Jesus Found in an Orthodox Jewish Prayer!

Dr. Yehuda Liebes, Professor of Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, published an article in Hebrew titled The Angels of the Shofar Blast and Yeshua Sar HaPanim (Jesus, Prince of the Presence), Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought (JSJT) 6, 1987, pp. 171–195.

In it he shows that there is an Orthodox Jewish prayer, which is prayed on day of Rosh Hashanah, that actually mentions Jesus Christ by name. Liebes writes:

It has surely not escaped the notice of those who pray on Rosh Hashanah that, within the orders of the shofar blasts, the traditional prayer books print prayers concerning various and sundry angels, who are asked to assist in raising up the sounds of the shofar of their various kinds, or to weave them into the curtain (yeri'ah) — that is, the veil (pargod) before the Holy One, blessed be He. Among these is also found the following prayer, which is generally printed after the tashrat blasts:

May it be Your will that the tashrat blast which we blow shall be woven into the curtain by the appointed one (Tartiel), just as You received [it] through Elijah of blessed memory and Yeshua Sar HaPanim and the prince Metatron, and may You be filled with mercy upon us. Blessed are You, Master of Mercy.

These prayers arouse great wonder in the heart of the one who prays — both because of their corrupted language and incomprehensible content and the strange names of many of the angels, and because of the source of the prayers: who are the mystics who introduced them into the prayer, and how and when did they succeed in doing so? It is clear that their character is entirely different from the passages of Kabbalah that were likewise incorporated into the prayer books. The name Yeshua Sar HaPanim stands out especially to the eye: who has heard of an angel by this name? And is it possible that this is none other than Jesus the Christian (Yeshu ha-Notzri)? (Ibid., p. 171)

Messianic rabbi Itzhak Shapira provides his own translation of the prayer:

“… in the order of the tekiot (sounding of the shofar) from the siddur we see the prayer to the various angels who are called to lift up the voice of the shofar to the heavens…May it be your will that at the sounding of the Shofar that we blow today, we will be as a sewed fabric that is filled with fear of the one in charge, Tartiel. As you accepted Elijah, blessed be his name, and Yeshua the ‘prince of the face’ (Sar Hapanim) who is the Prince Metatron, may you fill us with mercy.” (Return of the Kosher Pig: The Divine Messiah in Jewish Thought [Messianic Jewish Publishers, 2013], p. 227)

In one of his streams, Shapira renders the prayer differently:

"... sound be embroidered into the [heavenly] curtain by the appointed angel, Tartiel just as You accepted prayers through Elijah, who is remembered for good; Yeshua, minister of the Inner Chamber; and the ministering angel Metatron and may You be filled with mercy upon us. Blessed are You, Master of mercies."

The following Messianic website also provide slightly different translations:

“May it be Your will that the sounding of the shofar, which we have done, will be embroidered in the veil by the appointed angel, as You accepted it by Elijah, of blessed memory and by Yeshua, the Prince of the Face (Face of Hashem) (Prince of God’s Presence) and the one who sits on God’s throne. May You be filled with compassion toward us. Deserving of praise are You, LORD of compassion.”

–  S. Birnbaum, Behind The Curtain, Siddur HaShalem, part 2, p. 282.

Another translation read as follows:

"May it be your will (before you) that the sounding of the TASRHAT that we blow be woven into the curtain by the hand of the minister, Tartiel, like the name that was received by the hand of Eliyahu (his memory be for a blessing), and Yeshua the Prince of the Face, and the Prince Metatron. And may you be filled with mercy for us. Blessed are you, Master of mercies." ...

Go to a Jewish bookstore today and look in contemporary Rosh HaShanah machzor and you'll very likely see that the name Yeshua is gone from the prayer.

