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The merit of the commandments will stand up for a person. He will then be worthy of ten benefits:

1) will cause the Shechinah (Divine Presence - שְׁכִינָה) to dwell in the land. The whole world will rejoice since blessing will be found in all things. (Ibid., Shaar 2; Sh'nei Luchot HaB'rit, p. 240)  

Even if there are wicked people in the world, they too are blessed in the merit of the righteous who keep the commandments. (Sukkah 5) 

On High there is a special place for angels who are armed with all types of weaponry to protect Yisrael so that no nation in the world has any power over them to do them harm. When evil decrees are made against them, these angels take vengeance against them and protect Yisrael in the merit that they run to do the commandments.

However, if, heaven forbid, the Benei Yisrael are not careful in keeping the commandments, there is another place where different angels are ready and prepared to run and help the nations of the world when they make evil decrees against the Benei Yisrael. They break the mazal-power of Yisrael so that the others can have power over them. They also break down the power of the good angels who want to do good for Yisrael. The Divine Presence then departs from Yisrael and the land is cursed in every possible manner. A force of destruction rests on the earth, causing great damage and the world no longer has any joy. (Zohar, Noach, p. 61)

2) Even if G-d makes an evil decree, a righteous person has the power to annul it through the power of the commandments that he keeps. (Ibid., VaYeshev) It is written, "When the king issues a unilateral decree who can say to him, "What shall you do" (Kohelet)? However, immediately after that, it is written, He who keeps a commandment will not know an evil thing" (Kohelet 8:5). Here the Scripture asks, who can tell G-d what to do and annul the decree? However, one should know that there is one person who has the power to say, "What are you doing?" and this is one who keeps the commandments. (Sh'nei Luchot Ha'Brit, p. 241, quoting Zohar)

This is what King David said, "The G-d of Yisrael spoke to me - the Rock of Yisrael (saying), I should rule Yisrael (which is called man), I should be a righteous ruler and I should fear G-d" (Shmuel Bet 23:3). King David said, "Hashem G-d spoke to me and said to me 'I am the Rock of Yisrael and its strength. I rule over man to do anything that I want. Who rules over me? The righteous rules with the fear of G-d - one who has the fear of G-d and keeps the commandments.'" (Shabbat 6)

3) No evil news is given from on high. Rather he is only given good reports. It is thus written, "He who keeps the commandments will not know an evil thing" (Kohelet 8:5). That is, one who keeps the commandments and who waits and yearns for a time when he will be able to keep the, will not know any evil. Whatever he is told from on High will be good news. (Rashi, ibid.)

4) He will have a long life. (Moed Katan 3) A parable to this would be a person who is drowning and another person throws a rope to him and says, "Grab onto this rope and do not be afraid of anything." The same is true of one who keeps the commandmnts. It is like a person holding onto a rope; he does not have to fear death.

It is thus written, "You, who are attached to Hashem your G-d, you are all alive today" (Devarim 4:4). If you are attached to Hashem your G-d and keep His commandments you will live and endure and have a long life.

A person should not say, "What benefit will I have if I keep the commandments?" and say "I have also committed many sins". Rather, a perosn should strive to do good deeds, balancing these sins that he has done. Thus, for example, if a person sinned in his own eyes and derived enjoyment fro something that is forbidden to look upon, he should be careful to put on tefillin, which the Torah says should be worn [on the forehead] "between the eyes." Similarly, if a person sinned with his mouth, through slander or profanity, he should do commandments that are related to the mouth such as sudying Torah or praying with great feeling. If a person sinned with is hands he should do commandments that depend on the hands. If one sins with the feet he should run to keep a commandment.

If a person does this he will be able to have a good answer to G-d by saying, "If I have done sins, I have also done good deeds to balance them off."

Because G-d loves the Jewish people so much He surrounds them with good deeds. Wherever we go we encounter good deeds. G-d told us to put tefillin on our heads and arms, a mezuzzah on our doors, tzitzit tassels on our garments, circumcision on our flesh. Thus whever we go we can find commandments to keep. (Shabbat, loc. cit. See Rabbi Yoshia Pinto [on Ein Yaakov])

5) If a person keeps a commandment for the sake of Heaven without any ulterior motives the Divine Presence rests on his face. People then listen to his words. (Kiddushin 1) Moreover, whoever looks at his face will be filled with fear and awe; even wild animals will be afraid of him and not approach him.

