Aaron the Peacemaker and the Ruin That Follows Arrogance

From within peace, how so? Just as the Holy One, blessed be He - may His great Name be blessed forever and ever - aims and makes peace among the four hundred ninety-six thousand myriads of ministering angels who stand before Him continually and sanctify His Name continually - from sunrise to sunset they say, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory" (Isaiah 6:3), and from sunset to sunrise they say, "Blessed is the glory of the LORD from His place" (Ezekiel 3:12) - and so He aims and makes peace among the seventy tongues and among all who come into the world that He created in His world, as it says, "He makes peace in His heights" (Job 25:2). So should a person make peace between every person and his fellow, and between a man and his wife. And thus Aaron the priest would do: he would aim and make peace between Israel and their Father in heaven, and between Israel and the sages, and between one sage and his fellow, and between one Israelite and his fellow, and between a man and his wife. Of him it says, "Say of the righteous that it shall go well, for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds" (Isaiah 3:10), and of him it says, "Thus says the LORD: Keep justice and do righteousness" (Isaiah 56:1). The Holy One, blessed be He, who tests hearts and innermost parts, said to Aaron: You aimed for good and made peace between Me and the children of Israel; I will bring forth from you sons who atone for Israel every single year, and peace is proclaimed over them every single day, and they shall say to them, "The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up His face to you and grant you peace" (Numbers 6:24-26). By the same token you may say: Ahithophel the Gilonite was a sage and a master of Torah, and because of the arrogance that was in him he was uprooted from this world and from the world to come; and of him it says, "Woe to the wicked, it shall go ill, for the recompense of his hands shall be done to him" (Isaiah 3:11). What was the beginning of Ahithophel's evil deeds? When all Israel gathered with David, the masters of Judah, to bring up the Ark of the LORD from the house of Abinadab on the hill, the law was forgotten by them. At once they all said, "Just as the Ark of the LORD came from the field of the Philistines only on a cart, so on a cart let it come to the house of David, king of Israel." But the Holy One, blessed be He, had sworn by His great Name, on the day Amram married Jochebed his aunt as a wife for the sake of Heaven, that the Ark with the Torah would be taken up and given into the arm of Amram's seed, as it says, "But to the sons of Kohath he gave none, because the service of the holy things was upon them; they were to carry it on the shoulder" (Numbers 7:9). At once they took the Ark and loaded it onto the cart, and immediately the Ark hung in the air between heaven and earth, neither rising up to heaven nor descending to earth. Uzzah was standing there; at once Uzzah stretched out his hand and seized the Ark. At that moment the transgressors of Israel said, "Had Uzzah not stretched out his hand and seized the Ark, the Ark would already have fallen to the ground." What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do at that moment? At once He put Uzzah to death, and his hand was torn away from the Ark, and the matter became known, that the Ark hangs in the air between earth and heaven, neither rising up to heaven nor descending to earth. Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed is He, before whom there is no favoritism: just as Ahithophel held back the law in his throat and did not tell it to the public, therefore he was strangled in his throat and died by strangling, which is one of the four deaths handed to the court, as it says, "And Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not taken, and he saddled his donkey and arose and went to his house, to his city, and gave charge to his household and strangled himself" (2 Samuel 17:23). And what was the charge he gave to his household? He charged them, "Never be in dispute," and he said to them, "Never rebel against the kingdom of the house of David." When David heard these words, at once David came before the Divine Presence and bowed his full height to the ground and said, "My Father in heaven, may Your great Name be blessed forever and ever, and may You have contentment from Israel Your servants in all their dwellings, for You have made us great and sanctified us and praised us and exalted us and bound for us a crown in the Torah from one end of the world to the other, as it says, 'Therefore You are great, O LORD God, for there is none like You, and there is no God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears' (2 Samuel 7:22); but the deeds we do are not fitting before You, such as the deed of Doeg the Edomite and the deed of Ahithophel the Gilonite." And not this alone, but they said: anyone in whom there is arrogance is uprooted from the world. So too the generation of the Flood: arrogance was in them, and by it they were uprooted from the world, as it says, "They said to God, Depart from us; we do not desire knowledge of Your ways. What is the Almighty that we should serve Him, and what profit shall we have if we entreat Him?" (Job 21:14-15). And what did they do? They would strip off their garments and lay them on the ground and walk naked in the marketplace, as it says, "naked they go about without clothing" (Job 24:10). And what was their punishment in this world? The Holy One floated them on the face of the waters like skins, as it says, "He is swift on the face of the waters" (Job 24:18); and it says, "Be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishments of the sword, that you may know there is judgment" (Job 19:29) - do not read "a judgment" [shadun] but "there is judgment" [she-din], that there is judgment on high. So too the men of the Tower: arrogance was in them, and by it they were uprooted from the world, as it says, "And the whole earth was of one language... and they said, Come, let us build us a city, with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth" (Genesis 11:1, 4). Come and see the great kindness the Holy One did with them, with which they rebelled against Him. A parable of a man exiled from province to province: when he sees his fellow speaking with him in his own tongue, his mind is set at ease. And they rebelled with it, as it says, "And they said one to another, Come, let us make bricks... and they said, Come, let us build us a city." Corresponding to their saying "Come," the Holy One also said "Come" against them, as it says, "Come, let us go down" (Genesis 11:7). At once the Holy One came down from the highest heaven of heavens and confounded their tongue and scattered them to the four winds of the world, as it says, "And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower... and the LORD scattered them from there... therefore its name was called Babel, for there the LORD confounded the language of all the earth" (Genesis 11:5, 8-9). So too the men of Sodom: arrogance was in them, and by it they were uprooted