Soft Words, Hard Truths: When Blessing Is Rebuke

1“So shall you say to the House of Yaakov and tell Bnei Yisrael.”¹ Why is this message in particular introduced with the words “So shall you say,” koh somar? We find nothing like it anywhere else among Hashem's messages to Israel through Moshe; elsewhere it says “Speak to Bnei Yisrael” and the like.

2A second question. The Gemara says: “Rebbi says: At first Moshe explained the Torah's punishment, as it is written, ‘Vayashev Moshe,’ words that unsettle a person's mind. At the end he explained its reward, as it is written, ‘Vayaged Moshe,’ words that draw a person's heart, like aggadah. Others say: At first he explained its reward, as it is written, ‘Vayashev Moshe,’ words that settle a person's mind. At the end he explained its punishment, as it is written, ‘Vayaged Moshe,’ words that are as hard for a person as sinews.”² What is their dispute about? In the end Moshe explained both the reward and the punishment to them. What difference does it make whether he explained the punishment first and the reward afterward, or the other way around?

3The Masorah, the traditional record of where words recur in Scripture, lists “So shall you say to the House of Yaakov …” together with “So shall your offspring be” and “So shall you bless Bnei Yisrael.”³ How are these verses connected to one another?

4Let us first cite the words of my holy father and teacher, zt"l, on the verse “The people saw, and they trembled and stood from afar.”⁴ He explained that although all the people “saw the voices” and reached lofty levels, still, if “the people saw” applies to them, meaning that their service looks to them extremely good, without any flaw or lack, then “they stood from afar.” “Saw” here means approving, as in the saying “I see the words of Admon,” meaning “I agree with them.”⁵ People who see their service this way must know that they are still standing far from avodas Hashem, the service of Hashem.

5aWe can explain all of this as follows. My holy father often repeated the Baal Shem Tov's parable on the verse “God of vengeance, Hashem; God of vengeance, appear!”⁶ The Baal Shem Tov asked: the Name Kel, “God,” used here, stands for the attribute of mercy. How can the verse say “Kel of vengeance,” when vengeance belongs to judgment? He answered with a parable. A king was traveling through the provinces of his kingdom and came to a village where the people did not know how great the king was. A boy there sinned against him by throwing a stone at him. Instead of punishing the boy, the king took him to his palace and gave him every good thing. There the boy began to recognize the king's stature and greatness, and as a result he had a change of heart and asked the king's forgiveness. Hashem acts in the same way. He bestows abundant mercy even where the opposite, Heaven forbid, is deserved, and because Bnei Yisrael have every good thing, they do teshuvah. This is the hint in the verse: Hashem's “vengeance” comes through the attribute of mercy, with the Name Kel. That is the gist of my holy father's words.

5bBut how can one actually receive good gifts from Heaven when one is not worthy of them? After all, there is judgment and there is a Judge! The answer is a well-known teaching of the holy sefarim, the Be'er Mayim Chaim and the Sidduro shel Shabbos, both by R' Chaim of Czernowitz.⁷ Bnei Yisrael may live with mesirus nefesh, the readiness to give one's life, doing their Maker's will in a way that is above nature. When they do, Heaven too deals with them not by the strict letter of judgment but in a way that is above the bounds of nature. Then Hashem bestows every good thing upon us.

6On this basis we can explain why the Masorah groups these verses together. When Avraham and Yitzchak went to bind themselves upon the altar, Avraham said, “I and the lad will go yonder, ad koh.”⁸ In that merit, our forefathers Avraham and Yitzchak passed on to the generations to come the power of the mesirus nefesh they showed at the Akeidah, the binding of Yitzchak. Through this power we were privileged to receive “So shall your offspring be,” for the Holy One, blessed be He, blessed Avraham that his offspring after him would also serve their Maker in his way. [It is true that the Akeidah took place after Avraham was told “So shall your offspring be.” But that is only because of the order in which the power of these things came out into action; at the root, it was already complete from the beginning.] In this merit Avraham's offspring will be privileged to receive blessing, as it says, “So shall you bless Bnei Yisrael.” This was explained at length earlier in the sefer, at the end of Parshas Vayeira, based on the Midrash and the Baal HaTurim.⁹ This is the meaning of “So shall you say to the House of Yaakov”: a gentle message of abundant blessing, in the merit of their mesirus nefesh, as will be explained.

7aThe Gemara we cited is now well explained. Those who say that Moshe first explained the Torah's reward hold that he did so to show the foundation of the matter: at the giving of the Torah, Bnei Yisrael were privileged to reach a level of mesirus nefesh above the bounds of nature. As Chazal said, “We will do and we will hear” is the language the ministering angels use.¹⁰ That is why it says “So shall you say to the House of Yaakov,” a gentle and pleasant way of speaking. Even when punishment is due them, they will be privileged to have the “vengeance” come upon them in the way of “God of vengeance, Hashem”: through mercy and an abundance of blessing. Yet this abundance will come to them in the sense of “and tell Bnei Yisrael,” words as hard as sinews. The abundance itself will be like words of rebuke to them, showing them how they have blemished the honor of His glorious kingship, as in the parable of the king and the boy.

