Musar su Giobbe 19:35

Now we will explain the principles of repentance. The first principle is regret: His heart should understand that leaving God is bad and bitter; and he should place into his heart that there is punishment, vengeance and repayment for iniquity, as it is stated (Deuteronomy 32:35), "To be My vengeance and repayment." And it is stated (Job 19:29), "Be in fear of the sword, for [your] fury is iniquity worthy of the sword." And he should regret his bad deeds and say in his heart, "What have I done? How did I not have fear of God in front of my eyes, and did not become afraid from the rebukes of iniquity and from the harsh judgments? For there are many aches [waiting] for the evildoer. I did not pity my body; and for a moment of pleasure, my eyes did not pity its being destroyed. I became like a man who robs and extorts, eats and is satiated; but who knows that after his eating and his drinking, the judge will grind his teeth with gravel - like the matter that is stated (Proverbs 20:17), 'but later his mouth will be filled with gravel.' And worse than this, I was cruel to the dear soul and I rendered it impure with the idols of my impulse. And what did it gain from all of its acquisitions, if they are bad in the eyes of its Master? And how did I trade a passing world for a world that exists for ever and ever? How have I become similar to animals? As I have gone after my impulse like a horse, like a mule that does not understand. And I have strayed from the way of the intellect. And behold the Creator blew a living soul into my nose - a wise heart and the benefit of intellect - in order to recognize Him and fear Him and to govern over the body and all of its actions, like it governs over the other animals that do not speak, because it is precious in His eyes. And though I was created like this, it has become the opposite of this in me. Why am I alive? It is like the matter that is stated (Proverbs 21:16), 'A man who strays from the path of the intellect will rest in the company of ghosts.' Moreover I have not [even] fulfilled the precept of the animal. Rather I have been lower than that. For the ox knows its master and the donkey the trough of its owner; whereas I have not known and not reflected. And I have sent my soul to be free from its master. So I have tasted my nectar, but forgotten my end. And I have stolen and extorted and trampled upon the indigent. I have not remembered the day of death, upon which nothing will remain before my soul besides my corpse and my dirt." And this matter that we have explained is that which Jeremiah, peace be upon him, had spoken, "No one regrets his wickedness and says, 'What have I done?'"

One can properly say that every man wise of heart and every rational man can understand the mysteries of the upper world from the illustrations of this lowly world¹⁰Altmann, ibid., p. 18 in discussing the Delphic Maxim, "Know Thyself", quotes from the Zohar Hadash, where there is a coupling together of knowing oneself and knowing one’s Lord, and makes the following comment: "The text continues: "And to make himself aware who he is"—this is the question we met twice in Moses de Leon—"and how he was created; whence he comes and whither he goes"—quoting the well-known passage in Abot 3, 1 which reflects Gnostic influence, as S. Lieberman has shown (95) "and how his body has been arranged (tiqquna de-gufa he’akh ittaqen)!—This reflects a philosophical motif which will be more fully discussed below (pp. 23, 25, 27): from the arrangement of his body man can infer the wisdom of his Maker. The term "tiqquna" used in our passage has a precedent in, for example, Samuel ben Nissim Masnut’s Ma’yan Ganim (twelfth century), where the meaning of Job 19:26, "From my flesh I behold God", is explained: "From the formation of my limbs and from the arrangement of my body (we-taqqanat gufi)—contemplating them—I behold God" (ed. Buber, 61)." He also observes, ibid., p. 24-25, "Abraham bar Hiyya closely follows Bahya in interpreting Job 19:26 to mean that "from the formation of your body (literally, ‘flesh’) and the arrangement of your limbs you can see and understand the wisdom of your Creator." This theme becomes a popular topic in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Samuel ben Nissim Masnut, who lived in twelfth-century Aleppo, quotes Job 19:26 as meaning to say that "From the formation of my limbs and from the arrangement of my body—contemplating them—I behold God (that is, the wonders of the Creator) ; for by seeing the created, man knows the wonders of the Creator, in the way in which it is said, ‘The heavens declare …’ (Ps. 19:2), which the Targum renders, ‘Those who contemplate the heaven tell the glory of the Lord.’ " . For we find that most matters of this lowly world are similar to the matters of the world above, just as we know that the forms of this world are contained in the same principle¹¹An allusion to prime matter which is a substratum. . Just as we see that the forms of a tree’s branches, flowers, and blossoms are found mainly under the earth, and even though they cannot be seen and cannot be found except through reason, we know that they are there. For an apple will not grow on a nut-bearing tree, nor will almonds grow on it, for that is not found in its root. Only that which is found in its root can come forth in its branches. There can come forth only nuts from a nut-bearing tree. If there were such a power in the roots of the tree, such a power that would bring forth apples or almonds, it would be evident in its fruit. For as they came up from the earth, there would be seen in them the forms of nuts. For there cannot grow forth from the branches anything except that which is found in the roots. Thus, we can understand that everything which is in this world comes from the strength of the other world, for the upper world is like a root¹²A Platonic notion that the idea comes first. In Midrashic thought, Torah, the idea comes first, then God’s throne of glory, then Israel, then Olam Ha’ba, the future eternity.... . This world is like branches, and therefore, through the mysteries of the lowly world, we can understand the secrets of the upper world.

