Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah Reader

"And He drove out the man" (Genesis 3:24). This teaches that the Holy One, blessed be He, gave him a divorce like a wife. "And He placed at the east of the garden of Eden the cherubim" (Genesis 3:24). This teaches that the cherubim preceded all the work of creation. "And the flame of the ever-turning sword" (Genesis 3:24), this is Gehinnom. "To guard the way" (Genesis 3:24), this is proper worldly conduct. "The tree of life" (Genesis 3:24). This teaches that proper worldly conduct preceded the tree of life. And "the tree of life" means only Torah, as it is said, "It is a tree of life to those who hold fast to it" (Proverbs 3:18).

Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed is He, who recognizes at the beginning what will be at the end, and declares from the beginning the end, from of old that which has been done, and knows what has been done and what is destined to be done, and looks toward good and does not look toward evil, who is rich and rejoices in His portion. And in His wisdom and in His understanding He created His world and prepared it, and afterward He created within it Adam and set him before Him, and He was examining closely to the end of all generations; and He foresaw that his descendants would provoke Him to anger. He said: If I keep for him the earlier debts, the world cannot stand. It is incumbent upon Me to pass over the earlier ones. And so He did. And whence may you know that this is so? When Israel were in the wilderness, they corrupted their deeds; He arose to pass over all that they had done, as it is said: "And the LORD passed by before his face, and proclaimed" (Exodus 34:6). Do not read "and He passed by" (vaya'avor), but "and He caused to pass over" (vaya'aver); this teaches that He caused all their evil to pass from before His face. Know that this is so: Mordecai, at the hour when Esther spoke with him improperly, he was angry with her. And these are the words she spoke improperly, when she said: "And I have not been called to come in unto the king," and so forth. He replied to her: "For if you altogether hold your peace," and so forth. And when she turned back and spoke with him properly, he assented to her words. And these are the words she spoke to him properly: "Go, gather together all the Jews." He caused all her [earlier] words to pass over, as it is said: "So Mordecai passed over" (Esther 5). And it says: "Who is a God like You, that pardons iniquity, and passes over the transgression" (Micah 7:18). "Your eyes did see my unformed substance," and so forth (Psalms 139:16). What does this teach? The Holy One, blessed be He, is destined to sit in His great house of study, and the righteous sit before Him, and He says to them: My children, a certain generation did Torah thus, and I dealt charitably with it thus; and a certain man did Torah thus, and I dealt charitably with him thus; but I do not remember his iniquities, and they do not rise upon My heart, as it is said: "Remember not the former things," and so forth (Isaiah 43:18). And it says: "And the former things shall not be remembered," and so forth (Isaiah 65:17). "The days were fashioned, and not one of them" (Psalms 139:16) refers to the Sabbath day for Israel. How so? A man does labor all six days and rests on the seventh; he becomes reconciled with his children and with his household members. Again, a man does labor in the presence of his enemies all six days and rests on the seventh; he forgets all the sorrow he had. Such is the way of a man: a good day makes him forget a bad day, and a bad day makes him forget a good day. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel: Have I not written for you in My Torah, "This book of the Torah shall not depart out of your mouth" (Joshua 1:8)? Even though you do labor all six days, the Sabbath shall be made entirely Torah. From here they said: A man should rise early and study on the Sabbath, and go to the synagogue and to the house of study, and read in the Torah and study in the Prophets, and afterward go to his house and eat and drink, to fulfill what is said: "Go your way, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart" (Ecclesiastes 9:7). For the Holy One, blessed be He, has no rest except with those who do Torah alone, as it is said: "For all these things has My hand made," and so forth, "but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at My word" (Isaiah 66:2). From here they said that a man should read so that he will have it held in his hand, so that shame and disgrace will not overtake him at the hour when they say to him: Stand and recite the Scripture you have read, and recite the Mishnah you have studied. And so it is set forth explicitly in the Writings through David, king of Israel: "O LORD, in the morning shall You hear my voice," and so forth (Psalms 5:4).

Another interpretation: "The days were fashioned, and not one of them" (Psalms 139) refers to the Day of Atonement for Israel, because there was great joy before the Holy One, blessed be He, when they were given to Israel in great love. They told a parable of His own: To what is the matter likened? To a king of flesh and blood whose servants and household members would take 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 likened, which the Holy One, blessed be He, gave in great love and in joy. And not only this, but at the hour when He pardons the iniquities of Israel, He does not grieve 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 forth (Ezekiel 36:4): Come and rejoice with great joy, for I pardon Israel their iniquities. Therefore a man should remember, from the day the Holy One, blessed be He, chose Abraham our father until that hour, all the kindnesses and acts of charity He did with Israel at every single hour, as it is said: "Remember these things, O Jacob," and so forth (Isaiah 44:22). And it is said: "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins" (Isaiah 44:22). Just as clouds are blotted out by the wind, so the iniquities 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, as a thick cloud, your transgressions." And what is the meaning of "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 is said: "for I have redeemed you." What matter follows after it? "Sing, O heavens, for the LORD has done it," and so forth (Isaiah 44:23). Another interpretation: "The days were fashioned, and not one of them" refers to the day of Gog in the time to come, because this world is, before the Holy One, blessed be He, like a householder who hired laborers and watches over them, to see who works in truth, as it is said: "The eyes of the LORD, they range through the whole earth" (Zechariah 4:10), one who works truly and one who does not work truly; all is prepared before Him for the feast. Therefore the idolaters became liable to be swept away and to perish and to descend to Gehenna, because they sent forth their hand against Israel and against Jerusalem and against the Temple. Know that this is so: when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came and surrounded Jerusalem, the idolaters would respond and say, With one mouth, with which (variant: by what) reckoning did we conquer his city and his palace? The Holy Spirit answers and says to them: Fools of the world! Until that hour you had not become liable to descend to Gehenna; concerning that hour it says (Jeremiah 20): "Your mother shall be greatly ashamed; she that bore you shall be confounded," and so forth. Just as they would gather assemblies and come to plunder the wealth of Israel, so the Holy One, blessed be He, gathers them to be judged upon the mountains of Israel, to execute 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 greatly angry," and so forth, "for I was but a little angry, and they helped forward the evil" (Zechariah 1:15). "And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the nations, such as they have not heard" (Micah 5:14). And it says: "Behold, the day comes," and so forth, "and I will gather all the nations" (Zechariah 14:2), "and immediately the LORD shall go forth and fight," and so forth (Zechariah 14:3). Once I was walking in a great city of the world, and there were young men there who seized me and brought me into the king's house, and I saw there made-up beds and silver vessels and gold vessels that were placed there. I said: "O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongs; O God, to whom vengeance belongs, shine forth," and so forth (Psalms 94:1). A certain companion (that is, a sage of the nations of the world) came to me and said to me: You are a scribe. I said to him: Something of one. 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; God is holy, righteous, and pious and true to all eternity, and recognizes at the beginning what will be at the end, and declares from the beginning the end, and from of old that which has not yet been done, and knows what has been done and what is destined to be done, and looks toward good and does not look toward evil, and is rich and rejoices in His portion. And in His wisdom and in His understanding He created the world and prepared it, and afterward He created Adam and brought him into the world; and He created him only so that he might serve Him with a whole heart, and that He might find contentment of spirit from him and from his descendants after him to the end of all generations. Since 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 become liable before God. Therefore, when He turns and looks again at 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 considered like cattle and like beasts and like the rest of the swarming and creeping things that the Holy One, blessed be He, created in His world. Immediately His mind is set at ease, and He does not destroy them. So you have learned that cattle, beasts, swarming and creeping things were created in the world only as a remedy for the children of men upon the earth. He said to me: You say fire is not a god; why then is it written in the Torah, "Fire shall be kept burning continually," and so forth (Leviticus 6:6)? I said to him: My son, when our fathers stood at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah upon themselves, they saw no form of a man, nor form of any creature, nor form of any soul that the Holy One, blessed be He, created in His world, as it is said: "Take therefore good heed unto yourselves, for you saw no manner of form" (Deuteronomy 4:14-15). Rather, God is one; He is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, whose kingdom is established in heaven and on 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 the children of men upon the earth. They told a parable: To what is the matter likened? To a king who took the strap and hung it within his house and said to his servants and his children and his household members: With this I strike you, and with this I kill you, so that they would turn back and repent; and if they did not turn back, with it he strikes them, and with it he kills them. Therefore it is said: "Fire shall be kept burning continually," and it says: "For by fire will the LORD enter into judgment" (Isaiah 66:16). One might think otherwise; the verse therefore teaches: "For the LORD your God is a consuming fire" (Deuteronomy 4:24). They told a parable: To what is the matter likened? To a king whose servants and his children and his household members were behaving improperly. He said to his children and to his servants and to his household members: I am a bear over you, I am a lion over you, I am the angel of death over you, because of the fruit of your ways. Therefore it is said: "For the LORD your God is a consuming fire."

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."

Another interpretation: "Days were formed, and not one among them" (Psalms 139:16). This is the seventh day of the world. For this present world lasts six thousand years: two thousand of chaos, two thousand of Torah, and two thousand of the days of the son of David; but because our iniquities have grown many, what has gone out has gone out, and a subjugation has entered into the two thousand years of the days of the son of David (more than seven hundred years), as it is said, "The LORD has done what He purposed" (Lamentations 2:17). And just as we keep a release of debts once every seven years, so too is the Holy One, blessed be He, destined to make a release for the world: one day that is a thousand years, as it is said, "For a thousand years in Your eyes are like yesterday" (Psalms 90:4). And it says, "And there shall be one day" (Zechariah 14:7); this is the seventh day of the world. "And it shall come to pass, that at evening time there shall be light" (Zechariah 14:7); this is the world to come, as it is said, "And it shall come to pass, that from new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath" (Isaiah 66:23). And it is said, "A psalm, a song for the Sabbath day" (Psalms 92:1), for the world that is wholly Sabbath. Another interpretation: "A psalm, a song for the Sabbath day" (read as for that which He causes to cease, mashbit), for He causes the world to cease. Another interpretation: "A psalm, a song for the Sabbath day," this is the seventh day of the world. And the close of the Sabbath, this is the world to come, in which there is no death forever and to all eternity, and in which there is no sin and no iniquity and no scourges and no chastisements, but each and every one rejoices in his wisdom and in his understanding. How do you know this is so? Go out and learn from the Holy One, blessed be He, who rejoiced in David in this world, and all the more so in the world to come, as it is said, "And these are the last words of David" (2 Samuel 23:1) and so forth. Another interpretation: "And these are the last words of David." He said before Him: Master of the universe, just as You forgave me for my earlier iniquities, so forgive me for the later ones. Therefore it is said, "And these are the last words of David." Another interpretation: "And these are the last words of David." They used to say that for the twenty-two years during which the holy spirit departed from David, king of Israel, every single day he would let fall tears and eat his bread in ashes, as it is said, "For I have eaten ashes like bread" (Psalms 102:10) and so forth. Therefore it is said, "And these are the last words of David," and "the utterance of the man raised on high" (2 Samuel 23:1). Another interpretation: "And these are the last words of David," these are they: he said, Master of the universe, receive me in complete repentance before You, so that You may grant merit to the wicked for the world to come, and say to them: Just as with David, king of Israel, who did a grave thing before Me, once he repented I received him back through repentance, so too you, if you have repented. And from where do we know that David spoke in this manner? As it is said, "Against You, You alone, have I sinned" (Psalms 51:6) and so forth. Therefore it is said, "And these are the last words of David." Another interpretation: "And these are the last words of David," just as the earlier ones had in them no sin and no iniquity, so too the later ones have in them no sin and no iniquity. Therefore it is said, "And these are the last words of David." "The utterance of David son of Jesse, and the utterance of the man raised on high" (2 Samuel 23:1). Here he taught that he took upon himself the yoke of Torah and the yoke of the commandments. What is your reward before Me? That you should be called "the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet singer of Israel" (2 Samuel 23:1). Happy is the person who makes himself like an ox to the yoke and like a donkey to the burden, and sits and meditates every day continually in the Torah; immediately the holy spirit rests upon him, and his Torah is within his innards, as it is said, "Happy are you who sow beside all waters" (Isaiah 32:20). And "waters" means only Torah, as it is said, "Ho, everyone who thirsts, come for water" (Isaiah 55:1). "Beside all waters," how so? It means a person reads Torah, Prophets, and Writings, Mishnah, laws, aggadot, and midrash, and increases in study and decreases in commerce; immediately the holy spirit is within his innards, and His word is upon his tongue, as it is said, "The spirit of the LORD spoke through me, and His word was upon my tongue" (2 Samuel 23:2-3). Happy is the person who plays himself in words of Torah, and sits and plows through them like an animal that plows in the field. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: The words of Torah, the first and the last, are yours, as it is said, "The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me: a ruler over men, a righteous one, a ruler in the fear of God" (2 Samuel 23:3). David said: The God of Israel said to me, the Rock of Israel: I am a ruler over men; who rules over me? A righteous one, for I decree and he annuls it. That is to say, "a righteous one ruling in the fear of God." And which is the righteous one who rules in the fear of God? This is the one who subdues his evil inclination. Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed be He, before whom there is no favoritism, and from before whom radiance and light go forth to the world, and from before whom rains and grasses come to the world. The reward of the righteous, who play themselves in words of Torah, is that Scripture accounts it to them as if they bring radiance and light and rains and grasses to the world. Therefore it is said afterward, "And as the light of morning the sun shines forth, a morning without clouds, by clear shining after rain bringing grass from the earth" (2 Samuel 23:4). David the king said: I will declare the righteous acts and kindnesses of the Holy One, blessed be He, which He performs with Israel every hour. Every single day a person is sold, and every single day a person is redeemed. In the evening a person's spirit is taken from him and given to the Owner of the deposit, and in the morning they return it to him, as it is said, "Into Your hand I entrust my spirit; You have redeemed me, O LORD, God of truth" (Psalms 31:6). Every single day miracles are done for him as for those who went out from Egypt. Every single day they bring him, like an infant before its teacher, on account of his deeds. And know that this is so: nine hundred and seventy-four generations before the world was created, the Holy One, blessed be He, passed all His words before the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He said: When will he reach the point of hearing a word from their mouth? As it is said, "For the leader, a psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God" (Psalms 19:1-2). But are they fit to declare the work of creation? What does "The heavens declare the glory of God" come to teach? That the heavens were created first, and they are fit to declare the praise of the Holy One, blessed be He. For the whole world, man and beast and bird, the heavens are sustained only by the work of heaven and earth: in six months they grow fruits in winter and ripen them in summer, and from them live all who come into the world and all the work of His hands that He created in the world. The Sages said: All of the inhabited world sits between the Wagon and the Scorpion. I said to them: My masters, I am dust beneath the soles of your feet; I will say one thing before you. They said to me: Speak. I said to them: Under one star all who come into the world sit, as the Sages of blessed memory said. They said to me: Give us a sign for your words. I said to them: I will give one. I said to them: My masters, let two men stand, one in the land of Israel and one in the great city in Babylonia, and let them place their heads under one star at sunrise, or at sunset, on the first of the month or on the fifth of the month: the one standing in the land of Israel will not be like the one standing in Babylonia. From this you have learned that the whole world is under one star and sits, as the Sages of blessed memory said. And what is the nature of that Pleiades, which is like seven stars in the firmament, all of them close one to another? Scripture taught proper conduct for the generations, that a person should not say: Why is the firmament itself not as thick as the stars? They told a parable: to what may the matter be compared? To a king who had a brick of gold. Should he place it on his head? Is that becoming to him? It is not becoming to him. But what did he do, in his wisdom and his understanding? He takes from it a weight of about half a sela and makes it into a thread of gold and hangs it on his neck. This is the praise of the Holy One, blessed be He, may His great name be blessed forever and to all eternity: He created the stars in the firmament and gave to each and every one a place of its own. "There is no speech, there are no words, their voice is not heard" (Psalms 19:4). "Through all the earth their line goes out" (read as their voice, kolam, goes out), "and at the end of the world their words; for the sun He set a tent among them" (Psalms 19:5). The Sages said: The orbit of the sun is a journey of five hundred years. Come and see from what place it goes out and to what place it enters. Is its voice heard in its going, in its going out or in its coming in? Or is it perhaps seen by the creatures in its entering and its going out? And just as the orbit of the sun is a journey of five hundred years, so the tree of life is a journey of five hundred years, as it is said, "How great are Your works, O LORD" (Psalms 92:6). Another interpretation: "How great are Your works, O LORD." Come and see how many kinds of cattle and kinds of beasts and kinds of birds there are in the world, and how many kinds of fish there are in the sea. Is the voice of this one like the voice of that one? Or the appearance of this one like the appearance of that one? Or perhaps the mind of this one like the mind of that one? Or perhaps the taste of this one like the taste of that one? No: neither the voice nor the appearance nor the mind nor the taste of this one is like that one. And so the Sages taught in the Mishnah: To declare the greatness of the supreme King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He: a man stamps many coins with one seal, and they are all alike one to another, yet the supreme King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, stamped every man with the seal of the first man, and not one is like his fellow. Therefore it is said, "How great are Your works, O LORD." Another interpretation: "For the leader, a psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God." But are they not fixed in their place and never move from there? Yet even though everything is His and everything is the work of His hands, His joy is not in all of it, but only with the seed of Abraham alone, as it is said, "Day to day pours forth speech" (Psalms 19:3). What is the nature of these two days? Rather, this is the day of Moses, who announced the day of Joshua, as it is said, "This day I begin to put the dread of you and the fear of you upon the peoples under all the heavens, who, when they hear the report of you, shall tremble and writhe before you" (Deuteronomy 2:25). And lest you say: Since the Holy One, blessed be He, slew Sihon and Og, who told it to all who come into the world? Rather, this is the sun that stood still for Moses. And where do we find that the sun stood still for Moses? At the time when he made war with Amalek, as it is said, "But Moses's hands were heavy, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat upon it, and Aaron and Hur supported his hands" and so forth, "and his hands were steady until the sun came" (Exodus 17:12). And had the sun not come until that hour, that it is written "until the sun came"? Rather, this is the sun that stood still for Moses. And where do we find that Moses announced the day of Joshua? As it is said, "And the LORD said to Moses: Write this as a memorial in the book, and put it in the ears of Joshua" (Exodus 17:14). He said to him: May it be His will that the sun stand still for you as it stood still for me. And where do we find that it stood still for Joshua? At the time when he made war with the kings of the Amorites at Gibeon, as it is said, "Then Joshua spoke to the LORD on the day the LORD gave the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel: Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and moon, in the valley of Aijalon. And the sun stood still and the moon stayed, until the nation took vengeance on its enemies. Is this not written in the Book of the Upright? And the sun stayed in the midst of the heaven and did not hasten to set for about a whole day" (Joshua 10:12-13). Another interpretation: "Day to day pours forth speech," this is Torah, Prophets, and Writings. "And night to night declares knowledge," these are the Mishnayot. "There is no speech, there are no words, their voice is not heard," these are the halakhot. "Through all the earth their line goes out" (read as kol, voice), these are the aggadot, by which they sanctify His great name. Another interpretation: "Through all the earth their voice goes out," these are the synagogues and study houses that were given to the many, and they listen to hear words of Torah. (Another reading: that were given to the individual, and they listen to hear words of Torah.) "And at the end of the world their words," this is the land of Israel, which is the world's choicest part. "For the sun He set a tent among them." They told a parable: to what may the matter be compared? To a king who had precious stones and pearls within his house, and the people of his province sought to buy from him for money in secret, and he said to them: I will not give to you in secret, but only in public. So too the Holy One, blessed be He, may His great name be blessed forever and to all eternity: when He gave the Torah to Israel, He gave it only openly, as it is said, "Not from the beginning did I speak in secret" (Isaiah 48:16), and it says, "I did not speak in secret, in a place of a land of darkness" (Isaiah 45:19). "And it is like a bridegroom going out from his canopy" (Psalms 19:6): just as this bridegroom enters in purity and goes out in impurity, so the orbit of the sun goes out in purity and enters in impurity, and does not wish to go out on the next day until arrows are shot at it and they say to it: Is it of your own will that you go out? Therefore it is said, "And it is like a bridegroom going out from his canopy." They told a parable: to what may the matter be compared? To a king who made a banquet for his son, and his servants and the members of his household reclined before him all seven days, and each one took his leave of him and went home in peace. After some days one of them came. They said to the king: So-and-so has come. He wrapped himself and went out to meet him and said to him: Come in peace; tarry one hour until the time of the banquet arrives. And so with the second. So too the righteous in this world: when they take their leave for their eternal home, they say to him: Come in peace, as it is said, "He shall enter into peace; they shall rest on their couches, each one who walks straight" (Isaiah 57:2), like a man who receives his guests with joy and a pleasant countenance, as it is said, "It rejoices like a mighty man to run the course" (Psalms 19:6). From here they said: The righteous are punished even for the light matters, but the wicked are not punished except for the grave ones. Go out and learn from Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, who were punished only for the light matters. And from where that the wicked are not punished except for the grave ones? Go out and learn from Jeroboam, Ahaz, and Manasseh, who were not held liable until they had filled the whole world with transgressions. They told a parable: to what may the matter be compared? To a king who was sitting on his throne, and the elders of his province were sitting before him. As soon as one of them said an improper word, he struck at him immediately, while those standing outside he waited for until the time of the judgment of Gehinnom arrived, as it is said, "Its going forth is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to their ends, and nothing is hidden from its heat" (Psalms 19:7). All of this on account of what? On account of: "The Torah of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of the LORD is faithful, making wise the simple; the precepts of the LORD are upright, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the LORD are true, righteous altogether; more desirable than gold and than much fine gold, and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb's drippings" (Psalms 19:8-11). From here the Sages said: Whenever human beings are idle from the Torah, the Holy One, blessed be He, seeks to destroy the world, as it is said, "Ascribe to the LORD, O sons of the mighty" (Psalms 29:1). And "the mighty" means only the ministering angels. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: Since I have multiplied human beings like the birds of the heaven and like the fish of the sea, yet they do not do My will, therefore I have hidden Myself from them. "Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength; ascribe to the LORD the glory of His name" (Psalms 29:1-2). And "glory" means only Torah, as it is said, "Let them ascribe glory to the LORD, and declare His praise in the islands" (Isaiah 42:12), and it says, "Give glory to the LORD your God" (Jeremiah 13:16) and so forth. "Bow down to the LORD in the splendor of holiness" (Psalms 29:2). From here they said: A person should not stand in prayer until he says one halakhah or one verse. Therefore it is said, "Bow down to the LORD in the splendor of holiness." "The voice of the LORD is over the waters" (Psalms 29:3). "Waters" means only Torah. So the Sages taught: Sages, be careful in your words, lest you teach one thing not in accordance with the Torah and become liable for it to death at the hand of Heaven, and the students who come after you also teach in your name one thing not in accordance with the Torah and become liable for it to death at the hand of Heaven, God forbid, and the name of Heaven is found to be profaned. "The God of glory thunders, the LORD over many waters" (Psalms 29:3). Because I poured out for you words of Torah like milk and like oil poured from vessel to vessel, and its sound is not heard. Therefore it is said, "The God of glory thunders, the LORD over many waters; the voice of the LORD is in power, the voice of the LORD is in splendor" (Psalms 29:3-4). They told a parable: to what may the matter be compared? To a king who had sons: some of them were masters of Torah, Prophets, and Writings, and masters of Mishnah and Gemara, and masters of commerce. He married another wife, a poor one, and had sons by her. He sent them off to Scripture and Mishnah and Gemara and worldly conduct, and he would sit and look forward to when they would be like the older sons. After some days they came to him (another reading: he came to them), and they had in their hand neither Scripture nor Mishnah nor worldly conduct. And he would sit before them and say: The houses I built and the fields I bought and the vineyards I planted, for these, why did I do all this? So too Israel are likened in this world before their Father in heaven, at a time when there are no words of Torah in them. Therefore it is said, "The voice of the LORD is in power, the voice of the LORD is in splendor." "The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars" (Psalms 29:5), these are people who are clever in the matters of this world, in commerce and in every craft, but have no words of Torah in them; they are likened only to a cedar: just as a cedar produces no fruit, so anyone who has no words of Torah in him is likened to a cedar, as it is said, "And I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of cedars" (Amos 2:9). And it says, "And He breaks the cedars of Lebanon" (Psalms 29:5), these are the people who were in the First Temple, who were clever and stood in their place, but had no words of Torah in them. Therefore it is said, "And the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon. And He makes them skip like a calf, Lebanon and Sirion like a young wild ox" (Psalms 29:5-6). From here the Sages said: One who kicks against sufferings, they are doubled upon him. They told a parable: to what may the matter be compared? To a householder who had a cow that kicked, and he put on it a rope of ten cubits, and it kept kicking, so he put on it a rope of fifty cubits, as it is said, "For like a stubborn cow Israel is stubborn" (Hosea 4:16). From this you have learned that anyone who kicks against sufferings, it is a bad sign for him. The Sages said: Did not the sufferings come upon him justly, for his iniquities? I am astonished. Rather, the sufferings came upon him because he did ugly things and things that were not fitting, and with his own hands he uproots himself from this world and from the world to come. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel: If you come to learn My ways, come and learn from the people of the generation of the wilderness, who, although they did the Torah all their days, as soon as they said an improper word before Me I struck at them immediately. Therefore it is said, "The voice of the LORD hews out flames of fire; the voice of the LORD makes the wilderness writhe; the LORD makes the wilderness of Kadesh writhe" (Psalms 29:7-8). The Holy One, blessed be He, turned back to appease Israel and said to them: My sons, I swear by My throne of glory that even an infant in his teacher's house who is engaged in Torah for My name's sake, his reward is laid up before Me, provided that he is kept from transgression. And even if a person has in his hand only worldly conduct and Scripture alone, his reward is laid up before Me, provided that he is kept from transgression. And even if a person has in his hand neither Scripture nor Mishnah, but he rises early and stays late at the synagogue and the study house and recites the Shema for the sake of My great name, his reward is laid up before Me, provided that he is kept from transgression. To what are Israel likened in this world before their Father in heaven? To a hind that becomes pregnant in distress and gives birth in distress, its beginning being hard and ease at the end, as it is said, "The voice of the LORD makes the hinds writhe and strips the forests bare, and in His temple all of it says glory" (Psalms 29:9). At that time the whole world will recoil and they will say: Perhaps a flood has come to the world to destroy the world, as it is said, "The LORD sat enthroned at the flood" (Psalms 29:10). The holy spirit returns to them and says: The supreme King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, has not come except to make a banquet for His sons, and He says: I have come only to reign over the whole world, as it is said, "And the LORD sits enthroned as king forever" (Psalms 29:10). And why do I reign? Because you flourish in your good deeds and in the study of Torah, as it is said, "The LORD will give strength to His people; the LORD will bless His people with peace" (Psalms 29:11).

Our Rabbis taught in the Mishnah: The judgment of the wicked in Gehinnom lasts twelve months. And afterward the righteous will stand before the Holy One, blessed be He, and will say before Him: Master of the universe, when we were in that world, these people would rise early and stay late at the synagogue, and they would recite the Shema and perform the other commandments. And the Holy One, blessed be He, will say to them: If they did so, heal them. Immediately the righteous go and stand over the dust of the wicked and seek mercy for them, and the Holy One, blessed be He, raises them up from the dust beneath their feet, as it is said: "And you shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet" (Malachi 3:21). In what case is this said? When he did not repent. But if he repented and died, behold he is like a righteous one of the world in all respects. For all the commandments that a person performs in this world have no power to give light except like the light of a candle alone, but the Torah gives light from one end of the world to the other, as it is said: "For the commandment is a lamp and the Torah is light" (Proverbs 6:23).