We thus find that when Dani'el was thrown into the lion's den the lions would not even approach him to harm him.

However, if a person is rooted in sins, the Divine Image (tzelem - צֶלֶם) flies away from his face. Since the Divine Presence is no longer with him, no one is afraid of him. When he speaks to admonish people his words are not accepted. Even wild animals are not afraid of him. Such a person appears to them like an animal and they have power and they can kill him and eat him as the would eat any other animal. (Reshit Chochmah, Perek HaMitzvot)

6) The merit of the commandments that he keeps protects him from all evil. Even if an evil decree has been made against him on high, the commandment has the power to protect him. This si true both at the time when he is keeping it and, later, after he has kept it. (Berachot 1)

The commandments are thus like a shield to protect a person from troubles. Just as when a person is in battle his shield protects him from arrows, similarly, the commandments that a person has kept are like a shield that protects him from troubles decreed from on high. 

One who keeps the commandments is like a tree which has few branches but many deep roots. All the winds in the world could blow against it. They do not have the power to rend it even a little from its place. The roots that spread out and extend to the depths have great strength. (Zohar, VaYeshev, p. 191)

Likewise, one who keeps the commandments need have no fear from anything decreed on high. It is thus written, "Blessed is the man who trusts in G-d, for G-d will be his trust. He will be like a tree planted by water, and by a stream it sends out its roots and is not afraid when heat comes since its leaves are fresh. In a year of famine it will not be concerned and will never cease from giving forth fruit" (Yirmeyahu 17:7-8).

Besides this, since such a person is careful in doing the commandments, G-d does not allow him to come to sin. He is like a person who goes in a dark place and he is afraid that he will step on thorns and thistles. However, if he has a lamp in his hand he could walk wherever he pleases without fear. The commandments are like a lamp as it is written, "For the commandment is a lamp and the Torah is light" (Mishlei 6:23). They go and illuminate a person's way so he does not come to do sins. (Sotah 3)

The merit of commandments stands also for a person's children and protects them from harm for even a thousand generations.

This is even true if a person keeps the commandments out of fear that G-d will punish them if he does not keep them. 

However, if a person keeps the commandments out of love and does them with total perfection, not out of fear but merely because G-d commanded them and it is not proper to disobey His commandments, then his status is very high. The merit of the commamdments will protect him even for two thousand generations . It is thus written, "[G-d] does act of kindness for two thousand generations for those who love Him and keep His commandments for a thousand generations" (Devarim 7:9) This is saying that G-d does these acts of kindness for two thousand generations for those who love Him and keep His commandments. However, those who do it out of fear, G-d only keeps it for a thousand generations.

One should not think this is only if one does the commandments. This is not true. Even if a person has a desire to sin and refrains from doing it out of respect for G-d, G-d countes it as if he had done a good deed and protects his children. (Avot 4)

7) If a person keeps the commandments he is so precious in G-d's eyes that G-d says, "The whole world was only created for the sake of this person."

The entire purpose of creation was that G-d should create a righteous person who will keep the commandments. If the world had not been created, the righteous person (tzaddik - צַדִיק) would not have a place in which to exist. (Sotah, p. 29)

Even the angels where only created in order to benefit such a person. (Berachot 1, See Shabbat 2)

Therefore, righteous people are more important than angels. We thus find that Nevuchadnetzer threw Chananiah, Misha'el, and Azariah into the fiery furnace. When they emerged unharmed he said, "Blessed is the G-d of Shadrach, Meshach and Aved Nego (Chananiah, Misha'el and Azariah) who sent an angel to save His servants since He had mercy on them" (Dani'el 3;28). Nevuchadnetzer is mentioning that G-d sent angels to save them from the fire. However, since the Scripture mentions the angel in the fourth place and does not mention it first, it is a clear sign that the righteous person is the main thing and the angel is only secondary to him.

