And G-d saw and spurned; from the anger of his sons and his daughters.[i]

Questions

A surface reading of this verse presents a profound theological and textual paradox:

• When the generation of the Flood corrupted the earth, G-d simply became “vexed”[1] – ויתעצב אל לבו.[ii] When Sodom reached the heights of depravity, G-d did not display any emotion at all. Rather, G-d engaged in a mock trial with Avraham to investigate if even a few righteous people could save the city.[iii]
• Yet, when it comes to the Jewish people’s history – those who endured the wilderness, thousands of years of exile, and oppression from all corners – G-d responds with apparent anger and spurning. Where is Divine patience? Furthermore, how can G-d experience an emotional state of anger in the first place, when the verse[iv] explicitly states, אני ה’ לא שניתי – I am G-d, I have not changed?

To resolve this, we need to understand a strange story related in the Gemara, which is given without explanation.

The Story of Comfort

The Gemara[v] was discussing whether a wedding or funeral party is included in the necessary Minyan required to recite the proper Beraĉos. We learnt in a Beraissa that for a wedding, the members of the wedding party are included, but for a funeral, the mourners are not included.

To illustrate this concept, the Gemara records[2] the following story:

Several questions arise regarding this story:

• Why did Reish Lakish not go the first day. The comforting of a mourner is a Mitzva, and, as the sages state[vi] מצוה הבא בידך אל תחמיצנה. Why wait until the second day.
• Why did Reish Lakish take his מתורגמן with him. Presumably he did so because he himself would not speak. But then the question can be asked, why was Reish Lakish silent.
• How does this story strengthen the previous ruling in the Gemara that mourners are not included in the Minyan.
• As the Gemara asks, what kind of comfort is this? The answer from the Gemara does not seem to explain how a statement that Rabbi Ĉiya bar Aba was great enough to himself be held responsible for his entire generation is of any comfort to a grieving father whose child just died.
• Why does Reish Lakish prompt Yehuda bar Naĉmani to recite these specific blessings. In this order.

The Cosmic Personas: A Drama of Severance and Connection

To answer this, we must understand the Gemara through the teachings of Ĉassidus and Kabbala – specifically in line with the methodology of Rabbi Levi Yitzĉok Schneerson.[vii]

The named sages in the Gemara are not simply historical records but rather are named in order to provide us with the lessons and tools necessary to understand the Gemara. Similarly, this interaction is not merely a historical event – it is a live manifestation of the interaction of upper worlds with this world. A story in which the veil between the physical and the spiritual is thin and transparent. Each sage therefore embodies a specific Divine attribute.

• Rabbi Ĉiya bar Aba (The Mourner): He represents the Sefira of יסוד, the conduit that channels life-force downward.[viii] As a teacher of children, his spiritual task is to connect the child with the Torah, nurturing and growing it – connecting מלכות [the child] with תפארת [the Torah].[6] The tragic death of his child represents the ultimate horror of the Jewish exile: the severance of מלכות from יסוד, where the flow of divine life-force into the world is abruptly cut off.
• Reish Lakish (The Silent Sage): To understand why Reish Lakish remained silent, we must look at his Kabbalistic archetype. In Ĉassidic thought, the classic Talmudic pairing of Rabbi Yoĉanan and Reish Lakish represents a specific balance. Rabbi Yoĉanan[7] embodies the expansive, flowing intellect of בינה. Reish Lakish, however, embodies the hidden חכמה. He himself was a hidden sage during his early years, where his potential was hidden while he lived the life of a bandit[ix]. His teachings focused heavily on understanding the allegorical and hidden meaning of the text, often at odds with the other sages who understood the text more plainly. His name itself ריש לקיש – head of the slow is a סגי נהר phrase implying he was greater in wisdom than all others who were considered slow [retarded] in comparison. The restriction and concealment of חכמה is an act of גבורה, and thus his spiritual root is one of intense, restricted judgment (which also explains his origins as a fierce gladiator and bandit before his transformation into a sage). Because his transcendent intellect is inherently bound to גבורה, it operates in a state of concealment. He cannot directly project the expansive warmth of חסד needed to heal a mourner. Therefore, Reish Lakish must remain silent; his raw intellect cannot be an active conduit to speak words of comfort.
• Yehuda bar Naĉmani (The Translator): As the מתורגמן, he embodies מלכות (Speech). He takes raw, esoteric [restricted and concealed] wisdom and translates it into practical, earthly reality. As his name implies (נחמני from נחמה – comfort), he is the ultimate “Comforter” – bringing solace not only to the grieving father but mitigating the severity within the Divine realms.

