Chapter 16 in Yechezkel is one of the most difficult and trembling chapters in the book. The Malbim explains that throughout the entire chapter, the prophet compares the People of Israel to a foundling girl: an infant abandoned by her parents and cast into a desolate wilderness in utter loathing. A generous benefactor passed by, saw her, took pity on her, looked favorably upon her, raised her - and ultimately took her as his wife.
The bare minimum expectation in such a situation is gratitude - that she appreciate everything done for her. But, says the Malbim, after he bestowed upon her every kind of goodness, she forgot all his kindness toward her and committed adultery against him to provoke him. How much divine wrath is aroused against such an appalling betrayal! This is essentially what the Torah says: "He found him in a desert land... He guarded him like the pupil of His eye," "He made him ride on the high places of the earth" - all these describe the lovingkindness that the Holy One, blessed be He, performed for us when taking us out of Egypt. And then afterwards: "And Yeshurun grew fat and kicked; you grew fat, thick, and gross." What the Torah expressed briefly, Yechezkel describes here at great length.
וַיְהִי דְבַר־יְהֹוָה אֵלַי לֵאמֹר׃ בֶּן־אָדָם הוֹדַע אֶת־יְרוּשָׁלַ͏ִם אֶת־תּוֹעֲבֹתֶיהָ׃ - The word of Hashem came to me, saying: Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations.
The Gemara in Masechet Megillah (25b) states: "'Make known to Jerusalem her abominations' is read and translated." That is, it is read publicly and also translated into Aramaic, unlike the incident of Reuven and similar passages which are read but not translated. Translating is what is familiar among Yemenite Jews, where a verse is read from the Tanach followed immediately by the Targum. The Gemara asks: Isn't this obvious; why shouldn't it be read and translated? It answers: To exclude the view of Rabbi Eliezer, who holds that it is neither read nor translated.
For it was taught in a Baraita: There was an incident involving a person who read "Make known to Jerusalem her abominations" in the presence of Rabbi Eliezer - meaning he read it as the haftarah. Rabbi Eliezer said to him: "Before you investigate the abominations of Jerusalem, go and investigate the abominations of your mother!" They investigated his lineage and found a flaw in it. The Yerushalmi adds that they discovered he was a mamzer. Rabbi Eliezer objected to reading this haftarah, as though the reader is searching for faults in Jerusalem - which itself points to a flaw within the reader.
In practice, those who read "Make known to Jerusalem" as the haftarah for Parashat Shemot are primarily Yemenite Jews (and historically also Iraqi communities), but most of the Jewish world does not read it. This is likely based on the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer, even though the Halachah does not follow him. Halachically, and as the Rambam rules, one may read "Make known to Jerusalem," yet despite this, other communities have not adopted this custom.
The Ritva asks: Why was Rabbi Eliezer so angry? After all, that man was reading according to the view of the Sages, who permit it! He explains that since this occurred in Rabbi Eliezer's own locality, the reader should have shown caution and inquired first: Should we follow the Rabbis or your honor? One who does not show honor to the Sages, reasoned Rabbi Eliezer, must possess an inner flaw. Therefore, they investigated him and indeed discovered a flaw, just as he had suspected. The Ritva cites this in the name of his teacher, may the Merciful One preserve and redeem him.
It is worth noting here: Anyone familiar with reading this chapter as a haftarah will immediately notice how recognizable the verses are. Some are familiar to all of us from the Pesach Haggadah, and others from the haftarah itself.
וְאָמַרְתָּ כֹּה־אָמַר אֲדֹנָי יֱהֹוִה לִירוּשָׁלַ͏ִם מְכֹרֹתַיִךְ וּמֹלְדֹתַיִךְ מֵאֶרֶץ הַכְּנַעֲנִי אָבִיךְ הָאֱמֹרִי וְאִמֵּךְ חִתִּית׃ - And you shall say: Thus said the Lord Hashem to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are from the land of the Canaanite; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.
Here the prophet begins to describe the origin, where the Jewish people came from, by way of an allegory. The Radak addresses the difficulty: Yechezkel was in Babylon - how could he inform Jerusalem? Rather, the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded him to inform them by letter, sending them a written message, in the hope that they might listen and repent.
The Malbim explains the underlying meaning: The foundling girl came from a foreign land, the land of the Canaanite, and even her father and mother were not from the same nation - the father was an Amorite and the mother a Hittite. This was the very reason they took no pity on the child born to them: neither of them viewed the child as truly belonging to them. The Hittite mother saw her as an Amorite, and the Amorite father saw her as a Hittite, and consequently neither cared for her or took pity on her.
And why specifically "your father was an Amorite"? The Malbim explains that the Amorites were the most wicked and degenerate of the nations. And why specifically "your mother a Hittite"? Because the defining trait of the Hittite women was that they were worse than all other women, even worse than the Amorite women. And where do we see this? "I am disgusted with my life because of the daughters of Cheis" - the daughters of Cheis were so corrupt that Rivkah grew weary of life on their account.
