חלק ב — תורה 66

The tzaddik is obliged to repent on behalf of the Jewish people. In other words, when someone steps out of line and throws off the yoke, the tzaddik must then repent on his behalf.

By way of a parable: Once, two people were travelling [in a wagon pulled] by a frightened and crazy horse. The horse lifted and tossed them from the wagon. One got up and began punching the horse, striking it repeatedly. The second one laughed at him, and said, “You’re just injuring your hand. How does all this hitting help the horse? Instead, you have to take the riding crop, which people use for striking horses, to strike it. The other went and did this. He took the riding crop and began striking the horse. The horse got up and bolted in great panic. As it ran, it lifted and tossed them into the muck and mire. The horse fled further on. It turns out that this, too, was not good advice. So they advised him to do the following: He should take a proper rope and tie the horse to some tree. He should then strike the horse repeatedly; that way he would teach it to behave. He did this. He hit the horse repeatedly and tired himself out. But he saw that this, too, was not good advice, because the whole horse was not worth the effort and aggravation he had from beating [it]. And so there was no solution for such a horse except to shoot it with a gun. But this pained him.

It is similar when one steps out [of line] and behaves improperly. One cannot find a solution for him. It would be possible to punish him directly or through a third party or by some other means, but all the punishments harm the tzaddik himself. This is as we find of God, that “in all their troubles, He is troubled” (Isaiah 63:9). For they are “a portion of God on high” (Job 31:2), and so when they are troubled, God forbid, He is troubled, as it were.

This is so for the tzaddik as well, because “Punishment is not good also for the tzaddik” (Proverbs 17:26). For the punishment he metes out to an individual harms the tzaddik himself. This is because man is comprised of four elements (yesodot): fire, air, water, earth. Each of these four yesodot stems from the simple yesod, namely, the concept of the tzaddik: “the tzaddik is the yesod (foundation) of the world” (ibid. 10:25).

The tzaddik is the concept of the simple element, from which all the four elements are derived, as in “Now a river issues out of Eden to water the garden and from there separates into four heads” (Genesis 2:10). “Now a river issues out of Eden” corresponds to “the tzaddik is the foundation of the world,” the simple element. “From there it separates”—which refers to the four elements, the concept of “four heads.” It follows, that they all stem from the tzaddik. Therefore, if he punishes someone, it will harm the tzaddik himself. Hence, “Punishment is not good also for the tzaddik.”