Apparently it has been deleted from a traditional Jewish siddur after having been included for many centuries without anyone having a problem with it. (Yeshua Revealed in Orthodox Jewish Prayer Book for Rosh Hashanah; emphasis mine)

The article goes on to mention a rabbi who came to saving faith in Jesus because of this prayer:

From an interview with Rabbi Simcha Perlmutter:

"So the last prayer says that we call upon the name of Yeshua that it may atone for all our sins.  Now I want you to understand very clearly that I did not write this prayer, and I did not publish this book, and I did not write this book. This book was written by Rabbis long ago, and this prayer cannot be taken out of this prayer book, not by me, and not by any other Rabbi. Even if a Rabbi desired to extract it, he could not—not if he is an orthodox and observant Rabbi who goes by rabbinical halachah, because he is bound by what we call the word and the prayers of Chazal. “Chazal” means, Chachameinu zichronam livracha, “Our wise men of blessed memory.” And what Chazal has put in, we are of insufficient authority to remove."

Here's where it gets even more amazing!

Yeshua Sar HaPanim literally means “Jesus the Prince/Ruler of the Face.” This serves to identify Jesus with the divine Angel mentioned by the prophet Isaiah:

 “In all their distress He was distressed, And the angel of His presence (umalach panaw) saved them; In His love and in His mercy He redeemed them, And He lifted them and carried them all the ancient days.” Isaiah 63:9

What this prayer shows is that, from at least the first or second century AD, Jews started praying to Jesus as a divine Angel who saves and intercedes for them!

In his article, Yehuda Liebes goes on to answer his own question and eaves no doubt that the Yeshua mentioned in this Jewish prayer is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ:

Is the Yeshua mentioned here indeed the Christian? It is very difficult to argue otherwise. First, where is there another? And second, there is none more fitting to be a third to Elijah and Enoch (who is Metatron), who too like them is a known figure of flesh and blood, who was elevated after his death to the rank of an angel, and the ancient Judeo-Christian tradition even tied further bonds between his figure and the figures of Elijah and Enoch; but we shall discuss this further on, when we deal with the ways by which the name of Yeshua rolled into the writings of the Hasidei Ashkenaz. (P. 176)

Of necessity, Jesus the Christian, by the name “Yeshu Sar HaPanim,” did not enter the Jewish esoteric literature from outside and in the Middle Ages. He remained there from ancient times, the days of the beginning of Christianity before it had separated entirely from its Jewish mother-nation. In those days not all the Jews yet denied every virtue from the people of Jesus the Christian, and many believed in him, in one faith or another. These Judeo-Christians used, of course, the Hebrew name of Jesus — “Yeshua” — and the attribution of an angelic rank to the son of Mary suits them remarkably well. And indeed we find that many of the Church Fathers reprove the Judeo-Christians severely for this “heresy” — the conception of Jesus as an angel⁸⁰.

As in the prayer under discussion, the Judeo-Christians too connected Jesus the angel with Metatron Sar HaPanim. Scholars have already noted this, that the description of Metatron was transferred in its entirety and attributed to Jesus by the Judeo-Christians⁸¹. And now that we have learned from Moshe Idel, in his lecture at the present conference, that Enoch-Metatron is the one who repairs the sin of Adam in early Jewish mysticism, a new point has been added to the comparison, for in Christianity, as is known, this is the role of Jesus.

And moreover. The trinity Jesus = Enoch (who is Metatron) = Elijah is also found in the literature of the Judeo-Christians. The two “witnesses” of Jesus, mentioned in the New Testament (Revelation 11:3), were interpreted by them as Enoch and Elijah. Such an interpretation is first found in the apocryphal book the Apocalypse of Peter, which was apparently written by a Judeo-Christian at the beginning of the second century in response to the Bar Kokhba revolt⁸²; and it is very widespread in the various versions of the Antichrist story⁸³. And I think I have found the echo of it also among the Kabbalists of the Middle Ages, who interpreted concerning them the verse “Behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who vouches for me (sahadi) is on high,” for “edi” (my witness) equals in gematria “Chanokh” (Enoch) and “ve-sahadi” equals in gematria “Metatron”⁸⁴. These two also appear in the aforementioned book “Megalleh Amukot,” which contains, as recalled, many traditions from the “Sefer ha-Cheshek circle,” which speaks of “two witnesses who are Enoch and Elijah”⁸⁶. And the trinity Jesus = Elijah = Moses we also find at the beginning of Christianity (in the story of the Transfiguration in the New Testament⁸⁷); and such a version could have rolled and received the form in the prayer, for the name ‘Moshe’ can easily be interpreted as the common acronym of “Metatron Sar HaPanim.” These precise parallels greatly strengthen the path we have taken in interpreting the opening of “Sefer ha-Cheshek” and the prayer under discussion. (P. 178)

