The King's Revenge: Drawing Back Through Kindness

1“He has not beheld iniquity in Yaakov, nor seen wrongdoing in Yisrael; Hashem his God is with him, and teru'as melech, the King's friendship, is in him.”¹ The early commentators ask: what does “He has not beheld iniquity in Yaakov” mean?² Do Chazal not teach, “Whoever says the Holy One, blessed be He, is a vatran, one who overlooks sins, will forfeit his life”?³

2The Midrash Rabbah says: “‘He has not beheld iniquity in Yaakov’: He does not gaze at the sins in their hands; He gazes only at their ge'us,” their exaltedness, a word that can also mean pride.⁴ Admittedly, the commentators, the Maharzu and the Eitz Yosef, point out that in the Tanchuma the reading is “He gazes only at their merit,” and in the Yalkut, “at their mitzvos.”⁵ But we must still explain the reading we have here, “at their ge'us,” and at first glance it is difficult. If they are proud, Heaven forbid, then on the contrary: of a proud person the Holy One, blessed be He, says, “I and he cannot dwell together under one roof.”⁶

3The continuation of the verse also needs explaining: “Hashem his God is with him, and teru'as melech, the King's friendship, is in him.” Why the double expression? Rashi says: “Usru'as melech bo is an expression of affection and friendship, and so Onkelos translated it: ‘and the Shechinah of their King is among them.’”⁷ Why does the verse dwell on this at such length? And what did Rashi mean by quoting the Targum's wording here?

4aMy holy father and teacher, zt"l, spoke on this verse, drawing on a well-known parable of the Baal Shem Tov, zt"l, on the verse “God of vengeance, Hashem.”⁸ At first glance, how can Hashem's four-letter Name, Havayah, which stands for mercy, appear in connection with vengeance? The Baal Shem Tov explained it with a parable. A king set out to tour all the provinces of his kingdom, and everywhere he came they paid him great honor. But once he came to a remote village, where the children did not understand the honor due to the king and threw stones at him. A great uproar broke out among the royal ministers over the disgrace to the king, and they all agreed that the thrower deserved only one sentence: death. But the king was very wise. He said that he would give the boy a different punishment. He took him into the royal palace and gave him every good thing, until the boy felt how good the king was, who showered him with so much. Then the boy fell at the king's feet, wept, and begged the king to forgive him for sinning against him.

4bThe meaning of the parable is this. The Holy One, blessed be He, sends the soul, “a portion of God from Above,”⁹ down to this world. But because of his many blemishes, a person forgets how great the King is, and he sins against Him. Then, when Hashem bestows great abundance upon him, he begins to feel who it is that gives him every good thing, and how great the King is. So he returns to his root and does teshuvah. This is the meaning of “God of vengeance, Hashem”: Hashem's vengeance comes through the attribute of mercy, the Name Havayah, through which He bestows every good upon a person, and so the person returns in teshuvah.

5On this basis my holy father explained the words of our verse, “He has not beheld iniquity in Yaakov.” The Holy One, blessed be He, does not keep watch over Bnei Yisrael in order to punish them for their sins, because “Hashem his God is with him.” By showing them how He is with them and bestowing abundant mercy upon them, He brings them to return in teshuvah, back to their root. That is the gist of his words.

6We can explain this further. We know that every Jew has a soul that is “a portion of God from Above.” The holy sefer Tanya, by R' Shneur Zalman of Liadi, writes on the verse “Let him return to Hashem, and He will have mercy on him”¹⁰ that each person must have mercy on his own portion of God from Above, which has been blemished. We may say that this is what the Targum means by “and the Shechinah of their King is among them.” Within each Jew there is a portion of God from Above, which stands by him and helps him overcome his yetzer hara.

7This lets us explain the verse “Every man shall fear his mother and his father.”¹¹ Above all, a person must be afraid of blemishing the share of his mother and his father that is within him. As Chazal said, “‘His father’ is none other than the Holy One, blessed be He, and ‘his mother’ is none other than Knesses Yisrael,” the assembly of Israel.¹² They are the source from which his soul is hewn, and they are the portion of God from Above within him. Right after this the verse says, “and you shall keep My Shabbosos.” For if a person has blemished them, Heaven forbid, he must return at once in teshuvah, and that is what Shabbos is about. As is well known, the word Shabbos (שבת) stands for Shabbos bo tashuv, “on Shabbos you shall return.”¹³

8This makes Rashi's words on teru'as melech bo clear: it is an expression of affection and friendship. By dealing with us in affection and friendship, Hashem brings us to teshuvah. When He bestows abundant mercy and kindness upon us, we are roused to remember our merciful Father, our King, Who bestows all good upon us, and the Shechinah of our King that is among us. Then we return before Him in complete teshuvah, with heightened feeling, through the portion of God from Above that dwells within us.

