The opening verses of the chapter deal with a fundamental question: how does a person make his decisions, and how does he know that the path he chose is truly the will of Hashem? The first verse spoke of a situation where there are prophets in Israel:
לְאָדָם מַעַרְכֵי־לֵב וּמֵיְהוָה מַעֲנֵה לָשׁוֹן׃ (א) - To man belong the arrangements of the heart, but from Hashem comes the answer of the tongue. (1)
When there is a prophet, a person arranges his thoughts in his heart, and the answer he receives is from Hashem through the mouth of the prophet: go and inquire of the prophet. But what should a person do when there are no prophets? It is to address this that the following verses speak.
כׇּל־דַּרְכֵי־אִישׁ זַךְ בְּעֵינָיו וְתֹכֵן רוּחוֹת יְהוָה׃ (ב) - All the ways of a man are pure in his eyes, but Hashem weighs the spirits. (2)
A person whose every way is directed for the sake of Heaven has no problem at all. We may have no prophets, but you can rely on your judgment and on the ruach hakodesh within you. "All the ways of a man" - when you walk in the way of Hashem, all your ways are pure and clear in the eyes of Hashem, may He be blessed. Whatever you decide, whatever you do - follow your spirit, and know that this direction is from Him, blessed be He. This is what is meant by "Many thoughts are in a man's heart, but the counsel of Hashem, that shall stand." And what is "the counsel of Hashem"? As we explained, the Name Havayah is the foundation for the four elements - fire, air, water, earth - and all of this serves as a chariot for the Shechinah. For a person whose every element is aligned with the four letters of Havayah, "Hashem weighs the spirits" - his spirit is entirely rectified before Him, may He be blessed.
Yet here the problem arises: who can say of himself that he is on such a level? Man is composed of four elements - fire, air, water, and earth - and who can testify that all of them within him are completely holy of holies, that everything is directed purely for the sake of Hashem, and that consequently his decisions align with His will because of the ruach hakodesh within him? "Who can say, 'I have made my heart pure'?" - who can claim that there is no deceit in his spirit, that his nature does not desire or lean toward anything other than His will, may He be blessed?
גֹּל אֶל־יְהוָה מַעֲשֶׂיךָ וְיִכֹּנוּ מַחְשְׁבֹתֶיךָ׃ (ג) - Commit your deeds to Hashem, and your thoughts will be established. (3)
To this the third verse responds. To reach the level of "Hashem weighs the spirits," where all of one's ways are pure in the eyes of Hashem, may He be blessed, is an exceedingly high level. So what should one do? I have no prophet, and an inner ruach hakodesh is likewise beyond my grasp. Shlomo HaMelech tells you: "Commit your deeds to Hashem." In such a situation, we should not occupy ourselves with things too great or marvelous for us, imagining that we possess a complete spirit; rather, we must simply see to it that our actions are for the sake of Heaven, and endeavor in all our matters to fulfill the will of Hashem. And then - "your thoughts will be established": from the deeds themselves, the Holy One, blessed be He, will establish your thoughts. You may not be on the level where all your deeds are absolute truth for the sake of Havayah, but at least when you desire to do the will of Hashem and roll your deeds over to Him, the Holy One, blessed be He, will establish your thoughts so that you reach the right decision, receiving the proper direction from Him to act and build according to the root of your soul: that which you need to rectify and that which you can accomplish for His Name, may He be blessed.
כֹּל פָּעַל יְהוָה לַמַּעֲנֵהוּ וְגַם־רָשָׁע לְיוֹם רָעָה׃ (ד) - The Lord made everything for His sake, and even the wicked for the day of evil. (4)
This is a direct continuation of the previous verse, as the Malbim explains: We said, "Commit your works to the Lord" - why is this possible, and why do you merit divine guidance as a result? Because the Lord made everything for His sake, and whatever was created was created for His honor. Hashem wants all of man's actions to be directed toward sanctifying His Name in the world. "For His sake" (lema'anehu) - for the sake of the letters Hei and Vav, the Written Torah and the Oral Torah; everything created in the world was created for the fulfillment of positive commandments and refraining from negative ones. And if you conduct yourself this way, Hashem will establish your thoughts to guide you with sound counsel, even though you have no Ruach HaKodesh (divine inspiration) and no prophet.