Under the influence of the Judeo-Christians, then, some of the sages of Heikhalot literature too accepted Yeshua as an angel connected to Metatron and to Elijah, and at times perhaps as one of the chief names of the angel Metatron (in distinctly Judeo-Christian circles they certainly saw in the name “Yeshua” the essence, whereas in Heikhalot literature the principal name was “Metatron”). And if the literary testimonies to this are few and indirect and hidden, this should be attributed to the operation of internal censorship in a later period.

In these last words will also be found the direction for the solution of the weighty question: how did the Judeo-Christian idea from the first centuries CE reach the writings of the Hasidei Ashkenaz in the Middle Ages? For this purpose let us recall the character of the esoteric doctrine of the Hasidei Ashkenaz in general and of the “Sefer ha-Cheshek circle” in particular. This doctrine is nothing but an elaboration and interpretation and development of the ancient mysticism, the Merkavah and Heikhalot literature, which has reached us almost only through the copies of the Hasidei Ashkenaz. “Sefer ha-Cheshek” itself is entirely an interpretation and development of the ancient tradition concerning the seventy names of Metatron⁹⁴, which was widespread in Heikhalot literature alongside the traditions concerning the names of the Holy One, blessed be He⁹⁵. Say, then, from now on: “Yeshua Sar HaPanim” is a Judeo-Christian concept, which found its place in the mystical literature of the Tannaitic period, and from there rolled and reached the literature of the “Sefer ha-Cheshek circle,” and from there to the orders of the blasts in the Rosh Hashanah mahzorim. (P. 179)

Gershom Scholem held that the fusion between Metatron and Jesus (combined with other motifs) took place in the mind of the author of the Zohar. But now, in light of the parallels from the literature of the Hasidei Ashkenaz of the Middle Ages and from the seventeenth century, and in light of the testimony of the Church Fathers concerning the beliefs of the Judeo-Christians, we can take a further step and argue that this figure and this fusion between Jesus and Metatron came to the author of the Zohar, as to others, from an ancient Jewish tradition whose roots are in the first centuries CE, which turned Jesus into an angel, and brought him very close to the figure of Metatron. How great is the irony in that this tradition gave Jesus also the role of avenger upon the nations of the world! In this too he resembles Metatron, for whom such vengeance is among the most important of his roles¹⁰⁶. And so too Elijah, whom Rabbi Nathan hinted at above not only in the word “racham” but also in the inversion of its letters to “romach” (lance)¹⁰⁷.

This role of Jesus was preserved in Judaism also without connection to matters of Metatron. I refer to the motif of the Messiah son of Joseph, who is killed in his war against the enemies, and which many scholars have connected to the figure of Jesus. And even in the Middle Ages the memory of this identification was preserved, at a time when the Gentiles whom the Messiah fights are the Christian nations. And my friend Professor Moshe Idel told me that such an identification is found in “Sefer ha-Meshiv,” and in the writings of Solomon Molcho who saw himself as Jesus and as the Messiah son of Joseph, and in the writings of Rabbi Abraham Abulafia (though in the latter the matter of the Messiah son of Joseph was interpreted allegorically).