Rabbi Azzai said, "All the world was only created as an accompaniment for such a person - to provide for his needs. If there are not other people in the world who would care for his needs whether for food or for clothing, if not for other people there would not be food or clothing and this person would not be able to serve G-d properly." (Rashi; Rabbi Yoshia Pinto [Riph])

Likewise, Ben Zoma said when he saw the great masters of Yisrael. He saw 600,000 men in the Holy Temple when they came on the annual pilgrimage. When he saw this he would say, "Blessed be He who created all these who serve me. Through them I am able to keep G-d's commandments. Adam had to work very hard until he had bread to eat. At first he had to plow, then plant and then harvest the wheat. He had to winnow and bring it in the pan and grind it and knead it and bake it and only then could he eat it. When he needed an article of clothing how much work he had. He had to shear the sheep, bleach the wool, comb it, dye it, weave it and then sew it. But I wake up in the morning and find everything ready and prepared for me. Therefore, it comes out that all these people who are working were only created to serve me so that I could find everything ready and prepared so that I will be able to serve my Creator." (Maharsha, Sanhedrin 10)

8) For every commandment that aperon does an angel is created. This angel speaks up for him and says, "I pertain to this person who created me by keeping such and such a commandment." (Sanhedrin 10)

G-d holds this angel in front of Him and gazes at it in order to do good to a person. (Berachot 9)

9) Just as a person who does not have any good deeds and is punished, conversely one who does his Creator's will has very high status. When the time comes for a righteous person to die, the souls of all his friends and relatives come to greet his soul. He looks at all of them as if they were with him in the world.

10) After he wrote all this, one may wonder, what benefit does the soul have to come into this world? Originally the soul was in Gan Eden and then when it comes to this world it is very close to being destroyed and losing all its reward. It is impossible that the soul not sin and it is in great danger of ending up in Gehinom.

However, one must realize before the soul comes to this owrld enve though it is in Gan Eden it does not have the power to see or to enjoy the radiance of the Divine Presence since the light of the Divine Presence is so great. However, after it come to this world, the good deeds that it does become a garment for it. By means of this garment a person can see the radiance of the Divine.

If a person would gaze at the sun his eyes would become blinded. However, if he places a cloth over his eyes then he could look at the sun. (Zohar, Shelach)

Our Sages called this garment the "Rabbi's shirt" (chaluka derabanan - חֲלוּקָא דְרַבָּנָן). This was the garment that the ages wore so that they could look at the light of the sun. (Ibid.)

Besides the garment that the righteous wear made out of the commandments that they did, G-d also makes them a garment of good deeds. This is true even if they did not keep the good deeds. The righteous wonder and say, "Since we did not keep these commandments, how did we get this garment?"

However, this garment comes from a wicked person who might have done some good deeds in this world. However, he was wicked all his life and did not repent before he died. G-d takes his garment and gibes it to a righteous person who may not have kept this commandment and finds it lacking. it is thus written, "The wicked prepares and the righteous wears it" (Iyov 27:17). This is speaking of the garment that the wicked person prepares thorugh a good deed that he did, but is finally worn by the righteous person. (Shefa Tal, and other Kabbalah texts; Zohar, Shelach; Rabbi Yosef Caro, Maggid Mesharim)

From all this we learn how much good a person brings to his soul when he strives to keep the commandments that G-d gave us.

Me'am Lo'ez, Parashat Devarim

Vows and Oaths

"Do not think that I caution you only against swearing falsely. Not so! Do not take an oath even about what is true. Only then will you be able to swear - if you have the following exalted traits: awe of G-d, serving Him, clinging to Him, and swearing by His Name" (Devarim 10:21)

In order to fulfill the first condition of being in awe of G-d, it is not sufficient to fear G-d at the level of an ordinary person. One must become, in this regard, like one of the three great personalities, Avraham, Iyov, and Yosef, whom the Scripture recognizes as fearing G-d; about Avraham, it says, "Now I know that you fear G-d" (Bereishit 22:12); and about Iyov it says that he was "whole-hearted and upright, and one that feared G-d" (Iyov 1:2); and the Torah records Yosef as saying, "I fear G-d" (Bereishit 42:18).

The second requirement, to serve Him, is fulfilled only if one is occupied exclusively with serving G-d, by directing all his thoughts and actions towards the fulfillment of the mitzvot and good works.

The third prerequisite is that one cling to G-d. Clearly, this cannot be fulfilled literally, since "He is a consuming fire" (Devarim 4:24). It means, however, one should attach himself to Torah scholars. For instance, if one has a daughter, he should marry her to a man who is erudite in the Torah - a Torah Chacham; or if one has merchandise that can yield a profit, he should let a Talmid Chacham make the profit in order to enable him to continue occupying himself with Torah study. In general, one should try to bring pleasure to the Torah scholar whenever an opportunity to do so arises.

