시편 37:13의 인용 해설

He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall have them in derision. – As he has said that they have taken counsel together against the Lord, to nullify His word, (so now) he says that He sits in heaven, and hears their words, and laughs at and derides them. And when he says of God – Blessed be He! – He shall laugh at and deride (them), it is metaphorical, an accommodation to human language; for a man laughs at and mocks one whom he despises and esteems as nothing at all. And so: “And Thou, Lord, shalt laugh at them, Thou shalt mock at all the nations” (Ps. 59:9); “The Lord shall laugh at him, for He sees that his day is coming” (Ps. 37:13). And when he says: He that sitteth in the heavens, the meaning of “sitting” is abiding (enduring), as “and Thou, Lord, remainest (lit. sittest) for ever” (Ps. 102:13). And so every expression of sitting, when it is used of God – Blessed be He! – as, “O Thou that sittest in the Heavens” (Ps. 123:1); “That hath His seat on high” (Ps. 113:5). And when he says in the heavens, it is because they are stable and endure for ever, and their individualities do not come to an end like those of the earth.

“They rose to dance” [32:6]. The Israelites danced and made merry. Tanna debe-Eliyahu writes. Rabbi Akiva said: merrymaking and laughter bring a person to many sins and always to sexual licentiousness. This causes laughter and mockery. “Hear the word of the Lord” [Jeremiah, 2:4]. You should hear the words of God who mocks you. The Holy One said to Israel: My children, I sat for nine hundred and sixty-four generations before the world was created and I studied the Torah and thought about it. From the day that the world was created I sit on My throne of Glory and for eight hours a day I study Torah, eight hours a day I judge the whole world, and eight hours I do charitable acts and I feed the whole world. I do not mock or laugh, except for one hour when the nations say: we want to wage war against the Holy One, as the verse says, “why do nations assemble” [Psalms, 2:1]. The nations assemble to wage war with God. Concerning this, it is written, “He who is enthroned in heaven laughs” [Psalms, 2:4]. That is to say, God sits in heaven and laughs and mocks that the nations want to wage war with Him. Another time we find that God laughs concerning the incense. One takes only good smelling spices and one takes devil’s dung along with it, which stinks. Here God laughs. God also laughs when the evildoer schemes against righteous ones, as the verse says, “the wicked man schemes against the righteous” [Psalms, 37:12]. The evildoer wants to do evil to the righteous one. “Then God laughs at him” [Psalms, 37:13]. God laughs at him. Aaron knew well that he would have great merit because he taught Torah to Israel. Aaron went to teach all of Israel. He taught the one who could not pray how to pray. Whoever could not learn, Aaron taught him Torah. It was not said that Aaron alone, but each Israelite who teaches his friend Torah or prayer or reproves him for good, the Holy One gives him a great reward that he can understand the wisdom of the Torah himself.³³Tanna debe-Eliyahu Raba [ed. M. Ish-Shalom], chap. 14.