Parshat Shemot5 min read

The Steward Who Refused the King's Treasury

For six days God walks Moses through silver and gardens. On the seventh Moses still pulls his hand back, and a door closes.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. Six Days in the Treasury
  2. Excuses With Permission to Argue
  3. The Steward Who Hid the Son
  4. No Private Peace While the Camp Suffers
The Steward Who Refused the King's Treasury Click for full size

Six Days in the Treasury

God's anger flared against Moses (Exodus 4:14), and the sages bend close rather than look away. Rabbi Elazar ben Arakh insisted God dealt with Moses only by fair and decent conduct, so no cynic could ever say the Master of the world bullied His servant by sheer power. The quarrel at the bush had rules. The pressure was real. The coercion of raw force was not.

They told a parable to hold the scene. A king loved one servant above all and wanted him steward over the royal household. He led him through the treasury, showed him silver and gold and pearls, walked him through gardens and orchards heavy with fruit. Still the servant pulled back his hand and said, "I cannot do it." The king's patience finally broke. If you could not accept, why put me through all this? He swore the man would never enter the palace gates.

Six days God coaxed Moses. On the seventh Moses said, "Send by the hand of whomever You will send" (Exodus 4:13), and the door to the Land closed against him. The man who refused the keys would later see the country from a mountain and not step onto its soil. The parable does not apologize for that cost. It names it.

Excuses With Permission to Argue

Moses kept arguing like a man allowed to argue. One man cannot carry two missions, he said; this work needs two. God answered that Aaron was already on the road, the holy spirit upon him, hurrying to greet his brother with a glad heart. Moses feared the men of Egypt who once hunted him for the Egyptian he had struck down. God reminded him those men were dead, and asked who had struck Pharaoh's agents dumb and deaf and blind if not the LORD Himself.

And through every excuse, the merit of righteous Amram stood guard. Amram had remarried Moses' mother in defiance of Egypt's cruelty, choosing life for a people under a decree of death. That stubbornness ran in the blood of the prophet who now stood trembling at the bush. Fear was real. So was the lineage that would not let fear have the last word. Moses went. He went late, and he went with Aaron at his side, and he went knowing a door had already shut somewhere ahead.

The Steward Who Hid the Son

Later teachers ask a sharp question. Why did the skin of Moses' face shine in this world with the radiance God reserves for the righteous in the world to come? Not for private holiness alone, but because Moses spent his life aching over God's honor and Israel's, longing for peace between the people and their Father in heaven.

The proof is the golden calf. When God offered to wipe out Israel and rebuild the nation from Moses alone, Moses did not seize the offer. He pleaded, and God relented. Then Moses did something the teacher insists was his own initiative. God never told him to station the Levites at the gate and put three thousand to the sword. Moses worried that Israel would throw his own teaching back at him, that a court executing one person in seven years is called murderous, so he anchored the hard command in God's name, and afterward stood again in prayer until mercy was stirred.

The reward is told as a parable. A king hands his disgraced firstborn to a steward to be killed, but the steward quietly hides the boy and keeps him alive. Weeks later, when the king's eyes search the room in grief for the missing son, the steward produces him, and the king sets his own crown on the steward's head. Moses is that steward. The crown is the shining face that never dimmed, not even in death. From here the sages drew their limits on mourning, and their assurance that a scholar who toils in Torah his whole life is never truly dead but rests beneath the Throne of Glory.

No Private Peace While the Camp Suffers

A hard rule runs beside the glory. Even a sage like Moses and as holy a man as Aaron may not retreat into private peace while the community suffers. When trouble comes, the leader goes out and shares the distress. Priests weep between the porch and the altar, pleading for the people. God Himself left the highest heavens to dwell with Israel because of their Torah. So a person should run to the house of study, and whoever supports a Torah scholar in his home draws blessing into everything he touches, just as the house of the Egyptian was blessed for Joseph's sake.

The man who once refused the treasury learned to carry a people he could not abandon. The anger at the bush and the light on the mountain belong to the same life: a steward who said no, then spent decades saying yes with his whole body, until even his face held the reward he would not grab when it was offered as a private kingdom.