Most certainly this is the role of Jesus in the circle of Rabbi Nathan and Rabbi Samson, who were never in Israel more extreme fighters than they against Christianity, yet their writings are full of Christian motifs for use in their war, as I have shown in my aforementioned article on Jonah son of Amittai. With this the Christian motifs in these writings, and the attitude of their authors to Christianity, have not yet been exhausted. But here I shall only mention as a curiosity, that the members of a Jewish-Christian secret sect that was widespread among the communities of Israel in Europe at the end of the eighteenth century attributed to Rabbi Nathan Shapira the founding of their sect!¹⁰⁸

And in conclusion I shall note a Sabbatian Jewish Kabbalist, who converted to Christianity, and in his Christianity wrote many books in which he strives to prove that the words of the Jews concerning Metatron are in fact directed to Jesus the Christian! In these words of his he makes much use of the materials we have brought in this article¹⁰⁹. The dialectical character of the subject permits even such a distortion of those same materials that descended from the Judeo-Christians, and served in classical Judaism specifically as an anti-Christian weapon. (P. 182)

Remarkably, Liebes mentions a Jewish tradition where Jesus is depicted as a divine Angel who saves people from hell and atones for their sins!

And perhaps we can bring as testimony also the companion of Rabbi Nathan Shapira, Rabbi Samson of Ostropol⁷². In one place in his writings⁷³ he mentions one angel whose name is Yehoshua. The role of this angel is to protect the righteous, who descend to Gehenna to repair and to raise up there the souls of the wicked. And behold, the role of descending to Sheol to save the wicked was assigned there by the Christians to Jesus, and it is easy to surmise that it is he who rolled hither too, and is called by his name — Yehoshua. This role of Jesus was famous among the Jews and served as one of the regular subjects in Jewish polemical literature (mainly Ashkenazi) against the Christians⁷⁴. And perhaps Rabbi Samson too sensed this identity, and therefore sealed his words with the language: “And may God atone for me”⁷⁵. (P. 176)

... Elijah and Enoch stand in the way of the souls that ascend directly to the Garden of Eden, and Korah descended to Sheol to testify about the souls whose way to the Garden of Eden passes through Gehenna. Nowhere have I found such a mythic development of the descent of Korah, and the rank of the testifying angel that is granted to him. It seems to me that this Korah symbolizes Jesus, and he is the source of the myth. And if so, here he is found also as a third prince of the presence to Elijah and Metatron.

This identification is acceptable even without the proofs that follow, since Jesus was a man “from this world” who, according to the opinion of the Judeo-Christians brought above, truly ascended to the rank of an angel like Enoch and Elijah, and even has dealings in Gehenna — the raising up of the souls of the wicked, and his rebellious figure suits that of Korah. But it is also possible to prove this. For this purpose we shall make use of the writings of Rabbi Samson of Ostropol, the friend of Rabbi Nathan Shapira, for in many cases the writings of the two illuminate one another. First, the role that is here assigned to Korah — the role of the angel who meets the souls passing through Gehenna to raise up there the souls of the wicked — Rabbi Samson assigns to an angel whose name is “Yehoshua.” This we have already seen above, and we have already surmised that the intention is to Jesus, for such a role was designated for him also according to the Christians, and our words here will add to and substantiate this. The identity of Yehoshua in Rabbi Samson’s writings and Korah in Rabbi Nathan’s can be proven with certainty. In the description of the way of the souls passing through Sheol they rely on the same verses and statements of the Sages, and it can be proven that they elaborate a common source, which appears in the book Shelah of Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz⁹⁸.

