689. The Matter of Father and Son

“A son makes the father worthy, but the father does not make the son worthy.” King Hezekiah was righteous. Although his father, Ahaz, was a complete wicked, he has the next world thanks to his son, Hezekiah. But Menashe [Manasseh], son of Hezekiah, does not have a part in the next world although his father Hezekiah was righteous (Sanhedrin 104).

It is known from holy books that the sons come to correct what the parents did not complete. Hence, when Abraham completed the quality of Hesed [mercy/grace], Isaac was born in order to complete the two other lines. When Isaac completed only the line of Gevura, Jacob came and completed the quality of Tifferet, which is the middle line. Likewise, all the generations complete what the earlier generations did not.

This has continued since the sin of the tree of knowledge, for after the soul of Adam HaRishon divided into 600,000 souls, all the generations after him must complete the soul of Adam HaRishon that he corrupted.

From this extends that “A son makes the father worthy,” meaning the next generation corrects the former generation, but the former generation does not correct the next generation, for if the earlier generation corrected everything, there would not need to be a next generation. This is the meaning of reincarnation, that one who did not complete the correction must reincarnate in order to complete what he did not correct in the previous incarnation.

Hence, although Hezekiah was righteous, had he completed what he had to, he would not have had to have sons, since the sons, who come after him, come to correct what their father did not correct.

Therefore, Hezekiah corrected what his father did not correct, and this is why Ahaz has the next world. But Menashe had to correct what Hezekiah did not correct. And since he was wicked, he did not correct what he had to, and Menashe remained without correction. This is why he does not have the next world.

“The righteousness of the righteous will not be remembered on the day of his wickedness.” In ethics, father and son are regarded as cause and consequence, meaning the former act and the following act. The following act is called “a son.” Hence, one who did bad deeds, it is considered that his father was wicked. When afterward, he does good deeds, it is because he repented.

Therefore, repentance corrects the previous actions, according to the value of the repentance he has made: If it is repentance from fear—the sins become for him as mistakes, and if it is repentance from love, the sins become for him as merits.

It follows that his actions after he has repented are called “sons” with respect to the previous actions. Thus, the son, meaning deeds that come after bad deeds, are corrected by the son’s repentance.

However, one who first does good deeds is called “father,” and bad deeds he did he does afterward, which are called “son,” so the father does not correct the son. That is, the good deeds he did before cannot cleanse the bad deeds that follow them, since “The righteousness of the righteous will not be remembered on the day of his wickedness.” But if it is to the contrary, if the son does good deeds, he can correct the bad deeds.