MosesBurning BushCallingAaronStewardReluctanceRadiant FaceLeadership
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From the tradition

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The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 4:2Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai

Translation of the source text.Mechilta de-Rabbi Simon b. Jochai, ed. D. Hoffmann, Frankfurt 1905 · Public Domain

"And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses" (Exodus 4:14). Rabbi Elazar ben Arakh said: The Holy One, blessed be He, spoke with Moses only in the way of decent conduct, so that the base people of the world should not say, "Because He is God and Master of the world, He did His business unjustly." Therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, kept pressing Moses all six days, as it is written, "neither yesterday, nor the day before, nor since You first spoke to Your servant," and on the seventh he said to Him, "Send, I pray, by the hand of him whom You will send" (Exodus 4:13).

They told a parable: To what is the matter comparable? To a king who had a servant whom he loved with a complete love. The king sought to make him steward, to provide for the members of the king's household. What did the king do? He took his servant by the hand and brought him into his treasure-house and showed him silver and gold and precious stones and pearls and all that he had in his treasure-house. He took him out to the field and showed him gardens and orchards and all that he had in the field. The servant stretched out his hand and said, "I cannot be made steward to provide for the members of the king's household." The king grew angry at him and said to him, "If you cannot be made steward, why did you trouble me with all that trouble?" He swore to him that he would not enter the gate of his palace. So too the Omnipresent kept pressing Moses all six days regarding His mission to Egypt, and on the seventh He said to him, "Send, I pray, by the hand of him whom You will send." The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: Moses, you say to Me, "Send, I pray, by the hand of him whom You will send," Joshua your disciple and the work of your hands; he will bring Israel into the land. You yourself will not enter the land with them, as it is said, "Therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land" (Numbers 20:12).

Moses replies and says before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the universe, You say to me, "Go down to Egypt and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt." Surely I am one man sent on two missions at one time. My Master, this errand is fitting only with two men together, as it is said, "Two are better than one" (Ecclesiastes 4:9), and it says, "By the mouth of two witnesses shall a matter be established" (Deuteronomy 19:15). The Holy One, blessed be He, replies and says to Moses: Moses, I make known to you on whose account you stand and seek mercy that he should go with you on My mission to Egypt. The holy spirit has already rested upon him, and he goes out and watches for you on My account on the road to Egypt; and now that he sees you he rejoices, as it is said, "And behold, he also comes out to meet you, and when he sees you he will be glad in his heart" (Exodus 4:14).

The Holy One, blessed be He, replies and says to Moses: At first, when I revealed Myself to you at the thornbush, you would hide your face from Me, as it is said, "And Moses hid his face" (Exodus 3:6); now, when have you been given an opening to speak before Me like a servant of flesh and blood who has permission to speak before his master? Moses, you are a man of words. "I have no envoys, I have no troops, I have no seraphim, I have no ophanim, I have no ministering angels, and I have no wheels of the chariot, that I should send and bring out My children from Egypt," that you say to Me, "Send, I pray, by the hand of him whom You will send"? "I am He who called the world from the rising of the sun to its setting." By that law you would be fit for chastisement at once; but what shall I do? I am the Master of mercy. "Therefore it is said, And God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am the LORD" (Exodus 6:2).

And the Sages say: The Holy One, blessed be He, says to Moses: Moses, the merit of Amram your father stood by you, for he did a great thing in Israel. When the Egyptians made the labor harsh upon Israel and were drowning them in the river, they said, "We marry wives and beget children, and the Egyptians drown them in the river. Why should we weary ourselves for nothing?" Amram arose and did a great thing in Israel, and his counsel agreed with the counsel of the Omnipresent: he sent away his wife when she was three months pregnant; at the end of three months he returned and betrothed her again, as it is said, "And a man of the house of Levi went and took the daughter of Levi" (Exodus 2:1). And the ministering angels were praising before her like grooms and brides, as it is said, "a joyful mother of children" (Psalms 113:9). The Egyptians counted nine months for her, but she gave birth within six months. And why was this necessary? Whether Amram took a wife or did not take one, it was only to make known to all who come into the world the merit of Amram the righteous.

