Musar su Proverbi 16:28

And the sixth section: The complainer - King Solomon, peace be upon him, said (Proverbs 18:8), “The words of the complainer are like mitlahamim; and they enter the innards of one’s belly.” Its explanation is that a complainer is a man whose way and whose nature is to always complain, get angry and find (movements) [pretexts] about this fellow, regarding his actions and his words - even though his fellow is innocent towards him, and did him no harm in anything. And he judges everything unfavorably, and not favorably; and anything inadvertent he makes volitional. And he surely makes himself like the oppressed and beaten, and as if the sin of his fellow is heavy upon him; whereas he is the hitter and the beater, as his words “enter the innards of one’s belly.” For the one who places complaints in front of his fellow when he did not touch him and only did good to him brings a storm to the heart. And behold he is like one who throws darts that “enter the innards of one’s belly.” The word mitlahamim is [spelled] inverted, [and is as if it were] mithalmim (they are beating); [and like the inversion of] simlah [and] salmah. And it is like the usage (in Proverbs 23:35), “they beat me (halamuni), but I was unaware.” And it is as if he was saying, “It is like the words of the complainer, they are beating me.” And his saying, “They are beating,” in the plural, is because the complainer includes [all] complainers - like (in Jeremiah 11:15), “the sacral flesh will pass away from you” (which is in singular, but refers to the many); [and] (Isaiah 45:8), “triumph sprout.”
King Solomon, peace be upon him, also said (Proverbs 16:28), “and a complainer separates his friend.” He means to say that he separates his friend and his companion from himself, as they cannot endure his friendship. And our Rabbis said (Derekh Eretz Zuta 9), “Do not proliferate complaints, so that you will not come to sin.” And many times, the complainer will be ungrateful for the good and will even consider it bad, so he will return the good with bad. And it is stated (Proverbs 17:13), “He who repays good with evil will not have evil leave his home.” And sometimes he will think about God’s kindnesses, that they are for vengeance and retribution - like that matter that is stated, (Deuteronomy 1:27), “You sulked in your tents and said, ‘It is because the Lord hates us that He brought us out, etc.’” Hence, distance yourself from the path of the complainers, for they have twisted their paths - anyone who walks in it will not know peace. Rather teach your tongue to judge favorably, and justice will be the girdle of your loins.

These are words of vanity. And when they come out into the atmosphere of the world the Samech Mem, who is called “a man of deceit” (Mishlei 16:28) and a “false tongue” (Mishlei 12:19), comes out to meet them. He summons his strength and goes out towards those words from the opening of the deep chasm and leaps towards them five hundred parsaos. He takes these words of falsehood and makes from them a firmament of vanity called “Chaos” and floats about that firmament, this “man of deceit,” six thousand parsaos at a time. Once that firmament is established the wanton wife, the wicked Lilis, goes out to meet them. She, too, goes along increasing in strength in that firmament. Then thousands and myriads of destroyers join with her and enter into partnership with her. In that firmament they are able to traverse the entire world in a moment. These evil troops of destroyers dress up as the troops of the nations of the world and fall upon Yisroel committing great slaughter.

To return to the main issue that Aaron, the man of חסד, rehabilitated original Adam and that the universe is built on חסד. Since the world was constructed during the seven days of Creation, which in turn paralleled the seven emanations employed in its construction, seven days of inauguration of the Tabernacle were required before it commenced functioning as a microcosm in the fullest sense of the word. The Zohar quotes Rabbi Yitzchak on Isaiah 30,26: "The light of the moon will equal the light of the sun in brilliance, and the brilliance of the light of the sun will be seven times greater than during the seven days of creation." Rabbi Yuda said that the prophet referred to the seven days during which the Tabernacle was inaugurated. The world had been plunged in darkness so that it might re-emerge bathed in light on the occasion of the inauguration of the Tabernacle. On that occasion the moon shone brilliantly as it had done before it was diminished so as not to embarass it at a time when the universe had been rehabilitated. Rabbi Yuda based himself on the verse: ונרגן מפריד אלוף, "A quarrelsome one alienates a friend" (Proverbs 16,28).

