Musar su Levitico 26:44

The fourteenth thing a man should remember is how a person tends to love one who is friendly towards him, as it is written : "As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man" (Prov. 27:19). All the more so, if a man sees that a king receives him with a friendly countenance and shows him that he loves him, how much will the man love him and praise him and extol him for this. All the more so are we obliged to love with all our hearts the Creator, Blessed be He, who has informed us that He loves us and has assured us that He will continue to love us in every generation. As it is said, "And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break My covenant with them" (Lev. 26:44).

G–d wanted him to wait a little after saying the word כארזים, "like cedars," so that it would be noticed that it was meant as a curse, not a pious wish. [The tone sign Tipcha, which is a tone sign that separates from what follows, is somewhat unexpectedly under the word ארזים, supports the thesis of the author. Ed.] It also hints at the "separation" of Israel from its roots, i.e. exile, and that is why the Talmud in Taanit says that Achiyah's curse, which did not envisage separation of the Jewish people from its homeland was more beneficial than Bileam's blessing. The South wind, which is capable of "dislocating" the cedar is a reference to Israel in exile, i.e. the cedar that has been "dislocated." The dislocation is for Israel's good however, enabling it to become refined, cleansed from sin. We see the curse as a coin with two sides, one of which contains a great blessing. All of this is predicted in the Torah's "reproofs," in Leviticus 26,44: "Yet, even then, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or spurn them, etc." This is the blessing in disguise that we have talked about.

There is one strategy that can save a person from even a trace of conceit when he propounds his Torah insights in public. That is, by recalling that even if he is by far the greatest scholar of his generation he is still not on the level of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai, yet Rabbi Shimon was exceedingly humble. Thus it is related in the Zohar on Parashas Shemos (14a): Rabbi Chiyya used to go to the masters of the Mishnah in order to learn from them. When he went to the house of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai he saw that it was divided by a partition. Rabbi Chiyya was surprised and said to himself, “I will listen from outside.” He heard Rabbi Shimon saying, “[It is written,] ‘Flee, my beloved, and resemble a deer, etc.’ (Shir HaShirim 8:14). There is no other creature that behaves like the deer. When it flees it goes a short distance and then turns its head to look back at the place from which it fled. Then all along the way it turns its head back constantly. “This is what Israel was saying in this verse, ‘Master of the Universe! If we cause you to abandon us, may it be Your will to flee in the manner of the deer by continually looking back towards the place where you left us! This is also the manner of the creature called the ‘fawn of the harts.’ For this reason Shlomo said, ‘Resemble a deer or a fawn of the harts.’ This is what is stated in the verse, ‘And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies I will not revile them nor will I utterly reject them to destroy them, etc.’ (Vayikra 26:44).”