Moses replies and says before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the universe, I am a prophet, son of a prophet; with doubts upon doubts I have entered into Your words. Pharaoh is a wicked man, son of a wicked man, and the Egyptians are rebels, sons of rebels. How will they enter into my words? He said to him: You shall speak in the holy tongue like an angel, and Aaron your brother will speak in the Egyptian tongue, as it is said, "See, I have made you a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet" (Exodus 7:1).

Moses replies and says before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the universe, You say to me, "Go down to Egypt and bring out six hundred thousand from under the burdens of Egypt." I am afraid of the men from before whom I fled. He said to him: Do not fear, Moses, they have already died, as it is said, "For all the men who sought your life have died" (Exodus 4:19). The Holy One, blessed be He, replies and says to Moses: Moses, you say to Me, "I am afraid of the men from before whom I fled." The men whom Pharaoh sent against you to seize you, who made them dumb, who made them deaf, who made them blind? Was it not I, the LORD?

Rabbi Elazar ben Yehudah of Bartota says: Moses replies and says before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the universe, You say to me, "Go down to Egypt and bring out six hundred thousand from under the burdens of Egypt." Had You said this to me concerning a hundred men or two hundred men, I would say to You the matter is still hard for me; how much more so when You say to me, bring out six hundred thousand from under the burdens of Pharaoh from Egypt. And had You warned them a year or two before You spoke, the matter would already be accomplished; but since they have been enslaved for two hundred and ten years, Pharaoh will say to me: One who has enslaved a slave for ten years and no creature has protested against him, shall another come and take him out of his hand? Or one who has worked a vineyard ten years and no creature has protested against him, shall another come and take it out of his hand? Master of the universe, weighty and heavy are these words You say to me, "for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue" (Exodus 4:10).

Full source
Tanna Debei Eliyahu Rabbah 4:1Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah

Translation of the source text.Tanna debei Eliyahu Rabbah, Warsaw 1880 · Public Domain

