Chasidut for Sanhedrin 197:14
ורבי יוחנן אמר לרחוק שהוא רחוק מעבירה קרוב שהוא קרוב מעבירה ונתרחק ממנה
What is meant by 'the day of vengeance is in mine heart'? — R. Johanan said: I have [so to speak] revealed it to my heart, but not to my [outer] limbs.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., I have kept my intentions sealed in my heart, not giving expression to them with my tongue, that all my limbs should know thereof. ');"><sup>14</sup></span>
Kedushat Levi
Deuteronomy 26,18. “and Hashem on His part has guaranteed you this day to be His treasured people, as He had said to you.” The next verse spells out the result of G’d having avouched the Jewish people, i.e. ולתתך עליון על כל הגוים אשר עשה לתהלה לשם ולתפארת, “and to make you high above all the other nations that He has made in praise, in name, and in glory;”
In trying to explain this verse we are stymied by the fact that the word: לשם does not precede the words: לתהלה ולתפארת.
This apparent anomaly is explained with the help of the statement in the Talmud Sanhedrin 99 that repentant sinners occupy a spiritual plateau that is higher than that of the natural born righteous people, who have never sinned. It is explained additionally by a statement in the Talmud Yuma 86 that the effect of repentance is so great that erstwhile sins may be converted retroactively into being accounted as meritorious deeds.
G’d’s servants may be divided into two distinct categories. One category has a mental image of G’d and what He stands for in front of him at all times, whereas the second category arouses itself from time to time in order to summon up such an image of G’d’s Majesty, which in turn impresses upon him the duty to serve Him as befits a king. This latter type of individual does not present the Creator with a list of personal requests, however. He is content to be able to serve his Master the King of Kings, in fact he regards it as a privilege. This latter type of individual requests only that he be able to continue to serve the Lord, and while so engaged he shuts out any thoughts pertaining to his daily routine, pursuit of a livelihood, etc. He places his entire person at the service of the Lord. It is this type of individual that the psalmist in psalms 102,1 speaks of when he commences with the words: תפלה לעני כי יעטוף, “a prayer of the lowly man when he is faint, etc.” When such a person, notwithstanding the fact that he has urgent duties to attend to, duties that do not allow him the luxury of putting them on hold, offers his entire being in the service of the Lord, this is something that causes G’d to experience a great deal of pleasurable satisfaction. He reacts by saying: “look at this human being, who, although guilty of numerous sins in the past, has pulled himself together in order to serve Me;” he deserves that even his prior sins be converted to merits,” as it was the recognition of the futility of his former sinful lifestyle that eventually caused him to become a penitent. Someone raised in a devout family, who had accepted his family’s devoutness as something that did not need to be questioned, could not have entertained the kind of thoughts that went through the mind of the repentant sinner before he decided to turn over an entirely new leaf.
When G’d looks down on the Jewish people and compares them to the gentile nations, and He sees how none of them serve Him, He naturally glorifies in the Jewish people, considering the rest of mankind a bunch of fools by comparison.
In trying to explain this verse we are stymied by the fact that the word: לשם does not precede the words: לתהלה ולתפארת.
This apparent anomaly is explained with the help of the statement in the Talmud Sanhedrin 99 that repentant sinners occupy a spiritual plateau that is higher than that of the natural born righteous people, who have never sinned. It is explained additionally by a statement in the Talmud Yuma 86 that the effect of repentance is so great that erstwhile sins may be converted retroactively into being accounted as meritorious deeds.
G’d’s servants may be divided into two distinct categories. One category has a mental image of G’d and what He stands for in front of him at all times, whereas the second category arouses itself from time to time in order to summon up such an image of G’d’s Majesty, which in turn impresses upon him the duty to serve Him as befits a king. This latter type of individual does not present the Creator with a list of personal requests, however. He is content to be able to serve his Master the King of Kings, in fact he regards it as a privilege. This latter type of individual requests only that he be able to continue to serve the Lord, and while so engaged he shuts out any thoughts pertaining to his daily routine, pursuit of a livelihood, etc. He places his entire person at the service of the Lord. It is this type of individual that the psalmist in psalms 102,1 speaks of when he commences with the words: תפלה לעני כי יעטוף, “a prayer of the lowly man when he is faint, etc.” When such a person, notwithstanding the fact that he has urgent duties to attend to, duties that do not allow him the luxury of putting them on hold, offers his entire being in the service of the Lord, this is something that causes G’d to experience a great deal of pleasurable satisfaction. He reacts by saying: “look at this human being, who, although guilty of numerous sins in the past, has pulled himself together in order to serve Me;” he deserves that even his prior sins be converted to merits,” as it was the recognition of the futility of his former sinful lifestyle that eventually caused him to become a penitent. Someone raised in a devout family, who had accepted his family’s devoutness as something that did not need to be questioned, could not have entertained the kind of thoughts that went through the mind of the repentant sinner before he decided to turn over an entirely new leaf.
When G’d looks down on the Jewish people and compares them to the gentile nations, and He sees how none of them serve Him, He naturally glorifies in the Jewish people, considering the rest of mankind a bunch of fools by comparison.
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Kedushat Levi
These considerations prompted the Talmud in Sanhedrin 99 to state במקום שבעלי תשובה עומדים צדיקים גמורים אין יכולים לעמוד, “perfectly righteous people, i.e. those who have never tasted sin, cannot take their place next to repentant sinners, as the latter have struggled much harder to rehabilitate themselves after having tasted the immediate benefits in this life of having sinned.” The repentant sinner provided G’d with much greater pleasure when he repented than the צדיק גמור, the unblemished righteous person who had never been exposed to temptation and had conquered it. The repentant sinner had proven that it is possible to break the hold that the evil urge had claimed over him after he had established this hold as a result of his victim having succumbed to temptation the first time.
This is the deeper meaning of the Mishnah in Avot 2,1 where Rabbi Yehudah hanassi described what is a successful course for man to follow in life as being to provide “glory,” תפארת for His maker. The second part of Rabbi Yehudah’s statement that man’s actions should also “confer glory on האדם, “the person having performed these deeds,” our author views as meaning that man should appreciate that his “glory” consists in being able to do what no angel can do, i.e. serve the Lord and provide Him with pleasure due to his having had to overcome obstacles in his desire to serve his Maker. This is the “glory” G’d had bestowed on man. If you were to say that Rabbi Yehudah ascribes this “glory” as emanating from “man,” i.e. מן האדם, what Rabbi Yehudah meant by the word מן, “from,” is “that it originates from,” i.e. man’s glory originates in the very fact that he is “man,” equipped with choices so that making the right choice results in joy in heaven as well as on earth.
This is the deeper meaning of the Mishnah in Avot 2,1 where Rabbi Yehudah hanassi described what is a successful course for man to follow in life as being to provide “glory,” תפארת for His maker. The second part of Rabbi Yehudah’s statement that man’s actions should also “confer glory on האדם, “the person having performed these deeds,” our author views as meaning that man should appreciate that his “glory” consists in being able to do what no angel can do, i.e. serve the Lord and provide Him with pleasure due to his having had to overcome obstacles in his desire to serve his Maker. This is the “glory” G’d had bestowed on man. If you were to say that Rabbi Yehudah ascribes this “glory” as emanating from “man,” i.e. מן האדם, what Rabbi Yehudah meant by the word מן, “from,” is “that it originates from,” i.e. man’s glory originates in the very fact that he is “man,” equipped with choices so that making the right choice results in joy in heaven as well as on earth.
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