9.7.07

the peace of the wise

וכל המקים את דברו רוח חכמים נוחה הימנו
anyone who keeps their word brings solace to the wisemen.

This is the final statement in Masechet Shevi'it, the mishna which discusses the laws of the Shemitah year. The Shemitah year is the seventh year in a repeating seven year cycle in which we are commanded to let the land lay fallow.

More relevant to this particular quote is that all debts between people are to be (automatically) forgiven/forgotten upon the arrival of the Shemitah year. The quote praises those who pay their debt in any case, because then lenders won't be affraid to lend out money to those in need during the sixth year in the cycle. The quote is actually a more general phrasing praising everyone who keeps their word because when people keep to their word, there is no need for disputes in court. Everyone is honorable.

Keeping our word, being upstanding and honorable Jews brings peace to the Hachamim. Since we are overcoming our nature, it seems natural that we are bringing peace to the world and this in turn brings peace to the Hachamim.

I think another reading of this same phrase may be: "all those who keep HaShem's Word, Which is to say all those who keep the Torah, the spirit of the Hachamim rests upon them."

We find this in a number of places, especially in the stories of the Talmidim of the Arizal (whose hillulah is tonight and tomorrow) who merited the ibur of (the impregnation of their soul with the soul of another) a tzaddik from the earlier generations (the Tannaim or Amoraim) because of their extraordinary performance of a particular mitzwah.

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