from the world, as it says, "And the men of Sodom were wicked and great sinners against the LORD" (Genesis 13:13) - "wicked" in robbery, and "sinners" in sexual immorality, "against the LORD" in the profaning of the Name. So too Sennacherib: arrogance was in him, and by it he was uprooted from the world. And so too Nebuchadnezzar: arrogance was in him, and by it he was uprooted from the world, as it says, "But you are brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the Pit" (Isaiah 14:15). They said of the wicked Nebuchadnezzar that he was short in stature, and when he went from province to province and from city to city, all the people of the city gathered and went out toward him and made sport with one another and said to one another, "Is this the one who will rule from one end of the world to the other?" as it says, "Those who see you stare at you, they ponder over you: Is this the man who shook the earth, who made kingdoms tremble?" (Isaiah 14:16). So too Pharaoh: arrogance was in him, and by it he was uprooted from the world, as it says, "And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice to let Israel go?" (Exodus 5:2). So too the generation of the wilderness: arrogance was in them, therefore they died in the wilderness and did not enter the land of Israel, as it says, "And the people spoke against God and against Moses, Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness?" (Numbers 21:5), and the like in four or five places. So too King Saul: arrogance was in him, therefore he was slain and the kingship was uprooted from him, as it says, "And Samuel said, What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears?... And Saul said, They brought them from the Amalekites" (1 Samuel 15:14-15). They told a parable. To what may the matter be compared? To a king of flesh and blood who said to his son, "My son, why did you not do all that I charged you?" The son said, "And what is the thing you charged me with that I did not do?" At once the son brazens his face against his father and says to his father, "But I did all that you charged me." So too King Saul, to whom Samuel the prophet said, "Why did you not obey the voice of the LORD?" and Saul answered Samuel, "Not so; rather, I obeyed the voice of the LORD," as it says, "And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, Blessed are you to the LORD, I have fulfilled the word of the LORD. And Samuel said, What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears?... And he said, They brought them from the Amalekites, which the people spared... And Samuel said... Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD, but swooped on the spoil and did evil in the eyes of the LORD? And Saul said to Samuel, I did obey the voice of the LORD and went on the way the LORD sent me... And Samuel said... Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has rejected you from being king" (1 Samuel 15:13-23). And not only that, but Saul kept jealousy and vengeance in his heart against Israel in all their dwellings on account of David. In what he was commanded to do, he did not do; for Samuel told him that the Holy One said, "Now go and strike Amalek... and put to death man and woman, child and infant" (1 Samuel 15:3), and he did not do so, but kept alive Agag king of Amalek and the best of the sheep and cattle. And what he was not commanded to do, he did: Nob, the city of priests, he struck down, as it says, "And Nob the city of priests he struck with the edge of the sword, man and woman, child and infant, ox and donkey and sheep, with the edge of the sword" (1 Samuel 22:19). And he made light of forbidden unions, in that he gave Michal his daughter, the wife of David, to Palti son of Laish, and he inquired of a medium and a familiar spirit, and he did many abominations in Israel; therefore he was slain and the kingship of the house of Israel was uprooted from him. So too the children of Israel: I [the Holy One] atoned for them in all their dwellings. When they were in the land of Israel arrogance was in them, and by it they were exiled from their land; and even after they were exiled from their land, Israel asked Ezekiel son of Buzi the priest: A priest who buys a slave, may the slave eat of the heave-offering? He said to them, "Yes, he is permitted to eat of the heave-offering." They said to him, "But if his master sold him to others, may he eat of the heave-offering?" He said to them, "He is not permitted to eat heave-offering." They said to him, "So too with us: when we were in the city and the temple of the Holy One, blessed be He, we served the Holy One, blessed be He; now that we have been exiled among the nations, let us be like the nations and like the families of the earth." Ezekiel said to them: Even if your bones are broken and your eyes are gouged out and the blood of your mouth flows to the ground, you must accept upon yourselves the kingship of the King of kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, because thus you accepted Him upon yourselves at the first and said, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do and we will hear" (Exodus 24:7), and the Holy One, blessed be He, made His kingship reign over you, as it says, "You have affirmed this day that the LORD is your God, to walk in His ways and keep His statutes and His commandments... and to obey His voice; and the LORD has affirmed this day that you are His treasured people, as He spoke" (Deuteronomy 26:17-18). And he said to them, "And what comes into your mind shall never come to be, that you say, We will be like the nations and like the families of the lands, serving wood and stone. As I live, says the Lord GOD, surely with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and outpoured wrath I will reign over you" (Ezekiel 20:32-33). Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed is He, before whom there is no favoritism. If it says "shall be," why does it say "shall never be"? Rather, what you say - "We will be like the nations and like the families of the lands, to serve wood and stone" - this shall never be; and what you say - "Nebuchadnezzar shall not come and conquer Jerusalem" - this shall surely be. After all these matters, "abomination" is said of idolatry, as it says, "And you shall not bring an abomination into your house" (Deuteronomy 7:26), and "abominations" is said of arrogance, as it says, "Everyone proud of heart is an abomination to the LORD" (Proverbs 16:5). And even the Holy One, blessed be He, to whom all belongs and all is the work of His hands, cannot bear the arrogant, as it says, "The haughty of eye and proud of heart, him I cannot endure" (Psalms 101:5); for it says, "Whom did He consult that He might give Him understanding and teach Him the path of justice, and teach Him knowledge and show Him the way of understanding?" (Isaiah 40:14). And from whom did the Holy One take counsel when He created the world? You must say He took counsel only with the Torah, as it says, "Then I was beside Him as a nursling [amon], and I was His delight day by day" (Proverbs 8:30) - do not read "nursling" [amon] but "craftsman" [uman], like a craftsman engaged in his craft.