The Goad of Instruction and the Pleading Merit of the Patriarchs

Rabbi Levi in the name of Rabbi Hama bar Hanina opened: "Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel" (Isaiah 48:17). What is "who teaches you" (ibid.)? He goads you, like that goad which prods the cow. And three names are given to it: teacher [malmad], ox-goad [marde'a], and prod [dorban]. "Teacher" — because it teaches the cow to plow. "Ox-goad" — because it instructs knowledge [moreh de'ah] into the cow. "Prod" — because it settles understanding [medayyer binah] into the cow. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: for his cow a man makes a goad, yet for the evil inclination he makes no goad? "Who directs you in the way you should go" (ibid.). Rabbi Levi in the name of Rabbi Hama bar Hanina: it is like a king's son who had a case before his father. His father said to him, "If you wish to be acquitted before me in judgment, appoint so-and-so as your advocate, and you will be acquitted before me in judgment." So the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel: My children, if you recall the merit of your fathers, you will be acquitted before Me in judgment. "One [day]" (Leviticus 23:24) — this is our father Abraham, "Abraham was but one" (Ezekiel 33:24). "A memorial of teruah" (Leviticus, ibid.) — this is our father Isaac, "and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by its horns" (Genesis 22:13). "A holy convocation" [mikra kodesh] (Leviticus, ibid.) — this is our father Jacob, "Hearken to Me, O Jacob, and Israel My called one" [mekora'i] (Isaiah 48:12). When do you recall the merit of the fathers and are acquitted before Me in judgment? "In the seventh month" (Leviticus, ibid.).