Musar for Shabbat 109:3

And our sages, of blessed memory, said: "the seal of the Holy One, blessed be He, is truth" (Shab.55a). If "truth" is what the Holy One, blessed be He, selected as His seal, then undoubtedly, how great of an abomination must its opposite be to Him!

Our sages, of blessed memory, spoke strongly regarding one who is able to rebuke someone but refrains from doing so. They decreed his judgment to be that he himself will be held accountable for the sin of the sinners. In the Midrash, [they expounded: "'her princes were like deer [that find no pasture...]' (Eicha 1:6) - just like during a heat wave, these deer turn their faces one beneath the other, so too the great sages of Israel would see sin committed and turn their faces away from it. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: 'a time will come when I will do the same to them'" (Eicha Raba 1:13).

The letter ת possesses another peculiarity, namely that it signifies death, written in blood, as we know from the statement of Rabbi Acha bar Chanina in Shabbat 55a. He tells us that G–d had never issued a favorable decree and reversed Himself except in a single instance, viz. the situation referred to in Ezekiel 9,4 when G–d told the angel Gabriel: "Pass in the midst of the city, in the midst of Jerusalem, and mark a sign on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan for all the abominations that are done within it." G–d had instructed Gabriel to place on the foreheads of the righteous the letter ת in ink so that the Divinely appointed forces of destruction should not touch those people. The foreheads of the wicked people, however, were to be marked with the same letter written in blood, so that they would fall victim to the forces of destruction. The ministering angels challenged G–d on this decision, wanting to know in what way the former were better than the latter, seeing that they had failed to perform the commandment of admonishing their fellow-Jews. G–d answered these angels that He was well aware that even if the righteous people had admonished their compatriots it would have been to no avail. To this the angels replied that the fact that G–d was aware that such admonitions would have proved futile did not absolve the righteous from at least having tried, seeing that they had no way of knowing whether their attempts to admonish the people would prove successful. As a result of this, we read in verse 5 of the same chapter: "Then He said to these in my hearing (the prophet's) 'Follow him through the city and strike. Let your eyes neither spare nor show mercy. Old man, young man and maiden, children and women, massacre to utter destruction. But any man on whom is the sign do not approach. And begin from My Sanctuary' i.e, Mikdashay so they began with the old men who were in front of the House." Rabbi Yosef reads the word Mikdashay as Me-kudashay, i.e. "My holy ones," the people who observed all the commandments of the Torah from the letter Aleph, to the letter Tav. So far the quotation from the Talmud in Shabbat 55. A few lines further on the Talmud questions why the sign chosen for these markings had been the letter ת, and answers that this letter is the first letter of the word Tichyeh, i.e. "you will live," as well as the first letter of the word Tamut, i.e. "you will die." Shmuel said that the reason is that at that point the merit of the patriarchs had been exhausted and it no longer could be called upon to protect their descendants from G–ds anger. Rabbi Yochanan, however, feels that the letter ת symbolised that these people could be granted grace only through the merit of the patriarchs. Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish, also on that folio, says that that letter is the final letter in G–d's "seal," seeing that Rabbi Chanina taught that the "seal" of G–d is אמת, "Truth." At any rate, we know that the combination of the letters מ-ת spelled death, since there was a מגפה, a deadly plague, which killed twenty-four thousand Israelites at that time. The letter ת discussed in the Talmud is also known to have been written in blood on the foreheads of the wicked.

God made man to be upright (see Eccl. 7:29), and the seal of the Holy One, Blessed be He, is Truth (Shabbath 55a and see T.P. Sanh. 1:5). And it is written, "He that speaketh falsehood shall not be established before mine eyes" (Ps. 101:7). When a man occupies himself with falsehood, then the falsehood does not cleave to the truth. And where there is Truth is as though one were able to describe it as the place of His dwelling in the heavens and directed towards mankind, for where there is Truth among mankind, then everyone concedes that He made heaven and earth and the sea and all they contain. And this is what is said, "Who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is" (Ps. 146:6). And this is followed by, "Who keepeth truth for ever" (ibid.). But where there is treachery and falsehood, it would appear that the place of the dwelling of the Eternal One is not in the heaven and the earth. And he who is worthy to consider these things, how the souls are hewn out from the source of Truth, will conduct all of his affairs with Truth, and he will not permit falsehood to enter into the place of the holiness of truth. And therefore the verse says, "The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him in truth" (Ps. 145:18). For the Holy One, Blessed be He, who is Truth, draws near to him who calls upon Him in truth. And what is meant by, "Who call upon Him in truth?" This refers to the one who cleanses his heart of everything in the world, and draws near to the Holy One, Blessed be He, alone; and whose mind continually strengthens itself to cleave to the supernal light; and who directs his thought in that desire always. And this is what a man can attain when he sits alone in his room and studies, and for this reason every pious person should often separate himself and sit alone, and should not associate with people, except for a great need. But if he prays with only the movement of his lips, facing the wall, and thinks about the affairs of the world, and he calls to God with his tongue, while his mind is on some thing else, or if he expects to be honored because of the sweetness of his voice, and he tries to find favor in the eyes of people, in order to receive praise from them, then his service is not true. And he is one of those of whom it is said, "Thou art near in their mouth, and far from their reins" (Jer. 12:2).