Remember that the creation of the universe proceeded under the parole of "truth," since the final letters in the words בראשית ברא אלוקים combine to make the word אמת. At the end of G–d's creative activities we again find this symbol for "truth" when we look at Genesis 1,31: “וירא אלוקים את וגו'.” The universe was created for the sake of man, i.e. אדם, who represents the Maaser, tithe of אמת. (The letter מ =40, being 10% of ת=400 and the letter ד in אדם being one tenth of the letter מ in the word אמת. The letter א in אמת, is of course, irreducible). The serpent was the first to introduce the lie into the universe by claiming that G–d had eaten from the tree of knowledge before being able to create the universe. Proverbs 16,28 describes the serpent when saying: "a quarrelsome one alienates his friend." By removing the first letter of the word אמת, all that you are left with is מת, "dead." When you remove the first letter from the word אדם, on the other hand, you are left with the word דם, blood. Anyone who is able to protest wrongdoing with a chance of success and fails to do so has blood inscribed on his head. Those were the people who, though they are described as observing the commandments of the Torah from א-ת, were not pious in the true sense of the word since they failed to admonish the other members of their society. Under such circumstances the letter מ which ought to symbolise a letter from the word for truth, i.e. אמת, symbolizes the word מות, death, instead. When the Talmud describes their piety in this manner, i.e. א-ת, it merely wants to draw our attention to the missing letter מ in those people's piety. Hence the Angel of Death had unrestricted control even over such Torah- observing people..

Not only is the דמות, likeness of G–d, diminished in the eyes of man, but it actually turns into the blood of death, ד"ם מות, since an additional letter מ which symbolizes the angel of death has become part of that דמות. All of this is the result of the שפע having been redirected to the חצונים, the unworthy recipients. At that point we reach the situation described by Solomon in Proverbs 16,28: ונגן מפריד אלוף, “the quarrelsome one alienates the “אלף.” When the letter א is detached from the word אדם, only דם, blood is left, and Eve surrounded herself with four times ות, and one מ in the center, as we have already pointed out. All this is due to the fact that semen originates in the brain, the area from which our thoughts originate; not using it makes its source dry up. On the other hand, he who uses his semen constructively thereby enhances the צלם and דמות of G–d, provided his intention is to do so as part of his service of the Lord to sire children who will serve the Lord. When man acts in this way he becomes the מרכבה, the carrier of G–d's Presence.

I mentioned earlier that on account of Adam’s sin the letter alef was exchanged for an ayin in the phrase, “tunics of leather,” which should have read, “tunics of light,” with an alef. Therefore it states, “The complainer [i.e., the serpent] alienates the Leader [aluf]” (Mishlei 16:28), as is explained in a number of Kabbalistic works (Shelah, Part I, Ma’amar Beis David, 16a). The Patriarchs rectified this sin by means of the three prayer services they enacted, Shacharis שחרית — Morning service], Minchah [מנחה — Afternoon service] and Arvis [ערבית — Evening service], the acronym for which is the word שמע — “Hear” [as in, “Hear, O Israel, etc.]. And it is well known (Zohar, 1:167a; Tikkunei Zohar, Tikkun 10, 147b) that on account of Adam’s sin, two husks of impurity waxed in strength — that of the ox and that of the donkey. The donkey is the husk of Yishmael while the ox is the husk of Edom. The numerical value of Edom and Yishmael combined is 502, which is the exact number of years that the Patriarchs were alive in the world. For Avraham lived 175 years, Yitzchak 180 years and Yaakov 147 years, for a total of 502. This is because the Patriarchs corresponded to those husks on the side of holiness. This is the meaning of the verse, “Do not consume flesh [basar] that has been torn in the field” (Shemos 22:30). For the value of basar [בשׂר] is also 502. This should be clear.