Musar su Salmi 24:78

We find in the Torah that when a man commits a sin whose intentional transgression requires a sin-offering, that the blood of the sin-offering is sprinkled on the outer alter and that if the anointed priest committed the sin, its sprinkling must be on the inner alter and the holy parocheth [(the curtain separating the Holy from the Holy of Holies)]. The reason is as follows: For every sin that a man commits, the "blemish" rises on high in the holy world according to the greatness of his soul. And it is known (see Ta'anith 5a) that everything we see in this world has its counterpart above. There is a Jerusalem below and there is a Jerusalem above. There is a mountain of the L-rd, the Temple Mount, below and a "mountain of the L-rd" above. There is a place called the "camp of the Shechinah," the court of the tent of meeting, below, and also, above, concerning which Scripture says (Psalms 29:3): "And who will stand in His holy place?" When a man sins, he brings uncleanliness above into the holy place, the court of the tent of meeting above. Therefore, here he must sprinkle on the outer altar, whereby the uncleanliness above is removed. But the blemish of the anointed priest, whose level of holiness is extremely great, reaches the highest place, the tent of meeting above, wherefore, here, too, he must sprinkle on the tent of meeting.

This is what David himself said later in his words: "Reward me, O G-d, according to my righteousness, according to the purity of my hands repay me" (ibid 18:21) and "the L-rd has recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the purity of my hands before His eyes" (ibid 18:25). This refers to this purity and cleanliness which we have mentioned. He then further said: "For by You I run upon a troop... I have pursued my enemies and overtaken them" (Tehilim 18:30). And he himself further stated: "Who will ascend upon the mountain of G-d, who will stand in His Holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart." (Tehilim 24:3).

Know that with regard to the repentance which a man does, let him not think that the moment he repents and takes upon himself the obligation that he will not return to his sin, his sin will be forgiven; but only after a length of time in serving God will his repentance be accepted. For the heart is not humbled in one day or two, but in many days. Just as in the case of a king’s son who sins against the king. Even though the king has pity upon him, and intends to do good to him, he will not show him a pleasant countenance except after a long period of affliction and crying out and weeping, just as King David, of blessed memory, did in the case of Absalom. Even though he consented to restore him to Jerusalem, Absalom stood waiting for two years and did not see the face of the king until his heart was completely subdued. Such is the way of the penitent, to plead for many days and to cry out, and then his repentance will be accepted, as it is said, (Psalms 22:3), “O my God, I call by day but Thou answereth not; and at night there is no surcease for me.” And as Habakkuk, the prophet, lamented (1:2), “How long, O Lord, shall I cry and Thou wilt not hear?” Now the prophets are not answered except after much affliction, imploring, crying out, and petitioning, all the more so a man who sins and acts wickedly even in the midst of his affliction. Now, the cause of this is the need to purify the heart, for even though the heart may have a sincere intention, it is necessary to subdue it for many days by intense service to God, by self-affliction, by fasting, and by weeping; then the uncircumcised heart will be humbled. When it is humbled, it will be clean and when it is clean, then the Creator will accept it, as it is said (Job, 13:16), “That a hypocrite cannot come before Him.” And as it is said, (Psalms 24:3), “Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord and who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart.”

Man was thus forewarned of the consequences of improper conduct even before he was born. This will help him to refrain from sinning. Whenever he remembers this he will hasten to make amends. This is the meaning of the words או הודע אליו חטאתו אשר חטא in 4,28. Perhaps this is also the reason the Torah continues in the paragraph following with the words: ונפש כי תחטא ושמעה קול האלה, "When a person sins and hears the voice of the oath, etc." The "oath" in question may allude to the one he himself swore before he was born as described above by Rabbi Simlai. This may also be what David alluded to in Psalms 24,4 when he described someone who has never sworn a vain oath as a person fit to ascend the Mountain of G–d. [otherwise we could ask why such a person had to swear an oath altogether, seeing our sages frown on any oath. Ed.] The remainder of 5,1, i.e. והוא עד או ראה או ידע may also be understood as applying to an experience every person had prior to his birth when he was sworn to remain free of sin. The verse concludes with the statement ונשא עונו, that a person who ignores what he was taught as an embryo will bear his guilt.

For it is not only the explicit and well known deed of theft or oppression which is forbidden but rather anything which may eventually lead to such a deed and cause it is included in the prohibition. On this our sages of blessed memory said (Sanhedrin 81a): "'he did not defile the wife of his fellow' (Yechezkel 18:6) - that he did not encroach upon his fellow's trade".