David the king, peace be upon him, further said: I feared in the midst of my joy, and I rejoiced in the midst of my fear, and my love rose above them all. Therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, made a covenant with me, that I would be expert in Scripture and in Mishnah, in laws and in homilies, as it is said: "For is not my house so with God? For He has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and secure; for all my salvation and all my desire, will He not make it grow?" (2 Samuel 23). And "covenant" means nothing other than Torah, as it is said: "My covenant was with him, life and peace" (Malachi 2). "Ordered in all things" means in Scripture, in Mishnah, in laws, and in homilies; "and secure" means that words of Torah would be secured within me forever and to all eternity. "For all my salvation and all my desire, will He not make it grow?" From here they said: Any disciple of the wise who busies himself greatly with the study of Torah and is not greatly sustained, it is a good sign for him. And if you should say: If the Holy One, blessed be He, loves His Torah, why does He not make him rich? You must answer: Because if he grew rich he would transgress the words of Torah. Therefore, any disciple of the wise who busies himself greatly with the labor of Torah and does not bring in much produce, it is a good sign for him, for the Holy One, blessed be He, loves His Torah; for if he grew rich he would transgress the words of Torah. And so it is set forth explicitly in the Writings through Solomon, king of Israel: "Two things have I asked of You; deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lies; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with my allotted bread, lest I be full and deny You, and say, Who is the LORD? Or lest I be poor, and steal, and profane the name of my God" (Proverbs 30). Blessed is the Omnipresent who chose the Torah and the Gemara (and the sages) and their disciples and their disciples' disciples and their children and their children's children to the end of all generations, and who fulfills concerning them: In the measure that a man measures, so is it measured out to him. Just as they sit in synagogues and houses of study and in every empty place and read for the sake of Heaven, with the fear of Him in their hearts, and hold fast to the words of Torah by mouth so that they will not be forgotten from their mouths and from the mouths of their children and their children's children forever, so did the Holy One, blessed be He, choose them and their children and their children's children forever, as it is said: "And as for Me, this is My covenant with them, says the LORD: My spirit that is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed's seed, says the LORD, from now and forever" (Isaiah 59). But the children of the transgressors of Israel are not so: in their youth they are tender, and in their old age they are hard. What does the Holy One, blessed be He, do? While they are still tender, He takes them up and burns them in His great house of study and in His great academy, as it is said (2 Samuel 23): "But the worthless are all of them as thorns thrust away, for they cannot be taken with the hand; but the man that touches them must be armed with iron and the staff of a spear, and they shall be utterly burned with fire in their place." And "the worthless" (belial) means nothing other than the wicked, as it is said (1 Samuel 10): "But the worthless men said," and so forth, and it says (1 Samuel 30): "Then answered all the wicked men and the worthless." From here the sages said: Everything that is to be at the end has already been done in part today. In the future there will be an academy for the Holy One, blessed be He, in His house of study, and the righteous of the world will sit before Him in the light of His countenance. Part of this academy has already been made for the righteous in this world for David, king of Israel, who would shine his face in the law toward the righteous who sat before him. And so in the future the righteous will have their lives without sorrow and without the evil inclination in the days of the son of David and in the world to come. Part of this life without sorrow and without the evil inclination has already been made for the righteous in this world, namely Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Jabez, and Jethro, and all who are like them. In the future the Holy One, blessed be He, will revive the dead, whether in the days of the son of David or in the world to come. Part of this resurrection of the dead has already been done through the righteous in this world, through Elijah and Elisha and Ezekiel son of Buzi the priest. In the future there will be honor and might for the righteous in the world to come. Part of this honor and might has already been made for the righteous in this world, namely Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. In the future there will be eating and drinking and rejoicing for the righteous. It has already been made for the righteous in this world for Solomon, king of Israel. In the future there will be blood and flesh and the breaking of Gog and Magog and of the idolaters upon the mountains of Israel. Part of it, blood and flesh and breaking, has already been done upon those who oppress us, as our eyes see continually every day. And if you wish to learn, and you desire the words of Torah, go out and learn from the beginning of the matter above which we stated: that the Holy One, blessed be He, is destined to sit in His house of study, and the righteous of the world sit before Him and discuss Scripture, Mishnah, laws, and homilies, declaring the impure impure and the pure pure, the impure in its place and the pure in its place. And afterward they bring the wicked and judge them in their presence. Some are judged thirty days, some are judged sixty days, some are judged three months, and some are judged six months. The sum of the matter: our Rabbis taught in the Mishnah, the judgment of the wicked in Gehenna is twelve months. And afterward the righteous will stand before the Holy One, blessed be He, and will say before Him: Master of the universe, when we were in that world, these people would rise early and stay late at the synagogue and recite the Shema and perform the other commandments. The Holy One, blessed be He, will say to them: If they did so, heal them. Immediately the righteous go and stand over the dust of the wicked and seek mercy upon them, and the Holy One, blessed be He, raises them up from the dust of their feet, as it is said (Malachi 2): "And you shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet." Part of this academy has already been made for the righteous in this world for David, king of Israel. How so? As it is said: "These are the names of the mighty men whom David had: he that sat in the seat, wise (Tachkemoni), chief of the captains; the same was Adino the Eznite: he lifted up his spear against eight hundred slain at one time" (2 Samuel 23). All the people sat in the academy before him, but David did not sit upon a cushion nor upon a bench; rather he sat upon the ground and taught Torah in public for the sake of Heaven. The Divine Presence came and stood above him, answering and saying to him: Speak, my son, these words are fitting for you, and they are yours, and you rule over them as I do, as it is said "Tachkemoni" [read as: you have made Me wise]. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to David: You sit in an academy in which there is no leaning back; you shall be like Me. From here the sages said: Any sitting in which there is no leaning back, standing is better than it. What is the meaning of "chief of the captains" (literally, head of the third)? That you shall be head in My threefold Torah. Another interpretation: "head of the third" (chief of the captains) means that your portion shall be with the three righteous ones, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as it is said: "And the threefold cord is not quickly broken" (Ecclesiastes 4). Another interpretation: "head of the third" means that you shall be head over the three Patriarchs. Another interpretation: "head of the third" means that you shall be head over all Israel, who go up to Jerusalem on pilgrimage three times a year. Why? The words of Torah of David the king, peace be upon him, are like a man to whom hide is given, and he tans it and scrapes it and stretches it and brings it to a fine work, as it is said: "the same was Adino the Eznite." Another interpretation: "the same was Adino the Eznite" (Adino / he refined himself; Etzni / the staff) means that when you sit in the house of study you shall be soft as a worm, and when you go out to war you shall be hard as wood. And what is your reward before Me? "Against eight hundred slain at one time" lacking two hundred from a thousand. David said before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the universe, why am I lacking two hundred? He said to him: David My son, did I not write thus in My Torah: "And five of you shall chase a hundred" (Leviticus 26), even though there are no words of Torah among you, but only proper conduct and Scripture alone? But if you do the words of Torah, one man of you shall chase a thousand, as it is said (Deuteronomy 32): "How should one chase a thousand?" But you did My will, yet you did not do all My will, as it is said (1 Kings 15): "Save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite." Therefore you are lacking two hundred. From here they said: If you see a disciple of the wise who has committed a transgression by day, do not suspect him by night, for perhaps he has repented. So you have learned that whoever speaks ill of the deed of a disciple of the wise is as though he spoke ill of the Divine Presence, as it is said: "Hatred stirs up strifes, but love covers all transgressions" (Proverbs 10). And "love" means nothing other than Torah, as it is said: "The Torah of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver" (Psalms 119), and it says (Psalms 119): "O how I love Your Torah! It is my meditation all the day." The light of a disciple of the wise and of the righteous one in the days of the son of David and in the world to come, how is it? To some He gives the light of countenance like the going forth of the sun in its strength, for about one hour; and to some He gives it for about two hours; and to some for about three hours; and to some four; and to some six; and to some for the whole day entire. And to some He gives the light of countenance like the light of the moon at the new month; and to some like the fifth of the month; and to some like the tenth of the month; and to some like the fifteenth of the month; and to some like the great stars; and to some like the small stars; and to some He gives the light of countenance like the air of the firmament when it is purified; and some He blackens their faces like the bottom of a pot. This is the rule: anyone who shows favor to the Torah merits and receives the face of the Divine Presence, but he who is befouled and soiled with transgressions does not recline before the King. In what case is this said? When he has not repented. But if he repented and died, he is like an eternal righteous one in all his affairs. Thus the sages taught: Three kings have no portion in the world to come, and these are they: Jeroboam, Ahaz, Manasseh (some say Ahab). This tells you that anyone who worships idolatry, whether in his youth or in his old age, and dies without repentance, even if he was fit to be a high priest, has no portion in the world to come, as it is said (Amos 8): "They that swear by the guilt of Samaria, and say, As your god lives, O Dan, and, As the way of Beersheba lives; even they shall fall, and never rise up again." For all the commandments that a man does in this world have no power to give light except like the light of a candle alone, but the Torah gives light from one end of the world to the other, as it is said: "For the commandment is a candle, and the Torah is light" (Proverbs 6). And anyone who attaches himself to the sages and to their disciples, Scripture accounts it to him as though he had done the will of his Father in heaven; and anyone who knows how to reprove and reproves the many makes contentment of spirit before his Maker, as it is said (Proverbs 24): "But to them that rebuke shall be delight, and a good blessing shall come upon them." It does not say "upon him" shall come a good blessing, but "upon them," upon those who reprove and upon him who accepts reproof. And it says: "If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth; and if a tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it shall be" (Ecclesiastes 11). Anyone who acknowledges his sufferings and rejoices in them is given life in this world and in the world that has no end, as it is said (Proverbs 6): "And the way of life is the reproofs of instruction."

For what reason did Moses merit a radiant face in this world, like that which the Holy One, blessed be He, is destined to give the righteous in the world to come? Because he did the will of the Holy One, blessed be He, and grieved over the honor of the Holy One, blessed be He, and of Israel, and all his days he longed and yearned and looked forward to there being peace between Israel and their Father in heaven. Whence do you know this? When Israel was in the wilderness and corrupted their deeds, the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses, "Now therefore let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and I may consume them, and I will make of you a great nation" (Exodus 32:10). At once Moses had an opening to reply: "And Moses entreated the face of the LORD his God, and said, Why, O LORD, does Your anger burn against Your people, whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say... Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel" (Exodus 32:11-13). At once there was a response: "And the LORD relented of the evil" (Exodus 32:14). Moses said before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the universe, You are righteous and faithful, yet the attribute of justice prosecutes before You against all who come into the world and against all the works of Your hands that You created. Let me go down from before You and apply the attribute of justice among them: if they all worshiped the calf with a whole heart, let them all die in one day. At once Moses went down from before the Holy One, blessed be He, and "Moses took the calf... and scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it" (Exodus 32:20). "And Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Whoever is for the LORD, to me!" (Exodus 32:26), and he said to them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel... let each man kill his brother" (Exodus 32:27), "and there fell of the people about three thousand men" (Exodus 32:28). I call heaven and earth to witness concerning myself that the Holy One, blessed be He, did not tell Moses to stand in the gate of the camp and say "Whoever is for the LORD, to me" and to set each man his sword on his thigh and to kill brother and neighbor and kinsman. Rather Moses reasoned within himself and said in his heart: If I say to Israel "kill each man his brother and his neighbor and his kinsman," Israel will reason and say to me, Did you not teach us, our master, that a Sanhedrin that executes one soul of Israel once in seven years is called destructive? Why are you killing three thousand in a single day? Therefore he attached it to the honor of Heaven and said, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, set each man his sword on his thigh." And as soon as he spoke in the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, "the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses" (Exodus 32:28). The righteous Moses then again stood in prayer before the Omnipresent and said before Him: Master of the universe, You are righteous and faithful, and all Your works are in faithfulness; and shall six hundred thousand from age twenty and upward die because of three thousand who worshiped the calf with a whole heart, besides those of nineteen and fifteen and ten and two and one, and besides how many converts and servants who joined them, beyond all counting? At once the mercy of the Holy One, blessed be He, was stirred, and He was reconciled with them. A parable: to what may the matter be compared? To a king of flesh and blood whose firstborn son sinned before him. He seized him and handed him to his servant, the steward of the house, and said, "Go out and kill this one, and give him to the beasts and the dogs." What did that servant do? He took him out from before the king and set him aside and hid him in another house, and the servant came and stood before the king. After thirty days, when the king's heart was glad and his servants and household were reclining before him, when he lifted his eyes and did not see his firstborn, grief and sighing entered his heart, and no creature recognized it and brought grief and sighing into the king's heart except the steward of the house. At once he ran and stood him before him. At once the king took the beautiful crown that lay before him and set it on the head of his servant, the steward. To this is the righteous Moses likened: since he stood in prayer in four or five places and saved Israel from death, the beautiful thing that was set aside for Israel, that it should be theirs and their children's forever for the Torah they received when they said "we will do and we will hear" - that crown shall rest on the head of Moses forever, as it is said, "And the Israelites saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone" (Exodus 34:35). And lest you say, since Moses entered his eternal home perhaps that crown of the radiant face departed from him, Scripture teaches, "And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face" (Deuteronomy 34:10). Just as the radiance of the Face above endures forever and ever, so the radiance of the face of Moses entered with him into his eternal home, as it is said, "And Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eye was not dim, nor his vigor gone" (Deuteronomy 34:7). And not Moses alone, but any disciple of the wise who occupies himself with Torah from his youth to his old age and dies in truth has not died, but is still alive forever and ever, as it is said, "And the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the LORD your God" (1 Samuel 25:29). And where is his soul? Beneath the Throne of Glory. From here they said: Let a person not multiply weeping and lamentation over his dead, nor grief and sighing, beyond the measure the sages fixed - three days for weeping and lamentation, seven days for mourning, thirty days for pressing garments and haircutting and other matters; and whoever weeps beyond this, it is as if he wounds himself, as it is said, "Do not weep for the dead nor bemoan him" (Jeremiah 22:10). The Holy One, blessed be He, said: You do not have more mercy on him than I do. If a person commits a transgression before Me and turns back and repents, behold I am with him in mercy and I accept his repentance, and I do not remember against him even a part of his iniquities. Weep, rather, for him who goes away - this is one who committed a transgression and repeated it and tripled it and did not repent; over him weep, for he is uprooted from the world. And so too every sage of Israel who has true words of Torah in him, and grieves over the honor of the Holy One, blessed be He, and over the honor of Israel all his days, and longs and yearns and looks forward to the honor of Jerusalem and to the Temple and to the deliverance that will soon sprout in our days and to the ingathering of the exiles - at once the Holy Spirit rests within him, as it is said, "Where is He who put His holy Spirit within him?" (Isaiah 63:11). From here they said: Any disciple of the wise who occupies himself with Torah continually every day in order to increase the honor of Heaven needs neither sword nor spear nor any guarding, for the Holy One, blessed be He, guards him Himself, and the ministering angels stand around him, a sword in the hand of each, guarding him, as it is said, "The high praises of God are in their throat, and a two-edged sword in their hand" (Psalms 149:6).

Life without pain and without the evil impulse in the days of the son of David and in the world to come. How so? In the future, the Holy One, blessed be He, will sit in His study hall, and the righteous of the world will sit before Him. The Holy One, blessed be He, will provide for them, for their wives, their sons and daughters, their male servants and female servants, all the needs of their households, and the Holy Spirit will rest upon them, as it is said: "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy" (Joel 3:1), and also, "Even upon the male servants and upon the female servants in those days I will pour out My spirit" (Joel 3:2). And it says: "Complacent women, rise; hear my voice; confident daughters, give ear to my speech" (Isaiah 32:9). I said "without the evil impulse," as it is said: "I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will place within you; I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 36:26). "A new spirit I will place within you" refers to good deeds. "I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh" refers to the evil impulse. "I will give you a heart of flesh" refers to the good impulse, so that one may fulfill all the words of Torah, which are doubled in every place.

Glory and strength for the righteous in the time to come and in the world to come. How so? The Holy One, blessed be He, sits in His house of study, and the righteous of the world sit before Him, and to each and every one is given a radiant face according to the Torah that is in him, and the ministering angels stand around Israel and weep in their hearts and say: Happy are Israel, that all the trouble and affliction and pressure that they had has passed and gone, and now all that goodness and greatness is theirs, as it is said, "Kings of armies flee, they flee" (Psalms 68:13). Read not "flee" but "are friends" - for they conversed with Moses, father of wisdom, father of the prophets, who went up on high and brought down the Torah from heaven. For in this world the idolaters reproached Israel and said, Silver and gold are ours and silver and gold are Israel's; fields and vineyards are ours and likewise Israel's; what reward do they have for the words of Torah over which they so afflicted themselves? But afterward, when the days of the son of David arrive and the angel of death is abolished from Israel in this world, all the idolaters will say, "Happy the people whose lot is thus; happy the people whose God is the LORD" (Psalms 144:15), as it is said, "He will swallow up death forever" (Isaiah 25:8) - these are the days of the son of David. And the idolaters will cry outside, that they did not heed the words of Torah, and the ministering angels will cry within, that they did not merit that goodness of Israel, as it is said, "Behold, their valiant ones cry outside" (Isaiah 33:7). And it says, "He raises the poor from the dust" (Psalms 113:7) - these are people who committed transgressions and upon whom death was decreed unto four generations, as it is said, "visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and fourth generations" (Exodus 20:5); they turned and repented and read Scripture and studied Mishnah and died amid that affliction. The Holy One, blessed be He, has no consolation over them unless He stands them up on their feet from the dust between His knees and embraces them and kisses them and brings them to the life of the world to come with the rest of the righteous. "To seat them with princes" (Psalms 113:8) - in the world to come. "He gives the barren woman a home" (Psalms 113:9) - this is the Temple, within which the Holy One, blessed be He, stood and created the whole world from end to end, as it is said, "The LORD by wisdom founded the earth, established the heavens by understanding; by His knowledge the depths broke open" (Proverbs 3:19-20). Another interpretation: this is this world, within which the Holy One, blessed be He, created the human being, as it is said, "I made the earth and created man upon it" (Isaiah 45:12). "A joyful mother of children" - blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed be He, whose joy over Israel is great forever; for just as Israel repents in this world and performs the Torah and rejoices in it, so the Torah rejoices in them in the world to come. The resurrection of the dead belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He, in this world, to sanctify His great name; and the resurrection of the dead belongs to Him in the days of the son of David, to give reward to those who love Him and fear Him; and the resurrection of the dead belongs to Him in the world to come, to render judgment and reckoning, as it is said, "Your dead shall live, my corpses shall rise; awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust, for your dew is a dew of lights, and the earth shall cast out the shades" (Isaiah 26:19). "Your dead shall live" - these are the dead of the land of Israel; "my corpses shall rise" - these are the dead outside the land; "awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust" - these are people who settle themselves upon the dust to learn Torah; the Holy One, blessed be He, brings upon them the dew of the lights of Torah and seats them between His knees and kisses them and brings them to the life of the world to come, as it is said, "for your dew is a dew of lights." And for what reason did Ezekiel merit that the dead be revived through him? Because he attached himself to Israel at every single hour. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Ezekiel, "Son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city?" (Ezekiel 22:2). Why "will you judge" twice? Thus said the Holy One, blessed be He, to Ezekiel: To Me and to you it is fitting to reprove Israel. Another interpretation: thus said the Holy One, blessed be He, to Ezekiel: If you reprove them, reprove them, and if you do not, I will reprove them with reproof; but you shall not be like them, but like this song - just as a song, at times people rejoice in it, at times it gladdens its masters, as it is said, "You are to them like a love song" (Ezekiel 33:32). And know that it is so: when Nebuchadnezzar came and exiled Israel and brought them down to Babylon, he made them officers over every labor, and when they corrupted their deeds he took them out to the valley and killed them; and at the hour they were slain they said, "Our bones are dried up and our hope is lost; we are cut off" (Ezekiel 37:11). Therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, brought Ezekiel upon them and passed him over them, as it is said, "The hand of the LORD was upon me... and set me down in the midst of the valley, and it was full of bones, and He led me around among them, and behold they were very dry" (Ezekiel 37:1-2). Read not "bones" but "tree of death" - from the tree of which the Holy One, blessed be He, told the first man not to eat, and he ate, and death was decreed upon him and upon his descendants who came after him until the end of all generations. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Ezekiel, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And he said, "O Lord GOD, You know." At once "He said to me, Prophesy over the bones... Prophesy to the breath... Thus says the Lord GOD, from the four winds come, O breath, and breathe into these slain that they may live" - this teaches that they had been slain. From here they said that the ministering angels were appointed over that wicked one to harm him, as it is said, "But you are cast out from your grave like a loathsome branch, clothed with the slain" (Isaiah 14:19). And in the end they lived and stood upon their feet and were fruitful and multiplied, as it is said, "And the breath came into them and they lived and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great host" (Ezekiel 37:10). Then was the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, magnified and sanctified from one end of the world to the other; and concerning that hour it is said, "And I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself and make Myself known in the eyes of many nations" (Ezekiel 38:23).

"Draw me after you, let us run; the King has brought me into his chambers" (Song of Songs 1:4). This is the assembly of Israel, which was drawn after the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is said, "From afar the LORD appeared to me, saying, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness" (Jeremiah 31:3). It does not say "with great love I have loved you" but "with everlasting love I have loved you." Lest you say the love of the Holy One, blessed be He, lasted three years, or ten years, or a hundred years, therefore it is said "with everlasting love I have loved you." Therefore it is said, "Draw me after you, let us run; the King has brought me into his chambers." A parable: to a king who was sitting on his throne with his servants standing before him, and he set his eyes on the one he loved, seized him by the hand, and brought him into his innermost chambers. So the Holy One, blessed be He, brought Israel into the innermost chambers, what He did not bring any other nation or tongue. Therefore it is said, "The King has brought me into his chambers." Another interpretation of "the King has brought me into his chambers": just as the Holy One, blessed be He, has innermost chambers in His Torah, so the disciples of the wise have, each and every one, innermost chambers in his Torah. And if you see that sufferings come upon you and press in, run to the chambers of the words of Torah, and at once the sufferings flee from you, as it is said, "Come, my people, enter your chambers" (Isaiah 26:20). Therefore it is said, "The King has brought me into his chambers." "We will rejoice and be glad in you" - in that You magnified us and engaged us and exalted us and bound for us a great bond in the words of Torah from one end of the world to the other, until You left aside four hundred and ninety-six thousand myriads of ministering angels and came and cleaved to them, to Israel, forever. And because it is said of You, "Before Me no god was formed, and after Me there shall be none" (Isaiah 43:10), You called us sons, brothers, and servants; and because it is said of You, "I am the LORD and there is none else, besides Me there is no God" (Isaiah 45:5), You called us gods; and because it is said of You, "A righteous God and a Savior, there is none besides Me" (Isaiah 45:21), You caused Your great name to rest upon the name of Israel, and the name of Israel You joined to Your great name. Concerning that hour it says, "I sleep but my heart is awake; it is the voice of my beloved knocking: Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one" (Song of Songs 5:2). "We will recall your love more than wine" (Song of Songs 1:4): just as the Holy One, blessed be He - may His great name be blessed forever and ever - recalls and praises the deeds of the righteous and the upright and claps His two hands one upon the other and says, Why was not the whole world filled with people like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and like Moses and David? - so let a person recall and praise the Holy One, blessed be He, in prayer and in the words of Torah and in the words of the sages in every place; and in the end let his way be set before the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is said, "Who is wise that he may understand these things... for the ways of the LORD are right, and the righteous walk in them" (Hosea 14:10). And when does the Holy One, blessed be He, recall and praise the deeds of the righteous and clap His two hands and say, Why was not the world filled with people like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and like Moses and David? When Israel was in the wilderness and corrupted their deeds, the Holy One, blessed be He, said: How many miracles and how many mighty acts I did for them, and they have still not entered under the wings of the Divine Presence. But for Jacob I never did miracles, and all his days he was upright before Me, as it is said, "And Jacob was a wholehearted man" (Genesis 25:27) - wholehearted from robbery, wholehearted from transgression, wholehearted from any unseemly word. And when the Holy One, blessed be He, recalls him, He claps His two hands one upon the other over him, as it is said, "And Israel dwelt in safety, alone, the fountain of Jacob" (Deuteronomy 33:28). And when Amos the prophet stood and asked mercy for Israel before the Holy One, blessed be He, he said before Him: Master of the universe, if there is none in the world like Jacob, let the whole world be destroyed; our Father in heaven, may Your great name be blessed forever and ever, may You have contentment from Israel Your servants in all the places of their dwellings - for You did not leave Your servant Amos the prophet until You answered him, as it is said, "Thus the Lord GOD showed me: behold, He was forming locusts at the beginning of the late growth... and when they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said, O Lord GOD, forgive, I pray; how can Jacob stand, for he is small? The LORD relented concerning this: It shall not be, said the LORD" (Amos 7:1-3). This is the first vision; and in the second vision what does he say? "Thus the Lord GOD showed me: behold, the Lord GOD was summoning a contention by fire... and I said, O Lord GOD, cease, I pray; how can Jacob stand" (Amos 7:4-5).

