When the LORD Favors a Man Even His Enemies Make Peace

"And it came to pass when Pharaoh let the people go." "When the LORD is pleased with a man's ways, He makes even his enemies be at peace with him" (Proverbs 16:7). Rabbi Meir says: This is the dog. Rabbi Joshua ben Levi says: This is the snake. Rabbi Meir says it is the dog: A shepherd was curdling milk into cheese. A snake came and ate from it. The dog saw it. When they sat down to eat, the dog began barking at them, but they paid no attention. In the end the dog rose and ate from it and died. They buried it and made it a monument, and to this day it is called "the dog's monument." Rabbi Joshua ben Levi says it is the snake: A certain man crushed garlic. A mountain snake came and ate from it. The house snake saw it. When they sat down to eat, it began scattering dust over them, but they paid no attention. In the end it threw itself into the dish [to stop them eating]. Rabbi Abbahu went to Caesarea, and he happened upon a certain man who had set his dog beside him. He said to him: After all this disgrace [of keeping a dog at table] do I owe you peace? He said to him: My master, I owe it great kindness. Once captives entered the town, and one of them came wishing to seize this man's wife, and the dog rose and bit off his testicles. Rabbi Yohanan said: "When the LORD is pleased with a man's ways, He makes even his enemies be at peace with him" (ibid.) — this is his wife, as it is written, "a man's enemies are the men of his own house" (Micah 7:6), this is his wife. For Rabbi Yohanan said: A robber's wife is like a robber. There was a case of a woman who brought a complaint against her husband to the judge, and he sentenced the husband to have his head cut off; afterward the husband found a pretext against her and killed her. Rabbi Samuel bar Nahman said: "When the LORD is pleased with a man's ways" — this is the good inclination. "He makes even his enemies be at peace with him" — this is the evil inclination. By the way of the world, a man grows up with his fellow two or three years in a town and forms a bond of love with him; but this one [the evil inclination] grows up with a man from his youth to his old age, and if it finds a way to bring him down, it brings him down within twenty years, within sixty years, within eighty years. They said of Yohanan the High Priest that he served in the high priesthood eighty years and in the end became a Sadducee. This is what David said: "All my bones shall say, LORD, who is like You, delivering the poor from one too strong for him?" (Psalms 35:10) — this is the good inclination from the evil inclination. "The poor and the needy from one who robs him" (ibid.) — is there a greater robber than this? Rabbi Berekhiah used to read concerning it, "If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat" (Proverbs 25:21) — feed it the bread of Torah; "and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink" (ibid.) — the wine of Torah. Why? "For you will heap coals of fire on his head, and the LORD will reward you" (ibid. 22) — the LORD will make peace [the verb reread from "reward"] for you. And Rabbi Berekhiah said: "His enemies," "even his enemies" — to include flies and hornets, gnats and fleas. And the Rabbis said: "When the LORD is pleased with a man's ways" — these are Israel, as it is written, "and every man of Israel" (I Samuel 17:24). "He makes even his enemies be at peace with him" — this is Pharaoh, who said, "The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil" (Exodus 15:9). You find that when Moses came to Pharaoh and said to him, "Thus says the LORD, Let My people go that they may serve Me" (Exodus 8:16), that wicked one said, "Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice? I do not know the LORD, and I will also not let Israel go" (ibid. 5:2). The mouth that said, "Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice," turned back and said, "The LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked" (ibid. 9:27). The mouth that said, "I do not know the LORD, and I will also not let Israel go," went around to the dwellings of Israel and said, "Go out in peace, go in peace." Therefore it is said, "And it came to pass when Pharaoh let the people go" (Exodus 13:17).