잠언 5:25의 Musar

turning aside from wisdom and the service of the Lord, because of what appears to be the remoteness of the delight and pleasurableness of these things. Verily, in their opinion, these are remote. Yet these are not remote, but near at hand. They are remote only in their mind. Therefore man must devote this quality of love to God, exalted may He be, as it is written (Deut. xi. I), "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God"; and to his soul, as it is written (I Sam. xx. 17), "For he loved him as he loved his own soul"; to his relatives, as it is written (Gen. xxix. 18), "And Jacob loved Rachel"; to his offspring, as it is written (id., xxxvii. 3), "Israel loved Joseph"; to his country, as it is written (Num. x. 30), "But I will depart to my own land and to my kindred"; to his companion, as spake David to Jonathan (II Sam. i. 26), "Very pleasant hast thou been unto me" ; to his wife (Prov. v. 19), "Let her be as the loving hind and the pleasant roe"; to wisdom, as it is written (Prov. xxix. 3), "The man that loveth wisdom rejoiceth his father."

And in Sifrei, Parshath Ekev we find (Mishlei 5:16): "'Then your springs [of Torah] will spread outwards': Words of Torah are compared to water. Just as water lives forever, so, words of Torah live forever, as it is written (Ibid. 4:2): 'For they are life to him who finds them, and to all of his flesh, healing.' And just as water raises the unclean one from his uncleanliness, so, words of Torah raise one from uncleanliness to purity, as it is written (Psalms 19:10): 'The fear of the L-rd is pure.' [And, just as water purifies a man, though the uncleanliness has spread through all of his limbs, so, Torah purifies a man from the uncleanliness of his sins, even if it has spread throughout him, from the soul of his foot until his head. And just as a man is not purified until the water rises over all of his limbs, and there be nothing intervening between his limbs and the water, so, he must subject all of his body and his limbs, in truth, to Torah, with nothing intervening, as it is written (Devarim 6:6): 'And these words shall be … upon your heart']. And just as water restores a man's soul, so do words of Torah restore a man's soul from the way of evil to the way of good, as it is written (Psalms 19:8): 'The Torah of the L-rd is complete, restoring the soul,.' And just as water is free for the world, so is Torah free for the world, as it is written (Isaiah 55:1): "Ho! all who are thirsty, go to the water [of Torah]." Lest you say: 'Just as water has no valuation, so, Torah has no valuation; it is, therefore, written [to negate this] (Mishlei 3:15): 'It is more precious than pearls and all of your desires cannot be compared to it.'"

And (Ibid. 176): (Mishlei 5:19): "'A beloved hind, of excellent favor' — the Torah, the light of all the worlds. How many seas and rivers, springs and fountains issue from you [Torah]! What can I say about you. All depend upon you, the celestial and the terrestrial. 'A beloved hind, of excellent favor,' for the celestial and the terrestrial. Who will merit [wearing] your honor as befits you? And who can utter and reveal your hidden and secret things?"

ואם ככה את עושה לי, הרגני נא הרוג . Concerning this request of Moses in 11,15, the Zohar comments that the reason Moses addressed G–d using the feminine term for את, "You," is because at that time the power of the attribute of Justice was in the ascendancy, and, as we know, the emanation גבורה, or "Justice," is to the left of the emanation of חסד. Death had begun to rule the universe, concerning which it says in Proverbs 5,5: "her feet go down to death, her steps support she'ol."This is why Moses said: "kill me." G–d immediately said to Moses: "gather for Me seventy men, etc." (11,16). G–d continued to upbraid Moses for always asking to die, and as a result He decided to give some of Moses' spirit to these seventy men, thus partially fulfilling Moses' request. It was then that Moses realized he was going to die before he would see the Holy Land. He realized that what Eldad and Meidad had prophesied was indeed true.

And you, son of man, examine yourself and be far from cruelty and have mercy upon the poor and the needy and let the poor be as the members of your family. "Then the Lord … will show you mercy and have compassion upon you and multiply you" (Deut. 13:18). Everyone who has mercy on his fellow creatures will have mercy shown him from heaven (Shabbath 151b). Therefore, do not remove mercy from you but guard yourself against the quality of cruelty. And Solomon said: "Lest you give to others your vigour and your years unto the cruel (to being cruel)" (Prov. 5:9). And guard yourself against the desire for vengeance which itself stems from cruelty. If you wish to truly avenge yourself on your enemy then add to your good qualities and walk in the path of the upright, and in this way you will be avenged on him who hates you, for he will writhe in pain because of your good qualities and good repute and mourn when he hears good of you. But if you do ugly deeds then your enemy will rejoice over your shame and disgrace and thus avenge himself against you.

