The fifth discourse of the author of the Zera Shimshon on Shir HaShirim centers on one short verse in chapter 1, through which one of the most difficult and painful questions of faith opens up: Why are the righteous taken for the iniquity of the generation? Let us follow the author's path, whose approach involves intricate explanations built stage by stage, and it is therefore worthwhile to pay close attention to each step of the resolution.
אֶשְׁכֹּל הַכֹּפֶר דּוֹדִי לִי בְּכַרְמֵי עֵין גֶּדִי׃ (א, יד) - "My beloved is unto me as a cluster of henna in the vineyards of Ein Gedi." (1:14)
The Midrash expounds: When Your children come to transgressions and evil deeds, I look at the greatest among them who can say to the Attribute of Justice "Enough!" and I take him as a pledge on their behalf. That is to say, when there are sins in Israel, the Holy One, Blessed be He, sees the tzaddik who can atone for the community, and then He tells the Attribute of Justice "Enough!" and takes the tzaddik as collateral for them. It is for this reason that he is called kofer - for he atones (mechaper) for the sins of Israel.
And in several Midrashim it is stated that the greatest is seized for the sin of the generation. Likewise, in the ninth chapter of Berachos, on the verse "And He said, It is enough (rav), now stay your hand," Chazal expound: Take the greatest (rav) among them, take the leader among them.
The author asks: All this requires an explanation. Why should the entire congregation sin, yet wrath be directed against the greatest among them, who never tasted the taste of sin? Seemingly, there is no justice here. Everyone commits sins, while the leader is the tzaddik, yet You take specifically the righteous one because of the sins of everyone else. Seemingly, this impairs the Attribute of Justice - justice is not being executed properly here.
There is also a scriptural source for this: "He will judge among the nations, filled with corpses; He crushes the head over a vast land." When Hashem judges the nations - "filled with corpses": a tsunami, three hundred thousand fatalities. But among the Jewish people - "He crushes the head": Hashem takes one righteous leader, and this is "over a vast land," on behalf of a great multitude of people.
The Toras Chaim in tractate Chullin (86a) resolved this by explaining that the Holy One, Blessed be He, created His world with the Attribute of Mercy and the Attribute of Justice together. For had He created it entirely with Justice, if people were to sin, they could not endure even for a single hour - for every minor deed would be punished on the spot, and the world could not exist. And had He created it entirely with the Attribute of Mercy, no person would ever be punished, which is also impossible: chaos would ensue, everyone would do as they pleased, and there would be no accountability whatsoever.
Therefore, He joined them together, so that if the world were to become liable, each attribute would have a share: half the world to the Attribute of Mercy and half to the Attribute of Justice. Hashem shared dominion between both attributes so that both would wield authority, a sort of "unity government" of justice and mercy.
Consequently, when the enemies of Israel (a euphemism for the Jewish people) are liable to destruction, and wrath goes out from before Hashem, Heaven forbid, a share must be granted to both the Attribute of Justice and the Attribute of Mercy, half and half. A punishment is necessary, but justice is not executed to the point of total destruction, nor is it possible to show absolute mercy.
And what does the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He divides Israel into two equal parts: the leading Torah giant of the generation (the gadol hador) is one part, and all of Israel is the second part, for the two weigh equally against each other. Everyone depends upon him, and it turns out that he accounts for everything - "The entire world is sustained on account of Chanina My son." If we were to weigh them on a balance scale, Klal Yisrael would be on one pan and the leader of the generation on the other, and they are completely equal to each other.
By rights, the Attribute of Justice (Middat HaDin) should have claimed all of Israel as its portion to punish them, for they are the ones who sinned, while the Attribute of Mercy (Middat HaRachamim) should have claimed the gadol hador as its portion to have mercy upon him - just as the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moshe: "Release Me, that I may destroy them and make you into a great nation"; you, the righteous one, will remain, and all the rest will perish.
However, at the beginning of Creation, He, blessed be He, gave precedence to the Attribute of Mercy over the Attribute of Justice, as it is written: "On the day of Hashem God making earth and heaven," meaning that the Attribute of Mercy would have greater dominance, as Rashi explains. Therefore, the Attribute of Mercy has the right to choose its portion first, and it takes the finer and larger share - all of Israel - so that the world may endure. And what is left for the Attribute of Justice? The tzaddik on the other side of the scale. Justice is then told: Take the master among them, the greatest among them, as your portion - and through this, atonement is granted to the second share claimed by Mercy, namely the pan holding all of Israel.
It is told of the Baba Sali that shortly before his passing, he was asked: Did the Rav not say that he had been promised from Heaven that he would merit to see the coming of Mashiach? He answered them: That is true, and I also asked about this, and they told me - do you want a third of the world to perish? The Baba Sali said: If so, no; I prefer to depart from this world.