For what reason did Moses merit the radiance of the face in this world - that which the Holy One, blessed be He, will in time to come give to 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 waited that there should be peace between Israel and their Father in heaven. And from where do you know this? You may know it: when Israel were in the wilderness and were corrupt in their deeds, the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses (Exodus 32), "And now, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn against them and I may consume them, and I will make of you a great nation." Immediately there was an opening of the mouth for Moses to reply: "And Moses entreated the face of the Lord his God and said, Why, O Lord, should Your wrath 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, saying," and so on, "Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel," and so on. Immediately there was a response: "And the Lord relented of the evil," and so on. Moses said before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the world, You are righteous and pious, but the attribute of justice accuses before You concerning all who come into the world and concerning all the works of Your hands that You created in the world. I will go down from before You and execute upon them the attribute of justice: if they all served the calf with a whole heart, let them all die in a single day. Immediately Moses went down from before the Holy One, blessed be He: "And Moses took the calf," and so on, "and scattered it upon the water and made the children of Israel drink it. And Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Whoever is for the Lord, to me!" and so on. And he said to them, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel," and so on, "Let each man kill his brother," and so on, "And there fell of the people," and so on, "about three thousand men." I call heaven and earth to witness concerning me 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 upon his thigh and to kill each his brother and his fellow and his kin; but he said, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel," and so on. Rather, Moses reasoned within himself and said in his heart: If I say to Israel, "Kill each man his brother and his fellow and his kin," Israel will reason and say to me, "Did you not thus teach us, our master: A Sanhedrin that executes a single soul of Israel once in seven years is called destructive; for what reason do you kill three thousand in a single day?" Therefore he ascribed it to the honor of the One above and said, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, set each man his sword upon his thigh," and so on. What is the matter that follows? Since he spoke in the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, immediately "the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses." Moses the righteous returned and stood in prayer before the Omnipresent and said before Him: Master of the world, You are righteous and pious, and all Your works are in faithfulness; and shall, because of three thousand who served the calf with a whole heart, six hundred thousand from twenty years old and upward die, apart from those nineteen and fifteen and ten and two and one years old, and how many converts and servants who were added to them, without end? Immediately the mercies of the Holy One, blessed be He, were stirred, and He was reconciled with them. They told 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 by his hand and gave him to his servant, the steward of the house, and said to him, "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 him and set him outside and hid him in another house, and the servant came and stood before the king. At the end of thirty days, when the king's heart was merry over him, and his servants and the people of his house were reclining before him, when he lifted his eyes and did not see his firstborn, he brought grief and sighing into his heart; and no creature recognized it and brought grief and sighing into his heart except the servant of the house. Immediately he ran and set him before him. Immediately the king took the fine crown that was set before him and placed it on the head of his servant, the steward of the house. To this Moses the righteous was likened: since he stood in prayer in four and five places and saved Israel from death, the fine [crown] that was set aside for Israel, that it should be for them and their children forever, on account of the Torah they received and said "We will do and we will hear" - that crown shall be set on the head of Moses forever, as it is said, "And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of the face of Moses shone" (Exodus 34). And lest you say, since Moses entered his eternal home, perhaps that crown of the radiance of the face was annulled from him - Scripture teaches (Deuteronomy 34), "And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face." Just as the radiance of the face above endures forever and ever 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 had not dimmed, nor had his vigor fled" (Deuteronomy 34). And not Moses alone, but every Torah scholar who engages in Torah from his youth to his old age and dies - in truth he has not died, but he is still alive forever and ever and ever, as it is said (1 Samuel 25), "And the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord your God." It compares the righteous Torah scholar to God: just as God - may His great name be blessed - lives and endures forever and ever and ever, so a Torah scholar who engaged in Torah all his days and died, lo, he is alive and has not yet died, and he lives forever and ever and ever. And where is his soul? Beneath the Throne of Glory. From this they said: Let a man not multiply weeping and lamentation over his dead, nor grief and sighing, except by the measure that the Sages gave - three days for weeping and lamentation, seven days for mourning, thirty days for pressing of garments and for haircutting and for other matters. And whoever weeps from this point onward, it is as though he injures himself, and lo, he is liable for his life, as it is said (Jeremiah 22), "Do not weep for the dead nor bemoan him," and so on. