Introduction
In this chapter, Malachi continues his rebuke to the generation of the Return to Zion. After reprimanding them for defrauding the Holy One, Blessed be He, in tithes and Terumah, the prophet turns to them with an extraordinary proposal: Come and test Me. From there, the discussion moves to the harsh claims of that generation - "It is futile to serve God" - and to the response of the Holy One, Blessed be He, to those who fear Him: that while their reward is not in this world, a book of remembrance is written before Him, and they will be His cherished treasure for the day that He prepares. We will follow the order of the pesukim according to the commentary of the Malbim.
"And Test Me Now in This" - The Difference Between a Test and an Examination
הָבִיאוּ אֶת־כָּל־הַמַּעֲשֵׂר אֶל־בֵּית הָאוֹצָר וִיהִי טֶרֶף בְּבֵיתִי וּבְחָנוּנִי נָא בָּזֹאת אָמַר יְהֹוָה צְבָאוֹת אִם־לֹא אֶפְתַּח לָכֶם אֵת אֲרֻבּוֹת הַשָּׁמַיִם וַהֲרִיקֹתִי לָכֶם בְּרָכָה עַד־בְּלִי־דָי׃ - "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this," said the Lord of Hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until there is more than enough."
The Malbim establishes a fundamental principle here in the precision of Lashon Hakodesh: there is a difference between a *nisayon* (a test) and a *bechinah* (an examination). One who conducts a *nisayon* checks whether something possesses an extraordinary quality beyond its ordinary nature. For example, a person who knows that gold is gold, and comes to check whether it also possesses the power to attract metal like a magnet - that is a *nisayon*, since he is seeking an additional quality beyond the standard. Similarly, "And God tested Avraham": Avraham's greatness was known, and the question was whether he possessed a virtue that went beyond his ordinary level, even to the point of binding his son. By contrast, one who conducts a *bechinah* does not look for an addition at all; rather, he checks whether the object meets its standard - like one who examines gold to see whether it is free of dross and worthy of being called gold.
According to this, explains the Malbim, had the blessing been coming through the power of nature and the celestial order, namely from the heavenly bodies, this would indeed have fallen under the category of a forbidden test. For nature has a fixed limit to what it can produce, and there is no way for rain to fall without clouds. To demand of nature more than it has the capacity to give is a *nisayon*. But the Holy One, Blessed be He, promises here a blessing that is above nature: "I will open for you the windows of heaven." A natural blessing inherently has a boundary, and upon reaching its limit - enough, it ceases. But a miraculous blessing is not limited at all, like the oil that continued to pour into the vessels as long as more vessels were brought. And since there is no limitation with the Holy One, Blessed be He, and nothing can be said to be beyond His power, this is not a *nisayon*, but a *bechinah*: verifying whether He gives what He promised to give, rather than demanding something beyond His capacity.
And this is explicitly stated in the Gemara: Reish Lakish encountered a young child who expounded, "*Aser te'aser* [Tithe, you shall tithe] - tithe in order that you may become wealthy." Reish Lakish said to him: "Is it permitted to test Him? May one test the Holy One, Blessed be He?" The child replied: "In a case like this it is permitted, as it is written: 'And test Me now in this.'" That is to say, this is not the forbidden *nisayon*, but a *bechinah*, and a *bechinah* is permissible - for it is only to see whether the Holy One, Blessed be He, fulfills what He promised.
The Meaning of "Until There Is No Sufficiency" (Ad Bli Dai)
The verse itself presents a difficulty. The intention of the text is clear - a great and immense blessing. Yet the phrasing seems inverted: it should have said "a blessing until enough" (*ad dai*), until you say "enough," until you have more than enough. After all, a person says "enough" precisely when he has sufficient, whereas as long as it is not sufficient, he says, "Give more and more." What, then, is the meaning of "until there is no sufficiency" (*ad bli dai*)?
The Malbim explains: *Dai* means the measure of satisfaction and need, as in "sufficient for a lamb" (*dei seh*) and "sufficient to restore it to him" (*dei hashiv lo*). *Bli dai* means without measure - an abundance so vast that no one stands to measure whether it is enough or not enough. When a drink is poured for a person sparingly, he stands watch: a little more, just a bit, now that is enough. But when an entire barrel is poured over him, no one stops to check whether to say enough. The measurement of "enough" applies only to small amounts; amid immense abundance, one does not measure at all.
