Arakhin 17A

פורענות מזדמנת לו.

A calamity awaits him.

תניא, רבי אליעזר הגדול אומר: אלמלא בא הקדוש ברוך הוא עם אברהם יצחק ויעקב בדין, אין יכולין לעמוד מפני תוכחה, שנאמר: ״ועתה התיצבו ואשפטה אתכם לפני ה׳ את כל צדקות ה׳ אשר עשה אתכם ואת אבותיכם״.

§ The Talmud returns to the topic of rebuke. It is taught in a baraita that R' Eliezer the Great says: Were God to have entered into judgment with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they would not have been able to stand before the rebuke. As it is stated: “Now therefore stand still, that I may plead with you before YHWH concerning all the righteous acts of YHWH, which He did to you and to your fathers” (I Samuel 12:7). This indicates that God acted towards the patriarchs with righteousness, i.e., mercy, not as they deserved according to the strict letter of the law.

״זה דור דרשיו מבקשי פניך יעקב סלה״, פליגי בה רבי יהודה נשיאה ורבנן, חד אמר: דור לפי פרנס, וחד אמר: פרנס לפי דורו.

§ The verse states: “This is the generation of them that seek after Him, that seek Your face, Jacob. Selah” (Psalms 24:6). This verse teaches that the level of the generation and those who lead them, i.e., those who seek after Him, are the same. R' Yehuda Nesia and the Rabbis disagree about this. One says: The level of the generation follows the level of the leader, and one says: The level of the leader follows the level of his generation.

למאי הלכתא? אילימא למעליותא, דמר סבר: אי מעלי דרא מעלי פרנס, ומר סבר: אי מעלי פרנס מעלי דרא ⁠— הא איכא צדקיה, דהוה מעלי ודריה לא הוה מעלי, והא יהויקים, דלא הוה מעלי ודריה הוה מעלי!

The Talmud asks: With regard to what halakha, i.e., matter, is this stated? If we say for good, that one Sage holds that if the generation is good then their leader will be good, and one Sage holds that if the leader is good then his generation will be good, this cannot be correct, as there is the case of King Zedekiah, who was good, but his generation was not good. And conversely, there is the case of Jehoiakim who was not good, but his generation was good.