The Oral Talmud with Benay Lappe and Dan Libenson Episode 50

Reish Lakish said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “And the faith of your times shall be a strength of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge, the fear of the Lord is his treasure” (Isaiah 33:6)?

Rava said: At the time that they bring a person in for judgment, they say to him (in the order of that verse): Were you honest [faithful] in your business dealings? Did you fix times for Torah? Did you engage in being fruitful and multiplying? Did you count on salvation? Did you debate with wisdom? Did you understand a thing from within a thing? And even if so, if the fear of the God is his treasure, yes; if not, no.

(1) Ha, you ravager who are not ravaged, You betrayer who have not been betrayed! When you have done ravaging, you shall be ravaged; When you have finished betraying, you shall be betrayed. (2) O LORD, be gracious to us! It is to You we have looked; Be their arm every morning, Also our deliverance in time of stress. (3) At [Your] roaring, peoples have fled, Before Your majesty nations have scattered; (4) And spoil was gathered as locusts are gathered, It was amassed as grasshoppers are amassed. (5) The LORD is exalted, He dwells on high! [Of old] He filled Zion With justice and righteousness.

(6) Faithfulness to Your charge was [her] wealth, Wisdom and devotion [her] triumph, Reverence for the LORD—that was her treasure.

(7) Hark! The Arielites cry aloud; Shalom’s messengers weep bitterly. (8) Highways are desolate, Wayfarers have ceased. A covenant has been renounced, Cities rejected Mortal man despised. (9) The land is wilted and withered; Lebanon disgraced and moldering, Sharon is become like a desert, And Bashan and Carmel are stripped bare. (10) “Now I will arise,” says the LORD, “Now I will exalt Myself, now raise Myself high. (11) You shall conceive hay, Give birth to straw; My breath will devour you like fire. (12) Peoples shall be burnings of lime, Thorns cut down that are set on fire. (13) Hear, you who are far, what I have done; You who are near, note My might.” (14) Sinners in Zion are frightened, The godless are seized with trembling: “Who of us can dwell with the devouring fire: Who of us can dwell with the never-dying blaze?” (15) He who walks in righteousness, Speaks uprightly, Spurns profit from fraudulent dealings, Waves away a bribe instead of grasping it, Stops his ears against listening to infamy, Shuts his eyes against looking at evil— (16) Such a one shall dwell in lofty security, With inaccessible cliffs for his stronghold, With his food supplied And his drink assured. (17) When your eyes behold a king in his beauty, When they contemplate the land round about, (18) Your throat shall murmur in awe, “Where is one who could count? Where is one who could weigh? Where is one who could count [all these] towers?” (19) No more shall you see the barbarian folk, The people of speech too obscure to comprehend, So stammering of tongue that they are not understood. (20) When you gaze upon Zion, our city of assembly, Your eyes shall behold Jerusalem As a secure homestead, A tent not to be transported, Whose pegs shall never be pulled up, And none of whose ropes shall break. (21) For there the LORD in His greatness shall be for us Like a region of rivers, of broad streams, Where no floating vessels can sail And no mighty craft can travel— Their ropes are slack, They cannot steady the sockets of their masts, They cannot spread a sail. (22) For the LORD shall be our ruler, The LORD shall be our prince, The LORD shall be our king: He shall deliver us. (23) Then shall indeed much spoil be divided, Even the lame shall seize booty. (24) And none who lives there shall say, “I am sick”; It shall be inhabited by folk whose sin has been forgiven.