The Radak cites another interpretation in his father's name: "Until there is no sufficiency" - until your vessels and storehouses are not sufficient, meaning until there are not enough vessels to contain the blessing. And Chazal expounded: Rami bar Chama said in the name of Rav, "Until your lips wear out (*yivlu*) from saying 'enough'" - *bli* derived from the root of wearing out (*belayah*), that the lips will wear out from saying "enough" so many times. The Kli Yakar (in Parashat Re'eh) explains that they will have immense abundance far beyond what they need, and therefore they will not be able to say *dai* at all; for *dai* denotes "sufficient for my lack," as in the verse "sufficient for his lack that he is lacking," and when one has more than enough, it is no longer possible to speak of "sufficient for my lack."
Allusions Concerning Tithes and Charity
Since we mentioned the Yenuka's drashah on "Aser te'aser" (tithe, you shall tithe), a beautiful hint is cited in the holy sefarim: *Aser te'aser* - you will find your *mazal* (good fortune). How so? Take the word "תעשר" (*te'aser*) and tithe it itself: *Tav* (ת) is 400, and its tithe (a tenth) is 40 - which is *Mem* (מ). *Ayin* (ע) is 70, and its tithe is 7 - which is *Zayin* (ז). *Shin* (ש) is 300, and its tithe is 30 - which is *Lamed* (ל). *Reish* (ר) is 200, and its tithe is 20 - which is *Chaf* (כ). You tithed "תעשר" and obtained "מזלך" (*mazalcha* - your fortune). Do you desire good fortune? Separate tithes, and through this you will merit good fortune.
Another hint: Chazal derive from "Aser te'aser" that there are two levels - a tithe (a tenth) and a fifth (twenty percent), as two tenths constitute a fifth. The Gra explains that the primary promise of blessing applies specifically to giving a fifth. And where are both hinted at in the word "צדקה" (*tzedakah*)? Take *Kuf* (ק) and turn it into *Tzadi* (צ): from one hundred coins you are left with ninety, having set aside a tenth - this is *ma'aser* (a tithe). Take *Hei* (ה) and turn it into *Dalet* (ד): from five you are left with four, having set aside a fifth - this is *chomesh* (a fifth). Thus, both forms of separation are encoded within the word *tzedakah*. Another hint in the word *tzedakah*: its gematria is 199 - for one who possesses two hundred *zuz* may not take charity, meaning that one eligible for *tzedakah* is someone with only 199.
The Dubno Maggid: Why Testing Is Permitted Specifically with Tithes
The Dubno Maggid asks: Why did the Holy One, Blessed be He, say "Test Me now with this" specifically here? Why should we not test Him with the mitzvah of tefillin, with Shabbat observance, and with every other mitzvah? A parable illustrates this: A traveling salesman came to sell a shopkeeper numerous rolls of fabric, claiming that each roll contained one hundred meters. The shopkeeper said to him, "Who says there are actually one hundred meters here?" He replied, "Measure them." The shopkeeper asked, "Shall I measure five hundred rolls?" The salesman said, "I have a suggestion: search for the thinnest, flimsiest roll, the one least likely to contain one hundred meters, and measure that one. If you find one hundred meters in it, *kal vachomer* (all the more so) the thick rolls will contain it."
So it is in our case. A person wants to verify whether fulfilling a mitzvah brings him abundance or loss. The Holy One, Blessed be He, says to him: Do not test all the mitzvot; I will give you a mitzvah where the apparent loss is obvious to the eye - separating tithes, where you actually take money out of your pocket. If in a mitzvah where the deficit is visible you see blessing, *kal vachomer* in all other mitzvot where there is no visible loss at all - such as donning tefillin and observing Shabbat - the Holy One, Blessed be He, will faithfully pour out His blessing upon you.
The Blessing of the Land and Acclaim of the Nations
וְגָעַרְתִּי לָכֶם בָּאֹכֵל וְלֹא־יַשְׁחִית לָכֶם אֶת־פְּרִי הָאֲדָמָה וְלֹא־תְשַׁכֵּל לָכֶם הַגֶּפֶן בַּשָּׂדֶה אָמַר יְהֹוָה צְבָאוֹת׃ - And I will rebuke the devourer for your sake, and it will not destroy the fruit of the ground for you, nor will your vine in the field cast its fruit before its time, says the Lord of Hosts.