The Delayed Visit

This dynamic explains why they delayed their visit. A mourner in the immediate aftermath of loss embodies unmitigated גבורות (strict severities). On the first day, these גבורות קשות are too raw and intense to be sweetened (comforted). They had to wait[8] for the second day to initiate the process of comfort.

The Four Blessings of Sweetening

To sweeten the intense judgment of Rabbi Ĉiya bar Abba’s tragedy, Yehuda bar Naĉmani had to draw חסד down from the absolute highest spiritual realms, descending step-by-step into our reality. This המתקת הדינים – sweetening of the severities is achieved through the four blessings recorded in Gemara:

1. ברוך מחיה המתים –Blessed is the Resurrector of the Dead: The sweetening must begin at the source of all גבורות – in the level of עתיק יומין – the Supreme Being before Whom all is equal. By praising G-d as the Resurrector, the Naĉmani bypasses conditional divine systems and taps into the טל של תחיה – Dew of Resurrection, which the Zohar[x] describes as flowing from the most transcendent level of the Divine. Dew falls unconditionally. Its purpose is to ‘resurrect the dead [sleeping]’ plants. It represents a flow of infinite grace capable of healing the ultimate severance of death.
2. ברוך מנחם אבלים – Blessed is the Comforter of Mourners: The energy is then drawn downward into חכמה and בינה, which Kabbalisticly represent the higher “Parents” – mirroring the grieving parents of the child.
3. ברוך משלם הגמול – Blessed is the Payer of Reward: This addresses the comforters themselves. To successfully inject חסד into a space of גבורה, those offering comfort require a sufficient influx of divine “payment” or energy to complete their difficult task.
4. ברוך עוצר המגפה – Blessed is the Halter of the Plague: Finally, the חסד is grounded into the physical world to stop the spiritual hemorrhage. The Talmudic text of this blessing is highly specific: it invokes four (4) terms of salvation (redeemed, saved, delivered, rescued) to overcome six (6) terms of calamity (pestilence, sword, famine, fire, water, plague).

Kabbalisticly, these six (6) calamities represent the six (6) emotional attributes of זעיר אנפין, which is now in a fractured state due to the promulgation of unchecked דינים. The four (4) terms of salvation, conversely, mirror the Four Expressions of Redemption that we commemorate on Pesaĉ (וְהוֹצֵאתִי, וְהִצַּלְתִּי, וְגָאַלְתִּי, וְלָקַחְתִּי). These four (4) expressions also correspond to the four (4) letters of the Tetragrammaton, G-d’s essential Name of Infinite Mercy. They represent the transcendent higher intellects חכמה, בינה, and the crowns of כתר. By invoking these four (4) terms, the Comforter draws down the infinite, unfragmented light of the Divine Name to overpower and sweeten the six (6) fractured emotional judgments, realigning זעיר אנפין and grounding the חסד directly into the Jewish people – מלכות.

Halting the Plague

This fourth blessing explicitly evokes the Torah’s phrasing, ותעצר המגפה or[9] והמגפה נעצרה – and the plague was halted. This phenomenon of halting a plague appears in two critical historical moments in the Torah where the connection of G-d to the Jewish people was severed and subsequently restored through human action.

