We’ll open the subject with a true story. Once in a certain rural area of Pennsylvania the residents were complaining about a certain species of black snakes that seemed to be proliferating and overrunning the county. They weren’t dangerous but they were a nuisance and so the sheriff came up with a plan. He offered the residents a bounty for every black snake brought in. Shoot a black snake and bring it in for a cash reward. I think it was $20 for every black snake.
So all the people got busy. They were bringing dead black snakes from all over the county to the sheriff. It was wonderful. The Pennsylvanians made a lot of extra money that summer.
But the following year the farmers came to the legislature complaining. “Something’s wrong! Our crops are being destroyed!” The fields were being overrun by field mice who made a job on the farmers’ crops and were devouring everything. They never saw so many field mice before!
Work Together
Until finally somebody discovered the connection between black snakes and field mice. One of the purposes of the black snakes in Creation was to keep the field mice in check. Black snakes enjoy the taste of field mice and so even though they might be a nuisance sometimes, they have an important purpose: they act as a counterweight to the mice. And so the legislators got busy now trying to look for some more black snakes and to import them back into their county.
Now, the whole Creation is like that. There are endless examples of how Hakadosh Baruch Hu made one thing opposite the other to maintain the proper equilibrium of the ecology. And that’s what Shlomo Hamelech says in Koheles (7:14): ז∆ה ̇∆‡ םיםƒ ֹ̃ל¡‡הָ ָׂה ̆ﬠָ ז∆ה ̇ﬠֻמַּ¿ל – Elokim made one thing opposite the other thing. Koheles is telling us that all the phenomena of this world are planned by Hakadosh Baruch Hu to cooperate with each other. And even though we don’t pay much attention and superficially it seems to us that this world is full of many unrelated things, if you study His creations you’ll see that actually everything has a place and it’s always ז∆ה ז∆ה ̇ﬠֻמַּ¿ל– one thing is made opposite the other, and that’s the success of Creation.
A Spiritual Pshat
But we’ll see now how the Gemara (Chagigah 15a) explains this possuk. Our Chachomim tell us that it’s not only in the functioning of the physical world that this principle holds true; even in the spiritual functioning of the world Hakadosh Baruch Hu employs this principle. And one example they bring of this phenomenon is יםƒ ̃יּƒ„ַˆ ‡ָרָּב – Hakadosh Baruch Hu made righteous people, ה∆ז ַּ̇מֻﬠ¿לּו – and opposite to the righteous, יםƒעָׁ ̆¿ר ‡ָרָּב – He made wicked men. He purposefully sets the stage of history in this manner, where the tzaddik and rasha face off with each other.
Now, before we try to understand what they’re telling us, it’s important to know what it means that Hakadosh Baruch Hu “made” wicked people and righteous people. Because we know that Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn’t undertake to make anybody good or bad. That’s one of the foundations of this world, that mankind comes into this world to exercise bechirah, free will.
Every person comes into the world with an opportunity to choose and anyone, man or woman, can become whatever he or she desires to be. The fact is that if she chooses so, even a simple housewife can excel and become greater than the greatest tzaddik. Of course, you cannot become a man if you happen to be a woman. You cannot become a giant if you happen to be born short. But within a certain realm, within a certain area, everyone is given the free will to excel. Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn’t make anybody choose one way or the other.
And therefore, we cannot say that this statement in Chagigah is telling us that Hakadosh Baruch Hu actually created righteous people and created wicked people. He created people, yes; but righteous and wicked, that they make themselves.
Placed with Purpose
So what does it mean here that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the reshaim and the tzaddikim? It means this. Hakadosh Baruch Hu looks ahead into the future and He knows what is going to happen; He knows who is going to choose righteousness and who will choose to be not righteous.