And if you see an evildoer who desecrates Hashem's honor and acts against His will, yet he prospers and flourishes like grass - do not be demoralized by this and do not harbor doubts. "And even the wicked for the day of evil" - know that this, too, is for Hashem's honor, because he is destined for a day of evil and will receive his punishment. And as we explained, when the wicked receive their punishment, His blessed Name is magnified and sanctified in the world. It turns out, therefore, that through the evildoer and by his downfall, a sanctification of His blessed Name and His world takes place.
תּוֹעֲבַת יְהוָה כׇּל־גְּבַהּ־לֵב יָד לְיָד לֹא יִנָּקֶה׃ (ה) - Every haughty person is an abomination to the Lord; hand to hand, he will not go unpunished. (5)
The plain meaning of the verse: in the eyes of Hashem, a haughty person is an abomination, and "hand to hand, he will not go unpunished" - he will promptly receive his punishment. Rabbeinu Yonah explains that "hand" (yad) means a portion, as in "I have ten parts (yodot) in the king" (II Samuel 19:44). According to this, "hand to hand" means portion for portion, measure for measure, he will not be absolved: when Hashem recompenses people for their deeds and His hand dispenses reward or punishment, the arrogant person will not be cleared of guilt, but will receive his retribution. And this applies even though it was merely a thought - he did not even speak with arrogance, but only contemplated it, "haughty of heart," in his heart and not in action, yet nevertheless he will not go unpunished.
The Vilna Gaon explains similarly: "Every haughty person is an abomination to the Lord" - even someone who harbors haughtiness merely in his heart is abominable and detestable in the eyes of Hashem. Even if in his outward behavior he conducts himself with humility, if in his heart he thinks, "I exist, and there is none beside me," he is already abominable and detestable before Hashem.
And regarding "hand to hand, he will not go unpunished," the Vilna Gaon says: The Holy One, blessed is He, is pious in all His deeds, and does not punish according to the strict line of justice, but rather beyond the letter of the law. If, Heaven forbid, the Holy One, blessed is He, were to judge us according to our deeds - "Woe is me, alas for me, woe to my soul," as we all recite in the Vidui on Yom Kippur. Rather, the Holy One, blessed is He, in His abundant mercy is slow to anger, and in His great compassion acts beyond the letter of the law. But with the haughty of heart, this is not so: "hand to hand" - measure for measure, exact, precisely what he deserves, and nothing is waived. There is neither grace nor leniency beyond the letter of the law.
The Malbim explains: It is true that the Holy One, blessed is He, does not punish for a bad thought. If a person planned to rob a bank and it did not pan out, planned to strike his fellow, planned to desecrate Shabbat and ultimately it did not materialize - the Holy One, blessed is He, does not punish him for it. (Incidentally, Rabbeinu Yonah says that someone who habitually desecrates Shabbat and planned to desecrate it, but it did not work out - he is judged as though he desecrated it. He went to start the car, the battery was dead, no light turned on, nothing happened - yet since he drives every Shabbat, he is judged as though he drove, for Heaven testifies that he certainly would have committed the transgression.) But ordinarily, Hashem does not punish for merely desiring to sin. And even when thoughts bear fruit and the deed is done - the Holy One, blessed is He, does not punish immediately; rather, there is a concealment of the Divine Countenance (hester panim), and the Holy One, blessed is He, leaves him to the occurrences of time. Thus we have two advantages: thoughts are not punished, and even when an act is committed - punishment is not immediate.
The Malbim says: Not so the trait of the haughty of heart. A person whose heart is haughty, who thinks he is on some great spiritual level and who knows what else - he does not accept rebuke and does not accept reproof. Someone speaks to him, and he retorts: Who are you to tell me what to do? After all, we are all wise, we are all understanding, we all know the Torah! This is precisely what Korach said: "For the entire congregation, all of them are holy... why then do you exalt yourselves?" (Numbers 16:3) - we do not need anyone above us. This trait is a root producing gall and wormwood, leading him to rebel against those who reprove him and to refuse correction from anyone who seeks to straighten his path.
