What Wrong Did Your Fathers Find in Me and the Sick Man Who Blamed Himself

It is written, "Thus says the LORD: What wrong did your fathers find in me, that they went far from me and walked after vanity and became vain?" (Jeremiah 2:5). Rabbi Yitzhak said: this refers to one who leaves a Torah scroll and goes out; concerning him Scripture says, "What wrong did your fathers find in me, that they went far from me" (there). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel: my children, your fathers found no wrong in me, yet you found wrong in me. Adam found no wrong in me, yet you found wrong in me. To what was Adam comparable? To a sick man whom the physician visited. The physician said to him: eat such a thing and do not eat such a thing; and when he transgressed his words he brought death upon himself. His relatives came in to him and said: can it be that the physician applied to you a strict measure of judgment? He said to them: God forbid, it is I who brought death upon myself; thus he commanded me and said, eat such a thing and do not eat such a thing, and when I transgressed his words I brought death upon myself. So too all the generations came in to Adam and said to him: can it be that the Holy One, blessed be He, applied to you a strict measure of judgment? He said to them: God forbid, it is I who brought death upon myself; thus He commanded me and said, "Of every tree of the garden you may surely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat from it" (Genesis 2:17), and when I transgressed His words I brought death upon myself, as it is written, "for on the day you eat from it you shall surely die" (there). Pharaoh found no wrong in me, yet you found wrong in me. To what was Pharaoh comparable? To a king who went off to a country across the sea and deposited all that he had with his household steward. After some days the king came back from across the sea and said to him: give me all that I deposited with you. He said to him: I am not your servant, and you deposited nothing with me. What did the king do? He took him and hung him on the gallows. He said to him: I am your servant, and all that you deposited with me I will repay. So too at first the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses, "Now go, and I will send you to Pharaoh" (Exodus 3:10); that wicked one said, "Who is the LORD that I should listen to his voice? I do not know the LORD" (Exodus 5:2). And when He brought ten plagues upon him, he said, "The LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked" (Exodus 9:27). Moses found no wrong in me, yet you found wrong in me. To what was Moses comparable? To a king who handed his son over to a tutor and said to him: do not call my son a fool. What is the meaning of this term "moreh"? Rabbi Reuven said: in this language the Greeks cry out to a fool, "moros." Once the son provoked the tutor and he called him a fool. The king said to him: my whole concern was to command you and tell you, do not call my son a fool, and you call my son a fool; the clever man has no business going about with the foolish. So it is written, "And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, and commanded them concerning the children of Israel" (Exodus 6:13); what did He command them? He said to them, do not call my children fools. And when they provoked him at the waters of Meribah, Moses said to them, "Hear now, you rebels [fools]" (Numbers 20:10). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: my whole concern was to command you and tell you, do not call my children fools, and you call my children fools; the clever man has no business going about with the foolish. Therefore it is not written "you shall not bring" in the singular but "you shall not bring" in the plural (Numbers 20:12): neither you, nor your brother, nor your sister shall enter the land of Israel. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel: your fathers in the wilderness found no wrong in me, yet you found wrong in me. I said to them, "Whoever sacrifices to the gods shall be utterly destroyed" (Exodus 22:19), and they did not do so, but rather "they bowed to it and sacrificed to it" (Exodus 32:8). After all the evils they did, what is written? "And the LORD relented of the evil that He had spoken to do to His people" (Exodus 32:14). Rabbi Yehuda bar Simon said: the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel: your fathers found no wrong in me, yet you found wrong in me. I said to them, "Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there shall be none in it" (Exodus 16:26), and they did not do so, but rather "on the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, and they found none" (Exodus 16:27); had they found any, they would have gathered.