So what does He do? When He sees that there’s going to be a certain righteous man, a man who’s going to exert himself to choose the right way in life, He wants to give him the opportunity to accomplish in this world. So He looks into the future and He finds a man who chooses to be wicked, a man with certain abilities, and He says, “I’m going to put them both together in this world; they’re going to be in the same generation and in the same locale. And the purpose is to give the tzaddik an opportunity to be tested by the rasha.”
And that’s how our great men throughout history became great – because of zeh le’umas zeh. There was always somebody else who stood opposite them – someone placed opposite them – giving them opportunities to rise to the occasion.
Application Rejected!
Where do we find this? In Mesichta Avodah Zarah (2a), the Gemara tells that at the end of days Hakadosh Baruch Hu will make an announcement that all those who deserve reward, should come and take their reward. And naturally when reward is available, everybody is a customer. So all the nations will come; all the peoples of the world from all the periods of history will assemble and they’ll say, “We’re here. We apply.”
There’s a big conversation that the Gemara records there, a back and forth, and finally Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives them the news that they didn’t qualify. He’s sorry but there’s only one nation that’s going to get rewarded, and that’s the Am Yisroel.
And then the goyim say, “Why did you choose the Am Yisroel? Just because they accepted your Torah? But did they fulfill Your commandments? Who says they obeyed the Torah?”
So Hakadosh Baruch Hu says to the nations as follows, “I’m going to bring witnesses to testify on behalf of My people. וָּ̃„¿ˆƒי¿ו ם∆יה≈„≈ﬠנוּ¿ ̇ƒי – Let them give their testimonies in order to demonstrate the righteousness of the Am Yisroel (Yeshaya 43:9).”
Testimony of the Wicked
And so the Judge calls witness number one into the courtroom. םָהָר¿בַ‡ לַﬠ „יƒעָי¿ו „ֹרו¿מƒנ ‡ֹבָי – “Let Nimrod come,” says Hashem, “and he should testify about who Avraham was.”
You know who Nimrod was? He was the one who made it his business to oppose Avraham. And don’t think he was a little nobody. In boxing, when you have to test a heavyweight you don’t bring a bantamweight to compete with him. Heavyweights are only tested by heavyweights. And so a great man like Avraham Avinu couldn’t be tested by a small rasha like Darwin or Mohammed or that other one, the mamzer. For an Avraham you have to bring somebody really big.
And there was nobody bigger than Nimrod! You know the Torah goes out of its way to describe his power, how he was a gibor tzayid and how he built big cities (Bereishis 10: 9–12). He was building one city after another. Some of his cities lasted almost down to today! Now, to us it seems as a parenthetical episode in history that doesn’t belong in the Torah. The great power of an ancient, long forgotten ruler has no connection with the purposes of the Torah history. And so the whole thing seems to be a waste of words, telling us about the great career of Nimrod.
Greats of Antiquity
But now we understand that it didn’t just happen in the generation of Avraham that Nimrod also happened to be there and so Avraham was forced to contend with him. Oh no; it was a set-up. ה∆ז ַּ̇מֻﬠ¿ל ה∆זיםƒ ֹ̃ל¡‡ָה הָׂ ָ̆ﬠ – What happened was that Hashem saw Avraham’s greatness, his potential, and that’s why He created a Nimrod.
All of Nimrod’s achievements – his power, his wealth, his influence – were granted to him for one purpose by the korei hadoros meirosh, the One Who sees the generations beforehand. Hashem said, “Here’s a boy coming up in this generation, a boy with tremendous potential. And I’m going to give him the opportunity to become great. I’ll give him a Nimrod, a real tyrant, a real organizer, a genius, one of the greatest men of antiquity, and Avraham will have the opportunity to buck a rasha like that.”
And so Avraham appeared in the middle of that cloudburst of idolatry – it was the great Avraham on one side and the great Nimrod on the other – and Avraham had whom to struggle against and that’s what made him what he is. He became great just because he was able to withstand the power of Nimrod.