And what is the meaning of "hand to hand" according to the Malbim? Not through an intermediary, but directly from His blessed hand to the person's hand. We explained that even when a person commits a bad deed, Hashem does not punish him immediately, but leaves him to the occurrences of time - time will pass, some circumstance will arise, and then the creditor will find an opportunity to collect his debt. Here, however, he is not left to the occurrences of time; rather, by special Divine Providence, an immediate punishment is brought upon him. For natural punishment can be delayed - for example, if it was decreed that his home be destroyed in a storm, the storm might only arrive six months later for what he did today. But for the haughty of heart - "hand to hand," immediately and on the spot.
And why "will not go unpunished" [lo yinaqeh]? Because regarding a person for whom there is a chance of repentance, the Holy One, blessed be He, says: I have no desire to punish him immediately; perhaps he will repent and we will not need to punish him. But the haughty of heart does not listen to rebuke, and there is no one who can say to him, "What are you doing and what are you accomplishing?" With such a person, there is no hope that he will mend his ways. Therefore, there is no reason to clear him of punishment - that is, to delay his punishment in the hope that he might be cleared - he will not be cleared. Therefore, "hand to hand": administer his punishment immediately. This is the retribution of the haughty of heart.
בְּחֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת יְכֻפַּר עָוֺן וּבְיִרְאַת יְהוָה סוּר מֵרָע׃ (ו) - Through lovingkindness and truth iniquity is expiated, and through the fear of Hashem one turns away from evil. (6)
Rabbeinu Yonah teaches: There is no atonement for sin without repentance. This is a foundational principle that he imparts clearly and in detail in his work, Sha'arei Teshuvah. Without repentance, atonement cannot be found, yet for every act of repentance, some forgiveness is attained. Any repentance, even the slightest, brings forgiveness; the only question is how much. This can be compared to a garment: take an utterly filthy garment, dip it into water for a single second, and pull it out - did it come out cleaner? Surely it did, and the proof is to look at the water and see the dirt in it. If you leave it in for an hour, the water will be dirtier and the garment cleaner; if you scrub it, it will be cleaner still; if you add strong detergents, it will be even cleaner. But even the quickest rinse removed something. The same is true of repentance: every bit of repentance accomplishes something.
However, even after one has repented, one must still seek atonement. This is a point about which many are mistaken, erroneously conflating atonement with repentance, when there is no necessary equivalence between the two. Teshuvah comes from the root meaning "to return." After all, the Sages taught: If one says to a woman, "Behold, you are betrothed to me on condition that I am a complete tzaddik," she is considered doubtfully betrothed, even if this man is known to be an utter wicked person. How can this be? An utter rasha says "on condition that I am a complete tzaddik," and isn't the condition inherently void? The answer given is: it is possible that in a single moment he had thoughts of repentance in his heart, and behold, he is considered a complete tzaddik before Hashem. Do you know his track record? Desecrations of Shabbat, sins carrying the penalty of karet, niddah, forbidden relations, every terrible thing - and he is a tzaddik? The answer is: do not confuse the two; they are distinct matters. Rectifying the damage he caused is one dimension, where he still has a great deal of work to do. But "to return" means: I will sin no more, and I regret my evil deeds - and from that moment on, he is a tzaddik. The past indeed still exists and requires rectification, but his status from now on is that of a tzaddik.
And this is what Rabbeinu Yonah explains: Even after turning back from his evil, a person must devise strategies within his soul so that his iniquity may be granted complete atonement. Although any repentance is effective in saving the soul from destruction, your closeness to God is directly proportional to the quality of that repentance. "And You, in Your abundant mercies, favor us and accept us with goodwill" - Rabbeinu Yonah notes that this is the ultimate aspiration of the righteous: to find divine favor and goodwill before Hashem. For at times, the Holy One, blessed be He, may forgive a person for his sin, yet have no special favor toward him. This can be compared to someone who deeply offended you, and afterward came and asked for forgiveness in a very gracious manner. You will forgive him, but lingering resentment remains in your heart, and your friendship will not be what it once was - which means you have no fondness or desire for his closeness. The same applies to repentance: the moment one asks for forgiveness, Hashem says, "I have forgiven" - but does Hashem have favor and goodwill toward him? For that, one must strive and labor more intensely, so that in proportion to the stature of his repentance, Hashem, blessed be He, will be appeased toward him, draw him near, grant his soul a delightful portion in the World to Come, and wipe away his transgressions. In accordance with the level of repentance, past sins will be erased; yet the mere fact that you undertook not to commit the sin and are correcting your deeds for the future is enough for you to be considered a tzaddik.