Until now we have spoken about setting to rights the faculty of speech, the first fundamental, the demarcation between "man" and "animal," for which reason Scripture gives it precedence, viz. (Devarim 30:19): "For the thing is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart [i.e., your thoughts] to do it." And now we shall speak a little about the faculty of thought, which resides in a man's heart, viz.: "and in your heart to do it." Scripture writes (Psalms 24:3-4): "Who shall ascend the mountain of the L-rd, etc.? …The clean of hands [i.e., one who is clean of theft] and the pure of heart." We learn from this that a man's thoughts must be pure and not intermixed with vanity. We say every day: "Make our hearts one, to love and to fear Your name, and let us not be ashamed, forever." This means what it says. It is known that what resides in a Jew's heart always, is faith in the L-rd, the G-d of the heavens and His Torah, this being the essence of holiness [as intimated in Bamidbar 35:39: "I am the L-rd who dwells in the midst of the children of Israel."] For this reason we ask the Blessed L-rd that He make our hearts one, to love and to fear His name, and that there not be intermixed in this another love. For if in his heart, the locus of thought, there also is planted a love for the vanities of the world, in the end, he will be shamed and mortified by it forever. For it is known that all of a man's affairs — both his acts and his thoughts, all will ascend above, before the L-rd, as we say in the Rosh Hashanah prayer: "For the remembrance of every creation comes before You, the acts of a man, etc., the thoughts of a man and his stratagems." And all will be set forth before the man, as it is written (Psalms 54:21): "I shall reprove you and I shall set it before your eyes," and the man will be greatly shamed.

Meanwhile the moment the rooster crows that first time all the hosts of Heaven are filled with anguish over the destruction of the Temple as well as Israel’s exile. Then when midnight comes the Holy One Blessed is He enters Gan Eden to delight with the souls of the righteous, as is related in a number of places in the Zohar (1:77a and 82b). This is alluded to in the book of Esther when Esther says to the king, “For I and my people have been sold to be destroyed and killed,” to which the king responds, “Who is this and which one is he…?” Then it is related that, “The king arose in his wrath and went out to his garden pavilion” (7:4-7). The “king” referred to is the Holy One Blessed is He. “Arising in His wrath” means that He arises in anguish over Israel’s exile and the destruction of the Temple. “His garden pavilion” refers to Gan Eden, which is also called by this name. When the Holy One Blessed is He enters Gan Eden to delight with the souls of the righteous, all the trees of the garden along with all the souls of the righteous open their mouths in holiness and purity, with song and exultation, saying, “Let the gates lift up their heads and let the entrances of the world be lifted up that the King of Glory may enter … Hashem of Hosts, He is the King of Glory, selah” (Tehillim 24:7-10).

והיה כי יביאך ה' אלוקיך אל הארץ אשר אתה בא שמה לרשתה . "When the Lord your G–d will bring you to the land to which you will come in order to inherit it." The Torah speaks of terrestrial ארץ ישראל which is similar to its celestial counterpart. The word הארץ refers to the "earth" after one's death in which one "sleeps," i.e. refines the body through metamorphosis in order to be able to take one's place in one's original inheritance, the one intended for Adam before the sin. Just as on our earth there are two mountains, Mount Gerizim and Mount Eival, which symbolize blessing and curse respectively, so there are two parallel mountains in the Celestial Regions. One is generally known in our scriptures as ההר הטוב, or הר ה', "the Mountain of ‘good,’ or the Mountain of G–d," the one which can be climbed only by people who have complied with the criteria set down in Psalms 24,4. The other Mountain is known as הר שעיר, the Mountain of Se'ir, symbolizing darkness exuded by the evil urge. Our rabbis describe it as a "Mountain" because they view the overcoming of the evil urge as similar to the scaling of a mountain. The wicked, on the other hand, consider the evil urge as something they can easily control and therefore the evil urge appears to them merely as high as an hair, hence the name הר שעיר, "the mountain no higher than an hair." Were it not for the "good angels" created by our various מצות, our access to the Mountain of G–d would be severed completely. G–d in His great mercy decided to pay more attention to the "voice" of what these good angels relate about us than to the foul deeds we commit with our hands, i.e. הקול קול יעקב והידים ידי עשו, "though the hands are the hands of an Esau, the voice is that of Jacob." [A homiletical explanation by Midrash Shmuel of Genesis 27,22 applied to Akavyah's statement in Avot 3,1. Ed.] The words ואין אתה בא לידי עברה mean that if you have קול יעקב going for you you are in no danger at the hands of Esau, the hands of Satan. The meaning of the name הר גריזים is similar to the meaning of Psalms 31,23: ואני אמרתי בחפזי נגרזתי לפניך, "I said in my haste I am thrust out of Your sight." The Psalmist goes on to say that David learned that he had not been cast out by G–d after all. The function of Mount Gerizim then is to reassure us that Paradise lost is recoverable. Our deeds create the "good angels" whose pleas reach the throne of G–d. there are also barriers in the heavens between the different categories of צדיקים. Every righteous person occupies a station appropriate to his conduct while he lived on earth. Our Rabbis (Tanchuma Beshalach 10) explained that G–d made separate lanes when the tribes of Israel crossed the Sea of Reeds. They base this on Psalms 136,13: "Who divided the Sea of Reeds into גזרים, sections." The same happened when the Jewish people crossed the river Jordan into the Holy Land. This was one of the reasons twelve stones were erected in the river-bed; they marked where each tribe crossed.