Scripture says, "Wisdom is better than weapons of war" (Ecclesiastes 9:18). Greater was the feast that Elisha made than all the wars that Joram son of Ahab made, as it is said, "And the king of Israel said to Elisha when he saw them, Shall I strike them down, shall I strike them, my father? And he said, You shall not strike them down... and he prepared for them a great feast, and they ate and drank, and he sent them away... and the bands of Aram came no more into the land of Israel" (2 Kings 6:21-23). From this you learn that the feast Elisha made was greater than all the wars Joram made; therefore it is said, "Wisdom is better than weapons of war." Similarly, David the king said, "The beginning of Your word is truth" (Psalms 119:160). What did King David see to praise the Holy One, blessed be He, with the language of truth? He reasoned within himself: just as the Holy One, blessed be He, is Himself called truth, as it is said, "But the LORD is the true God" (Jeremiah 10:10), and it says, "The LORD swore to David in truth" (Psalms 132:11), so I will praise Him only with the language of truth; therefore it is said, "The beginning of Your word is truth." Similarly, "The word of the LORD came to Gad the prophet, David's seer, saying... three things I offer you; choose one of them" (2 Samuel 24:11-12). "And David said to Gad, I am in great distress; let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are many" (2 Samuel 24:14). At that hour David said in his mind: If I say let famine come, Israel will say it is because he trusts in his storehouses; therefore I will not say famine. And if I say let the sword come, Israel will say it is because he trusts in his warriors; therefore I will not say sword. Rather I will ask only for a thing in which all are equal, poor and rich, old and young. At once "the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel... and the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, and the LORD relented of the evil" (2 Samuel 24:15-16). And David lifted his eyes and saw the iniquities of Israel heaped in bands from the earth to the heavens; therefore it is said, "And David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the LORD standing between earth and heaven" (1 Chronicles 21:16). At that hour an angel descended from the heights and slew Gad the seer and four sons of David and the elders who were with David. When David saw the sword of the angel of death, trembling entered him and he had no more strength or warmth, as it is said, "And they covered him with garments, but he could not get warm" (1 Kings 1:1). Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed be He, who promised our ancestors and fulfilled the promise for their children. Just as the Holy One, blessed be He, promised our ancestors that He rolls away and removes our sins and does not keep jealousy and vengeance in His heart to do judgment against all Israel in all their dwellings, and the words of Torah He does not withhold from them - so He fulfills this promise. But the Holy One, blessed be He, does keep jealousy and vengeance in His heart in order to do judgment against the wicked of the idolaters. Go and learn from Pharaoh and all his camp: just as they were jealous and took vengeance against Israel, so the Holy One, blessed be He, was jealous and took vengeance against Pharaoh and all his camp. And why was Egypt different from all the lands of the idolaters into which Israel entered? Because at that time the Egyptians ruled from one end of the world to the other, and they were defiled with many transgressions, and there was no nation in the world so steeped in unseemly things and improper matters and suspected of sorcery and lewdness and all evil deeds as the Egyptians alone. Ten plagues did the Holy One, blessed be He, bring upon the Egyptians, and all of them came upon them only because of the things they plotted to do to Israel; for all the words of the Holy One, blessed be He, are truth, measure for measure, and no evil measure goes out from before Him, only good measures, and because of the corrupted deeds of human beings an evil measure goes out against them. And these are they: blood, frogs, lice, swarms, pestilence, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, the slaying of the firstborn. Blood - why did it come upon them? Because they saw the Israelites immersing from their impurity and from marital relations, and the daughters of Israel immersing from menstruation; what did the Egyptians do? They held back the waters from them so they could not immerse and could not come together and be fruitful and multiply; therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, turned their waters to blood, as it is said, "He turned their waters into blood and killed their fish" (Psalms 105:29). And the Egyptians would say to Israel, Give us some of your water; he would give him water and it became blood; an Israelite would drink water and the Egyptian would say, Let me and you drink from one vessel, and the water in the vessel divided, water for the Israelite and blood for the Egyptian. Frogs - why did they come? Because they would say to Israel, Go and bring us creeping things and swarming things that we may play with them as we wish; therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, brought the frogs upon them, until their croaking was heard from inside the bellies of the Egyptians, and when they went to the privy the frogs came out and bit them in their orifices, and there is no shame greater than this. When Moses and Aaron made frogs, the Egyptians too made frogs by sorcery; but from then on the whole world cannot create any creature smaller than a lentil. One verse says "the river swarmed with frogs" and another says "the frog came up"; Rabbi Akiva says one frog came and the Egyptians struck it and frogs swarmed from it until the land was full; Rabbi Eliezer of Modiin said to him, Akiva, what have you to do with aggadah? Cease your words and turn to the laws of plagues and tents; rather, the Holy One, blessed be He, brought many kinds of frogs upon them. Lice - why did He bring them? Because they set Israel to sweeping their roads and houses, fields and streets; therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, turned the dust of Egypt to lice. Swarms - why? Because they would say to Israel, Go and bring us bears and lions to our hunting houses, so that Israel would be out in the wilds and not enter their own houses and be fruitful; therefore He brought upon them every evil beast in the world. Pestilence - because they set Israel to herding their horses and donkeys and camels and cattle and sheep, so they would be in the wilds; therefore He brought pestilence and killed all that Israel herded. Boils - because they made Israel their servants to heat water and cool it for them, while the Egyptians bathed and entered their houses in joy; therefore He brought boils so they could not touch water. Hail - because they set Israel to planting gardens and orchards; therefore He brought hail and broke all the plantings. Locusts - because they set Israel to sowing wheat and barley and legumes; therefore He brought locusts that ate all that Israel sowed. Darkness - blessed is the Omnipresent before whom there is no favoritism; there were wrongdoers in Israel who did not wish to leave, and when there was darkness for the Egyptians and light for Israel, those wicked ones died and were buried, so the Egyptians would not say a plague struck Israel as it struck them. The firstborn - because Pharaoh said, "If it is a son, kill him" (Exodus 1:16).

Let a person keep this in his heart: that he should not eat at the table with an idolater, for we find regarding Hezekiah king of Judah that he ate with an idolater at the table, and in the end he was punished with a great punishment. How do you know? When Sennacherib came and surrounded Jerusalem, Hezekiah stood in prayer before the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is said, "And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said, O LORD, God of Israel, who dwells between the cherubim... incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see, and hear the words of Sennacherib... that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the LORD God alone" (2 Kings 19:15-19). It appears that Hezekiah spoke with the Holy One, blessed be He, like a person speaking with his friend. At once the spirit of God rested on Isaiah the prophet, and Isaiah the prophet said to Hezekiah the king: Does not a person who speaks with one greater than himself shudder in all his body and tremble in all his limbs? One who speaks before the King of kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, all the more so should speak with awe and fear and trembling. Therefore Hezekiah fell ill with a great illness, as it is said, "In those days Hezekiah fell sick to the point of death, and Isaiah came to him... and said, Thus says the LORD, set your house in order, for you shall die and not live" (2 Kings 20:1). What is "you shall die and not live"? The prophet said to him: You shall die in this world and not live in the world to come. He said to him: And why so much? He said: Because you did not occupy yourself with being fruitful and multiplying. He said to him: Because I foresaw by the Holy Spirit that unworthy children would come from me. He said to him: With the hidden things of the Merciful, why are you concerned? What you were commanded you ought to do, and what is pleasing before the Holy One, blessed be He, let Him do. He said: Give me your daughter now; perhaps your merit and mine together will cause worthy children to come from me. He said: The decree has already been issued against you. He said: Son of Amoz, finish your prophecy and go out. Thus I have received from the house of my father's father: even if a sharp sword rests on a person's neck, let him not withhold himself from mercy, as it is said, "Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him" (Job 13:15). Therefore let a person marry a wife so that he may have children, and let him learn from Hezekiah: even though he knew in his mind by the Holy Spirit that he would not have fitting children, and therefore offered objections before the Omnipresent, even so he was being punished in the world to come had he not married a wife. And the sages learned four things concerning prayer. First, that a person should not stand in a valley to pray, after the manner of idolaters. Second, that he should not stand in the public domain and pray, on account of the notice of people and the notice of women. Third, that he should sanctify his space, four cubits to the north, four to the south, four to the east, and four to the west; and if the prayer was in his house, he must sanctify the whole house, even a hundred cubits; why? "For the LORD your God is a consuming fire" (Deuteronomy 4:24). Fourth, the sages learned that a person should not stand beside a tree or beside a stone and pray, but beside the wall, and let nothing interpose between him and the wall, as it is said, "And he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD" (2 Kings 20:2). "And Hezekiah wept greatly" - the LORD, who is merciful and gracious and full of compassion, saw his lips murmuring uprightly with wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and insight, and at once heard his prayer, as it is said, "And before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him, saying... I have heard your prayer... behold, I will heal you; on the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD" (2 Kings 20:4-5). "And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, What is the sign... And Isaiah said, This is the sign for you... the shadow went back ten steps" (2 Kings 20:8-11). At that hour all the idolaters and their sages and sorcerers were confounded, and said, No one recognizes this matter except the Great Court in Jerusalem alone. At once the king of Babylon wrote letters and a gift to Hezekiah king of Judah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been ill, and Hezekiah listened to them and showed them all his treasure-house; there was nothing that Hezekiah did not show them. At once the spirit of God rested on Isaiah and he said to Hezekiah, What did these men say, and where did they come to you from?... And Hezekiah said... There was nothing in my treasuries that I did not show them. But were these the things asked of him? Rather he said to him: Why did you reveal the secret of the LORD to idolaters? And the idolaters say, What difference is there in Hezekiah from his Father in heaven? Therefore it is said, "And Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD: behold, days are coming when all that is in your house... shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left" (2 Kings 20:16-17). From here they said: Let a person not be arrogant about the words of Torah and not provoke over them, lest they be uprooted from the world; for so we find regarding Hezekiah the king, who was arrogant about the words of Torah and provoked over them, and they sought to uproot him from the world. At the hour when God in heaven made known to Hezekiah that He would heal him as the reward of his prayer and his tear and that he would go up on the third day to the house of the LORD, Hezekiah asked for a sign, and the Holy One, blessed be He, changed for him the work of the heavens; and when He changed the work of the heavens for him, his mind grew haughty, and he ate with the idolaters and showed them the Ark and revealed to them the secret of the upper realms, and because he ate with idolaters and showed them the Ark and revealed to them the secret, He gave him Manasseh. Similarly: "There was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim, of the hill country of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah" (1 Samuel 1:1). Elkanah used to go up to Shiloh four times a year - three from the Torah and one which he took upon himself as a freewill offering, as it is said, "And this man went up out of his city from year to year to worship and to sacrifice to the LORD of hosts in Shiloh" (1 Samuel 1:3). Elkanah and his wife and his sons and his household and his brothers and his sisters and all his relatives would go up with him, and he said to them: Learn the way of service from the Canaanites and from the idolaters, who fashioned a way of service for their idol, though it is vanity and emptiness; how much more so must you fashion a way of service and go up before the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD, who is the living and enduring God. He told them all to go up with him; and when they went up with him along the way, they would lodge in the open square of the city, and the people would gather, the men by themselves and the women by themselves, for the man would speak with the man and the woman with the woman, the great with the small; and the city would be stirred, and they would ask them, Where are you going? And they would say, To the house of God in Shiloh, from which Torah and good deeds go forth; and why will you not come with us, and let us go together? At once their eyes streamed tears, and they said, We will go up with you. And he said this to them again and again, until the next year five households went up with him, and the year after that ten households went up with him, and the year after that they were all stirred to go up, and about sixty households went up with him; and by the road he went up one year he did not go up the next, until all Israel were going up, and Elkanah inclined all Israel to the side of merit and trained them in the commandments, and many were brought to merit through him. The Holy One, blessed be He, who searches hearts and inmost parts, said to Elkanah: You inclined Israel to the side of merit and trained them in the commandments, and many were brought to merit through you; I will bring forth from you a son who will incline all Israel to the side of merit and train them in the commandments, and many will be brought to merit through him. From this you learn: as the reward of the deed of Elkanah, Samuel; and as the reward of the deed of Hezekiah, Manasseh. From here they said: Whoever eats with idolaters at the table is as if he worships idols and eats from the sacrifices of the dead.

"And Deborah, a woman, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, she judged Israel at that time" (Judges 4). What was the nature of Deborah, that she judged Israel at that time and prophesied over them? Was not Phinehas son of Eleazar alive in those days? I call heaven and earth to witness for me: whether Israel or gentile, whether man or woman, whether manservant or maidservant, all is according to the deed that one does; accordingly the Holy Spirit rests upon him. Thus they said: Deborah's husband was an ignoramus. His wife said to him: Come, and let me make you wicks, and bring them to the house of God that is in Shiloh; perhaps your portion will be among the worthy men there, and you will merit the world to come. And he would make thick wicks so that their light would be abundant; therefore his name was called Lappidoth (torches). And thus they said: he had three names, Barak, Lappidoth, and Michael. Barak, because his face was like lightning (barak); Lappidoth, because he made thick torches; and what was his name? Michael was his name. The Holy One, blessed be He, who tests hearts and minds, said to Deborah: You intended for the sake of Heaven and made thick wicks so that their light would be abundant; I too will increase (arbeh) you among Israel and among Judah and among the twelve tribes of Israel. And who caused Lappidoth to have his portion among worthy men and to merit the world to come? You must say: Deborah his wife. Thus they said concerning Deborah, the wife of Barak; and concerning one like her it says: "The wisest of women builds her house" (Proverbs 14). Likewise you say concerning Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians, wife of Ahab. Thus they said: In the first hour that she came in to Ahab, she taught him the way of the worship of idolatry, and through her he sold himself to idolatry, as it is said (1 Kings 21): "But there was none like unto Ahab, who sold himself to do that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up," and so forth. And because of her deeds and the deeds of her husband, the two of them were lost from this world and from the world to come, and they destroyed their children with them. A parable: to a king to whom his servant brought a gift of seventy jars of oil; when he heard from him excessive words, he flung them down before him. So who caused Ahab to be lost from this world and from the world to come, he and his children? You must say: Jezebel his wife. And concerning her and concerning one like her it says (Proverbs 4): "But folly tears it down with her hands." And concerning them it says (Psalms 37): "Fret not yourself because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who carries out wicked devices," and so forth; "For yet a little while, and the wicked shall be no more," and so forth; "I have seen the wicked in great power," and so forth; "Yet he passed away, and lo, he was not," and so forth (variant reading: "The wicked watches the righteous, and seeks to slay him"; after him it says, "The LORD will not leave him in his hand," and so forth; "The LORD shall laugh at him"). Once I was sitting in the great house of study that is in Jerusalem before the sages. I said to them: My masters, what was different concerning Omri, commander of the army of the king of Israel, from all those who were before him, that no king who was the son of a king had been seated upon the throne until Omri came, and three kings sat for him upon his throne? They said to me: We have not heard. I said to them: His reward was because he ceded a great city in the land of Israel like Jerusalem, for it was in his mind that just as Jerusalem belongs to the kings of Judah, so Samaria should belong to the kings of Israel, as it is said (1 Kings 16): "And he bought the hill Samaria of Shemer for two talents of silver; and he built on the hill, and called the name of the city which he built, after the name of Shemer, the owner of the hill, Samaria." And it says (Ezekiel 23): "Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother," and so forth; "and their names were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister," and so forth; "and their names were, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem is Oholibah." His reward was for ceding a great city in the land of Israel; therefore three kings sat for him upon his throne. They said concerning Omri that he was not as rich as Ahab, king of Israel, his son. Two hundred and thirty-two kings served him, not to mention the ivory house that he built. When Ahab heard from the people that these two hundred and thirty-two kings sought to rebel against him, he sent and brought the son of each one and seated them under his hand in Jerusalem and in Samaria. And the sages said: All those two hundred and thirty-two sons of kings were idolaters, and when they came to Jerusalem and to Samaria they became truly God-fearing. Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed is He, before whom there is no favoritism. Their reward was because they were truly God-fearing; through them a great deliverance came to Israel, as it is said (1 Kings 20): "And Ben-hadad the king of Aram gathered all his host together, and there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses and chariots; and he went up and besieged Samaria, and fought against it," and so forth. "And behold, a prophet drew near unto Ahab king of Israel, and said, Thus says the LORD, Have you seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will deliver it into your hand," and so forth. "And Ahab said, By whom? And he said," and so forth, "By the young men of the princes of the provinces," and so forth. And it says (2 Kings 3): "And Mesha king of Moab was a sheep-master, and he rendered unto the king of Israel a hundred thousand lambs, and a hundred thousand rams, with the wool; but it came to pass, when Ahab was dead, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel." There gathered against him, against the king of Moab, three kings together, the king of Israel, the king of Judah, and the king of Edom, "and they smote Moab, and they fled before them," and so forth. "And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too sore for him," and so forth, "then he took his eldest son," and so forth, "and offered him for a burnt-offering upon the wall." And when he slaughtered his son and offered him up as a burnt-offering, he said: Master of the universe, Abraham offered his son upon the altar and did not slaughter him, but I will slaughter my son and offer him up as a whole burnt-offering before You, for whatever You say to me I will do (variant reading: as it is said, "then he took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead"). At that hour Israel descended from the upper rung to the lower rung, as it is said: "And there was great wrath against Israel; and they departed from him, and returned to their own land." And when Ahab died, the young men of the princes of the provinces departed, each one, and went to his house. Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed is He, who repays the children of men, to every man according to his ways, and fulfills concerning them: In the measure that a man measures, so is it measured out to him. Therefore it is said: "And Deborah, a woman, a prophetess," and so forth. "And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment." The sages said: Just as Samuel sat in Ramah, so Deborah sat in Ramah (variant reading: therefore it is said) "and she dwelt under the palm tree." The sages said: there were no disciples of the wise in Israel at that time except as much as fills (variant: half) a palm tree alone; therefore it is said "under the palm tree." Another interpretation: "and she dwelt under the palm tree," because it is not the way of a woman to be secluded inside the house; therefore Deborah went and sat under the shade of the palm tree and taught Torah in public; therefore it is said "and she dwelt under the palm tree." "And she sent and called Barak son of Abinoam out of Kedesh-naphtali, and said unto him, Has not the LORD commanded," and so forth, "and take with you ten thousand men," and so forth. What is taught by "Has not the LORD commanded"? Rather, thus she said to him: It is written in the Torah, "And the judges shall inquire diligently," and so forth (Deuteronomy 19); and what is the matter written after it? "When you go forth to battle against your enemies," and so forth, "you shall not be afraid of them, for the LORD your God is with you," and so forth (Deuteronomy 20). And what is the nature of Deborah being with Barak? Was not Deborah in her place and Barak in his place? Rather, thus the sages said: Barak served the elders in the lifetime of Joshua, and so he continued to serve after his death; therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, brought him and placed him with Deborah. At that hour it was shown to Deborah by what means the Holy One, blessed be He, saves Israel from among the idolaters: by sons who rise early and stay late at the synagogue and the house of study and busy themselves with the words of Torah every day continually. And why were Zebulun and Naphtali different from all the tribes, that a great deliverance came to Israel through them, as it is said (Deuteronomy 4 [Judges 4]): "and take with you ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun"? Thus the sages said: Naphtali served Jacob our father, and contentment of spirit came from him; and Zebulun served Issachar, and because he made him a lodging-place, and because Barak trusted in the God of Israel and believed in the prophecy of Deborah, as it is said: "And Barak said unto her, If you will go with me, then I will go," and so forth, "and she said, I will surely go with you," and so forth; therefore he was given a portion in the song with her, as it is said: "Then sang Deborah and Barak," and so forth. And why was Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, different from all women, that a great deliverance came to Israel through her, as it is said: "And Jael took the tent-pin," and so forth, "and she smote the pin into his temple," and so forth, "and he was in a deep sleep and weary; so he died"? Thus the sages said: Jael was a worthy woman, and she did the will of her husband. From here the sages said: You have no worthy woman among women except a woman who does the will of her husband. Once I was sitting in the great house of study that is in Jerusalem before the sages, and I said to them: My masters, I am dust beneath your feet; I will say before you one thing. They said to me: Speak. And I said: My Father in heaven, may Your great name be blessed forever and to all eternity, and may You have contentment of spirit from Israel in all the places of their dwellings, for all the good things (variant: and the comforts) You said to man, You said only with wisdom and understanding and knowledge and intelligence, as it is said (Genesis 2:18): "And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help to match him," a help to set him on his feet and a help to give light to his eyes. They said to me: Give a reason for your words. I said to them: I will give a reason for my words. And I said to them: My masters, wheat and barley, before they are processed and ground in the mill, are nothing but wood alone. And they said to me: Yes. And I said to them: If a man gives them to his wife, and she sets them in order and processes them and grinds them in the mill, and brings forth from them bread, fine bread; or if she made him fat meat or fat milk dishes, the best foods in the world, and he eats. And likewise flax is nothing but grass. And they said to me: Yes. And I said to them: If a man gives flax to his wife, she weaves from it a garment. And not only this, but she brings forth from her fruitfulness and increase for the world; and further, so that he will not commit adultery, going from place to place. These are the four things that a woman does for her husband. And if he (variant: indeed) gives her bread and feeds her, behold, to cattle and to beasts and to birds the whole world gives food. Therefore it is said: "I will make him a help to match him," a help to set him on his feet, a help to give light to his eyes. And I further said before them words of the Holy One, blessed be He: The Holy One, blessed be He, is destined to sit in His great house, and the righteous of the world sit before Him, and He will say to them: To what are you likened? A man marries a good and beautiful wife; he rejoices in her. If her beauty changes, then he seeks to marry another in addition to her. But you are not so; you are beloved to Me from beginning to end, forever and to all eternity, as it is said (Hosea 3): "And the LORD said to me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn unto other gods," and so forth, until "afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God," and so forth. And it says (Jeremiah 3): "If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her again?" and so forth, "but you have played the harlot with many lovers; yet return to Me, says the LORD." And are they truly lovers to Him, God forbid, or is there substance in them, God forbid, to set up idolatry, that it is said "many lovers"? Rather, Israel made them into idolatry as though they were lovers to Him, God forbid; and even so He passes over the iniquities of Israel and does not keep jealousy and vengeance against them in all the places of their dwellings, and He has not withheld the words of Torah from them, and He passes over their iniquities one by one from before His face (variant: as it is said (Jeremiah 33): Thus says the LORD, If the heavens above can be measured; and the sufferings scour away their iniquities); and His deeds are not like their deeds. If so, to what are you likened? The verse therefore teaches (Deuteronomy 33): "And of Asher he said, Blessed be Asher above sons; let him be acceptable to his brothers," and so forth, "and as your days, so shall your strength be." The sages said this concerning the daughters of Asher, that the old one was like a virgin, and a virgin has no menstrual flow, as it is said: "Your bars shall be iron and brass, and as your days, so shall your strength be." And it says: "There is none like God, O Jeshurun, who rides upon the heaven for your help, and in His excellency on the skies." Happy is he who has not come to transgression, nor to sin and iniquity, and has not departed from the good way; even if he is an Israelite, he is fit to offer a burnt-offering upon the altar as though he were a high priest, as it is said: "And he sent young men of the children of Israel, and they offered burnt-offerings," and so forth (Exodus 24). But this one who set himself idle from transgression and does not commit the transgression, behold, he is prepared like the ministering angels, as it is said: "And upon the nobles of the children of Israel He laid not His hand; and they beheld God, and did eat and drink."

"Then sang Deborah" (Judges 5:1). What did Deborah prophesy to Israel? Thus said Deborah to Israel: By what merit does the Holy One, blessed be He, take vengeance for Israel against the idolaters? By those who rise early and stay late to the synagogue and to the house of study, and answer Amen and bless the Holy One, blessed be He, every day continually. And concerning one who rises early and stays late to the synagogue and the house of study to complete a quorum of ten, it says, "He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle against me, for they were many who were with me" (Psalms 55:19). And likewise one who has a disciple of the wise in his neighborhood and knows of him that he reads for the sake of Heaven and studies for the sake of Heaven, and he feeds him and sustains him and supports him - he is found to uphold the disciple of the wise and his wife and his children and all who read and study with him; concerning him it says, "He has redeemed my soul in peace." And the sages taught: Whoever sustains one soul of Israel, Scripture credits him as though he sustained a whole world. And there is no remedy of life against the angel of death except the attribute of charity alone, as it is said, "For I was afraid of the anger and the wrath" (Deuteronomy 9:19), and it says, "A gift in secret subdues anger, and a bribe in the bosom strong wrath" (Proverbs 21:14). There was an incident with two families of priests who came before Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, who were dying before their time. Rabbi Yochanan said to them: Perhaps you are from the family of the sons of Eli, of whom it is written, "And all the increase of your house shall die as men" (1 Samuel 2:33). They said to him: Rabbi, what shall we do? He said to them: When a son of yours reaches his stage, see what his value is and give to charity according to his value, and there will come upon you what is written, "And charity delivers from death" (Proverbs 10:2). And they went and did so and saved themselves from death. And not this alone, but whoever does justice and charity and upholds it, it is as though he redeemed the Holy One, blessed be He, and Israel from the idolaters; and concerning him Scripture says, "He has redeemed my soul in peace." At that hour the Holy One, blessed be He, says: Who redeemed Me and My Presence and Israel from among the idolaters? One who does justice and charity. And if they did not do so, what is said of them? "And truth is lacking" (Isaiah 59:15). Our Father in heaven, may Your great name be blessed forever and ever, and may You have contentment from Israel Your servants - for You said, Who redeemed Me and My Presence and Israel from among the idolaters? Yet are You not the One who redeems and delivers all who come into the world and all the works of Your hands that You created, as it is said, "Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles" (Psalms 25:22), and it says, "O Israel, hope in the LORD, for with the LORD there is lovingkindness and with Him is abundant redemption, and He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities" (Psalms 130:7-8)? The Holy One, blessed be He, said to the house of David: Why do you sit still? If you seek the days of the son of David and you seek to redeem Israel, do justice and charity, as it is said, "O house of David, thus says the LORD: Execute justice in the morning, and deliver the robbed from the hand of the oppressor" (Jeremiah 21:12). Deborah said: Since the Torah is contentment above and contentment below, as it is said, "It is a tree of life to those who hold fast to it" (Proverbs 3:18), therefore "my heart is toward the lawgivers of Israel, who offered themselves willingly among the people; bless the LORD" (Judges 5:9). "Riders on white donkeys" (Judges 5:10) - "white" means nothing but cleanness, for they are clean from robbery. "You who sit on judgment" - these are people who set the matter on true judgment, for "judgment" means nothing but law, as it is said, "to turn aside the needy from judgment" (Isaiah 10:2). "And you who walk along the way, tell of it" - these are the Sanhedrin upon whom the world rests, who never speak idle talk, as it is said, "Hear, O kings; give ear, O rulers" (Judges 5:3). "Louder than the voice of the archers" - these are those who say of the impure "impure" and of the pure "pure," each thing in its place and its time: the laws of the Sabbath on the Sabbath, the laws of the festival on the festival, the laws of the festival-offering and the trespass-offerings and the laws of arrows in a person. "At the watering places" - "watering places" means nothing but drawing, as it is said, "And she drew for all his camels" (Genesis 24:20), and it says, "You shall draw water in joy" (Isaiah 12:3). Another interpretation: "at the watering places" - because they learn and draw words of Torah. "There they recount the righteous acts of the LORD, the righteous acts of His leadership in Israel" - a great kindness did the Holy One, blessed be He, do, that He scattered Israel among the idolaters.

There was an incident with a certain priest and Rabbi Judah the Patriarch who were eating and drinking together, and when their hearts were merry that priest said to Rabbi Judah the Patriarch: We are more merciful than you, for when you were given permission to destroy us, you left among them none but the women alone, as it is said, "For six months Joab remained there with all Israel, until he had cut off every male in Edom" (1 Kings 11:16). Rabbi Judah was silent and said nothing to the priest. And Rabbi Judah rose and went out to the marketplace and handed these words over to his disciples, and returned and sat down in his place. Rabbi Judah said to the priest: If you wish, let one disciple of mine come in and say to us a thing in which we may rejoice. The priest said to him: Let him come in. That disciple came in and stood on his feet and said: The master of the house knows in what place he stores his vessels, and when the master of the house comes to his house he brings his vessels with him into the house. He said this thing, and repeated it, and said it a third time, three times, until that priest grasped the substance of the matter. At once the priest rose and lifted his two hands to heaven and said: Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed be He, who chose you, Israel, more than all who come into the world and more than all the works of His hands that He created in the world, and acquired you as a complete acquisition, and called you sons and servants to His name, and called you a people and an inheritance and a treasure to His name, and scattered you in many hundreds of places. And we said: If we kill those in the land of Israel, those in the north and in the south, who will kill them? If we kill those in the north and in the south, those in Babylon, who will kill them? Behold, the matter is annulled of itself, to nothing. Surely the master of the house knows in what place he stores his vessels, and when the master of the house comes into his house he brings his vessels into the house. Another interpretation of "there they recount the righteous acts of the LORD, the righteous acts of His leadership in Israel" (Judges 5:11): a small city in Israel - they rose and built a synagogue and a house of study and hired for themselves cantors and hired for themselves teachers of children; thus houses of study are many in Israel, as it is said afterward, "Then the people of the LORD went down to the gates" (Judges 5:11). Since synagogues and houses of study are many in Israel - happy is the one to whom words of Torah are renewed by his mouth; and everyone to whom words of Torah are renewed by his mouth is like one to whom they announce from heaven and say to him: Thus says the Holy One, blessed be He, My son, build Me a house of study, for the great reward that I have in My treasury is yours, and for your sake I deliver Israel; as it is said afterward, "They chose new gods; then there was war in the gates; was shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?" (Judges 5:8). From here they said: Forty thousand of Israel who gathered together and went out to war, and there is among them a single pair of disciples of the wise - it is regarded for them as though they held shield and buckler and a two-edged sword in their hands; therefore it is said, "Was shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?"