• The Aftermath of the Rebellion of Koraĉ

The first occurred after the rebellion of Koraĉ.[xi] The Jewish people complained and succumbed to anger against Moshe and Aharon, for the death of the two hundred and fifty sages who had brought the קטורת and died from it. This angry uprising by the Jewish people immediately sparked a plague as the Divine Presence withdrew[10]. To combat this withdrawal, Moshe instructed Aharon to run quickly with the קטורת. Aharon physically and metaphysically “stood between the dead and the living,” using the holy offering of incense to bridge the chasm between the people[11] and G-d, thus arresting the forces of destruction and reestablishing the flow of life.

• The Aftermath of the Sin at Ba’al Peor

The second instance occurred during the sin of Ba’al Peor.[xii] The people were seduced by the daughters of Moav. While their initial intimacy with non-Jewish women did not technically violate a formal Torah prohibition at that exact historical moment, they egregiously spurned the spirit of the Mitzva in favor of physical lust. In response, G-d mirrored their actions – G-d spurned his connection to their souls, rendering them lifeless in a devastating plague.

It was Pinĉas who halted this plague through an act of מסירת נפש – total self-sacrifice. By putting his own life on the line[12] to eradicate the public perpetrators, Pinĉas’ self-sacrifice forcefully restored the severed connection between G-d and the souls of the Jewish people. As a reward for reestablishing this connection, G-d granted Pinĉas his בריתי שלום – covenant of peace.

In the Torah scroll, the letter Vav (ו) in the word שלום in this verse is traditionally written with a fracture or separation – a ו קטיעא. The letter Vav has the numerical value of six (6), representing the six (6) attributes of זעיר אנפין, and its literal translation is a “hook” or connector. The broken Vav represents our current reality in exile: a state where the six (6) attributes are fractured and separated – where the ultimate connection between heaven and earth is incomplete.

Yet, Pinĉas’ actions laid the groundwork for the ultimate repair. By halting the plague and standing in the breach, he started the process which will be completed in the era of Moshiaĉ; when the broken Vav will be made whole, bringing absolute peace and complete reconnection to G-d.

The Arithmetic of the Minyan: Joy, Sorrow, and the Collective

This entire framework also answers the Halaĉic puzzle the Gemara poses just before its narrative. The Talmud establishes a stark contrast: When counting the quorum of ten (10) a מנין required to recite the wedding blessings, those experiencing the joy of the wedding are included in the count. However, when counting the ten (10) required for the mourner’s blessings, the mourners themselves are excluded from the count.

Why the distinction? To be counted in a Minyan is to transcend the individual self and become part of a complete collective. Similar to the Jewish people as whole being the vessel for the Divine Presence. Those experiencing the expansive joy of a wedding are integrated into this collective.

Mourning, however, is rooted in the severance of death, which is inherently exclusionary. It reduces a person to an isolated individual. Ultimately, G-d desires our connection to manifest exclusively in joy, life, and positivity. The mourner’s temporary Halaĉic exclusion is a reflection of their current spiritual state of severance. The goal of the comforters – and the ultimate spiritual work of the mourner – is to actively convert that negative isolation back into positivity, restoring their place within the collective.

Quantum Entanglement: The Purpose of Descent and the Final Generation

With this framework, we can return to our initial verse and the nature of G-d’s ‘anger’.

Why must a soul descend into a world where such severe suffering exists? The soul is placed in this physical reality to act as the bridge between the Infinite and the finite. Because it is[xiii] a חלק אלו-ה ממעל ממש – it remains connected to G-d during its lifetime. Throughout its descent, it remains permanently, quantumly entangled[13] with G-d.

Suffering is the experience of the cosmic severance, the disconnect between יסוד and מלכות or the Divine withdrawal experienced on the night of Rosh Hashana. The human reaction to this suffering dictates the cosmic response. Therefore, the verse מכעס בניו ובנתיו – from the anger of his sons and his daughters is not describing G-d’s independent emotional reaction due to being angry with his children. Rather, G-d’s reaction is from the anger experienced by his sons and daughters.

