And unto Him shall you cling.
This verse brings to mind a similar one, ואתם הדבקים בה' אלקיכם חיים כולכם היום, And yet you who are clinging to Hashem your G-d – you are all alive today.*
The Midrash** tells us that the soul is constantly agitating to break free of its physical body. What prevents it from doing so? When it sees the Divine Presence that fills the world it restrains itself. The Alshich*** cites this midrash and explains that by nature every entity is drawn to its source. The soul is no different, and, as a spiritual being, it longs to leave its foreign physical environment and return to its natural spiritual one. However, continues the midrash, when it observes the Divine Presence, which is also antithetical to the physical world and yet maintains its stay within it, it reasons that it cannot insist on being better off than its master and resigns itself to its situation.
Now, the same principle can be said of those Tzadikim who bear subjugation at the hands of the wicked. They reason that they cannot expect to be better off than the Shechinah that bears the travails of exile as well.
This seems to me to be the meaning of the verse in Shir ha-Shirim, השבעתי אתכם בנות ירושלים אם תמצאו את דודי מה תגידו לו שחולת אהבה אני, I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem: if you encounter my beloved, what shall you relate to him? That I am lovesick.**** The soul is addressing the “daughters of Jerusalem,” that is, the righteous. “I adjure you” to bear the travails of exile under the wicked just as I bear the discomfort of my exile within this physical shell. Just as I make do out of love for my Creator, who too allows his Presence to suffer in exile, so should you. And “if you encounter my beloved” in prayer, please recall “that I,” the soul, as well as the Divine Presence which I am a part of, “are lovesick,” awaiting redemption, and direct your prayers for our benefit as well.
This, then, is the meaning of the earlier verse. ואתם הדבקים בה' אלקיכם, you righteous who follow the Divine Presence’s example, bearing spiritual adversity for His sake, חיים כולכם היום, you are all alive today, because you provide an example for your souls, charging them to remain fixed within their bodies – and maintaining your lives. In contrast, the wicked, in their arrogance, refuse to make peace with their exiled state. As such, their souls refuse as well, creating a disconnect between themselves and their bodies. Hence, as the Sages state, “the wicked are called dead even in their lifetimes.”*****
This gives new meaning to the injunction ובו תדבקון, that we are to emulate Hashem’s example in being accepting of the unideal spiritual circumstances that we are fated to.
עניה סערה לא נחמה (ישעיה נד, יא).
O poor, tempest-tossed, uncomforted one…
This week’s haftorah is drawn from this passage. The term “poor” has two possible meanings: monetarily, or spiritually. The first usage can be divided into two categories, which I will present by way of explaining a passage in Avos.
The mishnah declares, פת במלח תאכל וכו' אשריך וטוב לך, אשריך בעולם הזה וטוב לך בעולם הבא, You shall eat bread in salt… “you are praiseworthy and it shall be good for you” – “you are praiseworthy” – in this world; “it shall be good for you” – in the World to Come.****** As the old question goes, how could such a frugal lifestyle be deemed “praiseworthy in this world?”
The answer is that there are poor people who have little and poor people who have too much. In Mishlei*******, the author requests ריש ועושר אל תתן לי, give me neither poverty nor wealth. The Maharam Shiff******** reads the verse to mean “give me not poverty that comes through wealth.” For as the Sages says, one who has one hundred desires two hundred, one who has two hundred desires four hundred. Man’s lust for money only grows in proportion to his assets. And so, one ought to avoid wealth which will provide him not contentedness but ever greater desire. One who indeed lives the simple life will experience the “praiseworthiness in this world.”
The Alshich writes as much regarding a verse in our haftorah, למה תשקלו כסף בלא לחם ויגיעכם בלא לשבעה, Why do you weigh money without receiving bread, and your toil is without satiety?********* He takes this to refer to fortune accrued that provides no satisfaction.
Thus, the difference between the two types of poor is that the monetarily deprived leads a contented life, satisfied with the little that he has, while the monetarily supplied has no calm, constantly running the treadmill of life to amass more and more fortune. (Which, in truth, accomplishes nothing. The Torah describes the efforts of the Jews to amass the manna: שטו העם ולקטו, the nation strolled and picked**********. The Zohar*********** makes a play on the similarity of the word שטו to שטות, madness. It was madness for them to imagine that excessive efforts in procuring the manna would produce a larger portion; as the verse says************, ולא העדיף המרבה והממעיט לא החסיר, regardless of how much or how little each person collected, the result was always uniform.)
This may provide a novel reading of our opening verse. עניה סוערה, one who is impoverished – in the sense of discontent – leads a tempest-tossed life, constantly in the throes of his insatiable lust for wealth. What’s more: לא נחמה, he never has an opportunity to consider his ways, to engage in introspection, due to his inner volatility.
Another possible rendition stems from the Alshich’s teaching************* that Gan Eden is acquired through the calm life, while Gehinnom is acquired through unceasing effort, engaging in all of the sins that are available to Man. Perhaps this is the meaning of that which the Sages say that Man is destined to present דין וחשבון, a judgement and a reckoning.************** Shouldn’t the order be switched – first one gives an account of his deeds and then he is taken to task for them - ? Rather, first one must be judged for that which he abandoned the good, tranquil life advised by the Yetzer ha-Tov in favor of the chaotic one pushed by the Yetzer ha-Ra; subsequently, he can give a reckoning on the particulars of his actions.
