The Humiliations the Tzaddik Takes Upon Himself Atoning for Israel

"And today, when we do not have the Red Heifer to be burned in fire, Hashem has ordained that atonement for Israel be achieved through the passing of the tzaddikim who engaged in the holy Torah for its own sake, until they merited to become the Torah itself. And this is what it means when the tzaddik accepts upon himself that his name be disgraced and humiliated in the mouths of people."

Wonderful words compiled from the teachings of the holy Gaon, Rav Yoram Abergel, ztz"l, from the important booklet - Mesilot El HaNefesh for Parshat Chukat.

Hashem and the people of Israel opened their mouths and sang, and since this miracle was known and publicized through the well, the Children of Israel sang about the well. And it was a wondrous thing in this song that the name of Hashem was not mentioned in it at all...

And are not the names of Hashem mentioned several times in all other songs (such as the Song of the Sea)? Why not in the Song of the Well?

Rashi brings a parable of a king who had an important minister who was very beloved to him because he was devoted to the king's words with all his might. Once, the ministers held an important banquet and invited the king. The king said: "If my beloved is there, I am there, and if not, I will not go!"

The banquet in the parable is the Song of the Well, and the king's beloved is Moshe Rabbeinu. Since they did not mention Moshe in the song, Hashem did not agree for His name to be mentioned—for only where the king's beloved arrives, the King Himself arrives as well.

Death - Not Necessarily Lying in the Dust

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov wrote (Likutey Moharan 200): The name is the soul, in the sense of "and it was a living soul, that was his name" (Genesis 2:19). And there is self-sacrifice in this aspect.

When a tzaddik sacrifices his name willingly and knowingly, and everyone speaks about him, and they invent lies about him that never entered his mind, and he experiences actual bloodshed from this, and he does this intentionally—this is considered for him as an aspect of actual self-sacrifice, for the name is the soul. And when he loses the name which is his soul, he experiences bloodshed from it, and he saves Israel through this from what was destined to come upon them, Heaven forbid—for by sacrificing his name, which is his soul, he saves them!

And Rebbe Nachman reveals to us that just as there is actual self-sacrifice, meaning the surrender of one's body to be killed for the sanctification of Hashem—so too is there a matter of sacrificing the name, which is also like actual self-sacrifice!

And this is through the tzaddik accepting upon himself that his name be disgraced in the mouths of people; this too is considered like actual self-sacrifice. For within a person's name lies the root of his soul, and when they speak every forbidden thing about his name and disgrace him in public, it is considered actual self-sacrifice, and through this, he sweetens the judgments from upon the souls of Israel.

And in truth, in several aspects, the sacrifice of a person's name for the sanctification of Hashem is more difficult than the sacrifice of his body to be killed, for the body can only be killed once, and afterwards his soul ascends to its root above and delights in the radiance of the Shechinah. But in the sacrifice of the name, a person can suffer long days and years of disgrace and bloodshed, and each time his blood is spilled anew and he feels very great and terrible suffering.

And we also see clearly that for someone who is stabbed with a sword, everyone will want to have mercy and help him in any way they can, but with the disgraces and bloodshed that a person has in the depths of his heart, no one sees this except Hashem alone, and no creature in the world can help him at all—and therefore, immense and very terrible suffering is bound up in this.

And the tzaddik accepts all this upon himself in order to atone for the souls of Israel and to save them from evil decrees, Heaven forbid—and this is considered actual self-sacrifice...

And today, when we do not have the Red Heifer to be burned in fire, Hashem has ordained that atonement for Israel be achieved through two ways:

1. The burning of the Torah, including the burning of holy books, as we have seen throughout history, which has happened several times.
2. The passing of the tzaddikim who engaged in the holy Torah for its own sake until they merited to become the Torah itself.

And as mentioned above, the passing of the tzaddikim can be through death in the literal sense, or through the loss of the name—that the tzaddik accepts upon himself that his name be disgraced and humiliated in the mouths of people.

And from here it is understood why the people of Israel did not mention the name of Moshe in the Song of the Well, for through the loss of his name, it is considered as if he passed away in this passage...

And from here we learn the magnitude of the prohibition to speak about any Torah scholar, for perhaps this Torah scholar has sacrificed his name willingly in order to sweeten the judgments from upon the people of Israel.

And if this warning was relevant throughout all the generations, all the more so is it relevant in our generation, when the mind has weakened and the powers of the soul have diminished—and we do not know what a tzaddik looks like. Therefore, in order to save our lives from destruction, we must place a barrier before our mouths, not express opinions, not intervene in any dispute, and fulfill the words of the prophet (Amos 5:13):

"Therefore, the prudent shall keep silent in that time."