Why the Righteous Wait for Children and the Guarding of the Scholar

Once I was passing from place to place, and a certain man found me and said to me, "Rabbi, why are the householders of Israel held back from having children?" I said to him, "My son, because the Holy One loves them with a complete love and rejoices in them; therefore He refines them, so that they will increase mercy upon children." He said to me, "Rabbi, it is not so, but because they have rancor in their hearts and marry many wives not for the sake of being fruitful and multiplying." I said to him, "My son, we have many householders who are precious and have only one wife, and even so they are held back from having children. And how do you know this? Go and learn from Abraham our father and Sarah our mother, who were barren eighty-five years and increased mercy until Isaac came to them and they rejoiced in him. And go and learn from Isaac and Rebecca, who were barren twenty years and increased mercy until both Jacob and Esau came to them. And go and learn from Rachel, who was barren fourteen years from two children and increased mercy until both came to her. And go and learn from Hannah, who was barren and increased mercy until Samuel came to her and she rejoiced in him. So you must hold to the first measure I told you at the start: because the Holy One loves them with a complete love and rejoices in them, therefore He refines them, so that they will increase mercy before Him." Another interpretation of "at the beginning of the watches": Even a small city in Israel that has Torah is better before the Holy One than Samaria that has no Torah, as it is said, "I am of those who are peaceful and faithful in Israel" (2 Samuel 20:19) - even a small city. From here they said: If a person has proper conduct and Scripture alone, they assign him one angel to guard him, as it is said, "Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you" (Exodus 23:20). If a person reads Torah, Prophets, and Writings, they assign him two angels, as it is said, "He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways" (Psalms 91:11). But if a person reads Torah, Prophets, and Writings, and studies Mishnah and Midrash, laws and aggadot, and serves the sages, the Holy One guards him Himself. They told a parable: To what is this like? To a king who was walking on the road, and his son was with him going through the wilderness. When they reached the heat of the sun, his father stood over him with wisdom against the press of the sun and made shade for his son, so that the sun and heat would not reach him. So too the Holy One, as it is said, "The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade upon your right hand" (Psalms 121:5-6). My Father in Heaven, may Your great Name be blessed forever and ever, as it is said, "Behold, the keeper of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps" (Psalms 121:4). They told another parable: To what is this like? To a king who sat upon his throne with golden vessels before him holding figs, grapes, pomegranates, nuts, dates, dried figs, apples, and citrons. He sat over them and sorted them and set them apart - figs and grapes by themselves, pomegranates and nuts by themselves, and so on. But while he turned this way and that, the wind came and mixed them with one another. Again he sat and sorted each by itself, and again, while he turned aside, the wind came and mixed them. Thus the sages taught in the Mishnah: Ten genealogical classes came up from Babylon - priests, Levites, Israelites, converts, freedmen, those of impaired priestly stock, foundlings of unknown father, those born of forbidden unions, temple servants, and abandoned children. Had the Holy One removed His hand from Israel for two or three generations one after another, these ten classes would have intermingled with one another and they would have become like the rest of the nations. And you, ungrateful ones, why do you not acknowledge and bless and praise your Father in Heaven, who took hold of you with His two hands upon His two arms and warned you not to come to disqualification, as it is said, "I am the LORD, that is My Name; My glory I will not give to another" (Isaiah 42:8)? But I have already decreed over you that you shall be My children and My servants, as it is said, "Israel is My firstborn son" (Exodus 4:22), and "You are children of the LORD your God" (Deuteronomy 14:1), and "For to Me the children of Israel are servants" (Leviticus 25:55). And it says, "Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will refine them and test them" (Jeremiah 9:6), and "He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, that they may bring an offering to the LORD in righteousness" (Malachi 3:3).