CLINGING: The matter of clinging is when a person's heart clings so much to the blessed G-d that he ceases to turn or take interest in anything else but Him. This is what Shlomo brought by way of analogy: "a lovely hind and a graceful doe, her breasts will satisfy you at all times; you shall always be infatuated with her love" (Mishlei 5:19). And in the Talmud, our sages, of blessed memory stated (Eruvin 54b): "It was said of Rebbi Eliezar ben Pedat that he sat and studied Torah in the lower market of Tzipori while his cloak lay in the upper market of the town". The ultimate goal of this trait is for a person to cling thus to His Creator at all times, and at every moment. But at the least, if he loves his Creator, certainly he will cling to Him in this manner during the times of his [divine] service.

Let us now look at the legislation of the levirate marriage or its alternative חליצה, removal of the sandal from the foot of the potential second husband by the widow qualifying for such a levirate marriage. I have explained earlier that the Torah's statement that man was created in the image and form of G–d means that there is a comparison between man and G–d in seven separate areas. We explained that man, i.e. the male, possesses six of these aspects, the seventh being his wife. It is required of man that he "build" a replica or replacement of himself by employing his G–d-given assets and thus preserve the דמות of G–d granted him; should he fail to create all the conditions that facilitate procreation he would thereby become guilty of diminishing G–d's דמות. [the word must be understood as portraying that man's physical faculties represent all the physical forces G–d created in the macrocosm. (cf. Kuzari 4,25) Ed.] דמות is the "final" attribute (emanation). [In Pardes Rimonim described as דמות אדם=מלכות. Ed] It is known as תמונה, "picture," because its numerical value equals the numerical value פרצוף אדם, =501. [The word פרצוף in Kabbalistic terms generally refers to the manifestation of abstract concepts. Ed.] The "feet" of this attribute descend to the domain of death, i.e. anything which is lower than this attribute is part of the domain of death. Above that domain is Mattatron, another name for the emanation מלכות. This domain may be understood as having a lower and a higher section. The lower section is below one's loins, a part connected with death, whereas what is above the loins is connected, i.e. cleaves to the objective "good." Concerning the area above the loins we are told in Proverbs 18,22: מצא אשה מצא טוב, "he who found a (suitable) wife has found (objective) good." Anything below this dividing line of מתניו, his loins, is the domain of death.

To come back to יקח נא מעט מים ורחצו רגליכם; Kabbalists know that the angels מטטרון and סנדלפון are known as מנעל and סנדל, shoe and sandal with which the "feet" of the emanation מלכות are covered, and concerning which we read in Proverbs 5,5: רגליה יורדות מות, "Her feet descend towards death" (the reference is to an immoral woman). These shoes and sandals are a hyperbole for the קליפות around which the wicked people walk. The "tree" mentioned by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in the Zohar without further identification, is the tree of knowledge. All that is below the emanation מלכות, is somehow associated with that emanation. The angels themselves adhere to the essence of the tree of knowledge of good and evil in its designation as "good." The fact that that tree is also associated with "evil," is something peripheral, i.e. when wicked people try to use that tree they fail to penetrate to its essence due to their קליפות, which preclude their getting to the essence which is” good." [The last few lines are my substitution of the author who quotes on the subject from Pardes Rimonim Shaar Heychal Hatemurot chapter 7. Ed.] When Abraham invited the angels to rest under the tree, he referred to the essence of the tree of knowledge and when he said וסעדו לבכם, "refresh your heart," instead of לבבכם, "refresh your hearts," he indicated that he was aware that they were angels and therefore had only one heart, seeing angels have no evil urge.

ולא תלכו בחקות הגוים . The warning not to imitate Gentile practices (20,13) is based on the belief that all their cultural activities are merely preparations for עבודה זרה, idol worship. Their forms of entertainment are displays of promiscuity, which itself is a form of paganism. The Torah warns you to distance yourself from such entertainment, not even to walk in the neighborhood where such entertainment is being offered (Proverbs 5,8). Since the Torah does not make this prohibition dependent on your actually doing something (as opposed to the previous verse which discusses proper performance, ועשיתם of G–d's commandments), in this case the mere תלכו is part of the prohibition.

The perceptive individual will note how earlier generations turned to listen to words of Torah even from the mouths of children. This was because in their great love of Torah they were eager to hear novel insights. For they knew that the Torah is our “length of days” (Devarim 30:20) and that it is a “beloved hind” (Mishlei 5:19), finding grace in the eyes of all who study it. Every Jew must love the Torah and cause it to be loved by his children and household. He must admonish them continually concerning the fulfillment of the Torah and its commandments. In particular he must admonish the women not to allow their hair to be seen, for through this sin they bring poverty upon their children, causing them to be lowly and despised. Moreover, a house in which immodesty is found is frequented by the evil Lilis, who kills the small children of the household, as has already been explained in earlier chapters (24, 56). Therefore let whoever has stumbled in the sin of wasting seed devote himself with diligence to Torah study and let him engage in four fasts of three days each. That is, he should fast for three days straight in each of the four seasons. Meanwhile let him engage in study. Then, “He will go back and heal him” (Yeshayahu 6:10), and blessings will descend upon his head and all his limbs will be clean and pure forever.