Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Awit ng mga Awit 1:14

The Torah says: או הקמה, "or the standing corn;" this is a hint that on occasion when the destructive forces are about to engulf all of mankind, or all of the Jewish people, the choicest of the people are killed as an act of atonement for the members of their generation and in order to ensure that society as such can continue. This too is explained by Shir Hashirim Rabbah in connection with Song of Songs, 1,14 אשכל הכפר, the word הכפר being understood by the Midrash in the sense of כפרה, atonement. The Psalmist (Psalms 92,13) compares the upright posture of the righteous to that of a palm tree. Hence the term קמה describes צדיקים very aptly. On occasion the iniquities of the people have become so great that the death of the righteous is not enough to ensure the survival of the people. This is why the Torah mentions: או שדה, "or a field;" the field is an allusion to the totality of the Jewish people, i.e. there are circumstances when even the death of the children plus the death of the righteous are not sufficient atonement to give the rest of the people another lease on life.

If we are looking for a moral-ethical dimension in this paragraph we may find in it an answer to the age-old problem of why some outstandingly pious and valuable people die prematurely. At first glance such people appear to share the same fate as that of confirmed sinners to whom G'd does not grant a normal lifespan. When the average individual reflects on this phenomenon he is apt to arrive at one of two conclusions. 1) He will deny our system of reward and punishment and conclude that there is no point in living a life dedicated to the service of the Lord. 2) Or, if he is not daring enough to accuse his mentors of having misled him and of having taught him a set of illusory values, he will conclude that the person who died prematurely was a charlatan and that his "piety" was only make-believe so that G'd punished him by having him die early. The result of such an attitude is that one would deny anyone who died prematurely the good reputation he had established while alive. The Torah counters such thinking by saying: כי תשא את ראש בני ישראל, "when you elevate i.e. remove to a higher world, a leader of the Jewish community through premature death," לפקדיהם, "and he does not live a normal lifespan," then the reason is ונתנו איש כפר נפשם, that "the people who have now been deprived of the leadership provided by such a person have to pay for their sins by being deprived of the presence of the pious person in question." We have used the word לפקדיהם in the sense that the Torah used it in Numbers 31,49 when it means becoming a casualty. The idea of the leader serving as atonement for the multitude is taken from our sages' interpretation of Song of Songs 1,14: אשכול הכפר דודי לי, "the person who combines within him every virtue serves as atonement for me for my beloved (G'd)." The expression לפקדיהם may also be understood in accordance with the comment of Zohar Chadash on the words כל העובר על הפקדים in verse 13. The Zohar translates these words as: "anyone who transgresses the commandments, etc." This means that the reason for the premature absence (death) of these pious people we referred to are the sins of their contemporaries. Let no one draw negative conclusions about the character of people who die prematurely and have led an exemplary life as far as their contemporaries were able to judge.

We have proof of this In Ezekiel 33,9 where the prophet is told that seeing he had warned the people he himself will be saved and does not have to share their fate.