Adam ruined this state of affairs by interfering with the סוד היין, the mystical properties of the grapes. [I suppose that this is based on the tree of knowledge having been a grape bearing tree. Ed.] He followed an evil path by squeezing a cluster of grapes (and consuming its juice). Had he not done so, that "wine" would have remained in the state of what our sages call the יין המשומר בענביו, "the wine that remained preserved within its grapes (compare Berachot 34).” In that event he would have been like "the cistern that does not lose a single drop” [hyperbole for total recall, see Avot 2,11. Ed.]. He would have retained all the holiness that had been his when he was created. When Adam sinned, he did not only lose some of his former glory, fall from a "high roof" (to the ground), but he fell into a "very deep pit" (below the ground). This was a בור רק, an empty pit [allusion to the pit Joseph had been thrown in. Genesis 37,24], since it did not even contain the ingredients for the survival of the species. The species was wiped out at the time of the deluge as a direct consequence of Adam having polluted that "drop of sacred semen," and made it "evil smelling." Due to G–d's personal intervention, Noach was saved seeing he was righteous, and the righteous are the foundation of the universe. The present universe was founded by him as a result.

Rabbi Yaakov said that such a person diminishes G–d's image in the world His statement presupposes that Torah is the imprint of G–d, and that Israel is the imprint of the Torah. The scriptural allusion to this state of affairs is: ומבשרי אחזה אלוקה, "but I would behold G–d while still in my flesh" (Job 19,26).

Rabbi Yochanan looks at the chain reaction which follows performance of the first מצוה and deems it as sufficient to attract blessings from G–d. He presumably took his cue from Job 33,23: אם יש עליו מלאך מליץ אחד מני אלף להגיד לאקדם ישרו, "If he has a representative (angel), one advocate against a thousand, to declare the man's uprightness." In line with the tradition that every מצוה performed results in the creation of a "good" angel, Rabbi Yochanan feels that such an advocate is already something substantive. When the Torah speaks about the curse in 11,28, it makes certain that the words לא תשמעון are followed immediately by the words וסרתם מן הדרך, "you depart from the path," a reference to action. While G–d grants blessing for a good intention even when it could not be translated into action, He does not curse for the mere failure to listen to the commandments, to Torah lectures. Only once such non-study and non-preparedness to listen results in violation of the commandments will the punishment take into account the attitude displayed which led to the violation. Midrash Shmuel on Avot 3,1 "then you will not commit a sin," points out that Akavyah does not speak about the sin coming to you but about you coming to the sin. With the right attitude you can stop yourself even when the sin has come quite close to you. The Torah uses the word ראה in the singular, instead of ראו, plural which would have matched the rest of the verse, in order to underline the importance of the performance of even a single commandment.

There are numerous references to this in our Midrashic literature. Shemot Rabbah 30,11, quoting Job 23,3-4, "would that I could find Him, reach His dwelling place, I would set out my case, משפט, before Him, fill my mouth with arguments," explains this in the following parable. A drunken prison guard rebelled, opened the gates to let the prisoners escape, cursed the picture of the ruler, and demanded to see the king, threatening that he would tell the king to his face what he thought true justice should be. He even went as far as stoning the king's image. He was shown the ruler sitting on a platform, dispensing punishment to a lady of aristocratic bearing, he observed the king handing down a verdict against his provincial governor, etc. At that point the palace guard became frightened and apologised, explaining that his drunken stupor had been the reason for his outrageous conduct, which included not recognising his king when he saw him. Similarly Job 23,4. When Job cursed the day he was born (Job 3,3/4) he in fact cursed the angel in charge of who will be born when and under what mazzal. This angel is called לילה. Later on Job reflected how G–d had punished Miriam for speaking out against Moses (Numbers 12,10); he further observed how G–d had punished Moses not allowing him to enter the Holy Land because he had struck the rock instead of merely speaking to it (Numbers 20,12). He also noted that G–d had blinded Isaac (for having loved the wicked Esau), see Genesis 27,1. He realised moreover that G–d had punished Abraham for having asked: "how do I know that I will inherit?" (Genesis 15,8) G–d had responded by telling Abraham that his descendants would be slaves in a foreign land for four hundred years before being liberated (Genesis 15,13). G–d had also קרב קיסין, struck at Jacob with a piece of wood, causing the latter to limp as a result of the nocturnal encounter with the שרו של עשו, the guardian angel of Esau, to use the words of the Midrash. When Job had reflected on all this, he begged G–d's forgiveness for having spoken out rebelliously, and he excused himself by having been drunk. This is why it says in Job 19,4: “ואף אמנם שגיתי, אתי תלין משוגתי,” If indeed I have erred, my error stays with me overnight." All of this, because he did not realise the power of דין. So far the Midrash.