The Humble King, the Two Crowns, and the Day of Atonement

The sages taught: Be lowly and humble to every person, and to the people of your household more than to anyone. And whence do you know that this is so? Go and learn from the Holy One, blessed be He, who was lowly and humble to His people in every place, and did not deal with them according to their ways, and did not judge them according to their iniquities, but treated them with His trait of humility. And whence is this? Know it from the hundred and twenty days from the day the Torah was given to Israel until the Day of Atonement, which are a hundred and twenty days from the day Moses first ascended Mount Sinai to bring the Torah to his people Israel until he descended from Mount Sinai the last time, the third time. And had the Holy One, blessed be He, not dealt with them with the trait of humility, the Torah would not have been given to Israel. They told a parable: to what may the matter be compared? To a king of flesh and blood who betrothed a woman and loved her with a complete love. What did the king do? He sent and brought a certain man to be his messenger between him and her, and he showed him all his bridal canopies and all his chambers and all his hidden places. Afterward he said to that messenger, "Go to that woman and tell her that I require nothing of hers; let her only make me a small canopy, that I may dwell with her, so that my servants and my household may know that I love her with a complete love." While the king was busy with the canopies, commanding the messenger and sending the woman many gifts, people said to him, "Your wife has played the harlot with another." Immediately the king let everything fall from his hand, and the messenger was thrust back and went out terrified from before the king. So it was with the Holy One, blessed be He, and Israel, as it is said, "Go, get down, for your people have corrupted themselves" (Exodus 32:7), and it is written, "While the king was at his table, my spikenard sent forth its fragrance" (Song of Songs 1:12). Blessed is He who spoke and the world came to be, blessed is He; blessed is He who does the work of creation; blessed is He who speaks and does; blessed is He who decrees and fulfills; blessed is He who remembered the earlier deeds and overlooked the later, for it should have said, "my spikenard sent forth a stench," yet it says, "sent forth its fragrance." When Israel accepted upon themselves the kingship of the Holy One, blessed be He, and said, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do and we will hear" (Exodus 24:7), immediately six hundred thousand ministering angels descended and placed upon the head of each one of Israel two crowns, like the crown of Adam, one corresponding to "we will do" and one corresponding to "we will hear," as it is said, "And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:6). And when Israel sinned with the deed of the calf, a hundred and twenty myriads of angels of destruction descended and took them from them, as it is said, "And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb" (Exodus 33:6). Might one think forever? Scripture teaches, "And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing, and everlasting joy upon their heads" (Isaiah 35:10). It does not say "in their heart" but "upon their heads," teaching that the Holy One, blessed be He, will in the future restore them to Israel in the days of the son of David and in the world to come; therefore it is said, "everlasting joy upon their heads." And what thought was in the mind of the Holy One, blessed be He? This was His thought: any nation and kingdom that would come and accept the Torah would live and endure forever and ever, as it is said, "And the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved (charut) upon the tablets" (Exodus 32:16). Do not read charut [engraved] but cherut [freedom], for you have no free man except one over whom the angel of death has no power. And when they made the calf, the angel of death returned over them. But of Aaron it is written, "The Torah of truth was in his mouth, and injustice was not found on his lips; he walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and turned many away from iniquity" (Malachi 2:6). Now would it enter your mind that Aaron worshiped idols, Heaven forbid? Rather, Aaron did not worship the idol, but he delayed them until Moses would come, in the way that Jacob our father did, who kept the whole Torah before it was given and intended to nullify idolatry, as it is said, "And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, Put away the foreign gods that are among you, and purify yourselves, and change your garments" (Genesis 35:2), and he hid them under the terebinth which was near Shechem. So too Aaron intended to nullify idolatry and kept the Torah before it was given; yet even so Scripture accounted it to him as though he had worshiped idolatry, as it is said, "And the LORD struck the people, because they made the calf which Aaron made" (Exodus 32:35). The sages said: When Moses descended from Mount Sinai and saw the corruption with which Israel had corrupted themselves, Moses looked at the tablets and saw that the writing had flown off them, and he broke them at the foot of the mountain, and immediately Moses became mute and could no longer speak. From that hour a decree was decreed upon Israel that they would learn the Torah amid distress, amid subjugation, amid wandering, amid confusion, amid pressure, and amid lack of sustenance; and for that distress the Holy One, blessed be He, will in the future repay them their reward in the days of the son of David and in the world to come, as it is said, "Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strength" (Isaiah 40:10). During Moses' middle forty days, Moses took the tent and pitched it outside the camp, as it is said, "And Moses took the tent and pitched it outside the camp" (Exodus 33:7), and Israel mourned and observed mourning for all those forty days, until the King of the kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed Himself and opened for Moses a doorway of mercy, and the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses, "Moses, what are those poor ones doing, banished from teacher, banished from disciple, banished from Me, banished from you? Turn back and bring the tent into the camp," as it is said, "And the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend" (Exodus 33:11). This verse I do not understand, for afterward it says, "And he returned to the camp"; this teaches that the Holy One, blessed be He, released Moses from his vow and told him to bring the tent into the camp. They told a parable: to what may the matter be compared? To a king who was angry at his son, and one of the great men of the kingdom sat before him and was afraid to rescue him. When he heard the king say to his son, "You empty one, were it not for so-and-so my beloved who sits before me, I would already have struck you great blows," that beloved one said in his heart, "This matter depends upon me," and immediately he rose and rescued him. So it appeared regarding Moses at that hour, as it is said, "And Moses entreated the face of the LORD his God, and said, Why, O LORD, does Your wrath burn against Your people whom You brought out of the land of Egypt?" (Exodus 32:11), and when Moses afterward said, "Why should Egypt say, For evil did He bring them out, to slay them in the mountains?... Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel Your servants," immediately the Holy One, blessed be He, was humble toward them and forgave them; therefore it is afterward said, "And the LORD relented of the evil" (Exodus 32:14). And during the last forty days, when Moses ascended Mount Sinai to bring the Torah, they decreed a day of fasting and affliction, and on the last day of them all, the end of the forty days, they decreed a fast and passed the night in their fast so that the evil inclination would not rule over them. The next morning they rose early and went up before Mount Sinai. Israel was weeping toward Moses and he was weeping toward them, until their weeping ascended on high. At that hour the mercy of the Holy One, blessed be He, was stirred over Israel, and He accepted their repentance, and the holy spirit brought them good tidings and consolations. And the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel, "My children, I swear by My great Name and by My Throne of Glory that this weeping shall become for you joy and great gladness, and this day shall be for you a day of pardon and atonement and forgiveness, for you and for your children and for your children's children until the end of all generations."