So now Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, “Let Nimrod come and testify that Avrohom did not worship idolatry, that he stood up and passed the test.” It means “The man who made Avraham Avinu great, the one who was placed there ה∆ז ַּ̇מֻﬠ¿ל ה∆ז, let him come and testify to Avraham’s greatness.”
Summoned From the Trash
But that’s only one example in the Gemara. It says there about another famous witness that will be summoned at the end of the days: Eishes Potiphar, the wife of Yosef’s master. She’ll be summoned now from the garbage can where she’s been all these years. They’ll pull her out of the trash and they’ll say to her, “What do you have to say about Yosef?” „יƒעָּ ̇¿והָר≈בֲﬠָה לַﬠ „ַׁ ̆¿ח∆נ ‡ֹּלׁ∆ ̆ ף≈סֹיוּ¿ב – And she’ll testify that Yosef should not be suspected of any moral misdeed. She’s the best witness to testify because she tested Yosef every day.
It was םֹיו םֹיו ף≈סֹיו ל∆‡ּהָרּ¿בַ„ּ¿כ – She spoke to him day by day (Bereishis 39:10). We don’t know what she said but you can be sure she was a difficult test for Yosef. He wasn’t married, you have to know. And it wasn’t just once a day. הָׁ ̆¿בָל ‡ֹל ̇יƒב¿רַﬠ ֹלו הָׁ ̆¿בָּלׁ∆ ̆ יםƒ„ָ‚ּ¿ב ̇יƒרֲחַׁ ̆ ֹלו – She changed her dresses every day twice and she came to tempt him constantly (Yoma 35b). It was a terrible nisayon! And that’s how Yosef became tremendous. Yosef Hatzaddik became Yosef Hatzaddik because of that wicked woman.
Placed With Potifar
And now we know why it happened that way. Because Potiphar could have had a wife who had no interest in other men besides her husband. She didn’t have to be that kind of woman. Or she could have been the type of wife who was never home. She was busy with the sisterhood someplace, planning teas, raising money for poor Egyptian orphans. Or she could have been a shopping lady; wife who’s always out on the avenue looking for deals. She’s never home.
But it “happened” to be she wasn’t the type that ran around. She was always home, this wicked woman, and therefore she was always available. And now we know why that was. She was put there for one purpose – in order to make Yosef the successful man that he became.
You know, if Yosef HaTzaddik would have yielded, then there wouldn’t have been any history of Yosef. It would have been finished and the Torah wouldn’t bother to tell the whole story how he was sold by his brothers. It would have been hushed up. There’s nothing to talk about and our forefathers wouldn’t have gone down to Egypt. There wouldn’t be a Yetzias Mitzrayim. Who knows what would have happened to the Jewish people?
Tzaddikim and Reshaim
Now, if you take a look inside the Gemara there (Avoda Zara ibid.) you’ll see more examples of those who will be forced to testify on the great day. Nevuchadnezer will come and speak about how Chananya, Mishael and Azaryah stood up to him and wouldn’t bow down to his idol even at the threat of death. Daryavesh will come and testify about Daniel’s greatness, about how he continued to pray three times a day towards Yerushalayim even when it was forbidden. He continued the practice in the king’s palace as he had done when he was a boy in Eretz Yisroel.
How did Chananya, Mishael and Azaryah become great? Because of Nevuchadnezer. How did Daniel become great? Because there was a king Daryavesh. And why was there a Nevuchadnezer and Daryavesh? יםƒ ֹ̃ל¡‡ָה הָׂ ָ̆ﬠ ה∆ז ַּ̇מֻﬠ¿ל ה∆ז ̇∆‡ םַּ‚ – Because when Hakadosh Baruch Hu saw that there would be a tzaddik in that generation, that’s why He placed a rasha into that generation too. And at the end of days, it’ll become clear to everyone that it was because of this eternal principle of יםƒ ̃יּƒ„ַˆ ‡ָרָּב יםƒעָׁ ̆¿ר ‡ָרָּב ה∆ז ַּ̇מֻﬠ¿לו that people rise to greatness.
