Musar do Izajasza 61:78

This statement resolves a major problem that arises from Deut. 28,63: "And as G–d once delighted in making you prosperous and many, so will He now delight in causing you to perish and in wiping you out." Our sages wonder: How can one describe G–d as actually enjoying our misery? Do we not have repeated statements describing G–d's pain and discomfiture whenever the Jewish people undergo afflictions (Megillah 10b)? Rabbi Eliezer answers that it is not G–d Himself who delights in our misfortunes, but rather He causes others to. This answer is supported by the grammatical meaning of the word "Yassis," used by the Torah. If the Torah were to describe G–d's personal delight, it would have written “Yassos” instead. Rabbi Eliezer's answer is difficult, seeing the Torah states explicitly כן ישיש עליך ה' אלוקיך, which clearly means that He Himself derives pleasure from what is happening! Why then the strange combination of ישיש with עליך? We also find the wording שוש אשיש, meaning: "I will personally rejoice" (Isaiah 61,10). Hence we cannot explain the expression ישיש as meaning something other than deriving personal joy. We also have Deut. 30,9, in which after describing the penitence of the Jewish people, the Torah says of G–d: "He will once again delight in your well-being, etc," and the expression used is “La-ssus”. We must conclude that the construction Yassis, therefore can have two meanings. On occasion it is a Hiphil, transitive, and would mean making others rejoice, whereas on other occasions it is used intransitively and means to derive personal joy.

'A son will honor his father, and a servant his master.' A son will honor his father, as it is written: 'Honor your father and your mother,' which they explained: 'with food and with drink and the like.' This, during the life of his father. Now lest you say that after his father dies, he is exempt from this, this is not so, for [in this respect, too,] it is written: 'Honor your father.' For if the son walks in crooked paths, he certainly shames his father; he certainly humiliates him. But if that son walks in a just path and corrects his misdeeds, he certainly honors his father. He honors him in this world before people; he honors him in the world to come before the Holy One Blessed be He. The Holy One Blessed be He pities him [the father] and places him in his seat of honor. Happy are the tzaddikim, who merit holy sons, holy offspring, of whom it is written (Isaiah 61:9): 'All who see them will defer to them, for they are seed blessed of the L-rd.'"

And then he prospers in all his ways and in clarity of perception and the Holy One Blessed be He sends a spirit of Holiness within him and his heart rejoices and is filled with love of the Holy One, Blessed be He, and his soul is united with joy and reveals secrets and new intepretations from above, and all this because he reveres God, Blessed is He and is upright. And reason enters him. And this is what Solomon said : "My soul failed me when he spoke" (Eccl. 5:16). "Yea my body will rejoice when my lips speak right things" (Prov. 23:16). And thus said David : "Bless the Lord, O my soul" (Ps. 104:1). Because the soul which comes from above and strives upward knowing its own secret loves her Creator and eagerly assimilates His Commands, and when this soul reaches the veil (partition) and the degree which is suitable to it then she causes him (the owner) to rejoice with her hidden charms and brings him delight in her hidden chambers and at every moment his love longs for his soul and remembers it in the night as he lies upon his couch. Then God, Blessed is He, sends into her the longing for joy and the heart burns passionately from the great desire of love as it is said "I will rejoice in the Lord, my soul will be joyful in my God" (Is. 61:10). And happy is the soul that merits and experiences such joy.

Not only that but even if one does a Mitzva (good deed) during the time of his work, it will not be considered a merit but rather a sin in his hand. For a sin cannot be considered a Mitzva. And scripture states: "[I am G-d who loves justice and] hates theft in an offering" (Isaiah 61:8). In relation to this, our Sages of blessed memory said: "one who steals a measure of wheat, mills it, bakes and recites a blessing over it, is not blessing but rather blaspheming as written 'and the robber who blesses blasphemes G-d' (Tehilim 10:3)".

Therefore, he necessarily must attain comprehensive knowledge of the Halachot to their full depth in order to know the extent of reach of the branches of the mitzvot.

For man is not born wise and cannot know everything. But by studying the matters, he will be awakened to what he did not know, and he will contemplate on what he did not grasp previously, even matters not found in the books themselves. For when his mind is awakened to the matter, it goes and observes it from all perspectives, and draws forth new understandings from the wellspring of truth.

Furthermore, he alludes to the exercise of the qualities of prudency and modesty (id., xxxvii. 3), "So shalt thou dwell in the land and feed in faithfulness." His saying, first, "So shalt thou dwell in the land," and then "and feed in faithfulness," shows that long life on earth is the result of cultivating humility and prudency, which he calls "faith," as thou knowest from the saying (Num. xii. 7), "He is faithful in all my house," and that which preceded in the description of modesty. That which we have said of the meriting of life, even long life on earth, corresponds to the expression (Ps. xxxvii. 11), "The meek shall inherit the earth." In saying (id., 4), "Delight thyself also in the Lord," he alludes to the quality of joy, which the righteous exercises in that service of the Lord, wherein he delights. Thus he says elsewhere (Ps. xxxii. 11), "Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O ye righteous"; again, he says of the season of gladsome tidings (Isa. Ixi. 10), "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord." In saying (Ps. xxxvii. 4), "He shall give thee the desires of thine heart," he alludes to the quality of yearning which is love, for God satisfies the yearning of the righteous, as is promised them in the saying (Ps. xx. 6), "The Lord will fulfill all thy desires."