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: Do you not have more mercy on him than I? How does a man do? He makes a quarrel with his fellow, and he goes to him to appease him, and he does not become reconciled to him until he gathers to him many people, and afterward he becomes reconciled to him; and even though he is reconciled to him, he has a bit of jealousy in his heart. But I am not so: if a man commits a transgression before Me, if he returns and repents, lo, I am with him in mercy, and I accept his repentance, and I do not remember to him even a bit of his iniquities; therefore it is said, "Do not weep for the dead," and so on. "Weep, weep for him who goes away" - this is the one who committed a transgression and repeated it and tripled it and did not repent; over that one weep, who is uprooted from the world, as it is said, "For he shall not return again nor see the land of his birth." And not this alone, but the reward of Moses the righteous, who stood in prayer in four and five places and saved Israel from death - Scripture reckons it for him as though he created them, as it is said, "And he remembered the days of old, Moses, His people" (Isaiah 63). And so every wise man of Israel in whom there are words of Torah in truth, and who 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 waits for the honor of Jerusalem and for the Temple and for the salvation that will sprout soon in our days and for the ingathering of the exiles - immediately the Holy Spirit rests within him, as it is said, "Where is He who put within him His holy spirit?" (Isaiah 63). From this they said: Every Torah scholar who engages in Torah every day constantly, in order to increase the honor of Heaven, needs neither sword nor spear nor any thing to guard him, but the Holy One, blessed be He, guards him Himself, and the ministering angels stand around him with a sword in the hands of all of them and guard him, as it is said (Psalms 149), "The high praises of God are in their throat, and a two-edged sword in their hand," and so on. Life without sorrow and without the evil inclination, for the days of the son of David and the World to Come. How? The Holy One, blessed be He, will in time to come sit in His house of study, and the righteous of the world sit before Him, and the Holy One, blessed be He, gives to them, to their wives and their sons and their daughters and their menservants and their maidservants, the needs of their houses, and the Holy Spirit rests upon them, as it is said (Joel 3), "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," and so on, "and also upon the menservants and the maidservants in those days I will pour out My spirit." And it says (Isaiah 32), "Rise up, you complacent women; hear my voice, you confident daughters; give ear to my speech." I said: without the evil inclination, as it is said (Ezekiel 36), "And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh, and a new spirit I will put within you" - these are good deeds; "and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh" - this is the evil inclination; "and I will give you a heart of flesh" - this is the good inclination, to fulfill all the words of the Torah, which are doubled in every place. Ten commandments were said at Mount Sinai; ten commandments were said in the book of admonitions (Deuteronomy), as it is said (Exodus 20; Deuteronomy 25), "I am the Lord your God," and so on; the laws of damages were said before Mount Sinai, the laws of damages were said in the book of admonitions; "When you buy a Hebrew servant" was said before Mount Sinai (Exodus 21), "When your brother, a Hebrew, is sold to you" was said in the book of admonitions (Deuteronomy 15), and so in several places; mixed kinds was said at Mount Sinai, mixed kinds was said in the book of admonitions; "You shall not cook a kid" was said at Mount Sinai (Exodus 23, 34), and so in the book of admonitions (Deuteronomy 14), and so in several places. The signs of cattle and beast and fowl were said at Mount Sinai (Leviticus 11), and likewise the signs of cattle, beast, and fowl were said in the book of admonitions (Deuteronomy 14); and all the communal and individual offerings were said before the Tent of Meeting at Horeb, and likewise all the communal offerings were said before the death of Aaron; "a covenant I cut with you when you went out of Egypt," and likewise "a covenant I cut with you" in the book of admonitions. Lo, you have learned that words of Torah are doubled in every place. But you are not so; rather, you make them daubing of plaster, and you mock those words as though there is no substance in them, as in the matter that is said (Ezekiel 13), "And behold, they daub it with plaster"; do you not make it vomit and filth that is not vomit and filth - I am astonished - as in the matter that is said, "vomit and filth without a clean place" (Isaiah 28)? I commanded you when you went out of Egypt; I commanded you in the book of admonitions; I waited for you four hundred and eighty years before the Temple was built; I waited again and waited for you four hundred and ten years from when the Temple was built, as it is said (Isaiah 28), "For it is command upon command, line upon line," and I found from you no contentment of spirit. What is your reward before Me? They told a parable: To what may the matter be compared? To a king who was angry at his servant and commanded concerning him, and they put him in chains of iron, and they would drag the chain behind him and throw him on his face and kick him in his face and in his belly, as it is said (Isaiah 28), "And the word of the Lord was to them, command upon command, line upon line," and so on, and so in several places. You did ugly things and things that are not fitting, and My mercies precede you every single day constantly (Psalms 35), "He delivers the poor from him who is too strong for him, the poor and needy from him who robs him," and it is said (Isaiah, the poor and needy), "For the Lord hears the needy," and so on, and it is said, "He turns to the prayer of the destitute," and so on - these are people who are of a middling measure. In two measures the Holy One, blessed be He, exacts retribution, one for seven: one measure from the idolaters and the princes of the idolaters, as it is said, "And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord will punish the host of the height on high and the kings of the earth," and so on (Isaiah 24) - these are they who sought to destroy you from the world; a second measure, from the evil inclination, the Holy One, blessed be He, exacts retribution one for seven, because it accused you and you did not increase Torah in the world, as it is said (Zechariah 3), "And he showed me Joshua the high priest," and so on, "and the Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him; and the Lord said to the Satan, May the Lord rebuke you," and so on, "and Joshua was clothed in filthy garments and standing before the angel," and so on. What is his reward from before Me? Just as he made My land and My inheritance into a parched and desolate land so that the body and the soul should not find merit to redeem it, so I will distance him from upon you and thrust him to a parched and desolate land, as it is said (Joel 2), "And I will remove the northern one far from you" - what I have laid up against you of evils, I remove from upon you, and I thrust him to a parched and desolate land; "its face to the eastern sea" (Joel 2) - this is the First Temple, on which he set his eyes and destroyed it and killed the Torah scholars within it; "and its rear to the western sea" - this is the Second Temple, on which he set his eyes and destroyed it and killed the Torah scholars within it; "and its stench shall rise, and its foul smell shall come up, for it has done great things" (Joel 2) - because it left all the gentiles and came and cleaved to Israel and seeks to turn them aside from words of Torah.

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Tanna Debei Eliyahu Rabbah 20:1Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah

Translation of the source text.Tanna debei Eliyahu Rabbah, Warsaw 1880 · Public Domain

"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."

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