Second, Rabbi Samson explicitly identifies Korah with Jesus, in his commentary on the words of Rabbi Menachem Tziyoni at the beginning of his commentary on the portion of Korah, who connects the matter of Korah with “shti va-erev” (warp and woof — i.e., the cross) ⁹⁹. Among other things Rabbi Samson notes that the word “ha-ish” (the man) which Moses said of Korah, in Numbers 16:20, equals in gematria “Yeshu.” It seems to me that Rabbi Menachem could not have invented this matter, and he continues an ancient tradition. And perhaps hints of it can be found also in ancient literature. Korah and Jesus are connected there, in the words of the Tziyoni and in the commentary of Rabbi Samson, also with the figure of Cain, and this matter is further developed in the book Emek ha-Melekh¹⁰⁰. And the matter recalls the doctrines of the sect of the Cain-worshipping Gnostics at the beginning of Christianity, who traced themselves to a lineage of Cain — Korah — Jesus, or his opponent Judas Iscariot, as Irenaeus tells of them¹⁰¹. (Pp. 180-181)

Seeing that Leibes made reference to another Jewish scholar Moseh Idel, I quote what he had to say about Metatron and Yeshua Sar Ha-Panim:

Metatron: Yaho'el, hu' ha-Go'el, Ben, Enoch

According to some scholars, already in pre-Christian forms of Judaism it is possible to detect a hypostatic angelic power which was granted the name of God and sometimes plays an eschatological role. This is true insofar as the Son of Man in some of the early angelic conceptions of Jesus are concerned. In earlier Jewish texts the angel Metatron was conceived of as having a redeeming function. Some of these views are related to the redemptive role of God s leading angel, who possessed the divine name, in Exodus 23:20-21, or the expression "the redemptive angel," ha-mal'akh ha-goel, in Genesis 48:16 or Isaiah 63:9. It stands to reason that these powers are nothing but angelophanies that represent the divine intervention in history. It is the divine name that is sometimes described as present within these angelic manifestations, which are devoid of proper names. The later Jewish eschatologies resorted to the redemptive role of these angelic powers in order to build up their own vision of the end. From this point of view, an important aspect of medieval eschatology—Kabbalistic, philosophical, and that of Hasidei Ashkenaz—should be better understood as different interpretations of ancient mythologoumena.

In my opinion, Abulafia must have been acquainted with some of the literary formulations of this development. He not only quoted some of the extant texts related to it but also claimed to have encountered some of those angelic powers as part of his own mystical experiences. In his greatest commentary on the Guide of the Perplexed, Sitrei Torah, we read:⁷¹

The thing that is actualizing our intellect from its potentiality is an intellect which is called in our language by many names, and it is the prince of the world, and Metatron, the angel of the [divine] Face... and its name is Shadday, like the name of its master, and its cognomen is Metatron . . . and it is wise, [and] speaking,⁷² the universal spirit, which has been called by the philosophers the Agent Intellect. . . and the divine Spirit, and Shekhinah, and the faithful Spirit, and the kingdom of Heaven⁷³ . . . and in our language the intellect has been designated by the [terms] mal'akh and keruv, and in some places it will be called 'Elohim, as we have said concerning the fact that its name is like that of its master, and behold the sages have called it Enoch and said that "Enoch Is Metatron" ... and the first name out of the seventy names of Metatron is Yaho'el whose secret is Ben . . . and its name is 'Eliyahu⁷⁴ and it is also the explicit name Yod Yod Vav,⁷⁵ which is the double name... and behold, it also "is the Redeemer" (hu ha-goel) and it is "in the whole" (ba-kol) of "your heart," (libbekha) and it is the ruler of the world.⁷⁶

In this passage Abulafia draws upon a still unparalleled version of a Commentary on the Seventy Names of Metatron, which he attributes here to R. Eleazar of Worms. The correctness of this attribution has been questioned,⁷⁷ but certainly the text was written by an Ashkenazi figure who preceded Abulafia by at least decades. There are several differences between the manuscripts that preserved this early thirteenth-century text and its quotation by Abulafia, but I shall analyze the version found in Sefer Sitrei Torah, where the explicit claim of the author is that he adduces a verbatim quotation, not a paraphrase.