So too with the Chafetz Chaim: in his time, his son-in-law passed away, and this son-in-law was exceptionally righteous and distinguished. His daughter, the son-in-law's wife, asked him: Why? Such a tzaddik, someone so extraordinary - there are plenty of wicked people in the world, why specifically him? The Chafetz Chaim said to her: And what did you want, for Hashem to take half the world? We see here the principle - "He crushed the head over a vast land" (Tehillim 110:6); Hashem takes one person, and through this there is atonement for the entire other side of the scale.
The author of the Zera Shimshon notes: With all due respect to the Torat Chaim, the difficulty still stands. First, how could the Attribute of Justice hold sway over tzaddikim who did not sin? Why should Justice govern them at all? Moreover, Heaven forbid that the righteous should fall into the lot of the Attribute of Justice! For the Sages stated in the third chapter of Moed Katan: Heaven forbid that harsh terms such as a "hook" or a "flame" be applied to the righteous. And it is taught at the end of the first chapter of Sotah: Not only of Moshe was it said that he died with a kiss, but all tzaddikim die with a kiss by the word of Hashem. How can it be said that they fall into the hands of the Attribute of Justice, as though Justice claims them?
The Gemara relates there: Rav Ashi said to Bar Kipok, "On that day, what will you say?" - meaning, what eulogy will you deliver for me when I pass away? He replied: "If a flame has fallen among the cedars, what will the hyssop on the wall do? If the Leviathan was hauled up by a fishhook" - referring to Rav Ashi - "what will the small fish do?" - referring to us. "If a hook has fallen into a rushing stream, what will the stagnant waters do?" - where fish are caught far more easily. Bar Avin said to him: "Heaven forbid that one should speak of a hook and a flame regarding tzaddikim!" Thus, the same difficulty challenges the Torat Chaim: How could the Attribute of Justice strike tzaddikim? How is this possible? On the contrary, the passing of tzaddikim is by a Divine kiss, by the word of Hashem, and they do not belong to the portion of Justice.
The author further points out: This explanation works well if people repent upon the tzaddik's passing. But if they do not repent and instead pile sin upon sin, the Attribute of Justice will surely return to press its claims against the sinners, and there will no longer be a tzaddik to atone and shield them! In practical terms, what has been gained? The tzaddik is gone, and the people have not repented. For we are speaking of the wicked, and do the wicked truly care that Rav Nissim Karelitz passed away, that Rav Ovadia Yosef passed away, or that the Chafetz Chaim passed away? If so, they do not repent, the Attribute of Justice will accuse once more, there is no longer a tzaddik to protect them, and they could face destruction, Heaven forbid.
The author suggests an answer: One could say that this is the reason our Sages taught, "A tzaddik does not depart from the world until a tzaddik like him has been created." The world is never left without a righteous leader; there is always another tzaddik to sustain the world. This is the meaning of "The sun rises and the sun sets" (Kohelet 1:5) - even before the sun of one tzaddik sets, Hashem causes the sun of another tzaddik to rise.
Yet the difficulty remains, the author observes: If they continue in their sins and the Attribute of Justice prosecutes again, this new tzaddik would have to die as well. And if you say that another tzaddik will be born, there would be no end to the matter! Justice would accuse again and take this tzaddik, and accuse again and take the next, and are all the righteous to be wiped out? After all, the people have not repented, and the prosecution is renewed again and again. Furthermore, the very concept that a tzaddik must suffer for the sins of the public is entirely baffling to human intellect and reason.
Furthermore, the author notes, the fundamental premise is challenged: through the sin of Adam HaRishon, the righteous should not have had to die at all! For the righteous are good, fruit-bearing trees, as it says, "The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree," and Scripture states, "You shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them... for you may eat from it, and you shall not cut it down." If the righteous person is in the category of a fruit tree, it makes no sense that the righteous should die while the rest of the people remain alive.
Another difficulty arises: How does the death of the righteous atone for sinners? Granted, if they repented, it is understandable. But if they do not repent, through what are they atoned? And if we say that the atonement is on account of the grief they suffer over losing the tzaddik, then let the Holy One, blessed be He, send them some other grief and let the righteous not die! Instead of the fall of the righteous - a stock market crash, for example, which causes far greater anguish to far more people!
Moreover, the Gemara states in the third chapter of Moed Katan regarding the passing of Rav Assi, that when his soul rested, all the trees were uprooted. What connection does this omen have to the death of the tzaddik? Why specifically were trees uprooted? Other phenomena could have occurred, like a river flooding and the like. Why was the uprooting of trees specifically the expression of grief over the passing of the tzaddik?