"And I will rebuke the devourer for your sake" - I will rebuke on your behalf that which consumes your produce, namely the locusts, so that it will not destroy the fruit of the ground. "Nor will your vine in the field cast its fruit" - that it will not drop its fruit before reaching full ripeness.
וְאִשְּׁרוּ אֶתְכֶם כָּל־הַגּוֹיִם כִּי־תִהְיוּ אַתֶּם אֶרֶץ חֵפֶץ אָמַר יְהֹוָה צְבָאוֹת׃ - And all the nations will praise you as fortunate, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of Hosts.
"And all the nations will praise you as fortunate" - through this the nations will consider you fortunate, seeing that you are the land in which Hashem delights, watching over it to bestow good upon it. And they will say: Fortunate is the nation that walks in the Torah of its God.
"Your Words Have Been Harsh Against Me" - The Argument of the Afflictions of the Righteous
חָזְקוּ עָלַי דִּבְרֵיכֶם אָמַר יְהֹוָה וַאֲמַרְתֶּם מַה־נִּדְבַּרְנוּ עָלֶיךָ׃ - Your words have been harsh against Me, says the Lord, yet you say, "What have we spoken against You?"
At the beginning of the prophecy, the prophet mentioned their claim regarding the tranquility of the wicked - "Everyone who does evil is good in the eyes of Hashem," or "Where is the God of justice?" - from which they sought to deduce that there is no Divine Providence, or that the Holy One, blessed be He, favors the wicked and therefore does good to them. And the Holy One, blessed be He, already answered them that we are in a world of free choice, and in a world of free choice immediate punishment for every sin is not fitting, for if it were so, free will would be nullified. And concerning this, the Holy One, blessed be He, says: Still, "Your words have been strong against Me" - you persist in your claims to refute My answer. And they ask: "What have we spoken against You," in what way?
אֲמַרְתֶּם שָׁוְא עֲבֹד אֱלֹהִים וּמַה־בֶּצַע כִּי שָׁמַרְנוּ מִשְׁמַרְתּוֹ וְכִי הָלַכְנוּ קְדֹרַנִּית מִפְּנֵי יְהֹוָה צְבָאוֹת׃ - You have said, "It is futile to serve God, and what profit is there that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked in mourning before Hashem of Hosts?"
Their claim was: True, regarding the tranquility of the wicked You gave a satisfactory answer, that if immediate punishment were to come, free choice would be nullified - but we still struggle with the suffering of the righteous. After all, they did not sin, yet their lives are filled with pain and affliction. And from this they conclude: "It is futile to serve God" - dust to their mouths. The futility, in their view, is twofold: from the perspective of the One being served, and from the perspective of the servant. From the perspective of the One being served - does the Holy One, blessed be He, need this service? "If you are righteous, what do you give Him, or what does He receive from your hand?" The Master of the World, Who reigned before any creature was created, does not need our service to be King, and it is inconceivable that He created beings upon whom He would be dependent.
And if you say: True, Hashem does not need the service, but you need it - to this they reply, "and what profit is there that we have kept His charge?" What benefit has grown from this for us? The proof: "and that we have walked in mourning before Hashem of Hosts" - we have toiled in vain in our service and have received no reward. The Jewish people are the most persecuted among the nations, and the righteous suffer.
וְעַתָּה אֲנַחְנוּ מְאַשְּׁרִים זֵדִים גַּם־נִבְנוּ עֹשֵׂי רִשְׁעָה גַּם בָּחֲנוּ אֱלֹהִים וַיִּמָּלֵטוּ׃ - And now we call the arrogant blessed; those who practice wickedness have indeed been built up; they have even tested God and escaped.
We call the arrogant blessed - they do not bother to serve Hashem at all, yet they prosper and build up their lives. And not only that, but "they have even tested God and escaped": they act insolently and test the Holy One, blessed be He - "If there is a God, let Him take retribution against me, let Him punish me" - and the Holy One, blessed be He, does nothing to them.
