The God Who Weeps in Secret for the Righteous of Every Generation

At that moment the nations of the world were tearing at their hair and their beards and weeping a great weeping, and they said, "What is the deed of these people's Father, and what is His praise, that they are slain for Him?" Of that moment it says, "What is your beloved more than another beloved, O fairest among women? What is your beloved more than another beloved, that you so adjure us?" (Song of Songs 5:9). At that moment their mother said to them, "My sons, go and say to Abraham our father: Let not your mind be lifted up over you, that you say, I built an altar and offered up Isaac my son. For I have built seven altars and offered up my seven sons in a single day; and yours was but a test and not in deed, while mine was in deed." She further said to them, "My sons, happy are you that you did the will of your Father in heaven, and you came into the world for no purpose but to sanctify His great Name through you, as it says, 'Through those near to Me I will be sanctified' (Leviticus 10:3)." At once she went up to a roof and fell and died. A heavenly voice went out and said, "A joyful mother of children" (Psalms 113:9). And when they seized Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel and Rabbi Ishmael the High Priest for execution, Rabban Shimon was weeping and said to Rabbi Ishmael, "Why are we slain like idolaters and Sabbath-desecrators and eaters of carrion and torn flesh and abominable things and creeping things? Shall such be our death?" Rabbi Ishmael said to him, "I will reason before you. Sometimes we had to judge a case and did not judge it truly; and sometimes false witnesses came and testified before us, and we did not investigate and examine well, and we transgressed what is written in the Torah, 'And the judges shall investigate well, and behold, the witness is a false witness, he has testified falsely against his brother' (Deuteronomy 19:18); therefore we have become liable to death. Or sometimes we entered the bathhouse, or sometimes we turned aside to eat and drink, and at that time orphans and widows came to claim their sustenance, and our attendant said to them, 'The hour is not free for us,' and the widow and the orphan were found afflicted. Come and see how great is the punishment of the matter, as it says, 'You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. If you afflict them... if they cry out to Me, I will surely hear their cry, and My anger will burn, and I will kill you with the sword' (Exodus 22:21-23)." Come and see: even though they were going out to execution, they honored one another. This one said, "I am not greater than my fellow; rather, my fellow is greater than I; therefore slay me first, so that I not see the death of my fellow." And that one said, "Slay me first, that I not see the death of my fellow." They cast lots, and the lot fell upon Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel. First Rabbi Ishmael the High Priest took the head of Rabban Shimon and set it in his bosom, and he embraced him and hugged him and kissed him, and said to him, "My master, how is it that your tongue is buried in the dust, and how is it that your mouth is filled with stones and dust, like idolaters and Sabbath-desecrators?" He had not finished saying these words before they took the sword and cut off his head. At that moment the Holy One, blessed be He, said: I will bring the heavens and clap them one against the other and destroy My world before them, as it says, "And I too will strike My hand against My hand and lay My fury to rest" (Ezekiel 21:22). And not this alone, but when the wicked Nebuchadnezzar came to encircle Jerusalem, all Israel who dwelt in the cities of Judah and Benjamin gathered to him and sat within Jerusalem in groups upon groups, as it says, "Why do we sit? Assemble, and let us enter the fortified cities" (Jeremiah 8:14). And when Nebuchadnezzar afterward exiled them and they reached the waters of the Euphrates and drank of them, the waters killed more of them than the Chaldeans killed. And when they walked on the road they would say, "O God, do not be silent" (Psalms 83:2). The Holy Spirit answered them and said, "Fools of the world, when you served idolatry on the mountains and on the hills, did you not say, Who is the god who dwells in the world? And now you say, O God, do not be silent." And even so, at once the mercy of the Holy One, blessed be He, was stirred, and He roused over them the sons of Korah, who had already died, and they wrapped themselves in their garments and sat before them and recited a lament over them. And not only that, but the Holy One Himself, in His glory, came down from the highest heaven of heavens, from the place of His greatness and His splendor and the holiness of His great Name, and He Himself took up a lament over them, as it says, "The oracle of the Valley of Vision... and the Lord, the LORD of hosts, called on that day for weeping and for lamentation and for baldness and for girding with sackcloth" (Isaiah 22:1, 12). Come and see how abundant is the mercy of the Holy One, blessed be He, over Israel forever. Even if all their days they served idolatry, once they perform a light repentance He weeps over them at once. By the same reasoning you learn that in every generation, when the Holy One, blessed be He, finds righteous and pious people, He claps His two hands one upon the other and places them against His heart and weeps over them, whether in secret or in the open. And why does He weep over them in secret? Because it is a disgrace for a lion to weep before a fox, and a disgrace for a king to weep before his servants, and a disgrace for a householder to weep before his laborers, as it says, "And if you will not hear it, in secret places My soul shall weep because of pride, and my eye shall surely weep and run down with tears, because the flock of the LORD is taken captive" (Jeremiah 13:17). And what does "because of pride" teach? That the angels who stand over the Holy One above not be lifted up and say, "What benefit does the Holy One derive from flesh and blood, that He gave the Torah to Israel?" Another interpretation: "weep, you shall surely weep in the night" (Lamentations 1:2) - but is it in the night that one weeps and in the day one does not weep? Rather, from that hour the boughs of Israel were shattered, when a decree was issued upon Rabbi Akiva for execution. They told a parable. To what may the matter be compared? To a king of flesh and blood whose wife and children sinned against him; he arose and thrust them out and drove them from his house, and every single year he goes to the place where he thrust them and bows his full height to the ground and weeps - were Scripture not written it would be impossible to say it - like a father who says in weeping, "Alas, my son," and like a hen that clucks over her chicks, as it says, "For it is a day of tumult and trampling and confusion for the Lord, the LORD of hosts, in the Valley of Vision, breaking down walls" (Isaiah 22:5). And when Israel went into exile, the offense of Israel was hidden from every creature, until the Holy One came and said to them: only in reward for the two tears that Esau shed before his father have I come to do the will of Seir, as it says, "The oracle concerning Dumah. One calls to me from Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, Morning comes, and also night; if you would inquire, inquire; come back again" (Isaiah 21:11-12). Why is it said, "Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?" Because all the good of Israel is only by day, and all the evil of Israel is only by night; and even those seventy years between the first Temple and the second are nothing but night; therefore it says, "Watchman, what of the night?"