In the citations and sources, the Ya'arot Devash is cited regarding the question raised here as to whether the death of the righteous atones even without repentance. In the book Amar Shemuel by Ibn Chaviv, it is cited that the death of the righteous atones only alongside teshuvah - meaning it does not atone on its own, and repentance must accompany it. In She'erit Yisrael and in Moshe Yedaber, it is stated that the death of the righteous suspends judgment and suffering completes it - meaning it provides partial atonement, requiring additional suffering for complete cleansing. And in Nachal Yitzchak, he writes that according to Rebbi, who holds that Yom Kippur atones even without repentance, the death of the righteous also atones without repentance, since the essence of the tzaddik's passing atones just like the essence of the day of Yom Kippur, as the death of the righteous is compared to Yom Kippur. Thus, there are several opinions on this matter.
Let us recall that in Derech Hashem, the Ramchal also addresses the very question raised here by the author of Zera Shimshon: What logic is there in the righteous person paying the penalty on behalf of the entire nation that sinned? He explains that there is no merit greater or more immense for a tzaddik than this: dying to atone for the people, so that everyone lives through his power and merit. Every tzaddik yearns for this - to serve as an atonement for all of Klal Yisrael. The magnitude of his reward is beyond measure. Therefore, do not pity him or think, "Pity the righteous man, he died while they sinned." Rather, know that this is the highest spiritual level to which the tzaddik aspires, and who can recount the vastness of his immense reward? This is how the Ramchal resolves the matter, and we shall continue along the path of the author of Zera Shimshon.
To resolve everything, the author prefaces with what our Sages, of blessed memory, taught: that during the creation of the world, the earth transgressed the command of the Holy One, blessed be He. He commanded it to bring forth "a fruit tree" - that is, a tree whose wood is edible like its fruit - but it deviated and produced "a tree yielding fruit," where only the fruit is edible while the wood is not. Nevertheless, it was not cursed and received no punishment at that time. However, once Adam sinned and ate from the tree, the earth was also held accountable for its iniquity and was cursed, as it is written, "Cursed is the ground because of you."
The commentators offer a compelling explanation: the deviation caused by the earth was the very catalyst that led man to sin. The Keli Yakar addresses this and explains: what caused Adam HaRishon to sin resulted from the earth's sin. Since the earth sinned, it was already flawed, and since man was created from the earth, he was formed from defective material - flawed from the start. From this defect, the sin of the Tree of Knowledge unfolded; therefore, it was the earth that had to pay the penalty.
The author explains the connection in a different way: Adam and Chavah noticed how the Tree of Knowledge differed from all other trees, in that the taste of its wood and its fruit was identical, unlike the rest of the trees. It was precisely because of this that they were enticed by the serpent's words. They knew the earth had been commanded that both the tree itself and the fruit be edible, and they saw that only the Tree of Knowledge met this standard, whereas with all the other trees, only the fruit was edible and not the tree itself. Consequently, they were enticed to believe that they would gain something profound from eating its fruit - becoming knowers of good and evil - since this unique tree was different from all the rest.
As cited in the sources and references from Likutei Torah of the Arizal (by Rav Chaim Vital) and from the sefer Binah Le'itim, this is why they mistakenly thought that the Holy One, blessed be He, forbade only eating the wood of the tree itself. For the Tree of Knowledge had taste in its wood as well, and if He said, "and from the Tree of Knowledge you shall not eat," perhaps His intention was the wood itself. And indeed, this is implied by the wording of the verse: "From every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it" - from the tree, from the wood itself, but the fruit He did not forbid. They therefore ate only of the fruit. And what caused this mistake? They noticed that this tree had a unique quality, that the taste of the fruit and the taste of the wood were identical, which was not the case with the other trees, and from this they deduced that the restriction applied only to the wood.
Had the earth kept the command of the Holy One, blessed be He, and produced all trees according to that same principle, that the taste of the wood is like the taste of the fruit, they would never have arrived at this mistake at all. For how would this tree have differed from all other trees? All of them would have been like that, and there would have been nothing unique about it; when Hashem warns, He warns against the entire tree.
Therefore, before the sin of Adam, the earth did not deserve any punishment. For had he not sinned, he would have rectified everything, and all the trees would have returned to having the taste of their wood match the taste of their fruit. Had Adam Harishon not sinned, he would have brought the entire world to its ultimate rectification, perfecting the world under the sovereignty of the Almighty, and consequently, the defect of the earth would also have been rectified. Thus, the earth's sin had not yet come to fruition. But once it sinned and its actions bore consequence - since on account of its sin, Adam and his wife sinned - and not only that, but the other trees remained without the taste of their wood matching the taste of their fruit, its defect remained uncorrected. Therefore, when Adam was held accountable for his iniquity, the earth too was remembered and cursed. Until then, it had the chance to be rectified through Adam Harishon, but once it caused him to sin, that was the time it was cursed.