Rabbi Yisrael Salanter and the Innkeeper
It is told of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter that he once stayed at an inn and noticed that the innkeeper had cast off every sign of Judaism. He asked him: What happened? Have you discovered new findings regarding the existence of the Creator, or regarding reward and punishment? The man replied: What can I tell the Rav? Someone came here and asked if I had pork. I told him: Heaven forbid, this is a kosher place, the Holy One, blessed be He, forbade eating pork. He said to me: Watch me eat pork now, and let us see what happens to me. He took out a pork sandwich, ate it, and nothing happened to him. Ever since then, my faith was shaken. And how simple people once were, that such a thing could shake a Jew's faith; nor is it known how much faith he had to begin with, if a pork sandwich could manage to undermine it.
At that moment, the innkeeper's daughter arrived holding a certificate showing she had graduated her piano studies with distinction. Rabbi Yisrael saw the father's pride and joy, turned to the daughter, and said: I do not believe that you know how to play. Come, play a piece for us here. The daughter felt insulted and said: Is this why I have a diploma? So that every passerby on the street can stop me and ask me to play? - And so it is with any entertainer who is stopped on the street and asked for a joke: Am I an entertainer for hire? Rent a hall, bring five hundred people, pay several thousand shekels - then we have something to talk about.
Rabbi Yisrael Salanter said to him: Did you hear what your daughter said? The Holy One, blessed be He, already demonstrated His power at Mount Sinai, when He revealed Himself before the eyes of some five million people - "I am Hashem your God"; our own eyes saw and not a stranger's, our own ears heard and no other's. "For ask now of the days of old... whether there has been anything like this great thing, or whether the like of it has been heard? Did ever a people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live?" Such an event has never occurred and never will occur again, and no nation in the world even makes such a claim about a divine revelation granted to it. And now, should every boorish pork-eater and every insolent upstart who comes along and provokes Him - is the Holy One, blessed be He, supposed to give him answers and take immediate retribution against him?
The Holy One, blessed be He, says: There is time. And how long is "quickly" for the Almighty? The Gemara learns from the verse, "And you will perish quickly from the good land," that "quickly" for the Holy One, blessed be He, is 850 years, since it was after 850 years that we went into exile. And that is when things are rushed; when things are delayed, one can easily understand. It is like a massive brute whom someone comes and taunts: "Let's see you take me on!" - would he bother to fight every such person? How much more so the Holy One, blessed be He. But in the eyes of those complainants, this was a challenge: "They have even tested God and escaped."
"Then Those Who Feared Hashem Spoke with One Another" - The Questions of Sincere Seekers
אָז נִדְבְּרוּ יִרְאֵי יְהֹוָה אִישׁ אֶל־רֵעֵהוּ וַיַּקְשֵׁב יְהֹוָה וַיִּשְׁמָע וַיִּכָּתֵב סֵפֶר זִכָּרוֹן לְפָנָיו לְיִרְאֵי יְהֹוָה וּלְחֹשְׁבֵי שְׁמוֹ׃ - Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another, and the Lord listened and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and meditate upon His name.
The Malbim explains: Even the true fearers of Hashem, those who do not serve for the sake of receiving a reward, were preoccupied with this very same question. They spoke to one another regarding matters of Divine providence and asked why the Holy One, blessed be He, does not immediately punish the wicked. Yet, rather than arriving at heresy, they reached the conclusion that this world is neither the realm of reward nor the realm of punishment - "today to perform them, and tomorrow to receive their reward." On the contrary, precisely because the righteous suffer here, their divine service is vastly more demanding and formidable, and their reward is immeasurably greater. For when everything goes well for you and you succeed in all your endeavors, what great achievement is there in your service? But serving Hashem through trials - like the ten trials that tested Avraham until he merited becoming the father of the nation - exists on an entirely different level.
Thus, the response of the Holy One, blessed be He, is: See, even those who fear Hashem ask these very same questions, but they also find answers for themselves. And when does a person fail to answer his own questions? When he does not truly want answers, when he is comfortable with the questions. This is like the student who left the yeshiva and abandoned religious observance. The Rav of Brisk met him and asked, "Why did you leave?" He replied, "I will tell the Rav the truth: I had difficulties and questions." The Rav said to him, "If there are questions, one may ask, and I am even prepared to answer. Just tell me first - did your questions begin before you left the yeshiva, or afterward?" He answered, "In truth, mainly after I left." The Rav told him, "If so, you do not have questions; you have excuses. At first you pursued your desires, and because it is unpleasant to admit that, you constructed an ideology and began raising questions from it. For questions, I know how to provide answers; for excuses, I have no answers."