A man who has fulfilled all these three conditions, may take an oath to affirm the truth. But if a man has not attained this level, he has no right to pronounce an oath.

If a man makes a vow in order to fortify his resolve and improve his ways, that is commendable. For instance, if he is a man steeped in food and drink, and he makes a vow not to drink so much wine for a period of time, or else not to drink to inebriation, or to separate himself from other unseemly habits - there are vows made for the sake of Heaven and they are to be encouraged. It is then a mitzvah to make such a vow, since he does so in the service of G-d. Were he to remain with his evil habits, he would be brought to commit transgressions.

Our Sages indeed declare, concerning such vows: "Vows are a consraint for abstinence." Yet, even for such purposes, one should avoid making vows habitual; he should try to abstain without first uttering a vow. (Bereishit Rabbah, VaYetze)

The Fifteenth Day of Av

The fifteenth of Av was the day when the dying of the desert generation came to an end and the tribes were permitted to intermarry with one another. For this reason this day became a day of great rejoicing, the Talmud declaring, "no days were more festive for the Benei Yisrael than Yom Kippur and the fifteenth of Av."

In this regard, the Talmud asks, "It is understandable that Yom Kippur should be a day of rejoicing, since our sins are then forgiven; so were the second Tablets given on this day (Parashat Ki Tisa). But why did they rejoice on the fifteenth of Av" And it answers, "because on that day the tribes were permitted to intermarry."

There was another historical reason why this became a day of rejoicing. It was then that the tribe of Binyamin was again welcomed into the congregation of Yisrael. As it is explained at length in Parashat Shoftim, in the aftermath of the episode of the raped mistress (Shoftim 19-21), the Benei Yisrael separated themselves from the tribe of Binyamin by swearing to one another not to permit the men of Binyamin to marry any women from the other tribes. This ban lasted until the Benei Yisrael saw that the Tribe of Binyamin was shrinking and they resolved that "no tribe shall be blotted out from among Yisrael" (Shoftim 21:17). Whereupon they sought to circumvent the oath that they had taken to the effect that "Not one of us will give his daughter to Binyamin a a wife" (21:1). Such a way out was discovered on the fifteenth day of Av, and that day was turned into a festival.

As noted, moreover, that was the day on which the Benei Yisrael in the desert ceased to die. Throughout the forty years that they were in the wilderness, on the eve of the ninth of Av a call would go out for all them to go dig their graves, and every Israelite would do so lest he die without having prepared a grave for himself. That night each man would sleep in his dug-out, and when in the morning another call would go out, "Let the living separate from the dead," all who were still alive would emerge.

In the case of anyone who was going to die, a worm would emerge from his mid-section and enter his mouth, killing him - and he would be buried. The pattern was repeated year after year.

But then, at the end of the fortieth year when the call went out for them to dig graves, and subsequently that the living emerged, they all came out alive. Astonished, they wondered if perhaps they had made a mistake in the day of the month, and that night they again spent in the dug-out, and continued to do so until the fifteenth of Av. When they saw the full moon and that not a single one of them had died, they knew that they had not erred as to the day, and that the decree had been lifted. That generation of Benei Yisrael thereupon fixed the date as a festival. (Taanit, Chapter 4. See Bava Batra, Chapter 8; Eicha Rabbah; Yerushalmi, Taanit, Chapter 4; Rashbam)

The decree had lasted thirty-eight years out of the forty which they spent in the wilderness - from the second year after the Exodus, when the episode of the spies took place, until the thirty-ninth year - and altogether 600,000 died, on the average between 15,000 and 16,000 men died every year. (Ritva, Bava Batra, loc. cit.)

Not only did they cease to die on that day, turning the fifteenth of Av into a festival, but also, a direct divine communication with Moshe was then resumed. For while any of those who were meant to die in the desert were still alive, divine transmission to Moshe was not effected directly, "mouth to mouth" (Bamidbar 12:8) at any time that he disired; but rather, through a vision in the night. Since all those years the Benei Yisrael were in a state of reproach before G-d, and G-d's love for Moshe was derived entirely from the merit of the Benei Yisrael, He did not communicate with him unless it was absolutely necessary.

Therefore the Torah says, "It was at this time that all the men of war among the people ceased dying, G-d then spoke to me, saying" (Devarim 2:16, 17). (Rashi ibid)

- Me'am Lo'ez