Abulafias version of the Ashkenazi text links by gematria several concepts Ben = 'Eliyahu = Yaho'el = hu' ha-Go'el = ba-kol = libbekha = Yod Yod Vav = YHWH + YHWH = 52. There can be no doubt that gematria was as essential for creating this equation as the eventual conceptual relations between its members. What is conspicuously absent in the Ashkenazi discussion is any intellectual hypostatic status of Metatron, characteristic of Abulafias writings. The archangel is described in stock traditional and mythical forms of late ancient and early medieval Judaism. The name Yaho'el is known from the ancient Jewish apocryphal literature, the Apocalypse of Abraham.⁷⁸ This angel was superseded by Metatron, and some of the former's attributes have been transferred to the latter.⁷⁹ Moreover, very ancient material related to Yaho'el survived for more than a millennium and surfaced in Ashkenazi literature.⁸⁰ Is this also the case for the relation between Yaho'el and the concept of redeemer? Only a tentative answer can be offered. It is not certain how relevant Abulafias version is. Moreover, it might be claimed that relations between the disparate elements put together by the Ashkenazi author by the artificial means of gematria may not reflect any earlier correlation. Nevertheless, the linkage between the terms should be addressed as Abulafia has formulated it.⁸¹

Though the phrase hu' ha-goel is not found in the Ashkenazi manuscripts of Sefer ha-Hesheq, the whole context of the sentence adduced by Abulafia describes Yaho'el as present in some critical moments in the history of the Jews, such as the Exodus: he was the messenger that saved the Jews at the Red Sea.⁸² Thus, Yaho'el is identified with the anonymous angel that led the people of Israel into the desert, as the nexus between its theophoric name and the biblical view of the presence of the name of God within that angel demonstrates.⁸³ The assumption that Metatron s name is like that of his master reflects in fact a similar statement related to Yaho'el.⁸⁴ The angel of the divine presence, by dint of the dwelling of the divine name in it, is a redemptive entity by definition, and I see the occurrence of the gematria more as a technical issue which reflects a logic of the role attributed to Yaho'el. The Ashkenazi text assumes that Metatron, via Yaho'el, is related to the idea of sonship, ben; it is strongly connected to the divine name, either in the theophoric name of the angel Yaho'el or because of the significance of the much less clear formula yod yod vav, or because fifty-two is twice the numerical value of the Tetragrammaton. Several scholars have drawn attention to the affinities between certain ancient views regarding Jesus and Yaho'el.⁸⁵ The eschatological aspect of this constellation of hints, however, is crucial for our discussion here. Metatron is portrayed, according to Abulafias quotation, which I accept as reliably preserving an earlier tradition, as the Redeemer.

The occurrence of the Redeemer in Abulafias quotation is, I believe, part of the original vision of the Ashkenazi text and its source. This conclusion is corroborated by the eschatological implication of the figure of Elijah, as well as by the possibility of the occurrence of the phrase yeshua sar ha-panim, "Yeshua, Prince of the Face," which has been identified by Yehuda Liebes as a reference to Jesus Christ.⁸⁶ Liebess proposal, originally based on the Ashkenazi text which does not contain the phrase hu ha-goel, is therefore corroborated by Abulafias version. In my opinion, both Abulafias passage and the Ashkenazi one reflect a more complete version, which combined the two phrases. If this conjecture is correct, than an early text treating Metatron as identical to Yaho'el, Yeshu'a Sar ha-Panim, Ben, Go'el, and the high priest was in existence before the extant versions but underwent at least two forms of censorship, which produced the two versions. How early such a text was is difficult to calculate. Whether this text reflects a pre-Christian Jewish concept of the angelic son who 'possesses or constitutes the divine name is also hard to ascertain. If late, the Christian, or Jewish-Christian, nature of such a Hebrew text cannot be doubted. (Idel, Messianic Mystics [Yale University Press, 2000] pp. 85-87; emphasis mine)

Interestingly, the late Rebbe, i.e., Menachem Mendal Schneerson, acknowledges the authenticity of the words mentioning Jesus since he was asked to address whether they do refer to him or to someone else:

This letter was sent to Mr. Baruch Litvin.

