Tomer Dvorah ~ ethics and re-creation of one's Self ~ Second class

(18) Who is a Power like You,

Bearing iniquity

And remitting transgression;

Against the remnant of His people;

Who has not maintained His wrath forever Because He loves graciousness!

(19) He will take us back in love;

He will cover up our iniquities,

You will hurl all our sins Into the depths of the sea.

(20) You give truth to Jacob,

Lovingkindness to Abraham,

As You promised on oath to our fathers

In days gone by.

The second: "Bearing iniquity" - and behold, this is greater than the previous. As behold, a person does not do a transgression without creating a destructive spirit (mashchit); as it is learned (Avot 4:11), "One who does a transgression acquires/makes a prosecutor." And behold, this prosecutor stands in front of the Holy One of Blessing and says, "X made me."

And no creature exists in the world except from the flow of the Holy One, blessed be He - and behold, this destructive spirit that stands in front of the Holy One of Blessing from what does he exist? It would be logical that the Holy One of Blessing would say, "I do not nourish destructive spirits - it should go to the one that made it and be sustained from [the life-force] of that person." And the destructive spirit would go down immediately and take the person's soul, excise that person or have the person punished - until the destructive spirit is nullified. But the Holy One of Blessing does not do this; but God rather bears and tolerates the iniquity - and [just] as God nourishes and sustains the whole world, [so too] does God nourish and sustain this destructive spirit until there be one of three things: Either the sinner repents and finishes it off, nullifying it with self-denials; or that the righteous Judge nullifies it through [sending] afflictions and death [to the sinner]; or [the sinner] goes to Geihinom and pays the debt there.

And that is [the meaning of] that which Kain said (Genesis 4:13), "Is my iniquity too great to bear?" And the Sages, may their memory be blessed, explained it (Midrash Tanchuma, Bereshit 9), "You tolerate the whole world" - meaning nourish and sustain - "and is my iniquity is [so] heavy that you cannot tolerate it?" - meaning [please,] sustain it until I repent and repair [it]. If so, behold this is a great trait of tolerance - that God nourishes and sustains an evil creature, that the sinner created, until the sinner repents. A person [should] learn [from this] how much one needs to be tolerant, to carry the yoke of one's fellow and the evil that the fellow did to the person; to such a measure that even if that evil is still in existence - and the person tolerates [it] until the fellow repairs [it], or that it is nullified by itself, and so on.

The third: "And passes over transgression" - this is a great trait. As behold, the pardon is not through an emissary but rather actually through the Holy One of Blessing - as it is written (Psalm 130:4), "For with You is forgiveness, etc." And what is that forgiveness? That God washes away the transgression, as it is written (Isaiah 4:4), "When the Lord will have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, etc." And so [too,] is it written (Ezekiel 36:25), "I will sprinkle upon you pure waters, etc." And this is [the meaning of] "and passes over transgression" - God sends forth waters of washing, and God passes over and washes [away] the transgression. And behold, just like this likeness must a person be - one should not say, "And shall I fix what X sinned or destroyed?" A person should not say this; for behold, a person sins and the Holy One of Blessing - Godself, not through an emissary - 'fixes the twisted,' and washes away the filth of the person's transgression. And from here, the person will be ashamed to sin again; for behold, the King Godself washes the dirt of the person's clothes.

The third [activity]: That there not be any hardness in one's forehead at all... Even if one finds people angering [him/her], one [should] appease them and quiet them with one's good will. As so is the will of the Forehead - always willing, appeasing the severities (gevurot) and refining them. So [too, should] he appease the powerful [internal] forces that intensify their anger; and one [should] lead those forces with good will and engulf [them] with great wisdom to quiet the anger - so that it not pass the limit and be destructive, God forbid.

...

And one [should] draw [on Wisdom] to always be agreeable towards the creatures; as if one's traits are hard towards people from a [particular] angle, they will not be appeased. And this is the explanation of the mishnah (Avot 3:10), "Anyone from whom the spirit of people find pleasure, the spirit of the Omnipresent finds pleasure from that person as well."

The fourth: That one's ears are always inclined to hear the good. Indeed, a useless or disgraceful report [should] not enter them at all. In the way that no yelling of judgement nor defect of evil speech enters the Highest Listening, so [should] one should only listen to goodnesses and beneficial things. And he [should] not listen to the other things that intensify anger at all. ... And that is [the meaning of, "You shall not raise a false report" (Exodus 23:1) - all the more so, [should] the other disgraceful things not enter one's ear at all. And it [should] only listen to good things.

The fifth: One's eyes [should] not gaze at any disgraceful thing at all. Indeed, they [should] always be open to survey and have mercy upon all the despondent, according to one's ability. And when one sees the distress of a poor person, one [should] not shut one's eyes at all. Rather, one [should] contemplate in one's mind - according to one's ability - and arouse mercy upon that poor person in front of the Heavens and in front of other humans. And one [should] distance oneself from all observation of evil, in the way that the Highest Eye is open and gazes immediately at the good.