To what were Israel comparable in the days when the judges judged? To a king who bought houses and male and female servants from among them, some six years old, some five, some four, some three, some two, some one; and he raised them at his own table, and they ate of what the king ate and drank of what the king drank. He raised them and built them houses and planted them vineyards and trees and saplings, and said to them: Be careful with these saplings and these trees. Once they had eaten and drunk, they rose up and uprooted the vineyards and cut down the trees and chopped down the saplings and broke down the houses. When the king came and found all that they had done, he set his mind at ease toward them and said: They are like schoolchildren; what shall I do to these? He brought them and beat them, and so he did to them a second and a third time. So were Israel like before their Father in heaven in the days when the judges judged: they corrupted their deeds and were handed over to the kingdoms, and when they returned and repented, immediately the Holy One, blessed be He, would redeem them. This teaches you that not a single coin was ever taken from Israel except by justice, for all is nothing but justice. And lest you say: Those forty-two thousand who were slain in the days of Jephthah the Gileadite, for what reason were they slain? Jephthah vowed an improper vow, and Phinehas son of Eleazar was alive in those days. Jephthah should have gone to Phinehas to have his vow annulled, but he did not go. This one said: I am head over all Israel, and shall I go to that one? And Phinehas said: He needs me, and shall I go to him? This one behaved with greatness toward himself. Woe to greatness, which buries its possessors; woe to greatness, which never brings about good. Jephthah the Gileadite vowed an improper vow, to offer up his daughter upon the altar. The men of Ephraim gathered against him to make a great quarrel with him. Phinehas should have told them to annul Jephthah's vow. Did you come for anything but to make a quarrel with him? But not only did he fail to protest against the men of Ephraim, he also failed to annul Jephthah's vow. The Holy One, blessed be He, who sits upon the throne of righteous judgment, may His great Name be blessed forever and ever, said: Since this man placed his life in his palm and came to save Israel from the hand of Moab and the children of Ammon, and they came to make a great quarrel with him and gathered against him to wage war with him, immediately Jephthah went out and slew forty-two thousand of them, as it is said (Judges 12:1): "And the men of Ephraim cried out, and they said to Jephthah, Why did you cross over to fight against the children of Ammon, and did not call us... we will burn your house upon you with fire. And Jephthah said to them, I was a man of strife... and I saw that you were no deliverer, and I put my life in my palm... and why have you come up against me this day to fight with me? And Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim... and Gilead captured the fords of the Jordan against Ephraim. And it would be that when the fugitives of Ephraim said, Let me cross over, the men of Gilead said to him, Are you an Ephraimite? And he said, No. And they said to him, Say now Shibboleth, and he said Sibboleth." "Sibboleth" means nothing but the language of idolatry, like a man who says to his fellow, "Lift up the Idol [bal]." He could not pronounce it correctly, "and they seized him and slaughtered him... and there fell at that time of Ephraim forty-two thousand." Who slew all these? You must say: none slew them but Phinehas, who had it in his power to protest and did not protest, and who also should have annulled Jephthah's vow and did not annul it. And not Phinehas alone, but anyone who has it in his power to protest and does not protest, to return Israel to the good, and does not return them, all the blood spilled in Israel is upon him, as it is said (Ezekiel 3:17-18): "And you, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them... When I say to the wicked, You shall surely die, and you do not warn him... he, the wicked, shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand," for all Israel are sureties for one another. And to what are they comparable? To a ship in which one compartment is breached. They do not say, One compartment in it was breached; rather, the whole ship was breached. So it is with Israel, as it is said (Joshua 22:20): "Did not Achan son of Zerah commit a trespass with the devoted thing, and wrath was upon all the congregation of Israel? And he was but one man; he did not perish alone in his iniquity." And lest you say: Those seventy thousand who were slain at Gibeah of Benjamin, for what reason were they slain? Because the great Sanhedrin that Moses and Joshua and Phinehas son of Eleazar had left with them should have gone and tied iron cords around their loins and lifted their garments above their knees and gone around to all the cities of Israel: one day to Lachish, one day to Bethel, one day to Hebron, one day to Jerusalem, and so to all the places of Israel, and they should have taught Israel proper conduct over one year, two, and three, until Israel had settled in their land, so that the Name of the Holy One, blessed be He, would be magnified and sanctified in all the worlds He created from one end of the world to the other. But they did not do so; rather, when they entered their land, each one entered his own vineyard and his wine and his field and said, Peace be upon you, my soul, so as not to burden themselves overmuch. So the Sages taught in the Mishnah: Lessen your business and engage in Torah, and be humble of spirit before every person, and if you neglect Torah, there will be many idle ones set against you. And when the children of Benjamin did ugly and unfit things, at that hour the Holy One, blessed be He, sought to destroy the whole world. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: I gave them the Land of Israel only so that they would read and study and engage in Torah, each matter in its time, and learn proper conduct. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: Did I not thus write in My Torah that even if there is no Torah-learning among Israel but only proper conduct, the verse would be fulfilled for them (Leviticus 26:8): "And five of you shall pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you shall pursue ten thousand"; but if you keep the Torah and the commandments, one of you shall pursue a thousand and two of you shall put ten thousand to flight, as it is said (Deuteronomy 32:30): "One would pursue a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight." Therefore at Gibeah of Benjamin, because they were not engaged in Torah and in proper conduct, they gathered and went out to war and seventy thousand of them were slain. And who slew all these? You must say: none slew them but the great Sanhedrin that Moses and Joshua and Phinehas son of Eleazar had left. And the concubine at Gibeah was in the days of Cushan-rishathaim. And what was the nature of that concubine, that they brought her and placed her before the judges of Israel? Rather, because the mercies of the Holy One, blessed be He, are always abundant upon Israel, the Holy One, blessed be He, said: Lest the nations say, Israel had not yet even entered their land and they corrupted their deeds; therefore they brought her and placed her before the judges of Israel. Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed is He, whose mercies are always abundant upon Israel and who has pity upon the honor of Israel in all the places of their dwellings. At that time the priesthood was taken from the sons of Eleazar son of Aaron and given to the sons of Ithamar son of Aaron for seventy-two years, until the sons of Eli corrupted themselves. Immediately the Holy One, blessed be He, said: What is the difference between this one and that one? Is not Eleazar a son of Aaron and Ithamar a son of Aaron? As it is said (Isaiah 63:5): "And I looked, and there was none to help, and I was appalled, and there was none to uphold." At that hour the Holy One, blessed be He, said that the priesthood should return to its owners, as it is said (1 Samuel 2:27, 30, 35): "And a man of God came to Eli... I said indeed that your house and the house of your father should walk before Me forever, but now, says the LORD, far be it from Me... and I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest... and he shall walk before My anointed all the days." This is Zadok the priest before David the king. In all things the Holy One, blessed be He, repays measure for measure. Because of the evil deeds of the sons of Eli, who were corrupt, Israel went out to war and four thousand of them were slain, and the children of Israel said, Why has the LORD smitten us this day before the Philistines? At that hour the Holy One, blessed be He, said: When the sons of Eli were provoking Me in the court of Israel and in the court of the women, you said nothing to them, and now that you have gone out to war you say, Why has the LORD smitten us this day? And Israel said, Let us take to us from Shiloh the ark of the covenant of the LORD; and so they did, and they sent and brought the ark of the covenant, as it is said (1 Samuel 4:4-5): "And the people sent to Shiloh, and they carried from there the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts who is enthroned upon the cherubim, and there were the two sons of Eli with the ark of the covenant of God... And it came to pass when the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel shouted a great shout." At that hour all Israel shouted a great shout that had no substance in it; concerning that hour He says (Jeremiah 12:8): "She gave forth her voice against Me; therefore I hated her." "And the Philistines heard the sound of the shouting... and they knew that the ark of the LORD had come into the camp, and they said, Woe to us, for it was not like this yesterday and the day before; woe to us, who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods?" Immediately Israel went out to war and thirty thousand of them were slain, and the ark of the covenant was captured from them, as it is said, "and there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen, and the ark of God was taken." And the Philistines brought the ark of God to Ashdod, to the house of Dagon their god, as it is said (1 Samuel 5:2-4): "And the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it beside Dagon. And the Ashdodites rose early on the next day, and behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD... and the head of Dagon and the two palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold... And the hand of the LORD was heavy upon the Ashdodites... and they sent and gathered all the lords of the Philistines... and they said, Let the ark of the God of Israel go around to Gath... And it came to pass after they had brought it around, the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great panic... and they sent the ark of God to Ekron... and the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought around to me the ark of the God of Israel to slay me and my people." Since they saw that such was His way, they led it into the field, as it is said, "and the ark of the LORD was in the country of the Philistines seven months." And there too the plague was great among them, as it is said (1 Samuel 6:2): "And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Make known to us with what we should send it to its place." Even though these priests were idolaters, nevertheless there was proper conduct in them. And what was the proper conduct that was in them? That they said to them (1 Samuel 6:3-6): "If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty, but you must surely return to Him a guilt offering; then you will be healed" — corresponding to the plague He brought upon you, mice that were killing your men and women and little ones, who would afterward come out of your houses to the field and eat the wheat and barley and all kinds of legumes; and corresponding to this you shall make images of tumors of gold and mice of gold to His honor, as it is said, "And they said, What is the number of the lords of the Philistines? Five golden tumors and five golden mice... and you shall make images of your tumors and images of your mice that ravage the land, and give glory to the God of Israel... and why should you harden your hearts as Egypt and Pharaoh hardened their hearts?" Immediately they filled it with silver and gold and set it upon the cart, as it is said (1 Samuel 6:7-12): "And the men did so, and they took two milch cows and harnessed them to the cart and shut up their calves at home, and they set the ark of the LORD upon the cart, and the box and the golden mice." And when the cows were walking on the road, the cows lifted up their voice and sang a song, and thus they said: Sing, sing, O acacia, sway in your great glory, inlaid with gold work, praised in the inner sanctuary of the palace, adorned with the choicest ornaments — as it is said, "And the cows went straight on the road, on the road to Beth-shemesh; on one highway they went, lowing as they went, and did not turn to the right or to the left, and the lords of the Philistines walked after them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh." And when they were about two thousand cubits distant from Beth-shemesh, the lords of the Philistines said: Let us take the garments and put them in a hidden place and see what they do for their God, since we ourselves honored Him so. And so they did: immediately they took the garments and placed them in a hidden place that they had. And the men of Beth-shemesh, when they saw the ark, ought to have taken their own garments and placed them upon their faces and come and fallen before the ark for one hour or two or three, until the ark of the King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, was covered, so that the Name of the Holy One, blessed be He, might be magnified and sanctified from one end of the world to the other. But they did not do so; rather, when they saw the ark they began to laugh and lift up their eyes and stand and dance and speak idle words, as it is said, "And the men of Beth-shemesh were reaping the wheat harvest in the valley, and they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark and rejoiced to see it." And they did not know who had placed the ark there nor who had taken the ark and placed it upon the stone, as it is said (1 Samuel 6:14-15): "And the cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite and stood there, and there was a great stone, and they split the wood of the cart and offered up the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD, and the Levites took down the ark of the LORD... and set it upon the great stone." And afterward the lords of the Philistines went their way, as it is said (1 Samuel 6:16): "And the five lords of the Philistines saw it and returned to Ekron that day." Therefore there fell of Israel fifty thousand, and the great Sanhedrin among them, as it is said (1 Samuel 6:19): "And He smote the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, and He smote of the people seventy men, fifty thousand men." Who slew all these? You must say: none slew them but the men of Beth-shemesh, in whom there was no proper conduct. This teaches you that not even a coin's worth was ever taken from Israel except by justice; rather, all is by true justice. May God be blessed forever and ever, who knows that as a reward for Deborah and Barak and their prophecy, a great deliverance came to Israel through them, and the reward of Ahab and Jezebel was that they perished from this world and from the world to come and lost their children with them; and the reward of the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali, who did the will of their Father in heaven and the will of Jacob their father, was that a great deliverance came through them; and the reward of Jael wife of Heber the Kenite, who did the will of her husband, was that a great deliverance came through her; and the reward of Phinehas was that the men of Ephraim went out to war and twenty-two thousand of them were slain; and the reward of the great Sanhedrin, and Phinehas with them, was that seventy thousand were slain at Gibeah of Benjamin; and the reward of the sons of Eli was that four thousand were slain and afterward thirty thousand, and the ark was captured; and the reward of the men of Beth-shemesh, in whom there was no proper conduct, was that fifty thousand of Israel fell, and the great Sanhedrin too. From this they said: By the measure that a person measures, it is measured out to him. Surely, Master of all the worlds, Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, Your judgments are a great deep.

And to what are they compared? To a ship in which one compartment was torn open. They do not say, "One compartment was torn open"; rather, the whole ship was torn open. So it is with Israel, as it is said: "Did not Achan son of Zerah commit a trespass in the devoted thing, and wrath fell upon all the congregation of Israel? And that man did not perish alone in his iniquity" (Joshua 22:20).

Let a person guard these matters in his heart: that he not eat at the same table with the unlearned, and not increase his meals with them in any place, because the unlearned are lax about tithes and are suspected concerning the produce of the Sabbatical year. And the verse says (Jeremiah 23:28): "What has the straw to do with the grain?" And so David said (Psalms 26:4-5, 8-9): "I have not sat with worthless men, nor will I go in with hidden ones... the LORD, I love the dwelling of Your house... gather not my soul with sinners." And the Sages said: Every bird dwells with its own kind, and a person with one like himself. From here the Sages said: Let a person increase his meals with Torah scholars and not increase his meals with the unlearned, for after a while the unlearned one will speak slander about him. And let him learn from Abraham our father, who made a meal for the angels and they benefited from it, as it is said (Genesis 18:3, 8): "And he said, My lords... do not, I pray, pass away from your servant... and he took curds and milk and the calf which he had prepared and set it before them... and they ate." From here they said: Let a person first take permission and afterward run after the Torah scholars who come to him and do their will. Therefore it is said, "And he said, My lords, do not, I pray, pass away." And whoever says that the ministering angels did not eat with Abraham our father has said nothing; rather, by the merit of that righteous one and as a reward for the trouble he took on their behalf, the Holy One, blessed be He, opened their mouths and they ate. Therefore it is said, "And he stood over them under the tree, and they ate." Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed is He, who pays a good reward to those who fear Him in this world and in the world to come, for such is the way of acts of lovingkindness: a person eats their fruits in this world and the principal remains for him in the world to come. For as a reward for the pitcher of water with which the ministering angels washed their feet, the Holy One, blessed be He, gave Israel the well for forty years in the wilderness. How so? When Israel were doing the will of the Omnipresent, the well would hasten and rise early and go and well up in its place, in the place where Israel were dwelling; and when they were not doing the will of the Omnipresent, the well would delay an hour, two, three, four, five, until the young children and the Torah scholars would go out and say, "Rise up, O well, by the merit of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; rise up, O well, by the merit of Moses and Aaron and Miriam," and afterward the well would well up and go between the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Issachar, as it is said (Numbers 21:17): "Then Israel sang this song: Rise up, O well, sing to it." At that hour there was great joy for Israel, from their great to their small. And as a reward for the shade of the tree under which Abraham our father seated the ministering angels, the Holy One, blessed be He, surrounded Israel with the seven clouds of glory to sit beneath them in the wilderness for forty years. And as a reward for the loaf of bread with which Abraham our father fed the ministering angels, the Holy One, blessed be He, gave Israel the manna in the wilderness for forty years. Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed is He, before whom there is no favoritism: just as Abraham our father made for the ministering angels bread and meat and curds and milk, so was the manna — anyone who wished to taste in it the taste of bread tasted bread; the taste of meat tasted meat; the taste of honey tasted honey; the taste of curds and milk tasted them, as it is said (Numbers 11:8): "The people roamed and gathered it... and its taste was like the taste of cakes baked in oil." And as a reward for that calf which Abraham our father fed the ministering angels, the Holy One, blessed be He, gave Israel the quail in the wilderness twice: once before the giving of the Torah and once after the giving of the Torah. The quail was a great thing for Israel, for whose sake the Holy One, blessed be He, brought the thing about through him. And as a reward that Abraham our father accompanied the ministering angels, the Holy One, blessed be He, accompanied his children in the wilderness for forty years, as it is said (Exodus 13:21): "And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them on the way." Were this great thing not written, it would be impossible to say it — as it were, like a father before his son, like a master who took a lantern before his servant, like a mother to an infant, as it is said (Numbers 11:12): "And Moses said to the LORD... that You should say to me, Carry it in your bosom, as a nurse carries the suckling." We learned from Gideon, who made bread for the angel and the angel did not benefit from it, as it is said (Judges 6:19-21): "And Gideon came and prepared a kid of the goats and an ephah of unleavened cakes... and the angel of the LORD put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes, and fire went up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes." We learned from Manoah, who made bread for the angel and the angel did not benefit from it, as it is said (Judges 13:16): "And the angel of the LORD said to Manoah, If you detain me, I will not eat of your bread." Come and see how great is both the punishment and the merit of bread: it kills the great ones of Israel and it causes the Divine Presence to rest upon false prophets. And from where do we know that it kills the great ones of Israel? Go out and learn from the place of Nob, the city of priests, and Ahimelech son of Ahitub and Saul, who were greatly punished on account of David. And from where do we know that it causes the Divine Presence to rest upon false prophets? Go out and learn from that prophet who came to Jeroboam king of Israel, to whom the Holy One, blessed be He, had said, Do not benefit in this place, and if you benefit you will die. A false prophet came to him and said, I too am a prophet like you; although he lied to him, the holy spirit rested upon the false prophet on account of the bread he gave to wayfarers, as it is said (1 Kings 13:20): "And it came to pass as they sat at the table, that the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back." From here they said: Whoever eats bread at the table with the unlearned and increases his meals with him, his words are not heeded, and in the end strife comes about through him, as it is said (Isaiah 9:20): "Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh, and together they are against Judah." From this you have learned that whoever eats bread with the unlearned at the table, it is as if he served idols; and if he is a Torah scholar, he debases his Torah and profanes the Name of his Father in heaven and widows his wife and orphans his children and does not fill out his days, and ties an evil name to himself and to his children and to his children's children until the end of all generations.

Let a person guard himself against excessive laughter, idle talk, and frivolity. "Laughter" means nothing but sexual immorality, as it is said (Genesis 39:14, 17): "See, he has brought us a Hebrew man to mock [letzachek] us... he came to me to lie with me." And they said: laughter and lightheadedness accustom a person to immorality. And "laughter" means nothing but idolatry, as it is said (Exodus 32:6): "And they rose up to make sport [letzachek]." And "laughter" means nothing but the shedding of blood, as it is said (2 Samuel 2:14): "Let the young men now arise and play [visachaku] before us." And "laughter" means nothing but scoffing, as it is said (Isaiah 28:14, 22): "And now do not scoff," for they were scoffing at the judgment of Gehinnom, as it is said (Isaiah 28:14-15): "Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you men of scoffing... for you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have made a treaty." Therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel: My children, I am He who sat nine hundred and seventy-four generations before the world was created, and from the day the world was created until that hour I expounded and investigated and refined and tested all the words of the entire Torah. And from the day I created the world and sat upon My throne of glory, a third of the day I read and study, a third of the day I sit and judge judgment for the whole world, and a third of the day I do charity and feed and sustain and provide for the whole world and for the works of My hands that I created in the world; and there is before Me laughter only one hour. And when is there laughter before Me? At the hour when the nations say, Come and let us make war with Him, and say, With how many warriors does He come against us? Let Him come against us with a thousand thousand warriors; with how many horsemen does He come against us? With a thousand thousand horsemen; with how many swords does He come against us? Let Him come against us with a thousand thousand swords. At that hour I laugh, as it is said (Psalms 2:1, 4): "Why do the nations rage... He who sits in heaven laughs." In another place too there is laughter before Him, but it is not actual laughter, as it is said (Exodus 30:34): "And the LORD said to Moses, Take for yourself spices, stacte and onycha and galbanum." And galbanum has a foul smell. But when is there laughter that is not actual laughter? At the hour when the transgressors of Israel seek to swallow up the worthy ones among them, as it is said (Psalms 37:12-13): "The wicked plots against the righteous... " What is written after it? "The LORD laughs at him, for He sees that his day is coming." But we have found in another place that the Holy One, blessed be He, regretted the evil inclination that He created, and says: What benefit have I gained from it, and what have I done that I created it in My world? As it is said (Ecclesiastes 10:11): "If the serpent bites without a charm, there is no advantage to the master of the tongue." At that hour a mouth was opened for the transgressors of Israel to seek mercy, to be received in repentance, and to say before Him: Master of the universe, it is revealed and known before You that the evil inclination provokes us; in Your abundant mercies receive us in complete repentance before You. For whoever increases idle talk and frivolity, they escort him until the hour he enters his eternal home. The Holy One, blessed be He, says to him: My son, why did you not learn from your Father in heaven, who sits upon His throne of glory — a third of the day He reads and studies, a third of the day He judges judgment, and a third of the day He does charity and feeds and sustains and provides for all who come into the world and for all the works of His hands in the world — and there is no laughter before Him but one hour? And if a person says to the Holy One, blessed be He, I was learning Torah from the age of thirteen onward, the Holy One, blessed be He, says to him: What Torah did you do, and what good deeds did you grasp? Did you not engage in idle talk and in matters unfit and unseemly? As it is said (Amos 4:13): "For behold, He who forms the mountains and creates the wind and tells a person what is his talk." From here they said: Two people, one labors in matters of Torah and one labors in worldly matters. He who wishes to labor in worldly matters is granted to labor in worldly matters, and of him the verse says (Job 5:7): "For man is born to labor." To what is the matter comparable? To a waterskin that was filled with water and was poured out and gone; after a while there is nothing in the skin. And he who wishes to labor in matters of Torah is granted to labor in Torah, and of him the verse says (Proverbs 16:26): "The soul of the laborer labors for him, for his mouth presses him." To what is the matter comparable? To the lower threshold that all tread upon, and to the beam that all pass over, and like a tree under whose shade all sit, and like a lamp that gives light to the eyes of the many. Aaron knew within himself that a great thing had come to Israel through him, and he would tie an iron cord around his loins and go around to all the doors of Israel; whoever did not know how to recite the Shema, and likewise whoever did not know how to pray, he would teach to recite the Shema and to pray, and likewise whoever did not know how to enter into the body of the Torah, he would teach him. And not Aaron alone, but every Torah scholar who teaches Torah publicly to Israel for the sake of Heaven and shows no favoritism to rich or poor, but recites Scripture to them all as one and studies Mishnah with them all as one — through this the Holy One, blessed be He, has mercy upon him and grants him wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and discernment, and gives him a portion with the righteous, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of him the verse says (Isaiah 53:11): "From the labor of his soul he shall see, he shall be satisfied; by his knowledge the righteous one, My servant, shall justify the many." From here they said: Let a person always conduct himself by eighteen traits. One: let a person be humble in his home. Two: pious in the academy. Three: shrewd in fear of Heaven. Four: wise in Torah. Five: clever in good deeds. Six: pleasant and accepted by people. Seven: acknowledging the truth. Eight: speaking truth in his heart. Nine: confessing and forsaking. Ten: loving the Omnipresent with complete love, whether He is good to him or bad to him. Eleven: sighing over the honor of the Holy One, blessed be He, and over the honor of Israel all his days. Twelve: yearning and longing and hoping for the honor of Jerusalem and the honor of the Temple and the deliverance that will soon sprout and the ingathering of the exiles. Then he merits the holy spirit in his words, as it is said (Habakkuk 2:3): "For there is yet a vision for the appointed time... if it tarries, wait for it"; and it says (Hosea 12:7): "And you, return to your God; keep lovingkindness and justice, and hope to your God continually." Thirteen: let him be becoming in his coming to the house of study, so that he be beloved above and desired below and accepted in the eyes of people, so that he fill out his days. Fourteen: let a person increase matters of Torah, for you have no greater reward than they. Fifteen: let a person ask and answer in his sitting in the house of study, so that his wisdom increase in his hand. Sixteen: let him guard himself not to come to drowsiness, as it is said (Proverbs 23:21): "And slumber will clothe one in rags," for you have no trait as harsh in the world as one who dozes in the synagogue and the house of study; and not only this, but let him guard himself from much eating and drinking, for through much eating and drinking he comes to drowsiness, as it is said (Deuteronomy 8:12): "Lest you eat and be satisfied." Seventeen: let a person ask about the verse and about the law even though everyone laughs at him, as it is said (Proverbs 30:32): "If you have been vile in exalting yourself" — if you have made yourself base over it, you will be exalted by it. Eighteen: let a person bring himself into the body of the Torah even though he does not know and is not expert in law at all. Do they say to a person, While you ask for mercy that the words of Torah enter your innards, ask for mercy over the transgressions you have committed, that He pardon you for them? And let him afterward be careful not to do what is improper, and through this a person hears and remembers, through the four traits that precede it. And all those eighteen traits have their reward and their punishment beside them. And moreover, whoever increases laughter and idle talk and frivolity brings wrath into the world, and the fruits diminish through him, and many evils come through him, and harsh decrees are renewed, and the young men of Israel are slain, and orphans and widows cry out and are not answered, as it is said (Isaiah 9:16): "Therefore the LORD will not rejoice over its young men, nor have mercy on its orphans and its widows, for everyone is godless and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly." And moreover, of whoever increases laughter and idle talk and frivolity it is written (Hosea 4:2): "Cursing and lying and murder and theft and adultery break out," and it is as if he swore falsely and denied and lied in judgment. And if he was within the family and the members of the family rejoiced in him, in the end he exposes all the members of the family; and if he was within the neighborhood and the members of the neighborhood rejoiced in him, in the end he exposes all the members of the neighborhood; and likewise the members of the courtyard, and likewise the members of the alley, and likewise the members of the city, in the end he exposes all the members of the city, as it is said (Hosea 4:3): "Therefore the land mourns and all who dwell in it languish." For what reason? Because they did not rebuke Israel at all, as it is said (Hosea 4:4): "Yet let no man contend, and let no man rebuke." Even if a priest is found among them and laughs with them, he shares with them in the punishment; and likewise a prophet and a prince, as it is said (Hosea 4:5): "And your people are like those who contend with the priest, and you shall stumble this day, and the prophet also shall stumble with you." And likewise, whether among the nations or in Israel, whether man or woman, whether servant or maidservant. From here they said: Whoever increases the honor of Heaven and diminishes his own honor, the honor of Heaven is increased and his own honor too is increased; and whoever diminishes the honor of Heaven and increases his own honor, the honor of Heaven remains in its place and his own honor is diminished. An incident concerning a certain man who was standing, he and his son, in the synagogue, and all the people were answering "Amen" and "Hallelujah" after the one passing before the ark, and his son was answering with frivolous words, and his father said nothing to him. And people said to him that he should protest against his son, and he answered and said to them, What shall I do to him? He is a child; let him play. He did so again the next day, and throughout the days of the festival his son answered with frivolous words and his father said nothing to him. That year did not go out, nor the second, nor the third, until his wife and his sons and his grandson died, and fifteen souls went out from within his house, and there remained to him only two sons, one lame and blind and one foolish and wicked. Another incident concerning a certain man who would reproach himself that he had not read Scripture nor studied. Once I was standing, I and he, in the synagogue, and when the prayer leader reached the sanctification of the Name, that man raised his voice and answered after him in a loud voice the sanctification of the Name and said, "Holy, holy, holy." I said to him, My son, what did you see that you raised your voice so greatly? And he said to me, It is not enough that I have not read Scripture nor studied, but now that I have been given permission, let me raise my voice and let my soul find rest. They said: that year did not go out, nor the second, nor the third, until that man went up from Babylon to the Land of Israel; they arose and made him an official of the house of Caesar and appointed him over all the fortresses in the Land of Israel and gave him a place, and he built himself a house and dwelt in it all the days of his life and left to his sons and his sons' sons much wealth until the end of all generations. And another incident concerning a certain priest who fed his animal heave-offering, and fire fell upon him and consumed from his house thirty male animals and sixty garments and twenty-four jars of wine and ten jars of oil and much other wealth. And he came and sat before the Sages and said to them, My masters, fire fell upon me and consumed from me such and such animals, such and such wine, and such and such oil and other wealth that I had. The Sages brought grief and sighing into their hearts. They said: they did not move from there until a certain man who was not expert in law came, and he said to him, One who feeds his animal heave-offering, what is the law? He said to him, It is permitted. He said to him, Perhaps it is forbidden? He said to him, No. And he said to him, I am a priest and I fed my animal heave-offering. And when the Sages heard the matter, they all answered as one and said: Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed is He, before whom there is no favoritism. For do not heave-offering and consecrated things that have no eaters go only to burning? Rather, you acted improperly. He said to them, But have we not learned: vetches of heave-offering may be fed to cattle and beasts and chickens? They said to him, They said this only of vetches, because they are food for cattle and only in years of famine do people eat them; therefore King David did not decree concerning them except in years of famine, because they are then human food. At that hour, from here they said: Whoever feeds his animal heave-offering, whether the heave-offering of the Land or the heave-offering of outside the Land, of him the verse says (Proverbs 19:16): "He who despises his ways shall die," and it says (Numbers 18:32): "And you shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, lest you die," and it says (Ecclesiastes 10:8): "He who digs a pit shall fall into it." From here they said: Let a person not teach Torah publicly unless he has read the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings and studied Mishnah and Midrash, as it is said (Psalms 106:2): "Who can utter the mighty deeds of the LORD, can declare all His praise?" Behold, it says (Ecclesiastes 7:14): "In the day of good be in good, and in the day of evil consider; God has made the one corresponding to the other, so that man should find nothing after him." And thus the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Adam: From the day I set you upon the face of the earth, do good deeds and save yourself from robbery and from the ugly thing. Therefore it is said, "In the day of good be in good, and in the day of evil consider" what you have done; therefore sufferings came upon you, for sufferings come upon a person only for his good, to bring out from his hand all that he sinned and did. Another interpretation: "In the day of good" — the Sages taught in the Mishnah: Do not despair of retribution; therefore it is said, "In the day of good be in good, and in the day of evil consider" the retribution of the wicked, who were lax in Torah and the commandments and go down to Gehinnom, as it is said (Isaiah 66:14, 24): "And you shall see, and your heart shall rejoice." Therefore it is said, "And in the day of evil consider." Behold, it says (Jeremiah 31:11): "For the LORD has redeemed Jacob and ransomed him from a hand stronger than he." Two brothers in one house, one harsher than his fellow; the harsh one is punished on account of his fellow. Therefore it is said, "For the LORD has redeemed," and so forth. Another interpretation: "For the LORD has redeemed Jacob," and so forth, of two Torah scholars, one harsher than his fellow, as we said. Another interpretation: of two partners in one business, one in the field and one in the labor, and one of them is harsher than his fellow; the harsh one is punished on account of his fellow. Therefore it is said, "For the LORD has redeemed," and so forth. Another interpretation: "For the LORD has redeemed Jacob" — one who has two wives, for one he fulfills her food, clothing, and conjugal rights, and for one he does not fulfill them; great is the punishment there. And whoever does not acknowledge these matters and does not desire reproof, of him the verse says (Proverbs 28:9): "He who turns away his ear from hearing the Torah." And the Sages taught in the Mishnah: Whoever profanes the Name of Heaven in secret, they exact payment from him in public, whether unwitting or deliberate in profanation of the Name. Similarly you say (Psalms 133:1): "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together." When the Holy One, blessed be He, spoke with Moses, father of the wise and father of the prophets, to redeem Israel, he ought not to have refused the mission of the Omnipresent; nevertheless the Holy One, blessed be He, spoke with him only in a language of joy, as it is said (Exodus 4:14): "Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and he will see you and rejoice in his heart." And are these things not a matter of all the more so? If Moses, the wisest of the great wise ones and father of the prophets, who ought not to have refused the mission of the Omnipresent, was nevertheless spoken to by the Holy One, blessed be He, only with joy — Aaron his brother, who intended and made peace between Israel and their Father in heaven, and between Israel and Israel, and between Israel and the sage, and between sage and sage, and between a person and his fellow, and between a man and his wife, all the more so was the Holy One, blessed be He, speaking with him in joy. Concerning them He says, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together." Another interpretation: "Behold, how good," and so forth: a person did good deeds in his youth and grew old and doubled his deeds for good; of him He says, "Behold, how good." Another interpretation: a person read the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings in his youth and grew old and doubled his deeds and studied Mishnah and Midrash, laws and aggadot; of him He says, "Behold, how good and how pleasant." Another interpretation: if one sits and studies with his fellow, of them He says, "Behold, how good." Another interpretation: two brothers in one house who read and study with one another and rejoice with one another and eat and drink with one another, of them He says, "Behold, how good." And in the future the Holy One, blessed be He, will sit in His great house of study and the righteous will sit before Him, and He will say to them: I am He for whom you were given over to death, and I am He for whom you were slain; therefore you shall be like Me — just as I live and endure forever and ever, so shall you live and endure forever and ever, as it is said (Isaiah 33:17): "Your eyes shall behold the King in His beauty; they shall see a far-off land." What is "they shall see a far-off land"? These are the laws that were in the mind of the Holy One, blessed be He, nine hundred and seventy-four generations before the world was created, and He spoke them to them, to Israel. And it says (Malachi 1:5): "And your eyes shall see, and you shall say, The LORD be magnified beyond the border of Israel." "Your eyes shall see" — this is the attribute of justice upon the nations; "and you shall say, The LORD be magnified beyond the border of Israel." Thus the Holy One, blessed be He, says to Israel: My children, read the Scripture and increase it, and study the Mishnah and increase it, until I Myself come and tell you of the impure that it is impure and of the pure that it is pure, of the pure in its place and of the impure in its place, as it is said (Hosea 10:12): "Sow for yourselves in righteousness, reap according to lovingkindness... until He comes and teaches righteousness to you."