9Rashi also hints here at what the holy Zohar says on this verse: “The teru'ah of Yaakov, of whom it is said, ‘and teru'as melech is in him.’”¹⁴ As is known, the attribute of Yaakov is Tiferes, the sefirah of beauty and mercy, and through it Hashem rouses us to return to Him in teshuvah. It seems, then, that the Zohar too reads the verse this way: Hashem “has not beheld iniquity,” even though “whoever says the Holy One, blessed be He, is a vatran …,” because He rouses us to repent of our sins through the attribute of mercy, the attribute of Yaakov.

10Through this path of teshuvah, which grows out of abundant mercy, a person breaks the power of din, strict judgment, as the Zohar explains the word teru'ah.¹⁵ It says there: “‘Fortunate is the people who know the teru'ah …’ It does not say ‘who hear’ or ‘who blow’ the teru'ah, but ‘who know’ the teru'ah. The secret of teru'ah is as it is written, ‘Tero'em, you shall break them, with a rod of iron.’” That is, they know how to break the power of judgment through teshuvah, by reflecting on the abundant mercy Hashem bestows upon us.

11This also lets us understand what Tosafos, the classic commentators on the Gemara, write about Bilam, who “knows the knowledge of the Most High.”¹⁶ He knew how to pinpoint the moment when the Holy One, blessed be He, is angry, which lasts only an instant, as long as it takes to say the word rega, “moment.” Tosafos ask: what could Bilam say in such a moment? They answer that he would say kaleim, “destroy them,” and Hashem reversed it and said melech, “King,” the same letters in reverse, as it is written, “and teru'as melech is in him.” But what do Tosafos mean? What is there in saying “teru'as melech” that overturned Bilam's intent? And where is the attribute of mercy hinted in melech? On the contrary, “King” would seem to denote the attribute of judgment! But according to what we have said about “and teru'as melech is in him,” the answer is clear. The words hint at the way Hashem deals with us in affection and friendship in order to punish us for our sins. He bestows upon us an abundance of every good, of mercy and kindness, and brings us close into the royal palace. Through this we return in teshuvah, our heart is chastened all the more with shame and regret, and we remember the portion of the Shechinah of our King that dwells within us. That is what Tosafos mean: when Hashem reversed the word to say “King,” the attribute of judgment was turned into mercy.

12This also lets us explain the wording of the Midrash with which we began: “He gazes only at their ge'us.” When the Holy One, blessed be He, wants to punish Bnei Yisrael so that they will return in teshuvah, He lifts them high through the attribute of Yaakov, Tiferes and mercy, as we saw in the Zohar. He bestows every good upon them, as in the parable of the king: He raises them up and brings them close into the royal palace. That is the meaning of “He gazes only at ge'us.” He does not lower them, Heaven forbid. On the contrary, He raises them up, and through this they draw near to teshuvah of their own accord.

13We stand now before the days of Bein HaMetzarim, the Three Weeks that end on Tishah B'Av, and Chazal said: “Every generation in whose days the Beis HaMikdash is not rebuilt is considered as if it had been destroyed in its days.”¹⁷ So we have a great obligation to return in teshuvah. This is all the more so in ikvesa diMeshicha, “the footsteps of Moshiach,” the era just before the redemption, for Chazal said: “All the appointed times for the end have passed, and the matter depends only on teshuvah and good deeds.”¹⁸ The Tannaim disagree there whether Bnei Yisrael will do teshuvah on their own, or whether Heaven will rouse them to it, in the way of “He sets over them a king whose decrees are as harsh as Haman's.”¹⁹ May Hashem grant that we do teshuvah out of a calm and settled mind, and may abundance flow to us from on high, so that through it everyone will be roused to teshuvah, and we will be privileged to see the Beis HaMikdash rebuilt. Amen.