B”H, 26 Tishrei, 5710

Greetings and blessings,

In response to your letter and questions:

Question 1: In a supplication that is recited between the different sets of shofar blasts according to certain versions [of the Machzor], mention is made of “Yeshua, the sublime minister of the interior.” You were told that the reference is to “that man.”¹

Answer: Many [explanations of the above] have been written. ([See] Minchas Elazar {Munkatch, 5662}, Vol. I, sec. 75, and Vol. II, towards its conclusion; Ketzei HaMatah {Kleinwarden, 5683}; Elbono Shel Torah {Berlin, 5689}, and the Neiros Shabbos Journal {Jerusalem, Erev Rosh HaShanah, 5706}.)

[In these sources,] the conclusion is that the passage should state “Yeshaya...” or “Yeshayahu, the sublime minister of the interior,” which is one of the names of the angel Metatron. This name was chosen because it is numerically equivalent to 400.² That in turn is the numerical equivalent of the phrase אליהו הנביא זכור לטוב (Eliyahu, the prophet, of blessed memory) and the acronym קר"ק (which refers to the series of shofar blasts: tekiah, teruah, tekiah). Indeed, this is the version that was found printed in ancient Machzorim and texts. It is probable that missionaries stealthfully changed that name to Yeshua. It is noteworthy that the Alter Rebbe, the Vilna Gaon, and other Jewish sages have ruled that this passage should not be recited at all. This is our custom.

Question 2: Sefer HaMaamarim [Yiddish], p. 216, states: With regard to his emotional qualities, Rav Nosson conducted himself “according to the [letter of] Torah law, not making any concessions [as would have been dictated by] the attribute of piety.”³ It also says that “he was not so involved with [the refinement of] his emotional qualities.” How is it possible for the two statements to be reconciled?⁴

Answer: Being involved with [the refinement of] one’s emotional qualities — love, hate, fear, licentiousness, mercy, cruelty, and the like involves two dimensions: The first is that the emotions should follow the dictates of the mind. [This approach is called] iskafia, subjugating [one’s nature]. Afterwards, one transforms the emotions, [which is called] is’hapcha. To illustrate, one has a competitor in his [line of] business. Moreover, [the competitor] operates in the neighborhood [where one’s own business is located]. If one would allow himself to follow his natural emotional tendencies and his animal soul, feelings of animosity would be aroused toward his competitor. The intellect of his G‑dly soul, however, is aroused and tells him: “Surely you believe that G‑d controls the world. Accordingly, if G‑d has ordained that you will be given sustenance, how can the competitor take it away [from you] against G‑d’s will? And if it has been decreed from Above that you will receive less income, do you think that without the competitor, there are no ways for it to be arranged from Above [that your income will be reduced]? If so, since [the competitor] is not taking anything away from you, why should you hate him?”

After many internal debates of this nature, the person will feel that his hatred will stop influencing his actions, and then his speech, and then even his thoughts. Nevertheless, this cannot compare at all to the transformation of one’s qualities.

The G‑dly soul, however, continues [its efforts], telling him: “[It is written:]⁵ ‘Love your fellowman as yourself.’ Now, you are a specialist in his line of business. [Since helping him] cannot cause you a loss, go help him out with some good advice, a loan, or the like.” Ultimately, the hatred becomes transformed into love and he conducts himself in this way.

It is only the second phase (is’hapcha) that can truly be called involving oneself with one’s emotions and the attribute of piety, although according to [strict] Torah law, a person can excuse himself, offer a rebuttal, and fulfill his obligations with the first approach (iskafia).

Question 3: The maamar cited above describes Reb Avraham, who was not a scholar but had far better and far more chassidic emotional qualities than Reb Nosson, who was a scholar, but had not sufficiently involved himself with his emotional qualities. [In light of such writings,] it is not at all surprising to find people who oppose chassidim for elevating an emotionally developed, unlearned person higher than a Torah scholar.

