Musar על מכות 46:26

And, especially, one who scrutinizes carefully the introduction to the Chafetz Chaim, and, the first two gates of all of its chapters will see that in fulfillment of the trait of guarding his tongue there will be deducted from him every year several hundreds and thousands of sins and added to him in exchange many hundreds and thousands of mitzvoth. For even if there only be deducted from him through this ten words of improper speech each day, that he has muzzled his mouth from speaking, it would still amount to over three thousand per year (And in this way I have explained what Chazal have said (Arachin 15b): "All who speak lashon hara increase sins until the heavens," the meaning being that if one is habituated to this sin, then from this itself his sins increase greatly), and those [muzzled] words would be reckoned as mitzvoth for him in the world to come. As Chazal have said (Makkoth 23b): "If a man sits [idle] and does not commit a sin, he is rewarded as one who has done a mitzvah, and, for every moment that he muzzles his mouth, etc." And he will also arrive, as a matter of course, at many holy traits, as I have written in the Second Gate of this work.

G–d saw fit to reveal the remainder of the 613 commandments to man in His own good time, i.e. to the generation of Israelites who were released from bondage in Egypt. Since that time every Jew is expected to perform as many of these 613 commandments as his particular station in life enables him to perform. The key to his achieving perfection by such מצוה performance lies in the manner in which these מצות are fulfilled. If they are all fulfilled joyfully, then the "preparedness" of which we spoke earlier is enough to credit such individuals with also having fulfilled those commandments which they were unable to fulfil through no fault of their own.

I have explained the significance of the rule of a slave dying more than twenty four hours after having been struck by his master (Exodus 21,21), in my commentary on פרשת יתרו. The first of the Ten Commandments, אנכי, which is one of the positive commandments, includes the essence of all positive commandments, whereas the second of the Ten Commandments, לא יהיה, not to have other deities, contains the essence of all the other negative commandments. Our sages have said that the 365 negative commandments correspond to the 365 days in the solar year (Makkot 23). When the Torah says יום in our verse, it refers to all 365 days of this temporal year. A Gentile slave is obligated by Jewish law to observe all the negative commandments, whereas he only has to observe those positive commandments that Jewish women also have to observe. He is exempt from the performance of commandments which are linked to a specific time frame i.e. a certain part of the day. It follows that his sanctity is restricted to "a (full) day one," i.e. when he performs all the negative commandments. This is the deeper meaning of the Torah saying "if he survives a day or two." יום או יומים, means a "day that includes all days, a period of not less than twenty four consecutive hours."

Let us go back to the parable from the Yalkut which we quoted on pages earlier. Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish who demanded fulfillment of every single commandment in the Torah can hardly reconcile this with the parable of the pit in the Yalkut. We have divided the commandments into 248 positive ones and 365 negative ones. The sages use the number 365 as signifying the concept "day" as in the solar year which comprises 365 days. The pit may be compared to man. When the pit is not filled with “commandments performed,” it is empty, but just as in the case of the pit the brothers threw Joseph into, this does not mean that it did not contain potentially lethal creatures such as dragons and scorpions (cf. Rashi on Genesis 37,24). The "scorpions" mentioned are a metaphor for the forces of the קליפה, forces created by our sins. Only when the pit has become filled and does not leak a drop (of the commandments performed which have filled the pit) have these forces of the קליפה become totally neutralized. When the foolish laborer described in the parable expressed his chagrin that he would never be able to fill the pit, he referred to the negative commandments. He knew that performance is of paramount significance. He also knew that 365 of the 613 commandments are incapable of being "performed," since observing them consists of lack of activity, i.e. שב ואל תעשה, refraining from violating the commandment. He therefore could not understand how one could receive rewards for what one did not do! This foolish worker did not understand that the 365 negative commandments are performed by consciously abstaining from committing acts which would be transgressions. In other words, our thoughts play a key role in מצוה observance. This is the "joy" that the other labourer referred to when he said "I am happy that I have found work for myself." The "happiness" is an allusion to the "performance" of negative commandments by deliberately refraining from eating pig because G–d had forbidden it, not because there was none to be had. This kind of attitude is regarded just as the deed of handing out charity, for instance. We see that there are many commandments which are "performed" by thought rather than deed, something that Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish was aware of and agreed with. We have proof of this in Psalms 119,3: אף לא פעלו עולה בדרכיו הלכו, "They have done no wrong, but have followed His ways." This means that when one foregoes the opportunity to violate a negative commandment this is considered as if one had performed a commandment. The same principle applies when one cannot perform a positive commandment for one reason or another. When the Torah states in the opening line of our portion: את הברכה אשר תשמעו, "The blessing when you listen, etc.," the message is that from the moment we undertake to study the commandments with a view to fulfilling them, the blessing, i.e. the reward is already due us. Should we be prevented from performance by some accident, this does not diminish the merit we have already acquired.

In our portion the word איה in verse 21 is the allusion to such an event in the future. When the Torah discusses the ערכין and תמורה legislation in Leviticus 27,10 we are told: והיה הוא ותמורתו קודש, (if one did substitute one animal for another) "both the one originally vowed and its substitute will be deemed holy." The word תמורתו can be perceived as symbolizing תמר and ורות whose letters make up the word תמורתו. Both Tamar and Ruth may certainly be viewed as "substitutes," seeing they had not been deliberately chosen for the role they were destined to play. Our sages also say that when Yishai (David's father) slept with David's mother and David was conceived, this was due to an error on Yishai's part. He had thought that he was sleeping with a maid or concubine (Psalms 51,7 Metzudat David). [The verse reads –David speaking – "Indeed I was born with iniquity; with sin my mother conceived me." Ed.] David himself then was also a substitute as far as his mother was concerned. All of these extraordinary circumstances were designed by G–d to demonstrate that the impure is capable of being redeemed and becoming pure. The sperm that impregnated the various mothers mentioned originated in purity, could be called זרע קודש, holy seed. [In a gloss the author draws our attention to Ruth 4,7 where we find the expression על הגאולה ועל התמורה, placing the words "redemption and substitution" side by side. He finds a deep significance in this and speculates that it alerts us to the lesson that through the process of תמורה, substitution, the impure can achieve purity.] Er and Onan died because they defiled such sacred seed. Eventually Yehudah himself had to impregnate Tamar in order to enable the dynasty of David to have its beginnings. When, later on in 38,26, Yehudah acknowledged that he was the father of the infant Tamar was carrying, the Torah adds the word ממני, which our sages in Targum Yerushalmi interpret as a Heavenly voice calling out that the outcome conformed with a Heavenly plan and that neither Yehudah nor Tamar were guilty of misconduct.