Rabbi Kook

Due to the sin of murder, the Beit Hamikdash is destroyed and the Divine Presence leaves Israel, as the Torah says: “Do not corrupt the Land that you are in, for blood will corrupt the Land, and atonement will not come for the Land for the blood that was spilled blood in it except with the blood of he who spilled it. And you shall not defile the Land that you live in, which I dwell in, for I am Hashem Who dwells in the midst of Bnei Yisrael” (Bamidbar 35:33-34). We can deduce that if you defile the Land [with spilled blood], you will not live there and I will not have My presence dwell there.”

Due to the sin of not giving terumot and ma’asrot (tithes to kohanim and levi’im, respectively), the skies are prevented from giving rain and dew … If they give, they are blessed, as the pasuk says: “Bring the ma’aser to the storehouse, and it shall be food in My house, and test Me in this … if I will not open up the skylights of the heavens and pour out limitless blessing” (Malachi 3:10) – until your lips get worn out saying “enough.”

Due to the sin of not giving terumot and ma’asrot (tithes to kohanim and levi’im, respectively), the skies are prevented from giving rain and dew … If they give, they are blessed, as the pasuk says: “Bring the ma’aser to the storehouse, and it shall be food in My house, and test Me in this … if I will not open up the skylights of the heavens and pour out limitless blessing” (Malachi 3:10) – until your lips get worn out saying “enough.”

Due to the sin of not giving terumot and ma’asrot (tithes to kohanim and levi’im, respectively), the skies are prevented from giving rain and dew, prices rise, people lose their profits, and people pursue their livelihood and do not achieve it. This is as the pasuk says: “Desolation and also heat will steal the water of snow; they have sinned to the depths” (Iyov 24:19). What is the implication? Because of things about which I commanded in the summer and you did not do, you will have the waters of snow withheld in the rainy season.

It is said in a baraita: Rabbi Nechemia said: Due to the sin of baseless hatred, a person experiences the following: quarrels enter his house, his wife has miscarriages, and his sons and daughters die when they are young.

Rabbi said: Due to sins of not keeping oaths, one’s children die when they are minors, as the pasuk says: “Do not allow your mouth to cause evil to your flesh … why should Hashem be angry at you over your voice [Rashi- the oath you uttered] and destroy the work of your hands [i.e., your children]? (Kohelet 5:5).

When a person goes out to the marketplace, he should view himself as one who was given over to a judge.

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A Tannaic statement emanated from the school of Rabbi Yishmael: “Should the faller fall from it (mimeneu)” (Devarim 22:8). “Mimenu” implies that the faller was fit to fall from the six days of Genesis, as the Torah calls him a “faller” before he fell. The idea is that meritorious matters are brought about by meritorious people and negative matters by negative people.