God Creates No Falsehood and the Four Reasons Men Marry

The Holy One, blessed be He, created everything in His world except the trait of falsehood and the trait of injustice, which the Holy One, blessed be He, neither created nor made, as it is said, "The Rock, His work is perfect" (Deuteronomy 32:4), and it says, "The LORD is righteous in her midst, He will not do injustice; morning by morning He brings His judgment to light, He does not fail; but the unjust knows no shame" (Zephaniah 3:5), and it says, "Far be it from God to do wickedness... For the work of a man He will repay him" (Job 34:10-11). I call heaven and earth to witness for me that people are not gathered to death, and no creature comes to suffering, except through their own ways; and produce and grain do not come to rot except through the ways of people; and people do not come to shame except through their own ways; and people's eyes do not dim in the midst of their days except through their own ways; and people are not made impure with plagues except through their own ways, as it is said, "Thus says the God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out" (Isaiah 42:5). Go and learn from the way of the world: does a person build a house except in order to bring into it good produce, to bring into it fine vessels, to kindle a fire in it and light lamps in it? So too people are judged according to their own ways, because they transgressed against the words of Torah and against proper conduct, as it is said, "Woe to them, for they have strayed from Me" (Hosea 7:13). In three matters a person should look every day: when he enters the privy, they say to him, "See, your way is like the way of a beast"; when blood is let from him, they say, "See that you are flesh and blood"; and when he stands over a corpse, they say to him, "See where you are going." Yet still you do not repent, but you sit and multiply excess words, as it is said, "The foolishness of a man perverts his way, and his heart frets against the LORD" (Proverbs 19:3), and he speaks falsehood and transgresses what is written in the Torah, "Keep yourself far from a false matter" (Exodus 23:7), and it says, "And let none of you devise evil in your hearts against his neighbor" (Zechariah 8:17). How should a person act? If a person makes himself righteous and speaks truth, an angel is assigned to him who conducts himself with him in the way of the righteous and speaks truth; and if a person makes himself wicked and denies and speaks falsehood, an angel is assigned to him who conducts himself with him in the way of the wicked; and if a person makes himself pious, to bear everything, an angel is assigned to him who conducts himself with him in the way of the pious and bears everything, as it is said, "I the LORD search the heart, I try the kidneys" (Jeremiah 17:10), and through David it is said, "With the merciful You show Yourself merciful, with the upright man You show Yourself upright, with the pure You show Yourself pure, and with the crooked You show Yourself perverse; for You will save the afflicted people, but haughty eyes You will bring down" (Psalms 18:26-28). There are four traits in worldly conduct regarding marriage: there is one who marries a woman for the sake of lust, one who marries for the sake of status, one who marries for the sake of money, and one who marries for the sake of Heaven. He who marries a woman for the sake of lust will in the end have from her a stubborn and rebellious son. He who marries for the sake of Heaven will in the end have children who deliver Israel in a time of trouble and who increase Torah and commandments in Israel. He who marries for the sake of money will in the end be made dependent upon others. He who marries for the sake of status will in the end have one rise up against him from that same family who diminishes his offspring after him. Whence that one who marries for the sake of lust produces a stubborn and rebellious son? As it is said, "And you see among the captives a woman of beautiful form, and you desire her, and would take her to yourself as a wife" (Deuteronomy 21:11); in the end people murmur against him, and because people murmur against him he goes and marries another woman, as it then says, "If a man has two wives," and it then says, "If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son." Whence that one who marries for the sake of money is made dependent upon others? As we find with the sons of Eli the priest, who married women unfit for them, and in the end were made dependent upon others, as it is said, "And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left in your house shall come to bow down to him for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread, and shall say, Put me, I pray you, into one of the priestly offices, that I may eat a morsel of bread" (I Samuel 2:36). Whence that one who marries for the sake of status has one rise up from that family who diminishes his offspring? As we find with Jehoshaphat king of Judah, who went and made a marriage alliance with the king of Israel because he saw that he had seventy sons, as it is said, "And Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel" (I Kings 22:45). And whence that one rose up from that family who diminished his offspring? As it is said, "And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal seed; but Jehosheba the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah and stole him away... and he was not slain, and he was hidden with her in the house of the LORD six years" (II Kings 11:1). And were it not for the covenant the Holy One, blessed be He, made with David, Joash too would have been killed, and the kingdom of the house of David would have been entirely annulled. And whence that one who marries for the sake of Heaven has children who deliver Israel in a time of trouble and increase Torah and commandments in Israel? Go and learn from Amram, who married a woman for the sake of Heaven, and from him came Moses and Aaron, who delivered Israel and increased Torah and commandments in Israel. Go and learn from Boaz son of Salmon, who married a woman for the sake of Heaven, and from him came David and Solomon his son, who delivered Israel and increased Torah and commandments in Israel. And of them and of those like them Scripture says, "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I make, shall remain before Me, says the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain" (Isaiah 66:22).