Answer: Such people must [then] also oppose the Talmud (Taanis 7a) which states: A Torah scholar who is not virtuous should be decapitated (see Rashi). Rambam rules in ch. 5 of Hilchos Deos concerning the paths of conduct for a Torah scholar and writes (Hilchos Talmud Torah 4[:1]) that if a person does not conduct himself in this manner, one may not teach the Torah to him.

The Talmud makes even sharper statements in another source (Yoma 86a), and Rambam quotes them as halachah (Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah 5:11), stating that although one is a Torah scholar and an observant Jew, if he does not speak pleasantly with people and does not receive them graciously, but instead, continually conducts himself with strife and anger, he desecrates the name of G‑d. [That sin] cannot be expiated by any [punishment] other than death.

And there is an even sharper statement in the Talmud (Yoma 9b) which states that at the conclusion of the era of the Second Beis HaMikdash, [the Jews] occupied themselves with the Torah and its mitzvos. Why was [the Beis HaMikdash] destroyed? Because there was unjustified hatred among them.

Think about that! The Jews studied the Torah and observed the mitzvos. That means they did not rob; they did not steal; they did not deceive and did not embarrass their fellowmen; they merely did not go beyond the letter of the law (Bava Metzia 30b) and they showed the attribute of hatred rather than of love. For these reasons, the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed and the Jews were driven into exile for almost 1900 years. At the conclusion of the era of the First Beis HaMikdash, [the Jews] committed severe sins and they looked upon the Torah with disgust, and yet that exile lasted only 70 years.

[After this,] can there be any question how high a regard should be paid to good emotional qualities and pious conduct!

With blessings for all forms of good,

Rabbi Menachem Schneerson

I will answer your earlier letter at my next opportunity.

Footnotes

1. [I.e., Yehoshua of Nazareth.]

2. [ישעיהו  is numerically equivalent to 401, the sum reached when the Collel (equivalent to one) is added to 400.One of the accepted practices of gematria, Torah numerology, is to add the number “one” to the numerical equivalent of a word or phrase in recognition of the general light (HaCollel) that encompasses all the components.]

3. [Our Rabbis (see the series of maamarim entitled BeShaah SheHikdimu, 5672, Vol. II, pp. 772-3, based on Niddah 17a and Tosafos) interpret “the attribute of piety (Chassidus)” as going beyond the measure of the law. The maamar criticizes Rav Nosson for conducting himself according to the letter of the law and not going beyond that measure.]

4. [I.e., seemingly, if he conducted himself according to Torah law, he would have been involved with the refinement of his emotional qualities.]

5. [Vayikra 19:18.] (“Yeshua, the sublime minister of the interior”; explanation of a statement in Sefer HaMaamarim [Yiddish], p. 216)

What makes Schneerson’s answers all the more interesting is that he cites the Yoma, 9b which claims that the second Temple was destroyed due to baseless hatred. He reasons that this is why the Jews were exiled for over 1900 years.

Yet what Schneerson didn’t realize is that approximately 40 years earlier Israel’s one and only true Messiah Jesus stated the exact same thing, namely, that the Temple and Jerusalem would be destroyed because they hated him without just cause!

“Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? On account of this, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will flog in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you did not want it. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’” Matthew 23:32-39

“And as He approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He cried over it, saying, ‘If you knew in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.” Luke 19:41-44

“He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. But this happened to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without cause.’” John 15:23-25

“And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, and they came up to him, dragged him away, and brought him to the Sanhedrin. And they put forward false witnesses who said, This man never ceases speaking words against this holy place and the Law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus the Nazarene will destroy this place and alter the customs which Moses handed down to us.’ And fixing their gaze on him, all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin saw his face like the face of an angel.” Acts 6:12-15

Truly, Jesus is the Messiah of God and the uncreated Word/Son who became flesh to save the world from sin!

Scriptural references taken from the Legacy Standard Bible (LSB).

Further Reading

Talmud Confirms Jesus’ Messiahship