The Joy of the Day of Atonement and the Fire That Is No God

Another interpretation of "the days were fashioned, and not one among them" (Psalms 139:16): this is the Day of Atonement for Israel, for there was great joy before the Holy One, blessed be He, on the day He gave it in great love to Israel. A parable: to what may the matter be compared? To a king of flesh and blood, whose servants and household carried out the refuse and cast it before the door of the king's house; and when the king goes out and sees the refuse, he rejoices with great joy. So is the Day of Atonement to be regarded, which the Holy One, blessed be He, gave in great love and joy. And not this alone, but at the hour when He pardons the sins of Israel, He is not grieved in His heart but rejoices with great joy. Therefore it is said, "Thus says the Lord GOD to the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys, and so on" (Ezekiel 36:4): come and rejoice with great joy, for I pardon Israel their sins. Therefore let a person remember, from the day the Holy One, blessed be He, chose our father Abraham until that hour, all the good and the righteous deeds He performed with Israel at every single hour, as it is said, "Remember these things, O Jacob" (Isaiah 44:21), and it is said, "I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like a mist" (Isaiah 44:22). Just as clouds are blotted out by the wind, so the sins of Israel are blotted out in this world and have no standing in the world to come, as it is said, "I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud." And why does Scripture say "for I have redeemed you" (Isaiah 44:22)? I have redeemed you from the book of death and placed you in the book of life; therefore it says "for I have redeemed you." What is the matter that follows it? "Sing, O heavens, for the LORD has done it" (Isaiah 44:23). Another interpretation of "the days were fashioned, and not one among them": this is the day of Gog in the time to come. For this world is, before the Holy One, blessed be He, like a householder who hired laborers and watches them to see who works faithfully, as it is said, "The eyes of the LORD range over all the earth" (Zechariah 4:10) - one who works faithfully and one who does not work faithfully. All is set before Him for the feast. Therefore the idolaters were sentenced to be washed away, to perish, and to descend to Gehinnom, for laying hands on Israel, on Jerusalem, and on the Temple. Know that this is so: when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came and surrounded Jerusalem, the idolaters would answer and say, "With one word we have reckoned it; we have captured his city and his Temple." The Holy Spirit answers and says to them: Fools of the world! Until that hour you were not yet liable to descend to Gehinnom; concerning that hour it says, "Your mother shall be utterly ashamed; she who bore you shall be disgraced" (Jeremiah 50:12). Just as they gathered assemblies and came to plunder the wealth of Israel, so the Holy One, blessed be He, gathers them to be judged upon the mountains of Israel, to take great vengeance upon them, because they did not heed the words of Torah and because they afflicted Israel, as it is said, "And I am very angry, for I was a little angry, but they helped forward the calamity" (Zechariah 1:15). And it is said, "And I will execute vengeance in anger and wrath upon the nations that did not obey" (Micah 5:14). And it says, "Behold, a day comes, and I will gather all the nations" (Zechariah 14:2), and at once "the LORD will go out and fight" (Zechariah 14:3). Once I was traveling through a great city of the world, and there was there a band of youths who seized me and brought me into the king's house, and I saw there beds spread out and vessels of silver and vessels of gold lying there. I said, "O LORD, God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, shine forth" (Psalms 94:1). A certain associate came to me (that is, a sage of the nations of the world) and said to me, "You are a scribe." I said to him, "Somewhat." He said to me, "If you will tell me a thing that I ask you, go in peace." I said to him, "Speak." He said to me: God is a true judge, holy, righteous and faithful, and true forever and ever; He knows from the beginning what will be in the end, and declares from the first the last; what has not been done and what is being done He knows, and what is destined to be done; He looks toward good and does not look toward evil; He is rich and rejoices in His portion. In His wisdom and in His understanding He created the world and established it, and afterward created the human being and brought him into the world, and He created him only that he might serve Him with a whole heart and that He might find contentment from him and from his descendants after him until the end of all generations. Yet when he was fruitful and multiplied, this one worships the sun and the moon and this one worships wood and stone, and every single day they incur guilt against God. Therefore, when He again looks upon all the works of His hands that He created in the world, He says: To these and those, life; to these and those, souls; to these and those, eating and drinking; behold, they are reckoned like the cattle and the beasts and the other creeping and swarming things that the Holy One, blessed be He, created in His world. At once His mind is set at ease, and He does not destroy them. From this you learn that cattle, beasts, and creeping things were not created in the world except as a remedy for human beings on the earth. He said to me: You say that fire is not a god. Why then is it written in the Torah, "A perpetual fire shall be kept burning" (Leviticus 6:6)? I said to him: My son, when our ancestors stood at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah upon themselves, they saw no likeness of a human being, nor the likeness of any creature, nor the likeness of any soul that the Holy One, blessed be He, created in His world, as it is said, "Take very good heed of yourselves, for you saw no form" (Deuteronomy 4:15). Rather, He is one God, God of gods and Lord of lords, whose kingship endures in the heavens and on the earth and in the highest heaven of heavens. And you say fire is a god! It is nothing but a rod given for the use of human beings on the earth. A parable: to what may the matter be compared? To a king who took a strap and hung it in his house, and said to his servants and to his sons and to his household: With this I strike you and with this I slay you, so that they may turn back and repent; and if they do not turn back, with it he strikes them and with it he slays them. Therefore it is said, "A perpetual fire shall be kept burning," and it says, "For by fire will the LORD execute judgment" (Isaiah 66:16). Should you think otherwise, Scripture teaches, "For the LORD your God is a consuming fire" (Deuteronomy 4:24). A parable: to what may the matter be compared? To a king whose servants and sons and household behaved improperly. He said to his sons and to his servants and to his household: A bear am I against you, a lion am I against you, the angel of death am I against you, because of the way you act. Therefore it is said, "For the LORD your God is a consuming fire."