And one who truly does this and repents properly - observing all the parameters of repentance, cleansing his past sins, and effecting rectification for them - that person will be as clean of sin as if he had never sinned from the day of his birth, and his merits remain intact: the mitzvot you performed remain yours, while the sins you committed have been purified and rectified. But again, this is ongoing work, not a single momentary act of repentance. And there is an even higher level of repentance, says Rabbeinu Yonah, which not only erases the sin but transforms it into reward - this is repentance out of love, which transforms willful sins into merits, whereas repentance out of fear transforms them into unintentional sins.
There is another way to purge a person's sins: afflictions. A person repented and was forgiven, and afflictions cleanse his iniquity and scour him clean of what he did. There are also situations where repentance and afflictions do not yet fully cleanse but merely suspend the verdict, and what cleanses? Yom Kippur. And there are situations where repentance, Yom Kippur, and afflictions merely suspend, and what cleanses? Death, as it says, "Surely this iniquity shall not be expiated for you until you die."
And what else is immensely effective in removing sin? Rabbeinu Yonah states: deeds of lovingkindness. In addition to the principal remaining for him in the World to Come, as it is written, "A gift in secret pacifies anger." And our Sages say regarding the house of Eli: "'If the iniquity of the house of Eli will be expiated with sacrifice and meal-offering' - with sacrifice and meal-offering it is not expiated, but through Torah and good deeds it is expiated." From here you learn that lovingkindness has the special power to atone for sin. That is, not only do afflictions wipe away sin and bring about reconciliation between us and Hashem, but the performance of acts of kindness also wipes away sin and generates reconciliation.
And this is what is written here: "Through lovingkindness and truth iniquity is expiated" - how is iniquity expiated? Perform acts of kindness, and through this the iniquity will be wiped away, for repentance alone is not enough to entirely erase sin. And what is "truth"? The commentators explain that this refers to Torah, for engagement in Torah study "shall be health to your navel, and marrow to your bones"; it provides healing for all one's limbs and a cure for all one's flesh. Torah study serves as a remedy for all the sins in the world.
"And through fear of Hashem one turns away from evil" - what is the foundation of atoning for iniquity, and how can one ensure that the iniquity is completely atoned for? By having the fear of Hashem within oneself, so that if the very same sin presents itself again, one will refrain. And so Chazal teach: "At the same time and with the same woman." What constitutes complete teshuvah? When a person faces the exact same trial again: he had stumbled in forbidden relations, and was once again in the prime of his vigor, with the same woman, at the same season - that is to say, facing the very same level of temptation - and this time he withstands it. This erases and atones for the first sin. Certainly, this does not mean one should seek out such a situation; on the contrary, it is taught that one must be extremely careful not to put oneself into such a position, for someone who stumbled the first time is likely to stumble the second time as well. Rather, the meaning is that if he should happen to find himself in that situation - "and through fear of Hashem," because he has cultivated an abundance of fear of Hashem within himself - "one turns away from evil," this time he turns away from evil, and through this the first iniquity is atoned for.
The Vilna Gaon explains: when a person seeks to return to Hashem, two things are required - repentance for the past, and a resolution for the future never to return to that sin again. For the past, to rectify what occurred, there is nothing greater than Torah and acts of lovingkindness, as the Gemara expounds: "chesed" refers to acts of lovingkindness, "emet" refers to Torah, as it is said, "Buy truth and do not sell it," and through this his iniquity is atoned for. And "through fear of Hashem one turns away from evil" addresses the future: if a person possesses fear of Hashem and reflects to himself, "The Holy One, blessed be He, sees me right now, watches over me right now, and observes my corrupt actions - how can I have the audacity to commit this sin and this iniquity when the eyes of Hashem roam over the entire earth?" This awareness itself will prevent one from stumbling again in the future.
