I, I Am He Who Comforts You and Heals the Wound

Pesikta Rabbati 33:1

Curated by Arthur·Told by Maggid·

"I, I am He who comforts you; who are you that you should fear man who must die" (Isaiah 51:12). Our master taught us: where should one praying direct the heart? Our sages taught: a person should direct the heart toward the Holy of Holies (Berakhot 4:5). Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov said: one praying outside the Land should direct the heart toward the Land of Israel; in the Land, toward Jerusalem; in Jerusalem, toward the Temple; in the Temple, toward the Holy of Holies. Rabbi Avin the Levite said: "Your neck is like the tower of David, built for an armory [letalpiyot]" (Song of Songs 4:4). What is letalpiyot? A hill [tel] toward which all faces [piyot] turn. After all this praise it is written, "Open your doors, O Lebanon, that fire may devour your cedars" (Zechariah 11:1), and "He sent fire into my bones" (Lamentations 1:13). Israel said before Him: Master of the worlds, how long? Did You not write in Your Torah, "He who kindles the blaze shall surely make restitution" (Exodus 22:5)? You are the One who kindled it, as it says, "From on high He sent fire into my bones" (Lamentations 1:13), so You must rebuild it and comfort us, not by an angel but in Your own glory. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: By your lives, so I do, as it says, "The LORD builds Jerusalem, He gathers the dispersed of Israel" (Psalms 147:2), and I am the One who comforts you, as Scripture read in this matter, "I, I am He who comforts you." Why "I, I" twice? Because at Sinai Israel received two "I am": "I am the LORD your God" (Exodus 20:2) and "For I am the LORD your God, a jealous God" (Exodus 20:5); therefore He comforts with two "I am." "Who are you that you fear man who must die?" Do you not know who you are? Are you not the daughter of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, three mountains of the world? Whoever attacked your fathers fell before them; so too whoever attacks you falls before you. This says: "He smote and He will bind us up" (Hosea 6:1). When a person has a wound that the physician must cut open and it does not heal, he goes round to other physicians who cannot cure him, for they do not know the nature of the wound. So the prophet said: if you wish to be healed, return to the One who cut you, and He heals you. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: I am the One who struck, and I am the One who heals; "From on high He sent fire into my bones" (Lamentations 1:13), and I am the One who heals: "I, I am He who comforts you." Such is My craft: with the very thing by which I strike, I heal. A person strikes with the lancet and heals with a bandage, but the Holy One heals with the very thing by which He struck, as it says, "For I will restore health to you and heal your wounds, says the LORD" (Jeremiah 30:17). They sinned by streams: "who slaughter the children in the wadis" (Isaiah 57:5), and were struck at the Wadi Kishon (1 Kings 18:40), and are comforted by streams: "upon the stream shall grow every tree for food" (Ezekiel 47:12). They sinned with rivers, were struck at the rivers of Babylon (Psalms 137:1), and are comforted with rivers: "I will extend peace to her like a river" (Isaiah 66:12). They sinned with mountains, were struck on the mountains, and are comforted on the mountains: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the herald" (Isaiah 52:7). Limb by limb, sin by sin, Israel is struck and then comforted, until at the last: they sinned with "He," denying the LORD and saying "It is not He" (Jeremiah 5:12), and they are comforted with "He": "I, I am He who comforts you." Thus Rabbi Tanchuma expounded. Amen and amen, selah, and so may it be His will.

Themes

ConsolationRedemptionHealing

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