The World Runs by Its Custom and Fools Must Answer

Another interpretation: Consider one who stole a measure of wheat, then went and sowed it in the ground. By right it should not sprout. But the world goes according to its custom, and the fools who corrupted themselves are destined to give an accounting. So too one who comes upon his fellow's wife: by right she should not conceive. But the world goes according to its custom, and the fools who corrupted themselves are destined to give an accounting. This is what Resh Lakish said: The Holy One, blessed be He, said: It is not enough for the wicked that they make My coinage public and common, but they trouble Me and force Me, against My will, to seal it onto a transgression. A certain philosopher asked Rabban Gamliel: It is written, For I the LORD your God am a jealous God (Exodus 20:5). Why is He jealous of those who worship the idol, yet not jealous of the idol itself? He said to him: A parable. To what may this be compared? To a king of flesh and blood who had one son, and that son raised a dog and named it after his father, and whenever he swore he would say, By the life of the dog, my father. When the king hears this, is he angry at the son or angry at the dog? You must say he is angry at the son. He said to him: You call it a dog? But there is real substance in it! He said to him: What did you see in it? He said to him: Once a fire broke out in our city and the whole city burned, but the idol's temple did not burn. He said to him: I will offer you a parable. To what may this be compared? To a king of flesh and blood against whom a province rebelled. When he makes war, does he make it against the living or against the dead? You must say against the living. He said to him: You call it a dog, you call it dead? If so, let Him remove it from the world! He said to him: If they worshiped only a thing the world has no need of, He would destroy it. But behold, they worship the sun, the moon, the stars, the constellations, the streams, and the valleys. Should He destroy His world on account of fools? Rather, the world goes according to its custom, and so forth. And so it says, I will utterly consume all things from off the face of the ground, I will consume man and beast, I will consume the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, and the stumbling blocks together with the wicked (Zephaniah 1:2-3). Now, because the wicked stumble over them, should they be removed from the world? And so forth.