The Gemara[xiv] and the Zohar[xv] and Tanya[xvi] teach that anger is akin to idolatry because it represents a complete loss of faith in Divine Providence. When a human experiences tragedy and reacts with anger, they validate the severance and isolate themselves. That anger travels upward because of quantum entanglement, resulting in a divine withdrawal, or וינאץ – spurning where G-d spurns his connection to the soul in the same way the person is spurning his connection to G-d.

However, if a person endures the darkness of exile without severing their faith, their actions trigger the ultimate repair of this situation. This is the depth of the comfort Yehuda bar Naĉmani offered. Rabbi Ĉiya bar Abba was silently[14] experiencing unimaginable suffering, yet he did not succumb to anger, and therefore, G-d did not spurn him.

Yet, Rabbi Ĉiya bar Abba did not experience the physical resurrection of his child in that moment.[15] Instead, the Sages recorded this interaction as a blueprint – a guidebook for הדור האחרון – the final generation.[xvii] As the last generation to endure the accumulated tragedies of the long exile, we are tasked with this exact spiritual work. When we face the darkness of a severed world and refuse to respond with the idolatry of anger, we maintain our quantum entanglement with the Infinite. We convert our own negative feelings into positivity, transforming our exclusion into integration. By serving G-d with joy, it is our generation that breaks through all blockages of strict judgment. In doing so, we awaken G-d to pour forth the unconditional ‘Dew of Resurrection’ – rebuilding מלכות, reconnecting it to יסוד, and ensuring that everyone – the living and the resurrected – will finally be counted as part of the Minyan when the broken Vav is restored in the ultimate, eternal collective.

---

[1] Granted, G-d ended up destroying them completely, but afterward, the same reasoning of כי יצר לב האדם רע מנעוריו which drove G-d to destroy them was used to impel a promise not to flood the earth again [see Beraishis 6:5 as contrasted with 8:21]. Thus, we can say that although vexed, he wasn’t emotionally connected to the outcome and was simply stating a logical conclusion – which reasoning resulted in a different outcome after the flood.

[2] The story is presented in shortened form due to considerations of space. The reader is of course encouraged to learn the Gemara in its proper form.

[3] Some say of Ĉumash, and some say of Mishnayos.

[4] It used to be the custom that the Rabbi’s speech was given during the reading of the Torah, presumably in between Aliyos. The speech would be given in Hebrew or would be generally above the understanding of the plebeian populace. Therefore, there was a translator there to explain what had been learnt in the Torah, and to ‘translate’ the Rabbi’s speeches for the audience.

[5] The Gemara discusses another version of the comfort offered, but we are focusing on this version.

[6] Much like the Kabbalistic service of Rosh Hashanah, which the Arizal and Ĉassidus define as the time of בנין המלכות – the building of the Divine Sefira of מלכות.See Likutei Torah discourses on Rosh Hashanah.

[7] The Primary Teacher / Compiler of the Talmud Yerushalmi.

[8] A rationalist critique might suggest Reish Lakish delayed his visit because of the Mishnaic dictum [Avos 4:18] not to comfort a mourner while his dead lies before him. However, we can assume that this was not the case and that Reish Lakish actually delayed going for several reasons: 1) The Gemara explicitly states that Reish Lakish “did not go”. Had he been prohibited from going on the first day – while the dead body lay there – that would not be something the Gemara would need to point out. It would be obvious. 2) The implication of the counting of days (first, second) is that the seven-day period of Shiva had started, which is when the obligation of comforting the mourner kicks in. 3) There is an obligation to bury the dead as soon as possible. This is especially true for Kohanim (Rabbi Ĉiya bar Aba was a Kohen). Although permitted to render himself טמא as a result of his son’s death, he would not be permitted to leave the body sitting there for an entire day.

