T283 PNC - Two Tzaddikim From One Root — Why They Dispute (Saul and David)

Reb Noson notes that he heard precious matters of wondrous Torah here, much of it now lost — but he records what he can recall. Know that there are two tzaddikim who are from the same root, and even so there is a machloket between them — because at the root, one of them changes his attribute. They share the source, but each draws a different middah from it.

This is the machloket of Shaul and David. "Only good and chesed will pursue me" (Psalms 23:6) — "good" that is wholly chesed. Good is rooted inward; chesed extends outward. Two tzaddikim from one root: one is the aspect of "good" hidden inward — he doesn't reveal his Torah to others — and the other is the aspect of "chesed" reaching outward, who reveals his Torah and teaches the public. "And Torah of chesed is on her tongue" (Sukkah 49b — Torah taught publicly, lishmah). The Talmud (Eruvin 53b): David revealed the masechta inscribed in him ("those who fear You will see me and rejoice"); Shaul did not reveal his inscribed masechta ("makes all wickedness turn back"). Shaul = inward "good," hidden; David = outward "chesed," revealed. From this very split arose their dispute. Like thunder (Rama 56): hot vapors rise like fire, clouds accumulate them until the cloud splits — thunder. Torah is fire (Yirmiyahu 23:29); when contained in one's heart without being revealed, it bursts as machloket. So too with students debating — these are the conversations of one-on-one Torah study. This kind of machloket comes from un-revealed Torah, from "good" not extended outward. The machloket of the wicked, by contrast, has no Torah at all in it ("They have dug pits for me — arrogant conversations not according to Your Torah," Psalms 119:85). David's plea "Only good and chesed will pursue me" is precisely: when machloket pursues me, may it always be the holy machloket born of good and chesed — never the wicked kind.