Whoever is anxious for the good life in this world — it is a bad sign for him. To what is the matter comparable? To a king of flesh and blood who invited his servant one day, on a day of the festival, to his banquet. He held it a favor for him. He invited him two days; he held it a favor for him. Three days; he held it a favor for him. Had he invited him for all eight days of the festival, all the more so should he have held it a favor for him. A parable: to a king of flesh and blood who said to his servant, Behold, you are before me for thirty days at one banquet, and I will also give you a good gift. He tasted at his table fifteen days. The servant said to the king, I do not wish to dine at your table any longer, and here is your gift back — and he flung that gift away in his presence. That servant is found to be ungrateful before the king. And is this proper conduct? This is not proper conduct. From here onward, what need has the servant to do? Rather, he must appease the king and bless him and praise him. So it is fitting for the seed of Jacob to bless and praise and exalt and lift up and magnify and sanctify the Name of the King of the kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, who spoke and the world came to be — blessed is He and blessed is His Name forever and to all eternity — who brought them to the Land of Israel, which is called the delight of this world, and prepared for them a banquet of the manna for forty years, of the bread that the ministering angels eat. And after a while they did not wish for the king's banquet, but spoke against the manna and called it "insubstantial bread," as though Israel had said, We do not wish for the gift of the Land of Israel. Once they transgressed against the Torah and its commandments, by whose merit the Land of Israel had been given to them, and Israel were ungrateful, He exiled them from the Land of Israel and cast them away from His presence. And afterward they returned in repentance and turned back to the Holy One, blessed be He, within the exile, and the Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: My children, recline one hour until the time of the banquet arrives. And all this, why? In order to cleanse the iniquities of Israel, so that they would all be pure and come to the life of the world to come. For there is no nation or tongue that the Holy One, blessed be He, created in the world, from one end of the world to the other, all of whom will be children of the world to come, except the seed of Jacob alone, as it is said (Jeremiah 31:7): "Behold, I bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the ends of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, the pregnant woman and she who gives birth together; a great assembly shall return here." "Among them the blind and the lame" — these are the unlearned who have proper conduct and the other commandments and keep themselves far from robbery and from transgression and from the ugly thing. Rabbi Shimon said: Whoever sits and does not commit a transgression is given a reward like one who performs a commandment. Another interpretation: "Among them the blind and the lame" — these are the sages and their disciples who give themselves over to death in the tent for Scripture and for Mishnah and for Midrash and for laws and aggadot; of them He says (Psalms 119:1): "Happy are those whose way is blameless," and it says (Psalms 18:31): "As for God, His way is blameless." There are three sorrowful types, and all three are presumed worthy. One of them: these are the unlearned who have proper conduct and the other commandments and keep themselves far from robbery and from transgression and from the ugly thing. And the second of them: these are people who have come to Scripture and Mishnah but have no heart to understand. And the third of them: these are the sages and their disciples who give themselves over to death in the tent to understand Scripture and Mishnah, Midrash, laws and aggadot; of them He says (Isaiah 42:18): "You deaf, hear." A parable: to a king of flesh and blood who has many sons and servants, some of them clever, some of them mute and deaf and blind, and some of them masters of Scripture, masters of Mishnah and Talmud, and some of them engaged in trade; and the king has business and work with them. When the king wishes to do his reckoning, he goes only to the masters of Scripture and the masters of Mishnah and Talmud and to the clever ones among them, and of these he says, "You deaf, hear," and of these he says (Isaiah 42:16): "And I will lead the blind by a way they did not know." Another interpretation: "Among them the blind and the lame" — these are people who have come to Scripture and Mishnah and are soiled with ugly matters, and it is hard for the Master of mercies to remove them from the world. And what is the point of saying after it, "the pregnant woman and she who gives birth together"? These are the sages of Israel and their disciples who give themselves over to death in the tent for Scripture, Mishnah, Midrash, laws and aggadot, and they labor to the four winds of the world, from south to north and from east to west, and they yearn and long and hope that if one of them finds a clever one in matters of Torah, his soul will find rest upon him. And what is the point of saying after it, "a great assembly shall return here"? These are the men and women and little ones and youth and elders, all of whom are obligated to give thanks to the Holy One, blessed be He, and to pour out mercies and to seek supplications before Him and to ask of Him knowledge and understanding and discernment, as it is said (Isaiah 11:9): "For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea."

Once I was passing from place to place, and a certain man who had Scripture but had no Mishnah found me and said to me: My master, I wish to say one thing before you, but I am afraid lest you be displeased with me. I said to him: My son, if you ask me about a matter of Torah, why should I be displeased with you? And he said to me: My master, why is it said (Psalms 136:25), "He gives bread to all flesh," and it is said (Psalms 147:9), "He gives to the beast its food, to the young ravens that cry," yet for man He does not prepare it? I said to him: My son, in the proper conduct that a person does with his hand — does the Holy One, blessed be He, not bless the works of his hands? Can it be that he should sit idle from labor or from trade? The verse teaches (Deuteronomy 14:29): "So that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hand that you do." And he said to me: My master, this answer that you have answered me is the first approach that I told you, and it is acceptable in my eyes. I said to him: My son, my Father in heaven has the power to grant me wisdom and understanding and knowledge and discernment, and I will answer you further concerning what you asked me. Go out and learn from the fool who passes through the marketplace: once wisdom and understanding, knowledge and discernment have been taken from him, can he sustain himself even for one hour? So with all people: when knowledge is taken from a person, behold, they are reckoned like the beast and the wild animal and the bird and the other creatures that the Holy One, blessed be He, created in His world. I call heaven and earth to witness for me that the Holy One, blessed be He, sits and apportions with His hand the food for all who come into the world and for all the works of His hands that He created, from man to beast, from creeping thing to the bird of the heavens. And the verse says (Isaiah 33:6): "The fear of the LORD is his treasure." Another interpretation: "The fear of the LORD is his treasure." A parable: to a king of flesh and blood who had many sons and servants and sought to reprove them, each one by himself, and saw that they did not accept his reproofs upon themselves. What did the king do? He wrote all the matters on a paper and hung it in the outermost courtyard, the first one, an open letter to every person, and the herald goes out from before the king and proclaims and says: Whoever comes to this letter and reads it and fulfills all that is written in it, let him come and take bread and food from before the king. So are Israel comparable in this world and in the next world by means of the words of Torah: once a person has come to Scripture and Mishnah and learns from them fear of Heaven and good deeds, they feed and sustain and provide for him until he enters his eternal home, as it is said (Isaiah 33:6): "And the faithfulness of your times shall be a store of salvation, wisdom and knowledge."

His fellow came and sat opposite me; and in this one too there was Scripture but no Mishnah. And he said to me: My master, the washing of hands from the Torah — it was not said to us from Mount Sinai. I said to him: My son, we have many matters, and they are weighty, and the verse does not need to state them; therefore they were laid upon Israel, and He said, Let them set them apart in order to increase their reward. And how do you know? Know that it is so: when Israel were in the wilderness, the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses (Exodus 19:10), "Go to the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments," and they taught in the Mishnah that "and sanctify them" means by immersion. We also learned the washing of hands from the Torah, from Moses and Aaron and his sons, as it is said (Exodus 30:20), "When they come into the tent of meeting, they shall wash with water." And concerning Israel what does it say (Leviticus 20:7)? "And you shall sanctify yourselves and be holy, for I am holy." From here Rabban Gamliel would eat ordinary food in purity, and he said to his disciples: Holiness was given not to the priests alone, but to priests and Levites and Israelites, all of them, as it is said (Leviticus 19:2), "Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel... you shall be holy." From here they said: Whoever is lax about the washing of hands — it is a bad sign for him, and of him it says (Deuteronomy 29:18-19), "And it shall be when he hears the words of this curse... the LORD will not be willing to pardon him... and the LORD will blot out his name from under heaven." From this you have learned that whoever eats without washing his hands, it is as if he came upon a married woman. And he said to me: My master, slaughtering from the neck is not from the Torah. I said to him: My son, what did you see to say so — and is slaughtering itself not from the Torah, with the burnt offering and the sin offering and the guilt offering and all the sacrifices? And I said to him: My son, but in truth thus the Sages taught: One who slaughters one sign in a bird and two signs in an animal, his slaughter is valid, and the greater part of one is like all of it; and one who tears in his slaughter at all, this one is evil-eyed. Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed is He, before whom there is no favoritism: just as the slaughterer pulls the flesh from the neck and tears it and brings it to invalidity, so they pull his money from him and give it to others, as it is said (Proverbs 28:8), "He who increases his wealth by interest and usury." And he said to me: My master, the blood of a human being is not forbidden from the Torah. I said to him: My son, what did you see to say so? He said to me: My master, because it is written, "You shall not eat upon the blood" — behold, there is no human blood here. I said to him: My son, but is it not a matter of all the more so? If the blood of beast and animal and bird, whose way it is to be eaten, their blood is forbidden, the blood of human beings, whose way it is not to be eaten, all the more so is its blood forbidden. Of him the verse says (Deuteronomy 12:23), "Only be strong not to eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh," and it says (Leviticus 17:14), "For the life of all flesh is its blood with its life"; and it says, "to the children of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood" — "the blood of any flesh you shall not eat" comes to include human blood, that it is forbidden in eating, since "the life of all flesh is its blood." And by the Temple service, even the blood of a living person that congealed and was pressed out into a vessel and set apart by itself, that it was put into one vessel, this too is forbidden in eating, as it is said "blood, blood" — in any case. And he said to me: My master, an animal from which no offering is brought, its fat is permitted. I said to him: My son, what did you see to say so? He said to me: My master, because it is written (Leviticus 7:25), "For whoever eats the fat of the animal from which one brings a fire offering to the LORD, that soul shall be cut off." I said to him: My son, see what the power of the Torah is, and all its words are understanding, and every single matter said in it was said only with wisdom, understanding, and discernment, so that a person should not say to himself, an animal from which an offering is brought, its fat is forbidden, and an animal from which no offering is brought, its fat is permitted. Therefore the verse went back and explained it in another place (Leviticus 3:17), "a perpetual statute for your generations in all your dwellings: all fat and all blood you shall not eat." "A perpetual statute for your generations" teaches you that the matter applies for the generations until the end of the world; "in all your dwellings," in the Land and outside the Land; "all fat and all blood you shall not eat" — just as blood is forbidden in eating, so fat is forbidden in eating. If so, why is it said "all fat and all blood"? Rather, to liken the commandment of both to one another, that blood is equal to fat and fat is equal to blood, and both are subject to flogging and to being cut off. Therefore it is said "all fat and all blood." And thus the Sages taught in the Mishnah: If the blood, from which a person's soul recoils, even so the one who keeps apart from it receives reward — robbery and forbidden unions, which a person's soul desires and craves, the one who keeps apart from them, all the more so, that he merits for himself and for his generations and for the generations of his generations until the end of all generations. And he said to me: My master, robbing a brother is permitted. I said to him: My son, what did you see to say so? And he said to me: My master, it was said on Mount Sinai (Exodus 20:12-13), "Honor your father and your mother... you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal" — and there is no robbing of a brother there. And I said to him: My son, is this not the first approach that I told you, that we have many matters and they are weighty, and the verse does not need to state them; therefore they were laid upon Israel, and He said, Let them set them apart in order to increase their reward? Of them the verse says (Isaiah 26:8-9), "My soul desires You in the night." But I would say, from the words of Torah they are chastised, and from the words of Torah they are healed. From here they said: By eight things the world is destroyed, and by four things the world is settled. By eight things the world is destroyed: first, over judgments; second, over idolatry; third, over forbidden unions; fourth, over the shedding of blood; fifth, over profanation of the Name; sixth, over the ugly words that a person brings out of his mouth; seventh, over arrogance of spirit; eighth, over slander; and some say, also over coveting. The earlier generations were uprooted from the world only by eight things, as it is written (Job 21:14), "And they said to God, Depart from us, and the knowledge of Your ways we do not desire," and by eight things they were uprooted from the world. And the men of the generation of the dispersion were uprooted from the world only by eight things, as it is said (Genesis 11:1), "And the whole earth was of one language," and by eight things they were uprooted from the world. And the men of Sodom were uprooted from the world only by eight things, as it is said (Genesis 13:13), "And the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the LORD," and by eight things they were uprooted from the world. Pharaoh was uprooted from the world only by eight things, as it is said (Exodus 5:2), "And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD that I should heed His voice?" and by eight things he was uprooted from the world. Sennacherib was uprooted from the world only by eight things, as it is said (2 Kings 18:35), "Who among all the gods of the lands... that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?" and by eight things he was uprooted from the world. Nebuchadnezzar was uprooted from the world only by eight things, as it is said (Isaiah 14:13), "And you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven," and by eight things he was uprooted from the world. And by four things the world is settled: by charity, by judgment, by truth, and by peace. And he said to me: My master, an incident in which I sold to a certain gentile four kor of dates and measured out for him in a dark room, half by half, and he said to me, God is in heaven, and you know by what measure you are measuring out for me. And because I measured out for him in a dark room, I shortchanged him three seah of dates; and afterward I took the money and bought with it one jar of oil and placed it in the place where I had sold the dates to the gentile, and the jar split and the oil spilled and was gone. I said to him: My son, it is written (Leviticus 19:13), "You shall not oppress your fellow and you shall not rob him"; your fellow is like your brother, and your brother is like your fellow. From this you have learned that robbing a gentile is forbidden, for it is robbery; and there is no need to speak of robbing a brother. And because the Holy One, blessed be He, saw human beings oppressing and robbing and plundering one another, He went back and explained it through tradition by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 18:18), "His father, because he cruelly oppressed, robbed his brother by robbery, and did what is not good among his people, behold, he died in his iniquity." And he said to me: My master, a daughter or a granddaughter — which is more stringent? I said to him: My son, just as a daughter is a forbidden relation, so a granddaughter is also a forbidden relation; just as a daughter is, so a granddaughter is. And he said to me: My master, is it not written in the Torah (Leviticus 18:10), "The nakedness of your son's daughter or your daughter's daughter you shall not uncover"? I said to him: My son, is it not a matter of all the more so? If his son's daughter and his daughter's daughter are forbidden to him, his daughter, all the more so. And what does the verse teach by "the nakedness of a woman and her daughter you shall not uncover" (Leviticus 18:17)? Whether a woman and her daughter of his own, or a woman and her daughter from elsewhere. And he said to me: My master, a man with a discharge or a menstruant woman — which is more stringent? I said to him: My son, the menstruant is more stringent than the man with a discharge. And he said to me: My master, but did we not learn immersion for the menstruant only from the man with a discharge? I said to him: My son, is it not a matter of all the more so? If the man with a discharge, who does not bear offspring, conveys eleven impurities and requires the seven washings and immersions of the Torah, the menstruant, who bears offspring, all the more so does she convey eleven impurities and require the seven washings and immersions of the Torah. From this we have learned: whoever says to his wife and his daughters and the members of his household when they are in their menstrual state, You are permitted to touch all the vessels, do as you wish to do — because there is no immersion for the menstruant from the Torah — sees no satisfaction of spirit in the world.

An incident concerning a certain man who read much and studied much and served Torah scholars much, and he entered his eternal home in the middle of his days. And his wife became as one bewildered, and she would go around to the doors of her husband's fellows and say to them: My masters, my husband read much and studied much and served Torah scholars much; for what reason did he die in the middle of his days? And there was no one who answered her anything. Once I was walking in the marketplace and I entered her courtyard; she came and sat opposite me and was weeping. I said to her: My daughter, for what reason are you weeping? She said to me: My master, my husband read much and studied much and served Torah scholars much, and he died in the middle of his days. I said to her: My daughter, in the time of your menstruation, how was he with you? She said to me: My master, God forbid — he did not touch me even with his little finger. And after all those days in which I saw blood, I sat seven clean days, so as not to come to doubt. I said to her: My daughter, your husband spoke well to you, for thus the Sages said concerning men and women with discharges and menstruants and women after childbirth, that after seven they are pure, as it is said (Leviticus 15:28), "And if she is cleansed of her discharge, she shall count for herself seven days, and afterward she shall be clean." But in those days of white garments, how was he with you? Perhaps you brought him the knife that was in your hand and he touched it even with his little finger? She said to me: My master, by your life, I washed his feet and anointed him with oil and slept with him in one bed, I in my garments and he in his garments, but he did not turn his attention to anything else. I said to her: Blessed is the Omnipresent who slew him, before whom there is no favoritism, for thus it is written in the Torah (Leviticus 18:19), "And to a woman in her menstrual impurity you shall not draw near." One might think he may embrace her and kiss her and speak frivolous words with her — the verse teaches, "you shall not draw near"; one might think he may sleep with her in her garments on one bed — the verse teaches, "you shall not draw near," so that a person should not say to himself, when she is in her menstruation her flesh is forbidden but her bed is permitted. Therefore He went back and explained through Ezekiel (Ezekiel 18:6), "And he did not defile his neighbor's wife and did not draw near to a menstruant woman," likening a menstruant woman to a married woman, that you be as careful concerning her as concerning all the deaths stated in the Torah. And it says (Amos 3:2), "Only you have I known of all the families of the earth" — these are Israel from among the seventy tongues — "therefore I will visit upon you all your iniquities" — these are the Torah scholars from within the house of Israel. Further I said to her: My daughter, come and learn from what is written in the Torah, that the reward of a commandment is a commandment and the reward of a transgression is a transgression. A person has spoken much false speech and lying speech with his father and with his mother, with his wife and with his children, with his teacher who taught him Scripture and Mishnah and wisdom; in the end he does so with every person. A person has sworn many false oaths with all these; in the end he does so with every person. A person has conducted himself with arrogance of spirit with all these; in the end he does so with every person. A person has been brazen toward his father or his mother or toward one greater than he; in the end he does so with every person. The plagues are shown on his body; if he returns and repents, they heal him, and if not, he remains in his presumed state until the day of his death. A person loved robbery and increased it everywhere; the plagues are shown on his body; if he returns and repents, they heal him, and if not, he remains in his presumed state until the day of his death. A person loved his money and increased it everywhere; the plagues are shown — warp and woof — in his fine garments; if he repents, they are healed, and if not, they take his fine garments and burn them before him. A poor person comes and stands at the door of a householder and says to him, Lend me one kav of wheat or of barley, and the householder says to him, I have neither wheat nor barley, but in truth he has; the plagues are shown in the walls of his house until they reach the ground, and when they remove his vessels from his house to the street of the city, people say to one another, Is this not the one who said, I have neither wheat nor barley — and behold, he has? Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed is He, who sanctifies His great Name openly to all the world. Therefore He says (2 Chronicles 20:37), "When you joined with Ahaziah, the LORD broke your works, and the ships were wrecked." The craftsmen and the gluttons and the brazen-faced — of them He says (Psalms 37:17), "For the arms of the wicked shall be broken." Those who plow evil and twist words and deepen speech and make their tongue smooth — of them He says (Psalms 35:6), "Let their way be darkness and slipperiness." Those who strike their fellows in secret and profane the Name openly and demean their fellows with words and cast strife are destined to be like Korah and his company, and of them He says (Numbers 16:33), "And the earth covered them and they perished from the midst of the assembly." Those who hoard produce and lend at interest and make the ephah small and inflate prices — of them He says (Amos 8:7), "The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob, I will never forget all their deeds." All these do not bequeath to their children, and if they do bequeath to their children, they do not bequeath to their children's children. Dice players and those who lend at interest and those who raise small livestock in the Land of Israel, and the priests and Levites who seized their portion, and the heretics and the violent and those who profane the Name of Heaven and the flatterers — of them He says (Ecclesiastes 1:15), "What is crooked cannot be made straight." But those who are insulted and do not insult, who hear their disgrace and do not reply, who do the commandments out of love and rejoice in sufferings — of them He says (Judges 5:31), "And those who love Him are like the sun going forth in its might." Those who are despised and lowly in their own eyes and humble their spirit and subdue their inclination — of them He says (Isaiah 49:7), "Thus says the LORD... to the despised soul, to the abhorred of the nation, to the servant of rulers: kings shall see and arise, princes, and they shall bow down." Those who are trustworthy and return a deposit and return a lost object and conceal secrets — of them He says (Psalms 101:6), "My eyes are upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me." One who does the will of his wife and leads his children in the straight path and marries off a wife to his young sons before they reach their season, before they come to sin — of him He says (Job 5:24-26), "And you shall know that your tent is at peace, and you shall visit your dwelling and not sin; and you shall know that your seed is many and your offspring like the grass of the earth; you shall come to the grave in ripe old age as a sheaf comes up in its season." One who marries the daughter of his sister, and loves his neighbors, and brings his relatives near, and lends a coin to a poor person in his time of distress — of him He says (Isaiah 58:9), "Then you shall call and the LORD will answer." A person saw a seminal emission — he is obligated in immersion from the Torah; if he says, Who saw me? There is nothing in it — and he put it out of his mind — again he saw an emission and says, Who sees me? There is nothing in it — and likewise a third time, he transgresses what is written in the Torah (Leviticus 15:16), "And if a man's seminal emission goes out from him, he shall wash all his flesh in water and be impure until evening," and he transgresses what is written (Job 33:29), "Behold, all these God does twice, three times with a man." In the end he becomes a man with a discharge through his own ways, as it is said (Leviticus 15:2), "Any man who has a discharge from his flesh." And what does "any man, any man" teach? Rather, one man for a discharge from his flesh and one man for a nocturnal emission; and if he returns and repents, they heal him, and if not, behold, he is one with a discharge until the day of his death, as it is said (Leviticus 15:3), "And this shall be his impurity in his discharge." From here they said: A woman who saw a drop of blood like a mustard seed and said, Who saw me? There is nothing in it — and put it out of her mind two or three times, transgresses what is written in the Torah (Leviticus 15:19), "And a woman who has a discharge, blood being her discharge in her flesh," and transgresses what is written, "Behold, all these God does." In the end she becomes, through her own ways, a woman with a discharge for many days, as it is said (Leviticus 15:25), "And a woman who has a flow of her blood for many days not in the time of her menstruation." And what does "in her flesh" teach? It teaches that she conveys impurity from within as from without. Rabbi Yishmael says: This passage was stated at the outset only to teach about the daughters of Israel, that they convey impurity by a drop of blood like a mustard seed, and she needs to count seven clean days, and after she has counted seven clean days she needs immersion like a full menstruant, in order to leave the category of transgression. Rabbi Meir says: This passage was stated only for the commandment of being fruitful and multiplying, for even if a woman eats all kinds of food and drinks all kinds of drink, her husband does not become disgusted with her; but if he were accustomed to her at all times, even in her menstrual days, he would become disgusted with her and would nullify being fruitful and multiplying. Therefore it is said in the Torah, "seven days she shall be in her menstruation," so that she be as beloved to her husband on the day of her immersion as on the day of her entering the bridal canopy. If she returns and repents, they heal her at once, and if not, behold, she remains in her presumed state until the day of her death, as it is said, "And a woman who has a flow of her blood," and so forth. Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed is He, who gave the Torah to Israel so that they might learn from it proper conduct, so that the iniquities of Israel not increase, for whoever transgresses what is written in the Torah uproots himself from this world and from the world to come.