Now, there is a line of defense that the above accused may adopt. As the Alshich observes***************, the demands of the two inclinations are not equal. The Yetzer ha-Tov makes its suggestion as to the proper course of action and then leaves man to his own devices. The Yetzer ha-Ra, however, pushes him endlessly, allowing him no peace until he submits to the desires being dangled before him. How, then, can a person be blamed for heeding the latter over the former?
The response to this, as the Alshich himself writes, is that a person should realize that a pushy salesman typically sells inferior wares. Those who have superior products to sell need not impose themselves on potential customers to make a sale. That alone should steer an individual’s attention from the physical delights being pushed by the Yetzer ha-Ra in favor of the spiritual bliss presented by the Yetzer ha-Tov.
This, then, is the message of our verse. עניה, the one impoverished of Torah and mitzvos, סערה, yet has the excuse that it was under the spell of the constant, forceful pressures of the Yetzer ha-Ra, לא נחמה, cannot be comforted with such an excuse, as it does not hold water.
Another verse in our haftorah provides an important point: הוי כל צמא לכו למים, Ho! all thirsty, go to the water, ואשר אין לו כסף לכו שברו בלא כסף יין וחלב, and those who have no money – go purchase without money wine and milk****************. That is, we are taught in a midrash, הלואי אותי עזבו ואת תורתי שמרו, If only [the Jewish People] had abandoned Me, so long as they safeguarded My Torah. Why? Perhaps for the reason outlined above: the Yetzer ha-Ra, with its incessant nagging, is far more motivating than the quieter Yetzer ha-Tov. If the Jews would study Torah for the wrong reasons – honor, privileges,***************** and the like – they would do so with far more gusto than those who approach it with the right intentions. Thus, our haftorah encourages engaging in Torah study in order to quench our physical thirst.
Another take on this verse is as follows: When a person is healthy, tasteless water will suffice to slate his thirst. However, an ill person doesn’t take to it; he needs the more inviting milk or wine. This is an apt metaphor for dispensing chastisement. Spiritually healthy people can take it straight-up. Those who are too ill for it need it packaged within Torah content such as metaphors and homilies. Now, aside from these two types of recipients of mussar – those who taste the inner reproof and those who taste the outer packaging – there is a third who rejects the drink altogether lest he be influenced for the better. To him is directed the above: If only he had abandoned Me – that is, the message of the mussar, yet safeguarded My Torah, at least consuming the packaging of the content, as it would have some positive influence upon him. Hence, the verse says, הוי כל צמא לכו למים, Those who are thirsty for reproof, should consume it as is, like a glass of water; those who are not, should down it within a cup of milk or wine.
Another interpretation of the verse emerges from a comment in the Zohar.****************** It cites a verse in Shir ha-Shirim, ******************* דודי לי ואני לו הרועה בשושנים, My beloved is unto me and I am unto Him, who grazes amongst the lilies. Just as a lily is both red and white, so do the sacrifices contain blood, which is red, and fat, which is white. Similarly, one who fasts sacrifices, so to speak, some of his blood and his fat, accomplishing something akin to an offering. Perhaps, I would suggest, the message here is that found in the Reishis Chochmah that someone who is infatuated with Torah, studying it day and night to the point that he is oblivious to all else, will achieve a state of spiritual disconnect from his physicality. Such a person has no need for self-flagellation. Hence, הוי כל צמא לכו למים, one who has an obsessive thirst for Torah can subsist spiritually on that alone, however, ואשר אין לו כסף לכו שברו בלא כסף יין וחלב, one who does not have such a longing******************** must supplement his Torah with wine and milk, i.e., to engage in fasting which consumes his wine-colored blood and his milk-colored fat. למה תשקלו כסף, why should you acquire a desire for physical matters, בלא לחם ויגיעכם בלא לשבעה, thus demanding of you to engage in fasting which will leave you “without bread, and needing to afflict yourself with a lack of satiety.”*********************
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* Devarim 4:4. ** Shocher Tov 62. *** Vayikra 26:13. **** 5:8. ***** Berachos 18b. ****** Avos 6:4. ******* 30:8. ******** Likkutim at the end of Chullin. ********* Yeshayah 55:2.********** Bamidbar 11:8. *********** Beshalach, 62b. ************ Shemos 16:18. ************* Mishlei 22:5. ************** Avos 3:1. *************** Mishlei 9:13.**************** 55:1. ***************** As the Talmud (Rosh HaShanah 23b) tells us, large meals were made in Jerusalem to encourage potential witnesses to come testify about the new moon. ****************** Shemos, 20b. ******************* 2:16. ******************** The term ןיפוסיכ meaning desire.
********************* This is similar to an interpretation given by the Remak to the verse הפרחב עבשי יחל והכמל ןתי (Eichah 3:30): through the experience of shame one achieves atonement, obviating the need for fasting – in effect, the shame “sates” him.