• See Gem. Sanhedrin 46a and the verse Devarim 21:23. Codified in Shulĉan Aruĉ Yoreh Day’ah 357:1
• See Shulĉan Aruĉ Yoreh Day’ah 373:1

The only explanation for Reish Lakish’ delay is that it was deliberate. That he needed to wait until the גבורות קשות experienced by Rabbi Ĉiya bar Abba had subsided sufficiently for him to be able to offer comfort – which is of course the exact rationale of the Mishnaic dictum of אל תנחמהו בשעה שמתו מוטל לפניו.

[9] Incidentally, the Midrash offers an explanation as to the strange way the phrase is inverted, והמגפה נעצרה: Initially, the angel of death did not want to obey the demarcated line marked by Aharon, claiming that he was acting as an agent of G-d. Aharon ‘dragged’ the angel to Moshe who confirmed that G-d wanted the plague stopped. Therefore, the verse phrases this as “the plague was already stopped”. It had halted while Aharon and the angel went to consult with Moshe and was permanently halted when they heard from Moshe.

[10] As the verse [Bamidbar 17:] states הרמו מתוך העדה הזאת – remove yourselves from this congregation. As the Divine presence was departing, G-d instructed his representatives to leave as well.

Perhaps we can say that this unusual phrasing הרמו which literally means lift up is what inspired Moshe to instruct Aharon to save the people. G-d did not want to punish them; he wanted them uplifted.

[11] An offering that normally the people would never be able to participate in as only the single Kohen himself who was performing the offering was allowed to be in the room when the קטורת was offered.

[12] The members of the tribe of Shimon wanted to kill him for having killed their prince.

[13] In the words of our sages כשאתה תופס מקצתה אתה תופס כולה – when you hold its edge, you hold all of it. […]

[14] Similar to the response of Aharon when his two elder sons died, the verse [Vayikra 10:3] states וידם אהרן – and Aharon was silent. As Rashi notes, the reward for this was the reciprocal: שנתיחד עמו הדבור – G-d spoke directly to Aharon and offered him a new Mitzva, a new way of connecting to G-d.

Interestingly, like Yehuda bar Naĉmani, Moshe’s comfort to Aharon of בקרבי אקדש referenced the concept that either he or Aharon were worthy to have passed away on behalf of their entire generation.

[15] This is complete conjecture, but perhaps Rabbi Ĉiya bar Abba’s third son, Neĉemya (lit. Comforted by G-d), was born as a result. His other children were named Rabbi Abba and Rabbi Kahana. Rabbi Abba was probably named after his grandfather. Rabbi Kahana was probably named thus as they were Kohanim. And Rabbi Neĉemya was obviously named for the concept of comfort – perhaps the comfort over losing a fourth unnamed child.

---

[i] Devarim 32:19

[ii] Beraishis 6:6

[iii] Beraishis 18:21

[iv] Mal’aĉi 3:6

[v] Gem. Kesuvos 8b

[vi] Meĉilta of Rabbi Yishmael, quoted by Rashi Shemos 12:17

[vii] See Likutei Levi Yitzĉok, Responsa, pp. 263-267

[viii] See Likutei Levi Yitzĉok on Zohar Beraishis pp. 25 (?)

[ix] See Gem. Bava Metzia 84a

[x] Idra Raba, Zohar III:128b

[xi] Bamidbar 17:6-13

[xii] Bamidbar 25:

[xiii] See Tanya Chp 2. The term ממש means both literally and tangibly. The soul is both the most tangible aspect of G-d, a piece of the infinite indivisible G-d, so-to-speak – as well as a literal piece, in which case, as the soul is limited to a physical body, that makes the entanglement effects something that is visible and verifiable instead of being theoretical.

[xiv] Gem. Shabbos 105b

[xv] Zohar I:27b. See also Zohar תצוה II 182b where the Zohar states that when a person gets angry, his soul literally flees from him, allowing an אל אחר to take its place. This is based on the verse [Iyov 18:4] טורף נפשו באפו – he tears his soul in his anger.

[xvi] Igeress Hakodesh 25

[xvii] Devarim 29:21