Chapter 4 - And forgives the transgression of the remnant of His heritage: The Holy One, Blessed Be He, conducts Himself towards Israel in this way: He says, "What shall I do for [the people of] Israel, who are My relatives? I have the Obligations of My own flesh (she'er bassar) towards them!" For the people of Israel are the spouse of the Holy One, Blessed Be He, and He calls them, 'My daughter,' ,My sister," and "My mother." As our sages explain the phrase "the children of Israel, a people dose to Him" (Tehillim 148:14), "He has an actual blood relationship with them, and they are His children." This, too, is the meaning of the words "the she'erit [remnant] of His heritage," implying she'er bassar, a blood relationship. In the final analysis, the children of Israel are G-d's inheritance. Says the Holy One, Blessed Be He: "if I punish them, the pain is Mine!" as it is written, "In all their trouble, He is afflicted..." (Yeshayahu 63:9). The verse is written (with an aleph), implying that the pain of Israel extends to the level of keter called peleh, and how much more so to the level of the dual visage; tiferet and malchut, through which the world is mainly run [But] the verse is read with a vav, signifying that the pain is His. This is also the intention of the verse "...His soul became impatient with the misery of Israel" (Shoftim 10:16), for He cannot bear [the Jews',] suffering and disgrace, since they are the she'erit of His heritage. A person should conduct himself the same way towards his friend, since all [the people of] Israel are blood relatives, being that all souls are united, and each person has a part of all others. This is why an individual who carries out the commandments can't compare to a multitude of people who do so, since they all complement one another. And thus, our sages explain regarding one who numbers among the first ten to arrive at the synagogue that even if one hundred come after him he receives a reward equivalent to [the combined reward of] them all. One hundred is to be understood literally, since the souls of each of the first ten are included in each other, so there are ten times ten, equaling a hundred. Thus, the ten include a hundred souls. Therefore, even if a hundred people come after one of the first ten, his reward equals all of theirs. This is why "'all [the people of] Israel are guarantors for one another," since each individual Jew has a portion of all the others.When one individual sins, he blemishes not only his own soul but the portion of him that every other Jew possesses. It follows that his fellow Jew is a guarantor for that portion. Hence, all Jews are family, and one should therefore desire the best for his fellow, view his neighbor's good fortune benevolently, and cherish his friend's honor as his own - for they are one and the same! For this reason, too, we axe commanded to 'love your fellow Jew as yourself" (VaYikra 19:18) - and it is proper that a person desire the well-being of his fellow, and he should never speak ill of him or desire that evil befall him. Just as the Holy One, Blessed Be He, desires neither our disgrace nor our suffenng, because we are His relatives, a person should not desire to see his fellow's disgrace, suffering, or downfall. Rather, a person should be pained by it as if he himself were the victim. The reverse applies to his fellow's good fortune.
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