Once I was sitting in the great house of study in Jerusalem, and a certain disciple came and asked me a matter as a son asks his father, and said to me: For what reason were the earlier generations distinguished from all the generations, that their days were many and they prolonged days and years? I said to him: My son, for this they prolonged years — so that they could perform acts of lovingkindness with one another. From where do you know that it is so? Go out and learn from the first ten generations: Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah. Adam came into the world; Seth his son came after him; they said to Seth, Serve your father — he fed him and sustained him and provided for him. Seth came into the world; Enosh his son came after him; they said to Enosh, Serve your father — he fed him and sustained him and provided for him. They said to Enosh, Serve your father's father; Enosh said to them, I am not obligated to him. Enosh came into the world; Kenan his son came after him; they said to Kenan, Serve your father — he fed him and sustained him and provided for him; they said to Kenan, Serve your father's father; Kenan said to them, I am not obligated to him. And so on until Noah. Noah came into the world; they said to him, Serve your father — he fed him and sustained him and provided for him; they said to Noah, Serve your father's father — he took it upon himself and fed his father's father and all his ancestors who were alive at that time. And not only that, but he would go out and protest with words all those hundred and twenty years before the Flood came. Therefore the verse came and told concerning him for the generations that he was righteous, as it is said (Genesis 7:1), "For you I have seen righteous before Me" (a variant: "Noah was a righteous man, blameless"). From here they said: Merit is brought about through one who is meritorious, and liability through one who is liable. And by this measure for all the families of the earth, whether for Israel or for the gentiles. From here they said: The prime of a person's life is one hundred and twenty years, and afterward he comes to the world to come in great joy. And thus they said: The day that Adam died, they made it a festival and a day of feasting and joy. And likewise there was joy in the world for three things: for the angel of death, and for the evil inclination, and for sitting in the privy. And he said to me: My master, for what reason do you rejoice in the angel of death? I said to him: My son, were it not for the angel of death, what would we do for our Father in heaven? Go out and learn from the first ten generations, that the Holy One, blessed be He, poured upon them good as a foretaste of the world to come, and they arose to destroy the whole world. And he said to me: My master, for what reason do you rejoice in the evil inclination? I said to him: My son, were it not for the evil inclination, all that honor would not come to Israel. From where? When they go up to Jerusalem on the festivals, as it is said (Exodus 23:17), "Three times a year all your males shall appear," just as we are destined to go up and bow down three times a year to the King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is said (Zechariah 14:16), "And it shall be that everyone who is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem shall go up year by year to bow down to the King, the LORD of hosts, and to celebrate the festival of Sukkot." And when they are walking on the road, they will say each man to his brother, What offering shall we bring up in our hands? Are not the silver and gold His, the precious stones and pearls His? What offering shall we bring up in our hands? Immediately they go and bring the children of Israel in great honor, as it is said (Isaiah 66:20), "And they shall bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to the LORD, on horses and in chariots and in litters and on mules and on camels, to My holy mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, as the children of Israel bring the offering in a pure vessel to the house of the LORD." And if they find among the children of Israel one a year old or two years old, the princesses nurse him; and if one ten years old or fifteen years old, the kings raise them, as it is said (Isaiah 49:22-23), "Thus says the LORD, Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations and raise My banner to the peoples, and they shall bring your sons in their bosom and carry your daughters on their shoulder; and kings shall be your foster fathers and their princesses your nursing mothers; with faces to the ground they shall bow to you and lick the dust of your feet." And when they are walking on the road they will embrace and hug and kiss them and lick the dust of their feet, as it is said, "and the dust of your feet they shall lick." And then all Israel will be righteous, and the Holy One, blessed be He, will remove the evil inclination from them, and they will come to Scripture and to Mishnah and to learning and to proper conduct and to doing the will of their Father in heaven. He said to me: My master, what is the matter of sitting in the privy? And I said to him: My son, the Holy One, blessed be He, is destined to redeem Israel from among the gentiles and bring them the days of the son of David and the redemption, and these three things will be removed from them forever, as it is said (Song of Songs 1:13), "A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me, between my breasts he lodges." And when we recall these three things, we bless and praise and magnify and sanctify our Father in heaven. And he said to me: My master, tell me, how many prophets prophesied to Israel? I said to him: My son, forty-eight prophets prophesied to Israel. And he said to me: My master, and how is forty-eight different from forty-five or from fifty? I said to him: My son, corresponding to the forty-eight cities of refuge that were given to the Levites. And the Sages said that the prophets diminished nothing at all from what is written in the Torah and added nothing at all to what is written in the Torah, but they are all clear to one who understands and upright to those who find knowledge. And to what is the house of Israel comparable in this world before their Father in heaven? To a king of flesh and blood who has many sons and servants. He arose and built many houses and many palaces and many open spaces without end. The king raised a matter in his mind and said, I will test my servants and my sons: who is it that loves me and fears me, and who is it that fears me but does not love me? What does the king do? He arises and builds an alley four cubits by four cubits, and makes within it a courtyard four handbreadths by four handbreadths, and makes within it a small wicket gate that opens into great open spaces, to receive through the small wicket gate the face of the king. And the king's sons and his servants come and stand in the courtyard and in the alley, and the king knows in his mind who loves him and fears him, and who fears him but does not love him. The one who loves and fears the king pains his body and enters through the small wicket gate that opens into the great open spaces to receive the king's face; and the one who fears the king but does not love him stands in the courtyard and in the alley and does not pain his body to enter through the small wicket gate. So the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel: My children, what have you done? I came to receive your face, and you did not come to receive My face, as it is said (Song of Songs 8:13), "You who dwell in the gardens," and it says (Isaiah 43:8), "Bring out a people blind though it has eyes, and deaf though it has ears." "Bring out a people blind though it has eyes" — these are the unlearned who have proper conduct and the other commandments and keep themselves far from robbery and from every ugly thing. "And deaf though it has ears" — these are the Torah scholars who gave themselves over to Scripture, to Mishnah, to laws and to aggadot; and of these it is said (Isaiah 42:7), "to open blind eyes, to bring out the prisoner from confinement, those who sit in darkness from the prison house." And he said to me: My master, how is Isaiah son of Amoz different from all the prophets, that he prophesied all the good things and all the consolations to Israel more than all the prophets? I said to him: My son, because he accepted upon himself the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven with joy more than all the other prophets, as it is said (Isaiah 6:8-11), "And I heard the voice of the LORD saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? And I said, Here am I, send me." And it is written after it, "And He said, Go and say to this people, Hear indeed but do not understand, and see indeed but do not know; make the heart of this people fat and its ears heavy and its eyes shut, lest it see with its eyes and hear with its ears and its heart understand and it turn and be healed." And it says, "How long, O LORD? And He said, Until cities lie waste without inhabitant." And it entered the mind of Isaiah that the Holy One, blessed be He, does not desire the repentance of Israel — God forbid. A parable: to a king who had an only son in a province; he sent a messenger to him and said to the messenger, Slaughter for my son many oxen and many sheep and feed my son much meat and give my son much aged wine to drink, and be lazy in the work of the field and in the work of the irrigated field. And all this, why? So that the king's son not go out with you to do work, and the king his father come and find no satisfaction of spirit from him. But the king — the Holy One, blessed be He — knows that Isaiah did not give a fitting reply in its place. Surely the One who said (Zechariah 2:8-9), "Jerusalem shall be inhabited as open towns from the multitude of people and beasts within her, and I will be to her, says the LORD, a wall of fire around, and for glory I will be in her midst," and likewise said (Zechariah 8:4-5), "Old men and old women shall yet dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, each with his staff in his hand from the multitude of days, and the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets" — He would say to Isaiah (Isaiah 6:11), "Until cities lie waste without inhabitant and houses without people." Surely a person should know before whom he stands and before whom he speaks, and know what he says, and know what the matter is that he speaks, when he stands and speaks before one greater than he. And the Sages taught: Do not appease your fellow at the hour of his anger. And he said to me: My master, in how many years did Isaiah prophesy all those good things and consolations that he prophesied to Israel? I said to him: My son, had Israel repented out of their love, the Holy One, blessed be He, would have built them the last Temple immediately at that hour. And all the more so that the Holy One, blessed be He, would embrace them and hug them and kiss them and seat them in His bosom forever and ever.

Scripture says, "He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not taken My soul in vain and has not sworn deceitfully. He shall receive a blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation" (Psalms 24). "Clean hands" - this was Moses our teacher, father of the sages and father of the prophets, whose hands were clean of robbery, as it is said, "Moses was very angry and said to the LORD... I have not taken one donkey of theirs" (Numbers 16). "A pure heart" - this is Moses, whose heart was clear in the fear of God. "Who has not taken My soul in vain" - the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses, "The breath, spirit, and soul that I placed in you never made a vain claim, never saying what I had not written in My Torah." "And has not sworn deceitfully" - he did not deceive in the oath he swore to Jethro, as it is said, "Moses consented [vayo'el] to dwell with the man" (Exodus 2); "vayo'el" means nothing but an expression of oath, as it is said, "Saul adjured [vayo'el] the people" (1 Samuel 14). And what was Moses' reward? That he received a blessing from the mouth of his God, as it is said, "He shall receive a blessing from the LORD." My Father in Heaven, may Your great Name be blessed forever and ever. And may You have contentment from Israel. I passed through all the places where Israel dwells and saw all the ugly and unfit things that Israel did, yet You held no jealousy or vengeance against them, nor did You exalt Yourself over them, nor withhold the words of Your Torah from their mouths. Rather You recalled the good they did before You and not the evil, and You said to them through Isaiah, "The former things shall not be remembered or come to mind, but be glad and rejoice forever" (Isaiah 65). When our ancestors stood at Mount Sinai to take upon themselves the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven willingly, He too came down from the highest heavens, from the place of His glory and splendor and holiness, and made His great Name dwell among them willingly, as it is said, "The generous man devises generous things, and by generosity he shall stand" (Isaiah 32). Happy is the person whose deeds exceed his wisdom. To what may this be compared? To a foot set in a shoe, protected from all pain and grief, as it is said, "How beautiful are your steps in sandals, O noble daughter; the curves of your thighs" (Song of Songs 7). Just as the thigh is concealed, so every good deed a person does, let him do it in concealment: charity in concealment, modesty with his wife in concealment. If he does so, he will be beloved before the Omnipresent. "Go out, daughters of Zion, and gaze upon King Solomon" (Song of Songs 3) - this is the King who is the King of kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, to whom peace belongs. Another interpretation: He intends and makes peace among the four hundred ninety-six myriads of ministering angels who stand before Him and sanctify His great Name daily, from sunrise to sunset saying "Holy, holy, holy," and from sunset to sunrise saying "Blessed is the glory of the LORD from His place," as it is said, "He makes peace in His heights" (Job 25). Another interpretation: Solomon and David sat upon thrones, and their servants and household and countrymen brought before them food and drink and all manner of provisions. But the Holy One, blessed be He - may His great Name be blessed forever - is not so. He sits upon His throne of glory: a third of the day He reads and studies, a third of the day He judges, and a third of the day He performs charity and feeds and sustains all who come into the world and all the works of His hands, as it is said, "He gives bread to all flesh" (Psalms 136). "With the crown that his mother crowned him" - when Israel were in Egypt and came out and were in the wilderness, they did not change their names or their language, and the ministering angels murmured about them, saying, "Surely there are among these the like of the deeds of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, since they did not change their names or their language." "On the day of his wedding and the day of the gladness of his heart" - when Israel stood at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, the Holy One, blessed be He, watched and worried in His heart that perhaps Israel would not accept His Torah as the nations had not accepted it, and the decree would be sealed against them. But afterward, once they accepted upon themselves the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven with joy and said, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do and we will hear," the Holy One commanded Moses to tell Israel to make Him a sanctuary, as it is said, "Speak to the children of Israel... and let them make Me a sanctuary, and I will dwell among them" (Exodus 25). What Israel gave Him, He returned to them in love.

"Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches; pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord; lift up your hands to Him for the life of your children, who faint with hunger at the head of every street" (Lamentations 2:19). Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed is He, whose mercies are abundant over Israel forever. Even though they spoiled their deeds before the Holy One, and the Holy One is angry with them, even so His mercies are upon them every single day, as it is said, "The mercies of the LORD I will sing forever; to all generations I will make known Your faithfulness with my mouth" (Psalms 89). And so He explains through Isaiah the prophet, "This people I formed for Myself; they shall declare My praise" (Isaiah 43). And it says, "I will recall the mercies of the LORD, the praises of the LORD... great in goodness toward the house of Israel, which He bestowed on them according to His mercies... In all their distress He was distressed, and the angel of His presence saved them, in His love" (Isaiah 63). I have here only the distress of the community; from where do I learn the distress of the individual? Scripture teaches, "He shall call upon Me and I will answer him" (Psalms 91). If so, why is it said, "In all their distress He was distressed"? Rather, the Holy One said: In every single trouble that Israel has, as it were, I am with them. Do not read "He was distressed [lo tzar]" but "to Me there is distress [li tzar]," as it is said, "And He said to me, You are My servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified" (Isaiah 49). Therefore it is said, "Arise, cry out in the night." What is "pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord"? From here they said: Any disciple of the wise who sits and reads and studies and occupies himself with Torah, the Holy One sits opposite him and reads and studies with him. For here it says "before the face of the Lord," and elsewhere it says, "And these camped facing those" (1 Kings 20:29) - just as there their faces were toward one another, so here too. Another interpretation of "pour out your heart": Because the mercies of the Holy One are abundant over Israel forever, over the wicked among them and the righteous among them. And how do you know this? Go and learn from David king of Israel, to whom, out of the love He loved him and the joy He had in him, He sent words by the hand of Nathan the prophet, as it is said, "And it was on that night that the word of the LORD came to Nathan, saying, Go and say to My servant David... Will you build Me a house for My dwelling? For I have not dwelt in a house..." until "Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before you; your throne shall be established forever" (2 Samuel 7). From here they said: Whoever dines with his fellow, even bread with salt, even if that diner has a hundred meals a day like Solomon's feast in his prime, even so he holds gratitude to his fellow to his face. When David heard this, he came and sat 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 the places where they dwell, for You have made us great and exalted us and sanctified us and praised us, and bound for us a crown of words of Torah from one end of the world to the other. The Torah I did before You, I did from what is Yours; the acts of lovingkindness I did before You, I did from what is Yours; and even so, as reward for the little Torah I did before You, You have granted me this world and the days of the son of David and the world to come, as it is said, "And King David came and sat before the LORD and said, Who am I, O Lord GOD, and what is my house, that You have brought me thus far?" (2 Samuel 7:18). Happy is the one who knows in his heart what he is before his Father in Heaven, and does all his deeds in trust upon his Father in Heaven. Happy is the one who fears Heaven in concealment and leans and trusts as one who grasps a shield and buckler, as it is said, "And David spoke to the LORD the words of this song... and he said, The LORD is my rock and my fortress... my shield and the horn of my salvation, my high tower and my refuge" (2 Samuel 22).

There was once a priest who feared Heaven in concealment, and all the good deeds he did, he did in concealment. He had ten children from one wife, six sons and four daughters, and every single day he would pray and prostrate himself and beg mercy and lick the dust with his tongue, so that not one of them should come to transgression or to anything unfit. They said: That year did not pass, nor a second, nor a third, before Ezra came and the Holy One brought Israel up by his hand from Babylon, and that priest with them. And that priest did not depart from this world until he saw high priests and young priests from his sons and his sons' sons for fifty years; and afterward that priest entered his eternal home. Of him Scripture says, "Trust in the LORD and do good... Delight in the LORD, and He will grant you the requests of your heart" (Psalms 37:4). And thus the Holy One said to Israel: My children, can the empty things that deny the Torah give to those who serve them food and drink and provisions, even in this world, let alone the world to come? But you, children of Israel, I took to Myself, because all is Mine and all is the work of My hands. Moreover, I sit upon My throne of glory: a third of the day I read and study, a third of the day I judge, and a third of the day I perform charity and feed and sustain all who come into the world, as it is said, "Trust in the LORD forever, for in the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock" (Isaiah 26) - for the two worlds are Mine. Therefore I say, "He who trusts in Your Name in truth shall never be ashamed," as it is said, "In You our ancestors trusted; they trusted and You delivered them" (Psalms 22). Happy are the righteous whose trust is such that they rely on their Father in Heaven, who created the world with wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and discernment; therefore it is said, "He shall be like a tree planted by water" (Jeremiah 17). They told a parable: To what may this be compared? To a king to whom his servant brought a gift, a measure of wheat. If he ground it but did not sift it, this is shameful. If he sifted it but did not grind it, this is shameful. If he sifted and ground it but did not extract fine flour, this is middling. But if he sifted and ground it and extracted fine flour from it, this is the perfect measure. So too with disciples of the wise in this world in words of Torah: one who read Scripture but did not study Mishnah, this is shameful; studied but did not read Scripture, shameful; read and studied but did not serve the sages, middling; but one who read Torah, Prophets, and Writings, and studied Mishnah, Midrash, laws, and aggadot, and served the sages, this is the perfect measure. And it says, "On the bank of the stream, on this side and that, shall grow every tree for food, whose leaf shall not wither nor its fruit fail; it shall bear fresh fruit monthly, for its waters issue from the sanctuary; its fruit shall be for food and its leaf for healing" (Ezekiel 47:12). What is the tree that grows by the stream? These are disciples of the wise who possess Torah - Scripture and Mishnah, laws and aggadot - and good deeds and service of the sages. "Happy is everyone who fears the LORD" (Psalms 128). Even servants and converts who fear Heaven are included in "happy." For if not so, Scripture should have said "happy are the sages and their students and their teachers"; but from the following verse you cannot say so, since it is written, "When you eat the labor of your hands, happy shall you be" - I call heaven and earth to witness that any disciple of the wise who eats of his own and enjoys the labor of his hands and does not benefit from the community is included in "happy." "Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the recesses of your house" - your wife shall be like a vine that produces fruit, and when is your wife like a fruitful vine? As long as your wife is in the recesses of your house. What is written after it? "Your children like olive shoots." Just as the olive yields olives for eating, for drying, and for oil, so as long as your wife is in the recesses of your house she does not stir from her place, and her children are like the olive: some masters of Scripture, some of Mishnah, some of Talmud, some of commerce, some sages and some discerning, knowing understanding, everything in its time. Second to her is a woman who walks about in the market and speaks with everyone; she brings evil upon herself and causes her children to be evil. If she did not separate the dough offering in purity, or was negligent regarding the laws of purity stated in the Torah, she too brings evil upon herself and her children, that they be blemished, and she never finds contentment. And when do they judge a child? Not when he is born, nor when he is weaned from milk, but once he comes to his teacher's house for Scripture and Mishnah and then abandons everything and goes off; then they judge him, as it is said, "Who is the wise man who can understand this... why is the land ruined?... And the LORD said, Because they forsook My Torah which I set before them" (Jeremiah 9). But if he occupies himself with Scripture and Mishnah and does not abandon it, all love him and have mercy on him. And from where do we know that Torah is likened to a woman? As it is said, "He who finds a wife finds good and obtains favor from the LORD" (Proverbs 18:22).

Another interpretation of "it shall bear fruit monthly" - for those who honor the Torah, who honor it every single day. How so? A city in which there are gentiles and ten houses of Israel who go early and late to the synagogue and study house - even though the gentiles encamp all around them, the gentiles honor and fear them, as it is said, "Therefore a strong people shall honor You; the city of ruthless nations shall fear You" (Isaiah 25:3). What is "for its waters issue from the sanctuary"? Because a light commandment is like a weighty one and a weighty one like a light one, and both alike are healing for Israel, in this world, in the days of the son of David, and in the world to come, as it is said, "its fruit shall be for food and its leaf for healing." And when Israel occupy themselves with Torah and do charity and justice, the Holy One rejoices in them and tells them that His joy in them is a thousand thousandfold for good, twice as much as their own, as it is said, "To the nut garden I went down" (Song of Songs 6). Just as a nut has four chambers, so every sage of Israel who has true words of Torah has four things in him: wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and discernment. They told a parable: To what is this like? To a king who comes into his house after some days and years; when he examines his servants, he does not examine them over silver and gold and precious stones, but says, "Did so-and-so my servant read and study?" If they tell him that he read and studied and surpassed his fellows in repentance, at once the king favors him and abandons everything and rejoices with him. What is "it shall not fear when heat comes" (Jeremiah 17)? This tells you that anyone who occupies himself with Torah does not see the measure of punishment, neither in this world, nor in the days of the son of David, nor in the world to come. And what is the dwelling of the middling measure, neither hot nor cold? This is the festival of Sukkot, as it is said, "I will yet make you dwell in tents as in the days of the appointed time" (Hosea 12:10). And what is "its leaf shall be fresh"? That contentment goes out from it into the world, for when Israel do the will of the Omnipresent, it is said of them, "A leafy olive tree, fair with goodly fruit, the LORD called your name" (Jeremiah 11:16). They told a parable: To what is this like? To ten people who came to one gathering. One brought large fish, the second small fish, the third salted foods, the fourth bland foods, the fifth boiled cabbage and beets, the sixth eggs, the seventh cheese, the eighth ox meat, the ninth ram meat, the tenth fowl. Each one brought a single dish to the table, and each one takes from all ten dishes and goes home with ten kinds of food. So too, when ten people come to the synagogue and the study house and each learns with his fellows one matter or one verse or one law, it turns out that each holds ten laws or ten matters and goes home with ten. Therefore I said: A person should always sit and occupy himself with Torah and with the work of the chariot and with all the good traits in the world, and leave everything and go to the synagogue and the study house, for in the renewal of Torah in the synagogue and study house, joy is renewed for the Holy One every single day. So it is explained through Isaiah: "The Lord GOD has given me a learned tongue, to know how to sustain the weary with a word; He awakens me morning by morning, He awakens my ear to hear like the learned" (Isaiah 50:4-5). And so, when the transgressors of Israel came to uproot the kingdom of the house of David from Israel, and were turned back in repentance, out of that repentance the Divine Presence came above David and answered, saying to him, "David My son, of you it is said, The LORD has sworn and will not relent" (Psalms 110:4). Come and see how great is the power of repentance, that it sets people as kings in the world and binds wreaths upon their heads, and heals the sick by itself, and saves him from all grief and groaning and sorrow, and delivers him from the judgment of Gehinnom. And when Israel do the will of their Father in Heaven and return to Him in complete repentance, it is said of them, "Return, O backsliding children" (Jeremiah 3:14). Happy is the person who fears Heaven out of lowliness of spirit and out of humility, out of repentance and out of submission to judgment. Happy are the righteous over whom no enemy has dominion. So we find regarding the sanctuary that Moses made: no enemy ruled over it. But the sanctuary that Solomon made, an enemy ruled over it. But the final Temple, which the Holy One will build speedily and soon, shall not be torn down, and no enemy shall ever rule over it, and the Holy One shall dwell in it forever and ever.

Once I was passing from place to place, and it was a year of drought, and a certain man found me and said, "Rabbi, from what place are you?" I said to him, "My son, I am from such-and-such a place, where all are sages and rabbis." He said to me, "Rabbi, dwell in my place, and I will provide for you and give you wheat and barley and all kinds of legumes." I said to him, "My son, even if you give me a thousand thousand golden dinars, I will not leave the place of Torah." He said to me, "Rabbi, why?" I said to him, "Because all those people you see in the world who provide for themselves and dwell in a place that has no words of Torah - after a time they die and depart. For nothing accompanies a person to his eternal home except words of Torah and good deeds alone, as it is said, "When you walk it shall guide you, when you lie down it shall watch over you, and when you wake it shall converse with you" (Proverbs 6:22). And it says, "Your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall gather you in" (Isaiah 58:8). And it says, "And it shall be righteousness for you before the LORD your God" (Deuteronomy 24:13). And whenever Israel occupy themselves with Torah and do the will of their Father in Heaven, the Holy One Himself turns toward them for blessing, as it is said, "Truth springs up from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven" (Psalms 85), and "looking down" means nothing but blessing, as it is said, "Look down from Your holy dwelling... and bless Your people" (Deuteronomy 26:15). And whenever Israel do not occupy themselves with Torah and do not do the will of the Omnipresent, God forbid, He turns toward them for a curse, as it is said, "It grew up to the host of heaven, and it cast down to the ground some of the host and of the stars, and trampled them... and the host was given over to it together with the daily offering through transgression, and it cast truth to the ground, and it acted and prospered" (Daniel 8:10). And "the host of heaven" means nothing but Israel; "through transgression" - this is the transgression of Torah, as it is said, "and it cast truth to the ground" - thus you have learned that if Israel cast words of Torah to the ground, God forbid, immediately the kingdom of the nations acts and prospers. Come and see that the measure of the Holy One is not like the measure of flesh and blood. The measure of flesh and blood: his curse is greater than his blessing. But the Holy One is not so; His blessing is greater than His curse. When the Holy One blessed Israel, He blessed them from alef to tav, from "If you walk in My statutes" to "upright" (Leviticus 26). And when He cursed them, it was from vav to mem, from "But if you will not listen" to "their soul abhorred" (Leviticus 26). Similarly you say, "And all Israel transgressed Your Torah" (Daniel 9:11) - what does this teach? It teaches that they transgressed it from alef to tav. Come and see how great is the power of the transgression of Torah, for Jerusalem was not destroyed and the Temple was not destroyed except through the transgression of Torah, as it is said, "For the transgression of Jacob is all this" (Micah 1:5), and "this" means nothing but Torah, as it is said, "Who is the wise man who can understand this... why is the land ruined? And the LORD said, Because they forsook My Torah" (Jeremiah 9:11).

Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed is He, who chose you, Israel, out of seventy nations, and placed in you wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and discernment, that you should trust in Him at all times and at every hour. Another interpretation of "Arise, cry out in the night": "crying out" here means nothing but the acknowledgment that comes with afflictions. How so? When a person does all that he does and afflictions come upon him, let him rise at midnight and praise and bless and exalt and magnify and sanctify the Name of Him who spoke and the world came into being, blessed is He, as it is said, "At midnight I rise to give thanks to You" (Psalms 119:62). And how did David know how to fix the exact moment of midnight? Thus the sages said: A harp hung above David's bed, and when midnight arrived a north wind would blow upon it and the harp would begin to play by itself; therefore it is said "midnight." And it says, "He who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper" (Proverbs 28:13) - rather, when afflictions come upon a person for his good, they come to rescue from his hand all that he has done. Let him not say in his heart, "I am righteous, I am upright, I perform acts of lovingkindness; why should afflictions come upon me?" Let a person look into himself and make known to himself that the Holy One shows favoritism to no one, as it is said, "Israel is My firstborn son" (Exodus 4:22), and elsewhere it says, "You are children of the LORD your God" (Deuteronomy 14:1). When He chastises them, He chastises them only for their good, as it is said, "Know in your heart that as a man chastises his son, so the LORD your God chastises you" (Deuteronomy 8:5). And is there a person in the world who wishes that his son should sin? God forbid. Another interpretation of "Arise, cry out in the night": "crying out" here means nothing but joy, as it is said, "Sing with joy for Jacob" (Jeremiah 31:7), and "Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion" (Zechariah 2:14) - sing with much singing and rejoice with much joy. Why? "For behold, I come and will dwell in your midst." And it says, "The LORD has revealed to me four craftsmen" (Zechariah 2:3), and these are: the son of David, the son of Joseph, Elijah, and the priest of righteousness. Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed is He, who chose the sages and their students. They told a parable: To what is this like? To a king who had a grove of trees near his house, and he soaked the garden and hoed it and watered it from the channel and gave it manure in its corners, so that every tree in it - its days of old age are better than its days of youth, as it is said, "They shall not build and another inhabit, they shall not plant and another eat, for as the days of a tree shall be the days of My people" (Isaiah 65:22). And it says, "Those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint" (Isaiah 40:31). This thing is destined to be in the end, and part of it is fulfilled today. Therefore I said: A person is obligated to bless and praise and glorify and exalt and magnify and sanctify the Name of the Holy One for all that comes upon him, whether good or evil. How so? If a lion met him and did not eat him, let him bless and praise the Name of the Holy One, for perhaps he was destined for the lion and the Holy One had pity on him and it did not eat him. If a bear met him and did not eat him, let him bless and praise the Name of the Holy One. If a dog met him and did not eat him, let him bless. If a wolf met him and did not eat him, let him bless. If a snake or scorpion met him and did not sting him, let him bless and praise, for perhaps he was destined for them and the Holy One had pity on him. If a thorn struck him in the flesh and did not strike him in the sinews and bones, let him bless and praise the Name of the Holy One that it did not strike him in sinew and bone. And whoever prays and gives thanks over the light things, it is as though he prayed and gave thanks over the weighty things, as it is said, "For this let every pious one pray to You at a time of finding" (Psalms 32:6).

Once our masters and the rest of the sages were sitting in the study house and disputing with one another, saying: From where does Elijah come? This one says from the seed of Rachel, and that one says from the seed of Leah. While they were disputing with one another, I came to them and stood before them and said to them, "My masters, I come only from the seed of Rachel." They said to me, "Give a sign for your words." I said to them, "Is it not written in the genealogy of the tribe of Benjamin (1 Chronicles 8), 'And Yaareshyah and Eliyah and Zikhri, the sons of Yeroham'?" They said to me, "But are you not a priest, and did you not say to the widow woman, 'Make me a little cake of it first and bring it to me, and afterward make for yourself and your son' (1 Kings 17:13)?" I said to them, "That child was the son of Joseph," and I hinted to the world that I would go down to Babylon first, and afterward the son of David will come. What is "at the beginning of the watches"? Even the poorest in Israel who has Torah and good deeds is more pleasing to the Holy One than Ahab king of Israel, as it is said, "Better is a poor and wise youth" (Ecclesiastes 4:13). And it says, "A prayer of the poor man when he faints and pours out his complaint before the LORD" (Psalms 102:1). David stood in prayer before the Holy One and said before Him: Master of the world, had You not written for us in Your Torah "upon the third and the fourth generations" (Exodus 34:7), no person could live upon the face of the earth and the whole world would be destroyed. But what did You do for us in Your wisdom and understanding? You wrote in the Torah "upon the third and fourth generations" and not until the end of all generations. Surely the LORD is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness. Why? Because You are merciful and gracious. Therefore You are slow to anger and pious and righteous, and You judge people each according to his ways and repay each one according to his deeds, and You uphold over them the measure with which a person measures, for You desire the good and do not desire the evil, as it is said, "For You are not a God who desires wickedness; evil shall not dwell with You" (Psalms 5:5), and it says, "Out of the depths I called to You, O LORD" (Psalms 130:1). David further said before the Holy One: Master of the world, by what shall the poor man's name be called before You? Granted, the rich man's name is called before You by his wealth, by his silver and gold and precious stones and the precious vessels of the world; but the poor man, by what shall his name be called before You? Rather, his name shall be called by his son. How so? If his son stands in the synagogue and the study house and reads in the Torah, and people say, "Whose son is this?" one answers, "The son of so-and-so, who is poor," and so the many bless His great Name on his account. Likewise if his son stands and asks about laws in the study house. From this you have learned that the Holy One gives children who are masters of Torah only to the poor, as it is said, "Do not rob the poor because he is poor, and do not crush the afflicted in the gate, for the LORD will plead their cause" (Proverbs 22:22-23).

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).

Once I was traveling through the exile in Babylonia, and I entered a great city of Israel where there were no idolaters at all. I found there a teacher of young children, and two hundred boys sat before him, most of them eighteen and twenty years old. The following year I returned and found the students, but their teacher was no longer among them, only a single child remained, who was his great-grandson. For because of the corrupt deeds of those boys, their teacher died, and his wife died, and his son died, and all the boys who were eighteen and twenty died, and only the little ones were left. I was weeping and sighing over them until an angel came to me from heaven and said: Why are you weeping and sighing? I said to him: Shall I not weep and sigh over these who had come to Scripture and Mishnah and now have gone and are as though they never were? He said to me: You did not do well to weep and mourn and sigh over them. I said: Why? He said: Because they were doing ugly things, things that are not fitting, corrupting themselves, and they were spilling seed in vain, and they did not know that death was overtaking them on account of it. As for what the Sages taught in the Mishnah, that one man may not be secluded with two women, but one woman may be secluded with two men, that is not the law. For if one of them comes upon her in transgression there is no complete testimony. But one woman may be secluded with three men, for if one of them rises and comes upon her in transgression, here there is complete testimony. This is the difference between two and three. And even what we learned, that one woman may be secluded with three men, we learned only of three men who are disciples of the wise and great men, but with licentious men, even with a hundred men one woman may not be secluded. The Sages further taught: An unmarried man shall not herd cattle, and two unmarried men shall not sleep under one cloak. And this is the established rule in Israel: anyone whose work is with women shall not be secluded with women, such as goldsmiths, carders, embroiderers, weavers, tailors, peddlers, barbers, and launderers. If you wish to learn and desire words of Torah, go and learn from the beginning of the matter, the start of all deeds. When our fathers stood at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, the Holy One, blessed be He, told Moses to tell Israel to sanctify themselves two days, as it is said, "and sanctify them today and tomorrow" (Exodus 19:10). Moses came and told them to prepare themselves three days, as it is said, "Be ready for the third day; do not approach a woman" (Exodus 19:15). And not only Moses told Israel to separate themselves from transgression and robbery and from every ugly thing so that they would be pure when they stood at Mount Sinai; Joshua too told Israel to separate from transgression and robbery and every ugly thing, and to be in holiness and purity when they crossed the Jordan, as it is said, "And Joshua said to the people, Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders in your midst" (Joshua 3:5), and it says, "Prepare provisions for yourselves, for in three days you are crossing this Jordan to come in to possess the land" (Joshua 1:11). But did Israel need provisions there? They were eating only the manna, which they would gather in the morning and leave until evening, and at evening they would eat it at once. Rather, what does "Prepare provisions for yourselves" teach? So he said to them: Repent, so that you may enter the land that the Holy One, blessed be He, gave to your fathers, and eat of its produce, as it is said, "And they ate of the produce of the land of Canaan in that year" (Joshua 5:12). What is written after it? "And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted his eyes and saw, and behold a man stood opposite him... and he said, No, but I am captain of the host of the LORD; now I have come... And the captain of the host of the LORD said to Joshua, Remove your sandal from your foot, for the place where you stand is holy." Therefore I would say: Happy is the man who increases sitting and labors in study and reduces his commerce and sits and meditates on words of Torah every single day. So it is set out through David, king of Israel, as it is said, "One thing I ask of the LORD, that I seek: that I dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to visit His sanctuary" (Psalms 27:4). When they went out to wage war at Ai, thirty-six righteous men fell from among them, as it is said, "And the men of Ai struck down about thirty-six men" (Joshua 7:5). Joshua and the elders came and fell on their faces to the ground before the ark of the LORD. Joshua said: Alas, Lord GOD, why did You bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hand of the Amorite to destroy us?... For what shall I say after Israel has turned its back before its enemies? The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: What is this, Joshua? Was it not I who said to your teacher Moses at the start, "Now go, and I will send you to Pharaoh" (Exodus 3:10), and he said before Me, "Send, please, by the hand of whom You will send" (Exodus 4:13), and further said, "Since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name he has done evil to this people, and You have not delivered" (Exodus 5:23)? Rather, Israel sinned, as it is said, "And the LORD said to Joshua, Arise; why do you fall on your face? Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them, and they have also taken of the devoted thing, and they have also stolen, and also deceived, and also put it among their own vessels." At once Joshua said before Him: Master of the universe, tell me who is the man who did this deed. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: What is this, Joshua? Am I to speak slander to you today? Rather, you stand up the twelve tribes and cast lots over them and bring out the one who did this deed, as it is said, "Arise, sanctify the people... and you shall draw near in the morning by your tribes... and he who is caught with the devoted thing shall be burned with fire." At once Joshua went and divided Israel into twelve tribes and cast lots over them and brought out Achan, as it is said, "And Joshua rose early in the morning and brought Israel near by its tribes, and the tribe of Judah was caught... and Achan son of Carmi was caught." At that moment Achan wept a great weeping and said: Woe is me, for the devoted thing that my fellows took from the Midianites my fellows gave to Moses, and I did not give it to him, and therefore this great shame and disgrace has come upon me. Then Achan said to Joshua: What is this, Joshua? You come against me by lot? Cast lots over Eleazar and over Ithamar; will the lot not fall on one of them too? At once Joshua said to him: My son, why do you say this? Do not cast aspersion on the lot, because the land of Israel is destined to be divided by lot. Rather, repent and give confession so that you may come to the world to come, as it is said, "And Joshua said to Achan, My son, give glory now to the LORD God of Israel and give Him confession." At once Achan answered Joshua and said, "Truly I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and thus and thus I have done. I saw among the spoil a goodly Babylonian garment and two hundred shekels of silver and a tongue of gold... and I coveted them." At once the people ran and brought them and placed them into Joshua's hand, and Joshua threw them to the ground and said: For these, thirty-six righteous men, most of the Great Sanhedrin, fell, and he flung them down before Him, as it is said, "And they took them from the midst of the tent and brought them to Joshua and to all the children of Israel and laid them out before the LORD." At once the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: What have you done, Joshua? I said I would refine My son and My servant so that they would know that I discern the heart of each one, and you cast his vessels before My children. You did not act properly. And Joshua kept mourning over himself until in the end he spoke slander against the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is said, "And Joshua said to the people, You cannot serve the LORD, for He is a holy God; He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions and your sins, if you forsake the LORD" (Joshua 24:19). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: What is this, Joshua, that you again spoke slander before Me? Was it not I who said before your teacher Moses at the start, "Now leave Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and I may consume them, and I will make you into a great nation" (Exodus 32:10)? And when he stood before Me in prayer and mentioned the names of their fathers, I at once heard his prayer, as it is said, "And Moses entreated the face of the LORD his God and said, Why, O LORD, should Your anger burn against Your people... Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel Your servants... And the LORD relented of the evil." Was it not I who said to your teacher Moses, "I will strike them with pestilence and dispossess them and make you into a great nation" (Numbers 14:12)? When a great matter came upon Israel through the spies and Moses stood before Me in prayer to mention the names of their fathers, I at once heard his prayer, and when he said before Me, "Forgive, please, the iniquity of this people," I forgave, as it is said, "And the LORD said, I have forgiven according to your word" (Numbers 14:19-20). Was it not I who wrote for the generations that come after you, "Who is a God like You, bearing iniquity and passing over transgression... He delights in mercy; He will again have compassion on us; He will subdue our iniquities" (Micah 7:18)? Joshua answered before the Holy One, blessed be He: I did not say this to Israel except to put fear in them, so that they would be in awe of You and not sin, but would serve You with a whole heart. At that moment the Holy One, blessed be He, was embracing and kissing the hands of Joshua for his wisdom and his understanding. At once Joshua said to Israel: This is my reward from you, because I speak with you every single hour to fear the LORD and to serve Him with a whole heart. And of them it is said, "A rebuke enters deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool" (Proverbs 17:10), and it says, "Let your foot be rare in your neighbor's house, lest he be sated with you and hate you" (Proverbs 25:17). Surely a person should know before whom he stands and what word he speaks before one greater than himself. And the Sages taught in the Mishnah: Do not appease your fellow in the moment of his anger. But one should seek mercy for householders, that on account of the worldly occupation they have they may busy themselves with it, and all the more so that he should seek mercy for the householders who have Torah in them, that they may busy themselves with it, and seek mercy for those who occupy themselves with the community, that they may serve you for the sake of Heaven, for the Holy One, blessed be He, pays them reward in this world while the principal endures for the world to come, and likewise for those who occupy themselves faithfully with worldly labor. For householders are not uprooted from the world and brought down to the earth except on account of the arrogant. When? When Israel eat and drink and kick out of plenty and do not occupy themselves with worldly labor and words of Torah. Of them Scripture says, "Under three things the earth quakes... under a slave when he becomes king, and a fool when he is filled with bread" (Proverbs 30:21-22). All these things come only on account of the arrogant. Hear me, my brothers and my people, that you not come to arrogance, but let a person look at himself and know that after death he will be maggot and worm and dust, and let him lift his eyes to the heavens and say: Who created these, sun and moon, stars and constellations, and the four winds of heaven, and all the work of creation, which the Holy One, blessed be He, created in His wisdom and His understanding, and each one of them hangs upon the word of His lips, as it is said, "By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host... Let all the earth fear the LORD... for He spoke and it was, He commanded and it stood" (Psalms 33:6-9). And let a person look at the works of the Holy One, blessed be He, in man and beast and bird of the heavens and fish of the sea, whose sustenance is each in His hand and whose breath is each delivered into His hand, as it is said, "Thus says the God, the LORD, who created the heavens... who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk on it" (Isaiah 42:5). Therefore I would say: A person is obligated to praise and bless and exalt and magnify and sanctify the name of Him who spoke and the world came to be, blessed be He, for the soul and spirit and breath He places in the evening with the keeper of the deposit and in the morning returns it to him, as it is said, "In whose hand is the soul of every living thing and the spirit of all human flesh" (Job 12:10), and it says, "Into Your hand I entrust my spirit; You have redeemed me, O LORD, God of truth" (Psalms 31:6).

A person should always be pleasing in his conduct, devout in his sitting, shrewd in fear of Heaven, and increasing peace with his father and his mother and his teacher who taught him Scripture and Mishnah, and even with every person in the world, as it is said, "A soft answer turns away wrath" (Proverbs 15:1). Happy is the person in whom there is no transgression and no iniquity, but in whom there are good deeds and Torah study, and who is lowly of knee and humble. Of him the Holy One, blessed be He, says: This one dwells with Me on high, as it is said, "For thus says the high and exalted One who dwells forever and whose name is holy: I dwell on high and holy, and with the contrite and lowly of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite" (Isaiah 57:15). And so the Sages said: Your deeds bring you near, and your deeds keep you far. How so? If a person did ugly things and things that are not fitting, his deeds keep him far from the Divine Presence, as it is said, "For your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden the face from you so it does not hear" (Isaiah 59:2). But if a person did good deeds, they bring him near to the Divine Presence, as it is said, "For thus says the high and exalted One... and with the contrite and lowly of spirit." And let a person not say in his heart: Since there is no transgression and no iniquity and no sin in me, I will be proud over creatures and exalt myself over them exceedingly. Rather let him say: I will not act so, in order that my days be full. And let a person know that a low spirit and a lowly spirit are more pleasing before the Holy One, blessed be He, than all the sacrifices in the Torah, as it is said, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise" (Psalms 51:19). From here the Sages said: If a person offers a burnt offering, the reward of a burnt offering is in his hand; a meal offering, the reward of a meal offering; a guilt offering, the reward of a guilt offering; a peace offering, the reward of a peace offering. But anyone whose mind is lowly, Scripture credits it to him as though he had offered all the sacrifices in the Torah, as it is said, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit", for it does not say "sacrifice" but "sacrifices." And so Jacob our father said to Joseph: My son, do not say, Since I am king and there is no transgression and iniquity and sin in me I will be proud over creatures and exalt myself over them exceedingly. Rather he said to him: My son, do not act so, in order that your days be full. The Holy One, blessed be He, gave a person wisdom and understanding, knowledge and intellect, only to sanctify His great name, as it is said, "They embittered him and shot at him... but his bow remained taut, and the arms of his hands were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, from there, the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel" (Genesis 49:23-24). But you are flesh and blood; have you no heart to know the LORD, to occupy yourselves with Torah and good deeds? Of you it is said, "Unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman keeps watch in vain" (Psalms 127:1), and it says, "Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent, you who remind the LORD, take no rest" (Isaiah 62:6). "Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord" (Lamentations 2:19). Just as this water is abundant for all who come into the world, so with all his limbs a person must do the will of the Holy One, blessed be He. Another interpretation of "Pour out your heart like water": just as this water is a relief of spirit for all who come into the world, in the days of heat and in the days of rain alike, so a person should give relief of spirit to the Holy One, blessed be He, always, all the days of his life. Another interpretation: just as this water is life to all who come into the world, so the house of Israel, I have atoned for them in all the places of their dwelling, and they endure only by words of Torah. Just as this water gives life to all who come into the world, so words of Torah are life to all who come into the world. Just as the building of the world is only by water, so the world stands only by water; were it not for water the world could not stand, so were it not for Israel and the Torah the heavens and earth would not endure, as it is said, "Thus says the LORD, If not for My covenant day and night, the statutes of heaven and earth I would not have set" (Jeremiah 33:25), and it says, "For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel... I will put My Torah within them and write it on their heart, and I will be their God and they shall be My people" (Jeremiah 31:33). Another interpretation of "Pour out your heart like water": just as with this water a person puts seeds in the ground and passes water over them and they sprout and grow fruit and people and all who come into the world live from them, so the children of Israel will be in the future, as it is said, "For I will pour water on the thirsty" (Isaiah 44:3). From here the Sages said: At that time Israel will be divided into four groups. This one will say, "I am the LORD's" (Isaiah 44:5), and this one will call himself by the name of Jacob, and this one will write with his hand to the LORD and surname himself by the name of Israel. "This one will say, I am the LORD's", these are the wholly righteous; "and this one will call himself by the name of Jacob", these are the children of the wicked; "and this one will write with his hand to the LORD", these are the wicked who turned from their evil way and returned and repented; "and by the name of Israel he will surname himself", these are the true converts.