We learn from this that the blemish caused by Adam Harishon affected the wood on one hand: he caused the wood of the tree not to have the taste of fruit, but rather for the wood to be separate and the fruit separate. The wood tastes like wood, and the fruit tastes exquisite.
If so, the tzaddik, who is entirely good and whose taste is sweet, is not called a food-bearing tree, but good fruit. For after the sin of Adam Harishon, it is impossible to be both tree and fruit simultaneously with an identical taste. The tzaddik is entirely good and entirely exquisite, which is why we compare him specifically to fruit. The tree, after all, is mere timber, tasteless wood; whereas the tzaddik, being sublime, is certainly not the tree but the fine fruit. What was meant to be both tree and fruit in unison before the sin remains now solely in the category of good fruit.
Furthermore, Adam Harishon caused a flaw in the fruit from another angle: death was decreed upon all who enter the world, who are the fruits of the world, just as he ate the fruit. He ate from the fruit and brought damage upon the fruits, and who are the fruits? The righteous. With this, the earlier question is resolved: if it is said of the tzaddik, "you shall not destroy its trees," why does the tzaddik die? The answer is that the tzaddik is not in the category of a tree, but in the category of fruit, and Adam Harishon ate from the fruit and caused a blemish to the fruits.
One who is not righteous is, Heaven forbid, like fallen, unripe dates (novlot), whose death is not at the hand of the Holy One, blessed be He, but through the Angel of Death, as Chazal taught. But regarding the righteous, it says, "and the glory of Hashem shall gather you in"; and as stated in the first chapter of Sotah, they said not only of Moshe that he died by the Divine kiss, but of all the righteous. It turns out that there is a difference between the death of the wicked and the death of the righteous: the death of the wicked is like cutting down the tree, the tree that has no taste, and it comes through the Attribute of Justice; whereas the death of the tzaddik is the harvesting of the fruit, and it is performed by the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself, death by a kiss.
And logic dictates that it should be so: once the fruits have ripened and are fit to be served at the king's table, it is only fitting that the owner of the orchard should come and harvest them. As the Yerushalmi states in the second chapter of Berachot: The owner of the fig tree knows when the season has come to harvest the fig, and he harvests it; so too, the Holy One, blessed be He, knows when the time has arrived for the righteous to depart from the world, and He takes them.
The owner of the orchard is the one who harvests the fruit. If a tree needs to be cut down, he sends the laborers; but the choice fruits he picks himself. This is the meaning of: "דּוֹדִי יָרַד לְגַנּוֹ לַעֲרֻגוֹת הַבֹּשֶׂם לִרְעוֹת בַּגַּנִּים וְלִלְקֹט שׁוֹשַׁנִּים" - "My Beloved has gone down to His garden, to the beds of spices, to pasture in the gardens and to gather lilies" - He descends to the garden to gather the fruits. The Holy One, blessed be He, takes the tzaddik, and his passing is directly through Hashem; whereas the death of the wicked is through the Angel of Death, through the Attribute of Justice.
"My Beloved is to me a cluster of henna" - when Israel sins, the Holy One, blessed be He, looks to the greatest among them, who has the power to say to the Attribute of Justice, "Enough!" and takes him as collateral on their behalf. The Toras Chaim explained this through the division of jurisdiction between the Attribute of Justice and the Attribute of Mercy: the tzaddik and the collective of Israel balance each other like two pans of a scale, and the Attribute of Mercy, taking precedence, claims the collective, leaving the greatest among them to Justice. The Zera Shimshon raised a difficulty with this: How can the Attribute of Justice hold sway over tzaddikim? And what purpose does it serve if the people have not repented? Furthermore, why should the tzaddik die, when he is like a "tree" that must not be destroyed? His answer is rooted in the sin of the earth, which produced "a tree yielding fruit" instead of a "fruit tree" (whose wood tastes like its fruit). From that deviation Adam and Chavah were enticed, and from that blemish the world remained with a divide between tree and fruit. The tzaddik, who is entirely good and choice, is not in the category of a tree, but rather in the category of good fruit; therefore, death was decreed upon him as well due to the eating of the fruit. Yet his passing is not the chopping down of a tree by the hand of the Attribute of Justice, but the harvesting of ripe fruit by the Master of the orchard Himself: "My Beloved has gone down to His garden... to gather roses."