The Malbim notes the precise wording: "iniquity (avon) is atoned for." As is well known, there is a distinction between a cheit and an avon: a cheit is unintentional, without malicious intent; an avon is intentional, stemming specifically from a distortion of the intellect - an avon is accompanied by an ideology, where one rationalizes that this is what ought to be done, and this is termed avon. The Malbim explains: even one who acted perversely with willful intent can attain atonement by holding fast to lovingkindness and truth. "Chesed" refers to true lovingkindness (chesed shel emet), performed with no expectation of reward or personal benefit, such as escorting the deceased. And "truth" means adhering to the attribute of truth, as explained by the Gemara: engaging in in-depth Torah study, toiling in Torah, analyzing it deeply, and arriving at true conclusions. Through this, iniquity is atoned for, as we learned regarding the house of Eli, whose sin could not be atoned for through sacrifices and meal-offerings, but could be atoned for through Torah and acts of lovingkindness.
However, the second half of the verse, "and through fear of Hashem one turns away from evil," comes to teach: know that it would have been far better had you never entered into this whole predicament from the outset. It would have been better had you possessed fear of Hashem and turned away from evil on its account, without ever needing to come and ask how to cleanse past iniquities. The ideal path is "through fear of Hashem one turns away from evil," for then one requires no atonement at all, as it is written: "Praiseworthy is he whose transgression is forgiven," "Praiseworthy is the person to whom Hashem does not reckon iniquity" - praiseworthy is the person who never had iniquity to begin with.
And if a person asks: has it not been said that in the place where penitents (ba'alei teshuvah) stand, even completely righteous people cannot stand, indicating that the ba'al teshuvah possesses a greater stature than someone who has never sinned? His special virtue lies in his continual overcoming of temptation. To give an analogy: consider a person who smoked and then quit. Some people resume smoking even after thirty years - showing that this urge never entirely leaves a person, and he must continually overcome it and exert effort at all times. While it is much easier than in the first months, still, if he sees someone smoking a cigarette, he may recall those days with longing, and it is very possible he might relapse. In contrast, one who has never put a cigarette in his mouth has no interest in it whatsoever; on the contrary, it repulses him, and there is no chance he will pick it up. The reference here is to an adult, not a child trying to make an impression. One rarely sees a person at age forty take up smoking for the first time - it is exceedingly rare; if someone does, it is almost always someone returning to a former habit. But one who has never smoked and suddenly decides at age forty to buy cigarettes and start smoking - the urge simply has no appeal to him.
According to this, in a certain sense the tzaddik struggles less against his evil inclination, because sinful matters hold no attraction for him. But one who was once caught up in that world and managed to break free from it - memories and impulses constantly flash back to him, and nevertheless he overcomes them. For this ongoing battle, he truly possesses a great virtue. But again, this does not place him overall above the tzaddik.
The chapter teaches us a complete framework for divine service. In the absence of a prophet and in the absence of Ruach HaKodesh, we must not seek things beyond our reach, but rather "Commit your deeds to Hashem" - directing our actions for the sake of Heaven - and then "your thoughts will be established," and Hashem will guide us with sound counsel; for "Hashem made everything for His sake," and even the wicked person's success ultimately brings about the sanctification of His Name. On the other hand, pride is the gravest abomination - even as a fleeting thought in the heart - and its punishment is delivered swiftly, without absolution, because the haughty of heart refuses rebuke and holds no prospect of reform. And for one who has already stumbled: there is no atonement without teshuvah, and all teshuvah is efficacious, yet following teshuvah the work of atonement is required - through Torah and acts of lovingkindness, and at times through suffering, Yom Kippur, and death - and the ultimate safeguard is "and through fear of Hashem one turns away from evil": increasing one's fear of Heaven so as never to stumble again. And best of all is never to fall into iniquity in the first place.