Another interpretation of "Pour out your heart like water": just as this water is a purifying ritual bath for Israel and for all that was created in the world, as it is said, "Everything that comes into fire... and everything that does not come into fire you shall pass through water," so words of Torah are a purifying bath for Israel in all the places of their dwelling. Come and see how great is the power of the Torah, that it purifies the transgressors of Israel when they repent, even from the idolatry in their hands, as it is said, "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your impurities and from all your idols" (Ezekiel 36:25). And "water" is nothing other than Torah, as it is said, "Ho, everyone who is thirsty, come to the waters" (Isaiah 55:1), and purity is nothing other than words of Torah, as it is said, "The words of the LORD are pure words... refined sevenfold" (Psalms 12:7). Another interpretation: just as this water flows in the river and does not return again, so each individual of Israel who has quarreled with his fellow should not keep envy and vengeance in his heart against him, nor be proud over him, nor withhold words of Torah from him, as it is said, "Do not go out to quarrel hastily, lest you not know what to do in the end" (Proverbs 25:8). And do not be accustomed to answering back against the heavenly court, for if it comes to require a reckoning of you, to reprove you, you cannot stand under the reproof, as it is said, "Argue your case with your neighbor, but do not reveal another's secret" (Proverbs 25:9). How so? If a person committed a transgression this year, once the Day of Atonement came and he confessed it, the Holy One, blessed be He, forgave him; in the following year do not remember it to him further. For the Sages said: A hundred times flatter, but not once reveal his face in shame. And so the Sages taught in the Mishnah: If he was a penitent, one may not say to him, Remember your former deeds; and if he was of the children of converts, one may not say to him, Remember the deeds of your fathers, as it is said, "And you shall not wrong a stranger" (Exodus 22:20), and it says, "You shall not go about as a talebearer among your people" (Leviticus 19:16). Another interpretation of "You shall not go about as a talebearer": that you not be soft in your mouth and hard in your heart. Another interpretation: just as a peddler has with him a hundred kinds of spices, so every sage of Israel who has within him several hundred words of Torah in their truth has in his heart a hundred thoughts of Scripture and a hundred of Mishnah and a hundred kinds of answers of Talmud, as it is said, "Who is this coming up from the wilderness... with all the powders of the peddler" (Song of Songs 3:6), and they are like Moses and Aaron and all who resemble them. Correspondingly you say of the wicked, like the wicked Dathan and Abiram, each of whom intended to make a quarrel with his fellows, and there are in them a hundred thoughts of robbery and a hundred of forbidden unions and a hundred of bloodshed, as it is said, "He who separates himself seeks his own desire" (Proverbs 18:1), because they speak slander on earth, and it ascends against the throne of glory, as it is said, "They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walks on earth" (Psalms 73:9). Why? Because they mention it and transgress upon it. Another interpretation of "You shall not go about as a talebearer among your people": there are four traits in that verse, two traits of the righteous and two traits of the wicked. The two traits of the righteous, how so? Go and learn from Moses and Aaron, who intended and made peace between Israel and their Father in heaven, and between an unlettered Israelite and a disciple of the wise, and between sage and sage, and between a person and his fellow, and between a man and his wife. And out of their good ways a good name was fixed for them and for their children and their children's children until the end of all generations, as it is said, "This is Aaron and Moses" (Exodus 6:26). The two traits of the wicked, how so? Go and learn from the wicked Dathan and Abiram, who intended and made discord between Israel and their Father in heaven, and between an unlettered Israelite and a disciple of the wise, and between sage and sage, and between a person and his fellow, and between a man and his wife. And out of their evil ways an evil name was fixed for them and for their children until the end of all generations, as it is said, "This is Dathan and Abiram" (Numbers 26:9). Why did Scripture need to say "This is Dathan and Abiram"? Rather, they are the ones who said to Moses in Egypt, "Who set you as a man, a ruler and judge over us?" (Exodus 2:14). They are Dathan and Abiram who said to Moses in Egypt, "May the LORD look upon you and judge, for you have made our scent foul in the eyes of Pharaoh" (Exodus 5:21), as it is said, "And they met Moses and Aaron standing to meet them." And there it says, "And Dathan and Abiram came out standing" (Numbers 16:27). "Standing" is said here and "standing" is said there; just as "standing" said there is Dathan and Abiram, so "standing" said here is Dathan and Abiram. They are Dathan and Abiram who left over of the manna, as it is said, "And men left over of it until morning" (Exodus 16:20), and there it says, "And behold, two Hebrew men were striving" (Exodus 2:13); just as "men" said there is Dathan and Abiram, so "men" said here is Dathan and Abiram. From here the Sages said: whatever you can attach to the wicked, attach to them. What is the nature of a person who intends and makes a quarrel against Him who spoke and the world came to be? Scripture comes to teach you that anyone who makes a quarrel against a disciple of the wise is as though he made a quarrel against Him who spoke and the world came to be, as it is said, "This is Dathan and Abiram, the called of the congregation, who contended against Moses and against Aaron in the congregation of Korah, when they contended against the LORD" (Numbers 26:9). And because Dathan and Abiram knew that Moses and Aaron were worthy and were sons of the world to come, yet they rose against them to kill them with their tongue; and likewise Doeg and Ahithophel knew that David king of Israel was worthy and a son of the world to come, yet they rose against him to kill him with their tongue. Therefore it is said of them, "May the LORD cut off all smooth lips, the tongue that speaks great things" (Psalms 12:4), for this is the great transgression. Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed be He, before whom there is no favoritism. Just as they accorded honor to Ahithophel and called him a counselor, as it is said, "And the counsel of Ahithophel which he counseled in those days was as if one inquired of the word of God" (2 Samuel 16:23), and just as they accorded honor to Doeg the Edomite and called him a mighty man, as it is said, "Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man?" (Psalms 52:3), so according to the greatness of their honor was the greatness of their punishment. Therefore it is written after it, "You devise destruction; your tongue is like a sharpened razor working deceit... God will also tear you down forever; He will snatch you and pluck you from the tent and root you out of the land of the living, Selah" (Psalms 52:4-7). "God will also tear you down forever", whether in this world or in the days of the son of David or in the world to come. "He will pluck you from the tent", this is the house of study; and the Sages said that David said: even his offspring shall not be remembered in the house of study. "And root you out of the land of the living, Selah", this is the world to come, where the righteous live and endure forever and ever. Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed be He, who chose the sages and their disciples and the disciples of their disciples and fulfills upon them, by the measure a person measures, so it is measured to him. Just as they sit in synagogues and houses of study and in every place free for them, reading and learning for the sake of Heaven, with fear in their heart, holding fast words of Torah in their mouth, and fulfilling upon themselves the verse, "It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth" (Lamentations 3:27), so, as it were, even if they ask the whole world in a single hour, He gives it to them at once, as it is said, "I will tell of the decree of the LORD; He said to me, You are My son... Ask of Me and I will give nations as your inheritance and the ends of the earth as your possession" (Psalms 2:7-8). But the measure of the wicked is not so, as it is said, "Not so the wicked, but they are like chaff that the wind drives away" (Psalms 1:4). Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed be He, before whom there is no favoritism. Just as the wicked speak slander and it ascends to the throne of glory, so angels descend from before the Mighty One and take those wicked ones and cast them into the depth of Gehinnom. At that moment Gehinnom replies and says before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the universe, I have no power to repay them enough according to their punishment, and the whole world cannot give them enough of their punishment. For this master of slander sinned from the earth to the firmament. Rather, send Your arrows upon him from above first, and afterward he will receive coals of broom-wood from me below, as it is said, "What shall He give you and what more shall He add, O deceitful tongue? The sharp arrows of the mighty with coals of broom-wood" (Psalms 120:3-4). And "mighty" is nothing other than the Holy One, blessed be His name forever and ever, as it is said, "The great, mighty, and awesome God" (Deuteronomy 10:17), and it says, "The LORD goes out like a mighty man" (Isaiah 42:13). The wholly wicked are within Gehinnom like brine and fish-pickle within the pot. Just as this pot, once one puts into it brine or fish-pickle, is at once stilled, so Gehinnom, once the transgressors of Israel are put into it, is at once stilled. How so? When it rages, the Holy One, blessed be He, says to it: Why and over what do you rage? It says before Him: Master of the universe, give me those who recognize Him and transgress upon Him. And the Holy One, blessed be He, would put off Gehinnom with words and say to it: Perhaps you have no room for the transgressors of Israel? At that moment Gehinnom said before Him: Master of the universe, did You not swear to me to widen me, as it is said, "Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite and opened its mouth beyond measure" (Isaiah 5:14)? And "therefore" is nothing other than an oath, as it is said, "And therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli" (1 Samuel 3:14). And what does "her splendor and her multitude go down" (Isaiah 5:14) teach? These are those who commit transgression in inner chambers, in the hidden place, and say, Who sees me and who knows me? as it is said, "Their deeds are in the dark, and they say, Who sees us and who knows us?" (Isaiah 29:15), and it says, "And they say, The LORD does not see, and the God of Jacob does not understand" (Psalms 94:7), and it says, "Do you see, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark... for they say... the LORD has forsaken the land" (Ezekiel 8:12). Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed be He, before whom there is no favoritism. Just as they commit transgressions in inner chambers and in hidden places and in a dark and concealed place, so the Holy One, blessed be He, will search out their iniquities with lights and lamps, as it is said, "At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish the men who are settled on their dregs, who say in their heart, The LORD will not do good and will not do harm" (Zephaniah 1:12). Therefore it says "her splendor." Another interpretation of "her splendor": do not read "her splendor" but "her returning," for they return to the transgressions and do them several times; therefore it says "her splendor." What is "her multitude"? These are those who go in throngs, five by five and ten by ten, and steal and rob and deceive one before another, and have no shame, neither from the retinue above nor the retinue below, and swear falsely and deny in court; therefore it says "her multitude." And what is "her tumult"? This is peace; all those things they do only out of peace; therefore it says "her tumult." And what is "and he who exults in her"? This is Gehinnom, which rejoices over the wicked of Israel, and then it is at once stilled. And you, the righteous of the world, who did My will in My Torah every single day, come and see the downfall of the wholly wicked of Israel and the wicked idolaters who deny the Torah, as it is said, "You shall winnow them and the wind shall carry them away... but you shall rejoice in the LORD; in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory" (Isaiah 41:16). Another interpretation of "You shall not go about as a talebearer among your people": blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed be He, before whom there is no favoritism. Just as the Holy One, blessed be His great name forever and ever, rolls the measure of mercy before Him and removes the measure of strict justice from before Him, and does not keep envy and vengeance in His heart against Israel in all the places of their dwelling, and does not withhold words of Torah from them, so should each individual of Israel do to his fellow, as it is said, "You shall not hate your brother in your heart; you shall surely rebuke your neighbor and not bear sin because of him; you shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the children of your people, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself, I am the LORD" (Leviticus 19:17-18). What does "in your heart" teach? Hatred settled in the heart. Could it be that Scripture speaks of his brother by father or by mother? Or could it be that it speaks only of the Holy One, blessed be He, who has no brothers except Israel, whom He does not hate, not in this world nor in the days of the son of David nor in the world to come? These are the righteous of the world who do His Torah every day continually, whom the Holy One, blessed be He, calls My brothers and My companions, as it is said, "For the sake of my brothers and my companions, let me say, Peace be within you" (Psalms 122:8). Scripture teaches "you shall surely rebuke your neighbor." Could it be that even if you know he is wicked and hates you, you are nonetheless obligated to rebuke him? Scripture teaches "you shall surely rebuke your neighbor", your neighbor who loves you and is with you in Torah and commandments, him you are obligated to rebuke; but the wicked who hates you, you are not obligated to rebuke, and you are also not permitted to rebuke him, as it is said, "He who corrects a scoffer gets shame for himself, and he who rebukes a wicked man gets a blemish; do not rebuke a scoffer lest he hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you" (Proverbs 9:7-8). What is "and not bear sin because of him"? Rabbi Eliezer ben Mattya said: If there is in him a matter you know of, tell him between you and him and do not be a sinner because of him; therefore it says "and not bear sin because of him." Similarly Scripture says, "When your enemy falls do not rejoice, and when he stumbles let your heart not be glad, lest the LORD see and it be evil in His eyes and He turn His anger from him" (Proverbs 24:17-18), and elsewhere it says, "When the wicked perish there is glad song" (Proverbs 11:10). How can these two verses be reconciled? Rather, a disciple of the wise who bested you today in a matter, and tomorrow something comes to his hand, do not rejoice over it, as it is said, "lest the LORD see and it be evil in His eyes." But if one of Israel wishes to rejoice in the downfall of the wicked, of those who seek to do evil to his fellow in Israel, who are wholly wicked, it is permitted to rejoice in their misfortune. And lest you say, How do you know to say this? Know that it is so: go and learn from Nabal the Carmelite, to whom those ten disciples of David came and saw at his table that whole great feast and did not wish to benefit from it, for they were saying, This man sought only to kill us. Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed be He, before whom there is no oversight and no forgetting and no favoritism. Just as Nabal the Carmelite sought the death of disciples of the wise, therefore his spirit fell after the ten days, as it is said, "And it came to pass about ten days later that the LORD struck Nabal and he died" (1 Samuel 25:38). If they were many he would say about forty or about fifty, and if they were few he would say about four or about five; what does "about ten days" teach? Rather, these are the ten days between New Year and the Day of Atonement that the Holy One, blessed be He, gave Israel for repentance, to pardon them all their iniquities; so He gave Nabal to repent and he did not. Therefore it is said, "And it came to pass about ten days later that the LORD struck Nabal and he died." And what is written in the matter after it? "And David heard that Nabal was dead and said, Blessed is the LORD who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal and kept back His servant from evil, and the evil of Nabal the LORD has returned upon his own head; and David sent and spoke for Abigail to take her to himself as a wife... and she went after the messengers of David and became his wife." Surely of him it is said, "The wicked prepares and the righteous wears" (Job 27:17), and this is the end of the world.

Before the face of the Lord. Master of the universe, look now upon our affliction and plead our cause, and let our humiliation rise before You, what is done to us every single hour. And remember how many householders there are in Israel who have no livelihood yet occupy themselves with Torah every day continually. And remember how many poor there are in Israel from whom the idolaters strip the flesh, yet they occupy themselves with Torah every day continually. Remember how many blind there are in Israel who have no food, yet they pay and teach their children Torah. Remember how many lads and little ones there are in Israel who do not know their right hand from their left, yet they occupy themselves with Torah every day continually. Remember how many old men and old women there are in Israel who rise early and stay late to the synagogues and houses of study and yearn and long and wait for Your salvation every day continually. My Father in heaven, You are righteous, O LORD, and faithful in all Your works; in faithfulness may Your mercies be revealed upon Your children. For if among the idolaters You find ten people in one city, the Sages said that You judge them with afflictions and bring poverty upon them so that they can endure them; and Your people Israel, who bless You and praise You and glorify You every day and every hour, and Your name is glorified and blessed through Israel before the eyes of all creatures, even though they do all their good deeds in silence, how much more should You have mercy on them. By the Temple service, every day continually and every single hour that I read this verse, "I will go and return to My place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; in their distress they will seek Me earnestly" (Hosea 5:15), then this verse is fulfilled in me, "My heart is broken within me; all my bones tremble; I am like a drunken man" (Jeremiah 23:9). Master of the universe, what shall I say and what shall I speak? I say to You as Judah answered concerning his brother Benjamin. I will tell you a parable; to what may the matter be compared? To a king who had a servant in his house and raised him from the day he came into the world until the day he came of age, and married him a wife, and he bore sons and daughters, and the king raised them amid pain and amid servitude and amid wandering and amid harrying and amid pressure and amid having no food; and after a while the king said to him secretly, Tell your sons to do labor with you. The servant rose and killed them all in a single hour, in a single moment. This servant, what is held against him? You must say it would be better for him had he not come into the world. Or a parable to a king who had a son in his house and raised him from the day he came into the world until the day he came of age, and married him a wife and built him a house and filled his house with wheat and barley and beans and lentils and all kinds of legumes; and after a while, when they were sitting at the table, the king and the son, the son rose against him from behind and threw him to the ground. This son, what is held against him? That son the king does not leave in his house even a single hour. And if a person has a son in his house who is quick and runs to set a fire in his fellow's field and is eager to rob people and says it is nothing, and is lazy from the house of study and lazy from occupying himself with Torah and lazy from occupying himself with labor to feed his wife and his children and his household, this son, what is held against him? This son is liable to the four court-imposed deaths stated in the Torah. And likewise the wicked of Israel know that their children die for their iniquities, as it is said, "Also on your skirts is found the blood of the souls of the innocent poor" (Jeremiah 2:34), yet they do not repent, and it says, "A righteous man knows the soul of his beast, but the mercies of the wicked are cruel" (Proverbs 12:10). "A righteous man knows the soul of his beast", how so? A person who has words of Torah and commandments in him guards himself from coming to transgression and to an ugly matter, because he has set a thought in his mind and says, Woe to me if I sin, for my children would die for my iniquities; therefore it is said, "A righteous man knows the soul of his beast." "But the mercies of the wicked are cruel", how so? They know that their children die for their iniquities and they act as cruel ones toward them; therefore it is said, "But the mercies of the wicked are cruel." By the measure they measured, You measured to them, as it is said, "Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath... to destroy its sinners from it" (Isaiah 13:9). And when they kindle and are eager and quick to commit transgression and say it is nothing, as it is said, "For wickedness burns like fire" (Isaiah 9:17), by the measure they measured You measured to them, as it is said, "For behold, the day comes, burning like an oven, and all the arrogant and all who do wickedness shall be stubble" (Malachi 3:19). And so we find with Manasseh son of Hezekiah. About twelve years old was Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah when he became king, and the Holy One, blessed be He, made him king and raised him to good and gave him many years and gave him more life than all the kings before him; and not only that, but the Holy One, blessed be He, came down from the highest heaven of heavens, from the place of His glory and His greatness and the holiness of His name, and dwelt in the Temple. Yet Manasseh rose and did exceedingly ugly things, and the Holy One, blessed be He, said: It is well that I did not dwell with My Presence with him, since he did not occupy himself with all his strength in My service and My Torah and My commandments. And You, my Father in heaven, out of the love with which You loved us and the joy with which You rejoiced in us, set apart Your people Israel from among the seventy nations, and from among them set apart the tribe of Levi, and from the tribe of Levi set apart the high priest to stand and pray for all Israel every single hour and to atone for them. My Father in heaven, remember Your covenant that You made with the first ones, with the three righteous men, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; remember how many poor and needy there are in Israel who occupy themselves with Torah every day continually. My Father in heaven, remember what You wrote for us in Your Torah, "You shall not oppress your neighbor and shall not rob" (Leviticus 19:13), and You also wrote for us, "If your brother becomes poor and his hand falters with you, you shall hold him up" (Leviticus 25:35). My Father in heaven, remember how many lame and how many blind there are in Israel who have no food, yet even so they pay wages to teachers to teach their children Torah. My Father in heaven, remember Israel, who are Your possession from of old, as it is said, "Is He not your Father who acquired you?" (Deuteronomy 32:6), and it says, "The LORD acquired me at the beginning of His way" (Proverbs 8:22). My Father in heaven, remember how many widows and orphans there are in Israel who occupy themselves with Torah and commandments every day continually. My Father in heaven, remember Your mercies, O LORD, and Your kindnesses, for they are from of old (Psalms 25:6), and it says, "The LORD is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works" (Psalms 145:9), and it says, "To the Lord our God belong the mercies and the forgivenesses, for we have rebelled against Him" (Daniel 9:9), and it says, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in kindness and truth, keeping kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and cleansing" (Exodus 34:6-7). My Father in heaven, remember what You wrote for us in Your Torah, "A son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, and a father shall not bear the iniquity of the son" (Ezekiel 18:20). And further, if, God forbid, Israel should perish from the world, Your Torah would perish from the world, and the Sages taught in the Mishnah: If there is no Torah there is no worldly conduct, and if there is no worldly conduct there is no Torah. Our Father in heaven, deal with us in kindness for the sake of Your great name that is called upon us and upon the seventh day and upon the rest of the commandments. My Father in heaven, You wrote for us through Jonah Your servant the prophet, "And should I not have pity on Nineveh the great city, in which are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and much cattle?" (Jonah 4:11). As You had pity on Nineveh, so let Your mercies roll out upon us, and fulfill for us what Your lips have spoken, "For My own sake, for My own sake I will act, for how should it be profaned, and My glory I will not give to another" (Isaiah 48:11).

"Lift up your hands to Him for the life of your children, who faint with hunger at the head of every street" (Lamentations 2:19). From here the Sages said: a person should guard his children and his household so that not one of them goes out to a matter of transgression, God forbid, nor to an ugly thing, as it is said, "Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones" (Deuteronomy 31:12), and it says, "Gather the people, sanctify the assembly, gather the elders, assemble the children and nursing infants; let the bridegroom go out from his chamber" (Joel 2:16). And "elders" are nothing other than disciples of the wise, as it is said, "Gather to Me seventy men of the elders of Israel" (Numbers 11:16). And "children and nursing infants" are nothing other than the schoolchildren, as it is said, "From the mouth of children and infants You founded strength" (Psalms 8:3). And "breasts" are nothing other than Torah, as it is said, "that you may nurse and be satisfied from the breast of her consolations" (Isaiah 66:11). What is "let the bridegroom go out from his chamber and the bride from her canopy"? This is the prince and the head of the court. From here the Sages said: even a sage like Moses our teacher and a pious one like Aaron should not say, Since I sit at rest in my house, peace be upon my soul; rather he should go out and join with the community in distress. Of them it says, "Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber and the bride from her canopy; between the porch and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep and say, Spare, O LORD, Your people" (Joel 2:16-17). Just as the Holy One, blessed be His great name forever and ever, came down from the highest heavens, from the place of His glory and His greatness, and dwelt with Israel on account of the Torah they did, from here the Sages said: even if a person has a hundred houses and a hundred vineyards and a hundred fields, let him leave it all and go to the synagogue and the house of study and to every place where Torah is renewed, for on account of this matter he will merit all that he desires. And so David said, "If I give sleep to my eyes" (Psalms 132:4), and through this David merited great things. From here the Sages said: whoever has a disciple of the wise in his house and knows his need and provides for him along with his household, blessing enters into the work of his hands forever. So we find with Joseph, who was in the house of Potiphar, of whom it is said, "And the LORD blessed the house of the Egyptian for Joseph's sake" (Genesis 39:5). From here the Sages said: there are four things that follow immediately one upon another: immediately after laying on of hands, slaughter; immediately after redemption, prayer; immediately after washing of hands, blessing; immediately after a disciple of the wise, blessing in the work of his hands. And they shall pray and say, "Spare, O LORD, Your people, and do not give Your inheritance to reproach, that the nations should rule over them; why should it be said among the peoples, Where is their God?" The LORD is gracious and merciful and full of great mercies. Your lips drip uprightness, your lips drip in understanding and in knowledge and in wisdom and in intellect, for You hear the prayer of Your people Israel with mercy, for what great nation has a god near to it as the LORD our God is whenever we call upon Him, and what great nation has righteous statutes and judgments like all this Torah? Of them David said, "O LORD, deliver my soul" (Psalms 116:4). The Holy One, blessed be He, too answered him with a response, as it is said, "And the LORD was zealous for His land and had pity on His people; and the LORD answered and said to His people, Behold, I am sending you the grain and the new wine and the oil, and you shall be satisfied with it, and I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations" (Joel 2:18-19). And all this why? So that Israel would not go out from their houses and go out to other towns to bring grain and bread and food into their houses; therefore it is said, "Spare, O LORD, Your people... and the LORD answered and said to His people, Behold, I am sending you the grain." And all the idolaters who remain in the land in the days of the son of David will go to their houses and bring grain and bread and food to the houses of Israel and will make Israel exceedingly wealthy, as it is said, "And all the nations shall call you blessed, for you shall be a land of delight" (Malachi 3:12), and it says, "And I will repay you for the years that the locust ate... and you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the LORD... and My people shall never be ashamed" (Joel 2:25-26). These are the four kinds of nations that enslaved Israel. And all this why? So that they should have reward. They told a parable; to what may the matter be compared? To a king who became angry with his son and seized him by the hand and brought him into the house of his teacher, and complained to the teacher about his son, and the teacher rose and struck him great blows before his father, and the teacher said to him: My son, even though I struck you great blows, they are only small ones for you according to your deeds, and these blows are for your good, so that you may improve your deeds and your father may then do good to you for your good deeds. So Israel are chastised with great afflictions for their evil deeds, and they are only light afflictions according to their deeds; and not only that, but they receive reward for their afflictions. Therefore it is said, "And I will repay you for the years... and My people shall never be ashamed."

Once I was passing from place to place, and a certain old man met me and said to me: My teacher, why did the Holy One, blessed be He, divide His world among two nations and two kingdoms? I said to him: In order to guard Israel. They told a parable; to what may the matter be compared? To schoolchildren whom the teacher guards so that they do not go out and drown in the river, and so that they do not come and strike one another, and so that the sun does not strike them; so the Holy One, blessed be He, guards Israel so that they do not sin, that they not be like those who went up out of Egypt, as it is said, "Thus says the LORD, Behold, waters are rising from the north and shall become an overflowing torrent" (Jeremiah 47:2). And all this why? In order to sanctify His great name, as it is said, "For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; He will save us" (Isaiah 33:22), and it says, "And you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied" (Joel 2:26). And "satisfied" is nothing other than Torah, as it is said, "The righteous eats to the satisfying of his soul" (Proverbs 13:25); therefore it is said, "And you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied." What is written after it? "And you shall praise the name of the LORD your God who has dealt wondrously with you, and My people shall never be ashamed." What is "who has dealt wondrously"? It is the distinction between the deeds of the righteous and the deeds of the wicked in Gehinnom. What is "and My people shall never be ashamed"? Because each one comes into the world by the reward of another. The Holy One, blessed be He, did not arrange to bring Abraham into the world except by the reward of Shem, who prophesied four hundred years over all the lands in the world and they did not accept it from him. And the Holy One, blessed be He, did not arrange and bring the kingdom of Greece into the world except by the reward of Japheth, who covered the nakedness of his father. And the Holy One, blessed be He, did not arrange and bring the kingdom of Edom into the world, who destroyed the Temple and exiled Israel from their land, except by the reward of Esau, who wept and sighed when Isaac blessed Jacob our father. And the Holy One, blessed be He, did not arrange and bring Sennacherib into the world except by the reward of Asshur, who was a worthy man and in whom was the counsel of Abraham our father. And the Holy One, blessed be He, did not arrange and bring Nebuchadnezzar into the world except by the reward of Evil-Merodach his son, because he showed honor to his Father in heaven. And the Holy One, blessed be He, did not arrange and bring Persia and Media into the world except by the reward of Cyrus, who wept and sighed when the idolaters destroyed the Temple. And the Holy One, blessed be He, did not arrange and bring Haman into the world except by the reward of Agag, who wept and sighed when he was imprisoned in the prison house and said, Woe is me, lest my offspring be lost forever from the world. Therefore it is said, "And My people shall never be ashamed." Another interpretation of "And My people shall never be ashamed": our Father in heaven, may His great name be blessed forever and ever, whose name rests pleasantly in our tent and our name in His tent, even though everything is His and everything is the work of His hands. And may You have relief of spirit from Israel Your servants in all the places of their dwelling. For had You not written for us thirty sayings of counsel and knowledge, they would have made me, God forbid, like a cruel man whose every word is in cruelty; but what did You do for us in Your wisdom and Your understanding? You wrote for us thirty sayings of counsel and knowledge, as it is said, "Have I not written for you thirty sayings of counsel and knowledge?" (Proverbs 22:20). And You made known to us: such a generation did good and Torah, therefore You decreed good upon it; and such a person did Your Torah and did good, and You decreed good upon him; and such a generation did evil, and so You decreed death upon it. Therefore it is said, "And My people shall never be ashamed."

Another interpretation of "Lift up your hands to Him for the life of your children, who faint with hunger at the head of every street" (Lamentations 2:19). From here the Sages said: a person should seek mercy for himself and for his wife and for his children and for his household so that not one of them goes out to an ugly matter; and a person should not see his father and his mother speaking idle words and stay silent toward them; and if he does so, he and they do not fill out their days and their years, as it is said, "Only take heed and guard your soul diligently" (Deuteronomy 4:9). What is "who faint with hunger at the head of every street"? You must say that "streets" are nothing other than synagogues and houses of study, as it is said, "Roam the streets of Jerusalem" (Jeremiah 5:1). At that time the Holy One, blessed be He, would put grief and sighing into his heart, and no creature recognized it in Him, as it is said, "In its streets they gird on sackcloth" (Isaiah 15:3). And when Balaam son of Beor came to Balak king of Moab to curse Israel, he came and found Israel sitting in assemblies upon assemblies, occupying themselves with Torah. Of them it says, "The envy of scribes increases wisdom"; this is a good sign for Israel, as it is said, "And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel dwelling by its tribes, and the spirit of God was upon him" (Numbers 24:2). At once Balaam wept in his heart and was pained as though his bones were being broken and his eyes pierced, and Balaam set his mouth to the ground. At once the Holy One, blessed be He, put a word in the mouth of Balaam and compelled him to prophesy all those good things and consolations over Israel, as it is said, "And the LORD put a word in the mouth of Balaam... and he took up his discourse and said... Who can count the dust of Jacob... Now it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What has God wrought! Behold, a people that rises like a lioness and lifts itself like a lion" (Numbers 24). From here the Sages said that Israel are greater in Torah than the ministering angels, and needless to say that Israel are greater than all who come into the world and than all the works of His hands that He created in His world. Therefore the Sages taught in the Mishnah: Be bold as a leopard and light as an eagle, swift as a deer and mighty as a lion, to do the will of your Father in heaven. What is "Who can count the dust of Jacob and number a fourth of Israel"? Rather, how much dust there is in Israel, that they occupy themselves with words of Torah, which shield Israel and resemble weapons of war, as it is said, "Flee, my beloved" (Song of Songs 8:14). How many householders there are in Israel who occupy themselves with Torah, and so it has been from the day the Holy One, blessed be He, chose Abraham our father, peace be upon him, until now; how many lads and little ones there are in Israel who are with their seal until they enter their wedding canopy; how many young virgin girls there are in Israel who are with their seal until the hour they enter their canopy. A case of a certain girl whose father was a companion to an idolater, and they ate and drank and made their hearts merry together, and that idolater said to her father: Give your daughter to my son as a wife. And her father consented to him. The girl sensed the matter and kept silent about it until the time of her wedding arrived; and when the time of her wedding arrived she went up to the roof and threw herself to the ground and died. At once a heavenly voice went out and said of her: of her Scripture said, "and number a fourth of Israel." And when Balaam prophesied all those good things and consolations over Israel he wept in his heart and said, "Let my soul die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his" (Numbers 23:10). This teaches that the wicked Balaam longed for the death of Moses and Aaron, and said: If I die in my bed like Moses and Aaron, I am like them, and if not, I am not like Moses and Aaron. And the third time, when Balaam blessed Israel, what did he say to them? "How good are your tents, O Jacob, your dwellings, O Israel; like valleys they stretch out, like gardens by a river, like aloes the LORD has planted, like cedars beside the waters; water shall flow from his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters; his king shall be higher than Agag... blessed be those who bless you" (Numbers 24). What is the nature of valleys beside synagogues and houses of study, that he says "like valleys they stretch out" beside "How good are your tents, O Jacob"? Rather, to tell you: just as valleys raise a person from impurity to purity, so synagogues and houses of study raise a person from impurity to purity. How so? They bring a person from liability to merit; therefore it is said, "like valleys they stretch out." And what is "like gardens by a river"? These are the teachers of children in Israel, who bring out from their heart wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and intellect and teach the children to do the will of their Father in heaven; therefore it is said, "like gardens by a river." Another interpretation of "like gardens by a river": these are the sages in Israel and their disciples who occupy themselves with Torah every day and discipline themselves in Scripture, in Mishnah, in midrash, in laws, and in homilies; of them it says, "You who dwell in the gardens, companions are listening for your voice; let me hear it" (Song of Songs 8:13). Had the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel, "You who dwell in the gardens, Israel are listening for your voice, let me hear it," I would say it means specifically all Israel; rather the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel, "You who dwell in the gardens, companions are listening," to tell you that even three, even two, who sit and occupy themselves with Torah, of them it says, "You who dwell in the gardens." Therefore it is said, "like gardens by a river." And what is "like aloes the LORD has planted"? These are synagogues and houses of study. Another interpretation: do not read "like tents" but "like aloes"; a parable to a king who made a feast for all the great ones of the kingdom who pass before him. And what is "like cedars beside the waters"? These are the arrogant in Israel who have words of Torah in them; how much more so the lowly and the poor who lower themselves over words of Torah; therefore it says afterward, "water shall flow from his buckets." What is "and his seed shall be in many waters"? These are the householders in Israel who prosper in the work of their hands on account of the worldly conduct in them; how much more so the disciples of the wise in Israel who prosper, they and their children and their children's children. And what is "his king shall be higher than Agag"? This is Agag, who wept and sighed when he was imprisoned in the prison house and said, Woe is me, lest my offspring be lost from the world; therefore it is said, "his king shall be higher than Agag." Another interpretation of "his king shall be higher than Agag": these are the wholly wicked in Israel who bring grief and sighing into their hearts when they enter their eternal home, on account of the evil deeds they did, and they turned back and repented and died in the midst of repentance; these too are sons of the world to come.