The same applies here: Those who genuinely want answers - those who fear Hashem - do not come to protest defiantly against Heaven. Instead, they converse with one another, deliberate the matter, ask, and conclude that the reward is eternal in the World of Truth, and that the suffering and hardship here serve only to magnify their reward. It is specifically to this that Hashem listened and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before Him: even though He does not repay them for their good deeds here, He writes them down for remembrance in order to reward them in the World of Truth for all eternity. For the fact that troubles befell them and they suffer, yet they still remain devoted to Hashem, demonstrates that their fear is not fear of punishment, but awe of His exalted majesty. They do not anticipate reward in this world - since they see with their own senses that there is no reward here - but rather their service stems from love, and they await only the reward of the World to Come.
The Malbim also offers an additional interpretation, which is somewhat novel: "Nidberu" stems from the word dever (pestilence), as in the phrase "smitten by pestilence." According to this reading, this is a continuation of the heretics' claim: "They also test God and escape" - when they see that those who fear Hashem are struck down by pestilence, all of them suffering from the plague and infecting one another, they infer from this and say: See, there is no reward; it is futile to serve God. To this the prophet responds: The Holy One, blessed be He, listened and heard the words of those who fear Hashem, and wrote a book of remembrance before Him in order to pay them what they are due. Do not think that if they died here in the plague, they have perished completely and have no further reward - their reward is surely eternal before Him forever.
"And They Shall Be My Treasure" - A Son Serving His Father
וְהָיוּ לִי אָמַר יְהֹוָה צְבָאוֹת לַיּוֹם אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי עֹשֶׂה סְגֻלָּה וְחָמַלְתִּי עֲלֵיהֶם כַּאֲשֶׁר יַחְמֹל אִישׁ עַל־בְּנוֹ הָעֹבֵד אֹתוֹ׃ - And they shall be Mine, said the Lord of Hosts, on the day when I prepare My treasure, and I will have compassion on them as a man has compassion on his son who serves him.
The structure of the verse reads: "And they shall be a treasure for Me on the day that I make." The Malbim explains that the Holy One, blessed be He, stores away a treasure for them - a special treasure designated for that day. Just as they served Him out of love, so too will they be a treasured possession to Him and merit a precious storehouse, as "segulah" refers to a royal treasure.
And what is the meaning of "as a man has compassion on his son who serves him"? The Malbim explains: There are two types of workers. There is one who comes to work strictly for wages - a hired day laborer, to whom one cannot say, "Come back the day after tomorrow." If you hire a laborer for the day, you must pay him at the end of the day, for he does not know what tomorrow will bring or whether he will find you again. But a son who works for his father does not come at the end of the day demanding his wages; he is not worried at all, for he will return tomorrow as well. And he knows it is very likely that from the money owed to him, his father will make a "treasure" for him - opening a savings fund that will endure for generations.
So says the Holy One, blessed be He: Those who serve Me out of love and not for the sake of receiving a reward are neither ordinary laborers nor day workers, and therefore I do not pay them a daily wage here. I make a treasure for them - storing away their reward for eternity, a reward that knows no bounds. "And I will have compassion on them as a man has compassion on his son who serves him" - on his son who works out of love, not out of the expectation of an immediate payout.
In Summary:
In this passage, the Holy One, blessed be He, opens a unique entryway - "test Me now in this" - and we learned from the Malbim that this is not an attempt to test God, but an invitation to inspect His ways, for the heavenly blessing brought by a miracle is boundless, and therefore "until there is more than enough," in an abundance that exceeds all measure. From the Dubno Maggid, we learned that specifically with tithes, where the loss is immediately visible, permission was granted to test, from which we can infer an a fortiori argument to all other mitzvot. From there, we moved to the complaint that "it is futile to serve God," born from the suffering of the righteous and the serenity of the wicked, and to its response: The Holy One, blessed be He, already demonstrated His power at Mount Sinai, and He does not owe an answer to every defiant critic; His "soon" is not our "soon." Meanwhile, those who fear Hashem ask these very same questions, but they seek answers rather than excuses, arriving at the realization that this world is not the world of reward, and that their suffering serves only to magnify their ultimate reward. Concerning these individuals, a book of remembrance is written before Him, and they are His treasured possession for the day He prepares - like a son who serves his father out of love, whose father stores away his reward for all eternity.