of causing bridegroom and bride to rejoice, for this is too frivlous. And even in mourning and during the Eulogy, the Sages said : "Let the men sit by themselves and the women by themselves! All the more is this true in rejoicings and we have learned 'Only to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God' (Micah 6:8), and "walking modestly" means — the funeral procession and bringing the bride under the Wedding Canopy" (Sukkah 49b).

Then there is one who does not listen and loses. That would be the children of Israel, for it is said : "Yet they hearkened not unto Me, nor inclined their ear" (Jer. 7:26). And what did they lose ? "Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword" (Jer. 15:2). And it is said in Isaiah : — "If ye be willing and obedient, Ye shall eat the good of the land" (Is. 1:19).

And the man of machloketh is, indeed, to be wondered at. If another would hurt his son a little, even unintentionally, he would vent his wrath upon him. How much more so if he hurt him intentionally and caused him to be bedridden. Even if he recovered, he [the father] would publicize him as a cruel man and he would not be quiet until he had repaid him in kind, and in his heart he would bear him eternal hatred because of this. Yet when he himself brings all this suffering upon his sons because of his [shaming of Torah scholars] (even, possibly, to the point of their dying, G-d forbid, as we wrote above in Chapter XV in the name of the Midrash, that even infants at the breast may be punished because of this sin of their fathers [See also Tanna d'bei Eliyahu 21]) — he himself does not pity them at all! To the contrary, it is in keeping with his trait [of contentiousness] to hint to the men of his household to abet him in his machloketh. As we find with Dathan and Aviram, that they went out and stood in front of their tents — they, their wives, their sons, and their little ones, as Scripture says (Jeremiah 7:18): "The sons gather the wood and the fathers light the fire." This is only because the yetzer hara blinds his eyes and transforms all the holes and pits before him into a straight path.

How excellent is the quality of repentance. Last night this one was separated from the Lord, the God of Israel, Blessed be He. As it is said, "But your iniquities have separated between you and your God" (Is. 59:2). He cried and he was not answered, as it is said, "Yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear" (Is. 1:15). And he fulfilled precepts and they were torn up before his face, as it is said, "Who hath required this at your hand, to trample my courts" (Is. 1:12), and, "Oh that there were even one among you that would shut the doors" Mal. 1:10), and, "Hold your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices and eat ye flesh" (Jer. 7:21). Yet today he is closely attached to the Divine Presence, as it is said, "But you, who hold fast to the Lord your God" (Deut. 4:4). He cries out and is answered at once, as it is said, "And it shall come to pass that, before they call, I will answer" (Is. 65:24). He fulfills the commandments and they are received with pleasure and with joy, as it is said, "For the Lord hath already accepted thy works" (Eccl. 9:7). Moreover, his commandments are desired, as it is said, "Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in days of old and in ancient years" (Mal. 3:4).