이사야 43:4의 Musar

After having reached the goal which is the attention of the worshipper who loves, we may ask: Now what benefit comes from all of this? And we answer that the all-embracing benefit which comes from the service of the Creator, blessed be He, and His love, is that the Creator should love the man that worships him, as it is said (Isaiah 43:4), “Since thou art precious in My sight, and honorable, and I have loved thee.” And it is written (Deuteronomy 7:13), “And He will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee.” Now it is incumbent upon us to search out the meaning of the love of the Creator, blessed be He, for man, how it comes about and what it is. We say that in the case of simpletons and fools, it does not suffice for them that God’s love for them should be the sole reward of their worship of Him, so they wait for Him to give signs and proofs that they will attain great goodness and much pleasure. If you say to them that there will be given to them no other thing, except the love of God for them, it will not suffice for them, and they will think that His love is like the love of human beings who do not find love of a person sufficient unless there is with that love some advantage or pleasure. I wish to make clearer to you that there is no greater benefit than the love of the Creator for man. If God loves him he needs no other reward. He ought not to seek and ask whether his soul will live on or not after his death. For in the love of the Creator is contained all good reward. Obviously, he should believe that when a man dies in the midst of good deeds and has conducted himself piously, the Creator, blessed be He, loves him. Since He loves him, there is no greater reward than this. For since He does love him, there is no doubt that He will give him a good reward for all of his deeds. We ought not to explore just how this good reward will be given; however, if there is in a man a great lust or folly, all this great glory will not suffice. They will seek to discover whether there will be continuing life to their soul after it has separated from the body or whether the soul will be lost, as though the pathways of the world to come were known to them. They will try to discover in what way those who are deserving of the world to come will have their reward. This is impossible to know. Only if we were angels that walked among celestial creatures, would we know the way of reward of the souls and the nature of the life in the world to come. But for the man of intellect, one general rule should suffice for him, to know that there is a reward in the world to come for every deed. There is punishment for the wicked and there is reward for the righteous. But it is not for us to explore and search the method of the punishment or the reward, or of what it consists. But if a man should persist in searching out what will be after death, he can understand and believe that there is a reward after death, by twenty signs.

The mystical dimension of the firstling of the pure male animals is an allusion to the people of Israel who have been described by G–d (Exodus 4,22) as His בכור, His first-born. They are without blemish, a perfect congregation whom G–d (Ezekiel 34,31) has also called צאן מרעיתי "sheep of My pasture." This is why they may only be eaten by the priests. The deeper reason why when such firstlings have become blemished and been redeemed, they may be eaten by ordinary Israelites is, that the Israelites themselves also possess some degree of sanctity, have been called אדם. Adam used to be holy. He would have remained holy had he not sinned. This firstling animal was also holy until it contracted a blemish, the equivalent of sin. Just as sinful man can redeem himself, as we know from Isaiah 43,4: "ואתן אדם תחתיך," | give men in exchange for you," so also can this animal be redeemed. This is the mystical dimension of the Azazel which carries our sins. The Torah (Leviticus 16,22) speaks of ונשא השעיר עליו את כל עונותם, which our Rabbis read as on עונות תם, that the he-goat of the Azazel carries on its head the sins of a firstling animal contracting a blemish. On the other hand, we are forbidden to inflict a blemish on it in order to be able to consume it (after redemption). It is quite obvious that such one must not benefit from such an action. It is also forbidden to use animals consecrated as an offering for any mundane task and to use their hair after it has been shorn. The reason for this is easy to understand when one considers that the tablets which Moses had shattered also retained their sanctity.

After having reached the goal, which is the attention of the worshipper who loves, we may ask: Now what benefit comes from all of this? And we answer that the all-embracing benefit which comes from the service of the Creator, blessed be He, and His love, is that the Creator should love the man that worships him as it is said (Isaiah 43:4), “Since thou art precious in My sight, and honorable, and I have loved thee.” And it is written (Deuteronomy 7:13), “And He will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee.”