7bThat is why this phrase says “and tell Bnei Yisrael,” using the name Yisrael, which points to the higher level. As Chazal said in the Zohar on this verse, these words were addressed to people of lofty stature.¹¹ When such people receive abundance in place of harsh judgments, Heaven forbid, they make a proper accounting of the soul. They reflect on how good and gracious Hashem is: a person does not deserve the good, and yet the Holy One, blessed be He, graciously gives it to him. So for them, the abundance itself is words as hard as sinews. [This is the meaning of “At first he explained its reward, and at the end he explained its punishment”: Moshe explained that there is a way in which a person's reward is itself his punishment. But others say that at first he explained its punishment and at the end its reward. This means that when people are not worthy, Heaven forbid, they must return to Hashem through suffering, and only afterward, at the end, do they receive reward. But fortunate is the one who is privileged to return while he is still in his full strength, while abundant good is upon him.¹²]

8But there are people on a lower level who always think that the Holy One, blessed be He, ought to give them still more abundance. They make no accounting of the soul. They do not feel the abundant good they receive as a rebuke, since their bodies do not feel it, and they think they deserve still more because they do mitzvos and good deeds. It is in line with what we cited above from my holy father on the verse “The people saw, and they trembled and stood from afar.” Those on the level of “the people” think they have risen to high levels in avodas Hashem. But they are mistaken, for we must always know that nothing at all is due us for our service. The verse alludes to this with “So shall you say to the House of Yaakov,” which Chazal explained: “These are the women.”¹³ This hints at those on a lower level. When Hashem gives them abundance in a gentle way, then “and tell Bnei Yisrael” applies: they must see in it words as hard as sinews, even though what they are receiving from Hashem is good.

9In fact, my holy great-grandfather of Biala, zy"a, explains the verse “These are the words that you shall speak to Bnei Yisrael” in a similar way.¹⁴ Rashi comments on it: “No less and no more,” and it has already been asked what Rashi means by this. My holy great-grandfather explained, in these words: “This too is a preparation for the Torah. The Holy One, blessed be He, told Moshe Rabbeinu to instill these two things in Israel, ‘no less and no more.’ A person should not think that he is the worst and lowest in Israel and that he has no more hope, Heaven forbid, of returning to Hashem. For that is the yetzer hara's advice, so that a person will grow completely slack in serving Him. This is ‘no less.’ Moshe should also instill in them ‘and no more’: if a person is privileged to do some mitzvah, he should not let it make him proud and self-important, Heaven forbid. This is ‘and no more.’ ‘These are the words that you shall speak to Bnei Yisrael’: instill all these things in their hearts before they receive the Torah.” Those are his holy words.

10In my holy father we saw with our own eyes all that we have said about Israel's mesirus nefesh and about serving in lowliness. He did mitzvos with mesirus nefesh, rising up like a lion to do the will of his Father in Heaven at all times, even, as is well known, in difficult times. Before doing a mitzvah he felt lowly and small, and after the mitzvah, too, he lived by “and no more,” for he always thought to himself that he had not been privileged to engage in Torah and mitzvos as he should.

11aOne can apply to my holy father what is written in the holy sefer Yismach Yisrael.¹⁵ There it cites a saying of the holy Rebbe R' Menachem Mendel of Vorka, zt"l, on the verse “and behold, a ram, after.”¹⁶ In the eyes of Avraham Avinu, his son Yitzchak counted for no more than a ram; there was no difference between taking Yitzchak to be bound and taking the ram to be bound. Avraham Avinu's whole heart belonged to Hashem alone. No other thought could find a place in his heart except the thought of doing his Maker's will, and all his deeds were only what Hashem willed. Hardly any more excitement could be seen in him when he did a mitzvah than when he ate, drank and the like, for he did all of these only to do Hashem's will and give Him pleasure.

11bSo it was with the holy R' Menachem Mendel of Vorka. His fear of Hashem was on his face, so that no change at all could be seen in him, whether he was praying, sitting at a festive mitzvah meal, or sitting at home. With this the Yismach Yisrael there explains the verse “And Aharon did so,” on which Rashi comments: “This tells the praise of Aharon, that he did not deviate.”¹⁷ This means that Aharon did not change at all, whether he was lighting the Menorah or was free of any mitzvah, for he was always filled with the fear of Hashem, the higher fear. Those are his holy words. We saw all this in my holy father.

12The Yismach Yisrael ends there by saying that this is hinted in the verse “The fear of Hashem is pure, enduring forever.”¹⁸ Since a tzaddik's fear is pure, free of any self-interest, it endures forever. That is, the fear of a tzaddik who has passed away can shine forth even now, on the day of his yahrzeit. As Chazal said, “Tzaddikim are greater in their death than in their lifetime”:¹⁹ after their death they can shine yiras Shamayim, the fear of Heaven, into the hearts of Bnei Yisrael and make it known even more than in their lifetime. Those are his holy words. If so, we can now receive that fear from what my holy father had, in the spirit of “When will my deeds reach the deeds of my fathers?”²⁰ [in the sense of touching his holy ways]. May his merit protect us so that we are privileged to do so, and may we bring near the time of the redemption. Amen, may it be His will.