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— treats unlawful money as permissible, as He said: 'Those who devoured the flesh of my people... then they will cry to the Lord and He will not answer them' (Mic 3:3–4).
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Sixth: one who prays without ritual purity, as He said: 'Even when you multiply prayer I do not listen; your hands are full of blood' (Isa 1:15).
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Seventh: one whose sins are many and who prays without repentance, as He said: 'As when I called and they did not listen, so they will call and I will not listen' (Zech 7:13).
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It is appropriate to clarify here that all sins have repentance — except three.
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One who establishes a community in a corrupt doctrine or who issues a corrupt ruling to them — for he cannot undo what he has done; of him He said: 'One who leads the upright astray in an evil path will fall into his own pit' (Prov 28:10).
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One who spreads an evil report against a believer — he cannot retract it; of him He said: 'Lest the one who hears you shame you, and your evil report not return' (Prov 25:10).
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And one who holds stolen property and does not return it to its owner — as He said: 'If one sins and is guilty, he shall return the stolen item' (Lev 6:4); and: 'If the wicked man restores the pledge, pays back what he has taken... he shall surely live and not die' (Ezek 33:15) — so if
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— the wronged owner died, let him return it to his heirs, as He said: 'He shall give it to one to whom it belongs' (Num 5:8). If the owner cannot be identified, let him bear it, for it becomes among the permissible.
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I will also clarify what I promised regarding the sins that inevitably require a worldly punishment even though the servant has repented — I say they are four.
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First: false oaths — as He said: 'The Lord will not acquit one who takes His name in vain' (Exod 20:7).
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Second: shedding innocent blood — He said of it: 'I have avenged their blood; I have not gone unpunished' (Joel 4:21).
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Third: one who commits adultery with another man's wife — He said of it: 'So too one who comes to his neighbor's wife; none who touch her will go unpunished' (Prov 6:29).
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Fourth: false testimony — He said of it: 'A false witness will not go unpunished' (Prov 19:5). To these is appended whatever has received a sealed decree — such as 'Enough, speak to Me no more' — as we have explained.
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Repentance for these five is accepted — but for the aspect of 'shall not go unpunished,' there must inevitably be a worldly calamity that strikes that servant.
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One who wrongs his fellow not in monetary matters but through humiliation or striking — the matter depends on the other's pardon. If he pardons, the punishment is lifted, as He said: 'So shall you say to Joseph: Please forgive...' (Gen 50:17).
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He must ask him three times — as in: 'Please forgive... and now, please forgive' (Gen 50:17).
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If the wronged or struck person died, let the offender make this kind of apology: 'I have wronged so-and-so' — three times before ten people — so that it reaches the equivalent of what would have transpired had he been alive and he asked him likewise without receiving a reply, in which case he would be forgiven.
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I will also clarify the merits that must receive reward in this world even if the servant later apostatizes — I say they are six.
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The first: honoring one's parents — as He said: 'Honor your father and your mother' (Exod 20:12). Compassion for animals — as He said: 'You shall surely send away the mother' (Deut 22:7). Taking one's right and giving others their right — as He said:
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'A full and just weight you shall have' (Deut 25:15). Added to these is also a promised gift when accompanied by a sealed word — as He said to Jehu: 'Your sons to the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel' (2 Kgs 10:30), a sealed decree; so even though he and his children sinned, its fulfillment was inevitable.
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One should not think that the statement 'if there is sin in you' implies that every sin inevitably incurs worldly punishment —
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for that statement applies only to three matters: delay of vows — which God may forgive if they are delayed; refusing to lend — which He forgives with repentance; and withholding a worker's wage — which falls under the category of wrongs.
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I will also clarify that repentance has five stations, each earlier station being superior to the later.
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The first: a servant repents while still at the same age at which he sinned, in the same city, with those who enabled his transgressions still present —
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— of this He said: 'Throw off from yourselves all your transgressions by which you have transgressed, and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit' (Ezek 18:31).
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The second: when he has passed that age, left that city, and those who enabled his transgressions are gone — of this He said: 'Return, for the people of Israel have gone very deep in rebellion' (Isa 31:6).
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The third: one who did not repent until he heard a threatened calamity — as the message to Nineveh: 'Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown' (Jonah 3:4).
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The fourth: one who did not repent until some of the threatened calamity had struck him — as He said: 'Children of Israel, return to the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and He will return to the remnant left to you from the hand of the kings of Assyria' (2 Chr 30:6).
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The fifth: one who repents at the moment of his soul's departure — he too is called a penitent, as He said: 'His soul draws near to the pit and his life' —
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— '...to those who are dying' — and He then said: 'He entreats God and He accepts him' (Job 33:24). This is why our practice is to encourage the sick person near death to repent, saying to him: 'Say: I have sinned, I have done wrong, I have transgressed — may my death be atonement for all my iniquities.'
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Section 7. Having completed the explanation of those ten whose names I listed earlier, I now say: the balanced servant is one whose sins are equal to his merits.
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This servant, though his existence is limited, is shown mercy and counted among the righteous — for the mercy attributed to the Creator, exalted be He, being impossible for it to come upon or permeate Him since He has no accidents, as we established earlier,
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— therefore its meaning must be referred back to the created beings, and it becomes one of the names of action; so it yields for us three meanings:
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Accepting repentance — as He said: 'Let him return to the Lord and He will have mercy on him' (Isa 55:7); responding to the cry of the distressed — as He said: 'In wrath, remember mercy' (Hab 3:2); and counting the balanced servant among the righteous — as He said: 'Gracious is the Lord and just; our God has mercy' (Ps 116:5).
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The tradition has come to us explaining: 'Abounding in lovingkindness' (Exod 34:6) — inclining toward mercy — meaning: if the scales are even, it tips toward merit.
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For this reason, at the time of judgment there will be among servants only two groups with no third: the righteous and the wicked only — as He said: 'You will return and see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves...' (Mal 3:18).
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I see fit to include this observation at the end of this maamar: obedience from the distinguished is superior — as He said: 'Rejoice in the Lord, O righteous; praise is fitting for the upright' (Ps 33:1). And transgression from them is graver — as He said: 'For even —'