The answer to this is that, although G–d is well aware of what goes on within the heart of man, man is nonetheless required to declare his innocence through prayer. By doing so he evokes the goodwill of the attribute of Justice. Ever since earth had become tainted the attribute of Justice can be reconciled only through the prayers of the righteous. The goodwill of that attribute is secured in direct proportion to the efforts of the righteous to lead exemplary lives. The Zohar describes that the state of guilt in which the world finds itself because of the deeds of the wicked, can be set right only through the removal from earth of a number of righteous people who will atone for the state of the world in the Celestial Regions. Our sages (Bereshit Rabbah 44,5) comment on Genesis 15,1: אנכי מגן לך, where G–d promises to act as shield for Abraham [after he had defeated the four most powerful kings with the help of supernatural intervention on his behalf. Ed.] that G–d said to Abraham that ever since the generation of Noach He had not used the righteous as protectors for their respective generation, but that starting with Abraham's generation He would do so. Moreover, whenever Abraham's descendants would become deeply involved in wickedness, G–d would focus on a righteous person in that generation who would confront the attribute of Justice calling out "enough" and offer himself as atonement for the sins of his contemporaries, [a synopsis of the principle of זכות אבות. Ed.].This is the meaning of the statement: "give Satan a limb as a bargaining chip." This is the meaning of Job 16,11: יסגירני א-ל אל אויל ועל ידי רשעים ירטני, "G–d hands me over to an evil one, thrusts me into the clutches of the wicked." It is considered better that a righteous person confront Satan rather than that the wicked should be the ones who goad him. Thus far the comment on Genesis 15,1. [I believe the author portrays Job as complaining that he the innocent has been treated as the scapegoat for the wicked. Ed.] This is also the meaning of the statement by our sages in Baba Kama 60 that "once G–d has given free rein to Satan to punish the guilty, Satan no longer distinguishes between the guilty and the innocent. At such a time the righteous are invariably his first victims." [Cf. Rashi on Exodus 10,22. Ed.] On the same folio Rav Joseph quotes biblical proof for this thesis from Ezekiel 21,8: "I shall cut off from you the righteous and the wicked alike." Additional support comes from Exodus 22,5: "If a fire is started and the stacked corn is consumed and it spreads to thorns, etc." The Talmud says that the only time a fire "spreads" beyond the confines of one's own property is when the גדיש, "stacked corn" (simile for the righteous) has already been consumed i.e. נאכל instead of ואכל. Afterwards the "thorns," i.e. the wicked, are also consumed by such a fire [seeing that there are no more righteous people to step into the breach. Ed.]. This is yet another description of the principle of בקרובי אקדש, "I will be sanctified by those who are closest to Me," which we discussed in connection with the death of Aaron's two sons Nadav and Avihu. Another occasion when our sages focus on this phenomenon of G–d's justice is Ezekiel 9,6: וממקדשי תחלו, "And begin from My Sanctuary." Rav Joseph suggests that the reading should be ממקדושי, from those that are holy to Me. This means that destruction will commence with the righteous. [In that connection the righteous are seen as guilty for not having sufficiently protested the wickedness. Ed.]

In connection with the debate in the Talmud (Shabbat 55a) whether זכות אבות, reliance on the merits of our patriarchs is still effective today, and if not, when it ceased to be so, the author makes the following observations: Tosafot quote a verse proving that even nowadays, i.e. after the destruction of the second Temple, this merit has not expired, and that we mention it in our prayers in order to remind G–d of it. I believe (author) that there is a difference between someone saying: "Please remember so and so," and someone saying: "Please do not forget so and so." The opinions in the Talmud which try and determine the merit of the forefathers ceased to be effective refer to G–d no longer actively remembering the merit of the patriarchs but simply not having forgotten them. The author of our prayer therefore refers to the merits of our forefathers כלא היו, "as if they had never existed," as distinct from "never having existed, having been used up." This is the difference between אין, and כאין. The חכמים mentioned in our prayer are the twelve sons of Jacob, all of whom accumulated powerful merits, so much so that Solomon describes them as a source of joy to their father (Proverbs 10,1). We also have a verse in Proverbs 24,3: בחכמה יבנה בית, "a house is built by wisdom," which is a reference to the house of Jacob. There used to be a period when the merits of the forefathers were constantly on G–d's mind. This was when the High Priest wore the breastplate. During those years the knowledge of what G–d desired flowed to us through the אורים ותומים, the oracle contained in that breastplate. Nowadays, alas, we are as if bereft of knowledge, i.e. כבלי מדע.