이사야 64:6의 인용 해설

Our verse may also be understood thus: וידבר אלוקים, G'd spoke to Moses on matters of justice. Since G'd wanted Moses to know that his argument had been heard and considered, He added: אני השם. The use of this attribute at this juncture is equivalent to G'd asking Moses: "how could you attribute to Me a negative virtue such as being the originator of harm befalling My people? My outstanding characteristic is the sttribute of חסד, love, mercy, etc." Even the prophet Jeremiah has already made it plain that evil never originates with G'd (compare Lamentations 3,38: "Evil does not originate from G'd (but only Good)." The letter ו in front of the word והטוב in the verse in Lamentations refers to the fact that G'd does not interfere if a person wants to be good or evil. These decisions are up to each individual. It is up to man to choose good rather than evil. When you study the Bible you will find that whenever G'd mentions that the wicked are being remembered when they receive their deserts, the Bible underlines that the evil they are being punished for is of their own making. Compare in this respect Samuel I 24,13: "Wicked deeds come from wicked men." Jeremiah 2,19: "Your evil deeds will cause you to be disciplined." Isaiah 64,6: "You have made us melt because of our iniquities." There are many more similar quotations in the Bible. In view of this what gave Moses the right to assume that the Israelites' additional hardships were not due to something they had done themselves? It is also possible that the Israelites had not yet been adequately punished for whatever they had been guilty of prior to Moses' appointment. Perhaps some of the people had even become guilty of lack of faith after Moses had accredited himself as their prophet and leader. Your best proof that this was possible is the fact that the elders who set out to face Pharaoh together with Moses and Aaron dropped out on the way. Perhaps G'd would not have allowed Pharaoh to make the decree of withholding straw if the elders had not abandoned Moses on the way? At any rate Moses had been too quick to describe what happened to the people as being G'd's fault.

In order to understand this whole subject we must first refer to a statement made by our sages in Avot 4,11 where we are told by Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov that if one performs a single מצוה one acquires an advocate on one's behalf; the reverse is true if one commits a sin. Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov's words are explained by the Zohar volume 2, page 76 and elsewhere as well as by the Ari Zal. A sin is perceived as creating a spiritually negative force in our world. It is this spiritually negative force which is considered the actual sin perpetrated by the individual in question. We have explained Jeremiah 2,19 and Isaiah 64,6 as conveying this idea. When G'd forgave David in Samuel II 12,14, telling him he would not die, the message was also that the evil power David had created through his deed would be destroyed as a result of his repentance. This is why the prophet Nathan could say that "G'd has also removed your sin and you will not die." The sin man committed created the lethal force which has the power to kill the sinner. Once the sin has been removed, the force that potentially could have killed the sinner has been neutralised, is unable to kill. In other words, it is not G'd who kills but the forces created by the sinner are what cause death. Seeing that G'd much prefers our welfare to our death, He commanded that whosoever committed a sinful act unintentionally should offer a sin-offering; the owner should place his weight on the animal which is to serve as this offering, an act which drains him of the negative influences he has absorbed due to his evil deeds and transfers them to the sacrificial animal instead. G'd has informed us that this act of man when performed in the precincts of the Holy Temple is imbued with the unifying power of the אלוקי הרוחות לכל בשר, G'd's attribute as the spirit of all flesh. This is the mystical dimension of the need to perform סמיכה prior to the offering of sin-offerings. Every activity performed by man as part of the sin-offering procedure, i.e. the slaughtering, and the burning up of the animal's parts designated for this, he performs as a continuation of the act of placing his own physical weight on the animal first. The evil force his sin had created is neutralised, is completely uprooted. You have been aware already that the sin-offering is applicable only in respect of sins committed inadvertently because such a sin does not add to the already extant power of the pollutant which is residual in man since Adam ate from the tree of knowledge. If man committed a sin knowingly and willingly, something which increases this pollutant within him, he cannot erase this by means of a sin-offering. This is what is meant by Solomon in Proverbs 21,27: "the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination." G'd abhors someone who abuses the institution of the sacrificial altar to offer his abomination on it. There is nothing as abhorrent to G'd as the misuse of the altar in an attempt to expiate for intentional sins.

Let me explain something else. Every person who commits a sin thereby causes some blemish in the particular מדה, virtue, in the Celestial regions which fulfilment of the commandment he did not fulfil was intended to strengthen. He does not thereby destroy the entire מדה, attribute or virtue, but he causes damage to the root of his soul. The damage expresses itself in that certain spiritually negative forces which ought not to possess any hold on his soul (the sinner's) have been enabled to lay some claim to his soul. These forces now enjoy what should have been the exclusive source of life for the individual who has now sinned. If this process continues, the spiritually negative forces eventually gain a hold on the personality of the sinner. This results in his imbibing their spiritual values instead of the holy and pure spiritual values of his soul's counterpart in Heaven. This process, of course, assumes that the sinner has not done תשובה in the meantime, or has not been punished for his sin. This is the mystical dimension of what the Torah has called נושא עון, of which our sages have said that it means that G'd nourishes the accuser which was created by means of the sin committed by man. This is the force which will punish the sinner (Zohar volume 3 page 83). This concept is based on Jeremiah 2,19: "the evil which you yourself have created will be what will discipline you." We have a verse in Isaiah 64,6: "and our iniquities have made us melt," which expresses a similar thought. The person who utters the curse sets in motion retribution long delayed because of certain attributes of G'd at a time when G'd's anger had not yet been aroused.