A Broken Heart Is the Offering God Will Not Despise

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and crushed heart, O God, You will not despise" (Psalms 51:19). Zavdi bar Levi and Rabbi Yose bar Petros and the Rabbis. One said: David said before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the worlds, if You receive me in repentance, I know that my son Solomon will arise and build the Temple and build the altar and offer upon it all the offerings -- this follows from the verse "a broken and crushed heart" (Psalms 51:19), and I know that "You will do good in Your favor to Zion" (see Psalms 51:20), "then You will delight in sacrifices of righteousness" (Psalms 51:21). And the other said: from where do we learn that one who repents, the Holy One accounts it to him as if he had gone up to Jerusalem and built the Temple and built the altar and offered upon it all the offerings? From this verse, "a broken and crushed heart," and what is written after it? "Do good in Your favor to Zion; then You will delight in sacrifices of righteousness." And the Rabbis said: from where do we learn that one who passes before the ark must make mention of the building of the Temple and the offerings and bow down? From this blessing: "Be favorable, O LORD our God, and dwell in Zion Your city, and may Your children serve You in Jerusalem." Rabbi Abba bar Yudan said: what He disqualified in an animal, He declared fit in a human being. In an animal He disqualified "blind, or broken, or maimed, or with a wart" (Leviticus 22:22); in a human being He declared fit "a broken and crushed heart" (Psalms 51:19). Rabbi Alexandri said: if an ordinary person uses a broken vessel, it is a disgrace to him; but the Holy One is not so -- all His use is of broken vessels. "The LORD is near to the broken-hearted" (Psalms 34:19); "who heals the broken-hearted" (Psalms 147:3); "a broken and crushed heart, O God, You will not despise" (Psalms 51:19). Therefore Hosea warns Israel and says to them, "Return, O Israel" (Hosea 14:2).