Musar para sa Eclesiastes 7:29

And, in truth, this is a great error. For if so, why did the Torah command this [(abstention from lashon hara)] by a negative commandment? Is it not known that "the Holy One Blessed be He does not deal despotically with His creatures"? The Torah, then, should have included this only in the class of middoth [desirable character traits], like other holy middoth, that are addressed only to unique individuals, [and not as a mitzvah]. But certainly the Creator of man put it in the power of each and every Jew that if he only puts his eyes and his heart to his ways he can avoid this [(speaking lashon hara)]. As we find in Sifrei, Parshath Ha'azinu (Devarim 32:4): "He is a G-d of trust, without wrong." That is, He did not create men to be reshaim, but to be tzaddikim. (For if not so, there is wrong, G-d forbid, in the ordinance of the Blessed One in the punishment that He metes out to them afterwards.) And thus is it written (Koheleth 7:29): "G-d made man just and they sought out many [devious] accountings." And thus is it stated in Tanchuma, Parshath Bereshith 7: "G-d made man just" — The Holy One Blessed be He, who is called "tzaddik and yashar [just]," created man in His image only to be tzaddik and yashar, as He is. And if you ask: "Why, then, did He create an evil inclination, of which it is written (Bereshith 8:21): 'For the inclination of a man's heart is evil from his youth'? You say: 'It is evil. Who can make it good?' The Holy One Blessed be He answers: "You made it evil. You were a child and did not sin. You grew up and you sinned. [That is, a man draws it (the yetzer) upon himself by his acts and by his affairs. For the Holy One Blessed be He gave man the power to withstand it and to make it his servant in many areas for the ultimate end, as it is written (Bereshith 4:17): "And you shall overcome it." And it is written (Mishlei 29:21): "One who indulges his servant from youth, etc." The words lend themselves to much elaboration.] And how many things there are in this world tougher than the yetzer hara and more bitter than it, yet you 'sweeten' them. There is nothing more bitter than lupine, yet you exert yourself to soak it and to season it in water seven times until it is sweet, and so with mustard and caper. Now, if the bitter things which I have created, you season to your needs, the yetzer hara, which is given into your hands, how much more so!"

God made man to be upright (see Eccl. 7:29), and the seal of the Holy One, Blessed be He, is Truth (Shabbath 55a and see T.P. Sanh. 1:5). And it is written, "He that speaketh falsehood shall not be established before mine eyes" (Ps. 101:7). When a man occupies himself with falsehood, then the falsehood does not cleave to the truth. And where there is Truth is as though one were able to describe it as the place of His dwelling in the heavens and directed towards mankind, for where there is Truth among mankind, then everyone concedes that He made heaven and earth and the sea and all they contain. And this is what is said, "Who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is" (Ps. 146:6). And this is followed by, "Who keepeth truth for ever" (ibid.). But where there is treachery and falsehood, it would appear that the place of the dwelling of the Eternal One is not in the heaven and the earth. And he who is worthy to consider these things, how the souls are hewn out from the source of Truth, will conduct all of his affairs with Truth, and he will not permit falsehood to enter into the place of the holiness of truth. And therefore the verse says, "The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him in truth" (Ps. 145:18). For the Holy One, Blessed be He, who is Truth, draws near to him who calls upon Him in truth. And what is meant by, "Who call upon Him in truth?" This refers to the one who cleanses his heart of everything in the world, and draws near to the Holy One, Blessed be He, alone; and whose mind continually strengthens itself to cleave to the supernal light; and who directs his thought in that desire always. And this is what a man can attain when he sits alone in his room and studies, and for this reason every pious person should often separate himself and sit alone, and should not associate with people, except for a great need. But if he prays with only the movement of his lips, facing the wall, and thinks about the affairs of the world, and he calls to God with his tongue, while his mind is on some thing else, or if he expects to be honored because of the sweetness of his voice, and he tries to find favor in the eyes of people, in order to receive praise from them, then his service is not true. And he is one of those of whom it is said, "Thou art near in their mouth, and far from their reins" (Jer. 12:2).

Thus, too, our Rabbis say, "At twenty years of age, one dies with it." It is impossible that evil-doing should belong to the rational soul by nature, for this would not be in accordance with wisdom. The Deity hath created the soul pure, stainless, and simple, as saith the sage (Ecc. vii. 29), "This only have I found, that God hath made man upright." Whatever results therefrom that is not good, is the work of the vegetative soul,²This threefold division of the soul, vegetative, animal, and rational (cf. the preceding paragraph of the text), is discussed at greater length in the "Eons Vitae"; cf. Munk (p. 200), Rosin (p 46, note i), and Horovitz (p. 115, note 77, and p. 117, note 82). This same division occurs in Israeli (cf. Fried, p. 37) and Kalonymos b. Kalonym; cf. J. Landsberger, "Iggereth Haale Chajjim," Darmstadt, 1882 (p. 172, and note on p. 266). i.e., the natural impulse. A philosopher has said that, "He who clings to good qualities in order to enjoy by means of them the pleasures of his senses and (to satisfy) the necessities of his body, does not understand their true value; but he understands them who seeks after them, because he recognizes their merit and usefulness and knows that death caused by following them is better than life, based upon their opposites; and he who keeps his thoughts away from the base, lifts them up to the good."