והיה כי יביאך ה' אלוקיך אל הארץ אשר אתה בא שמה לרשתה . "When the Lord your G–d will bring you to the land to which you will come in order to inherit it." The Torah speaks of terrestrial ארץ ישראל which is similar to its celestial counterpart. The word הארץ refers to the "earth" after one's death in which one "sleeps," i.e. refines the body through metamorphosis in order to be able to take one's place in one's original inheritance, the one intended for Adam before the sin. Just as on our earth there are two mountains, Mount Gerizim and Mount Eival, which symbolize blessing and curse respectively, so there are two parallel mountains in the Celestial Regions. One is generally known in our scriptures as ההר הטוב, or הר ה', "the Mountain of ‘good,’ or the Mountain of G–d," the one which can be climbed only by people who have complied with the criteria set down in Psalms 24,4. The other Mountain is known as הר שעיר, the Mountain of Se'ir, symbolizing darkness exuded by the evil urge. Our rabbis describe it as a "Mountain" because they view the overcoming of the evil urge as similar to the scaling of a mountain. The wicked, on the other hand, consider the evil urge as something they can easily control and therefore the evil urge appears to them merely as high as an hair, hence the name הר שעיר, "the mountain no higher than an hair." Were it not for the "good angels" created by our various מצות, our access to the Mountain of G–d would be severed completely. G–d in His great mercy decided to pay more attention to the "voice" of what these good angels relate about us than to the foul deeds we commit with our hands, i.e. הקול קול יעקב והידים ידי עשו, "though the hands are the hands of an Esau, the voice is that of Jacob." [A homiletical explanation by Midrash Shmuel of Genesis 27,22 applied to Akavyah's statement in Avot 3,1. Ed.] The words ואין אתה בא לידי עברה mean that if you have קול יעקב going for you you are in no danger at the hands of Esau, the hands of Satan. The meaning of the name הר גריזים is similar to the meaning of Psalms 31,23: ואני אמרתי בחפזי נגרזתי לפניך, "I said in my haste I am thrust out of Your sight." The Psalmist goes on to say that David learned that he had not been cast out by G–d after all. The function of Mount Gerizim then is to reassure us that Paradise lost is recoverable. Our deeds create the "good angels" whose pleas reach the throne of G–d. there are also barriers in the heavens between the different categories of צדיקים. Every righteous person occupies a station appropriate to his conduct while he lived on earth. Our Rabbis (Tanchuma Beshalach 10) explained that G–d made separate lanes when the tribes of Israel crossed the Sea of Reeds. They base this on Psalms 136,13: "Who divided the Sea of Reeds into גזרים, sections." The same happened when the Jewish people crossed the river Jordan into the Holy Land. This was one of the reasons twelve stones were erected in the river-bed; they marked where each tribe crossed.

It is stated, “Who may ascend the mountain of Hashem and who may stand in His holy place? One with clean hands … This is the generation of those who seek Him, those who seek Your Presence, Yaakov, selah” (Tehillim 24:3-6). The meaning of this passage is explained in the Zohar (1:97a, Midrash HaNe’elam). There it is related that when a righteous person passes from this world his soul ascends higher and higher until it approaches the worlds just below the Throne of Glory. Then the Holy One Blessed is He says to our forefather Yaakov, “O My precious son who endured the sorrows of child rearing! Behold, the righteous So-and-so son of So-and-so is arriving in this world adorned and arrayed with numerous ornaments and adornments of Torah, mitzvos and good deeds. It is fitting that you should go out to greet him with joy and gladness and wish him peace. Moreover, I Myself will go with you to receive his countenance, for it is a countenance radiating with Torah and awe.”