The message behind the parable is that the Holy One, blessed be He, says to them: I took you at a stage when you were not yet a distinct nation. You were still tethered to the father and mother from whom you were born - bound to the Amorites and the Hittites, learning from their ways, with them serving as your guides, as it were your father and your mother.
The Malbim asks: Surely our lineage is not genuinely Amorite and Hittite, so why does the prophet describe us this way? He explains that the people bore the character of the land in which they were born - in the land of Cheis, in Chevron, where Avraham and Yitzchak lived, which belonged to the Bnei Cheis. The metaphor portrays a nation as a father to the people living within it. Just as a father teaches his children how to conduct themselves, so too a society as a whole teaches the individuals living within it how to behave. We absorb our conduct and cultural habits from the nation among whom we dwell.
And we can see this with our own eyes: there is no greater proof than the ingathering of the exiles that the Jewish people have witnessed over the past seventy years. Every community that arrived here, although we all stem from a single origin, acquired the accepted norms of the nation among whom it lived. Among Sephardic Jews, there is a tremendous emphasis on hospitality, since they lived in the lands of Ishmael, where hospitality is deeply ingrained. Among Ashkenazic Jews, there is a prominent emphasis on scholarship, study, and the pursuit of knowledge, because in Middle Eastern lands formal academic study was less widespread, whereas in Europe, the cradle of culture and universities, great prestige was attached to education. Many more examples could be given along these lines. A person learns from the place where he lives and from the people around him.
And the land in which a person is born is described by Scripture as a mother, because from the earth a person draws his sustenance, and the child's nature reflects the soil, its produce, and its climate - "from his field he seeks food." Therefore it is said that one land raises warriors and another raises the weak: the quality of the earth and its yield affect the creatures that grow upon it. The Rambam notes that in equatorial Africa there are people of limited intellect, and indeed we do not find the giants of science and scholarship emerging from there. Why? Because their water is murky, and murky water produces a murky intellect, whereas in lands where the water is clear and pure, it produces a clear, refined mind. What a person eats and the land's produce directly influence those who grow up there.
It turns out that "your origins (*mechorotayich*) and your birthplace (*moladotayich*)" refer to two distinct things: *mechorotayich* is related to *megurotayich* (your dwellings), except that *gur* implies a temporary stay, whereas *mechora* implies permanence. And corresponding to the father and mother: the nation among whom they were born, and the land in which they lived. The purpose of the rebuke is: You have not yet separated yourselves from the ways of the nations. You are still bound to that nation and its conduct, tied to the land and what it produced, and all of those influences still pulse within you. You needed to be cleansed and refined of this - and that is precisely what the prophet proceeds to describe, how that Benefactor came and rescued you from that entire existence.
Targum Yonasan interprets the verse in an entirely different direction: "*Bizchut avahatachon ana matrish min kodamachon yat emora'ah umashzei yat chita'ah*" - in the merit of your fathers I dispossess the Amorite before you and destroy the Hittite. In other words, in the merit of the Avos, through Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, I drive out the Amorites and the Hittites before you.
וּמוֹלְדוֹתַיִךְ בְּיוֹם הוּלֶּדֶת אוֹתָךְ לֹא־כׇרַּת שׇׁרֵּךְ וּבְמַיִם לֹא־רֻחַצְתְּ לְמִשְׁעִי וְהׇמְלֵחַ לֹא הֻמְלַחַתְּ וְהׇחְתֵּל לֹא חֻתָּלְתְּ׃ - And as for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you; you were not salted at all, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths.
After describing the background into which this daughter was born, the prophet describes the birth itself: what was done with her on the day of her birth. The Malbim explains: The custom was to perform four kinds of care for a newborn infant, and not a single one of them was performed for you.
The first: immediately when a child is born, the umbilical cord is cut. "Sharech" (your navel) is like "shorererch agan hasahar" - the navel at the center of the body. The Malbim explains: until that moment, the fetus was on the level of plant life. A plant draws nourishment through its root, and similarly a fetus draws nourishment through the umbilical cord, which acts as a root connected to the mother. Once the cord is cut and tied, the newborn receives its sustenance through the mouth. As long as the umbilical cord is not cut, it remains on that prior level of plant life. The analogy: when the Jewish nation was born, they needed to separate from the nation in whose midst they lived, to separate from the mother - yet "your navel cord was not cut"; the umbilical cord remained, and they were still connected through it to the nation from which they were born, clinging to the deeds of the Canaanites - extremely grave practices that the Torah explicitly warns us not to emulate.
The second: the baby is washed in water to remove the blood and filth. In the analogy of the nation, the wise of heart, the discerning among them, wash away corrupted character traits with the waters of wisdom and understanding. As the Rambam states, immersion is not confined solely to a mikveh; a person can also immerse in the waters of understanding. That is, they establish new practices, not following the nations among whom we grew up, but washing and rectifying their traits into upright, proper ones. For what did we receive from the mother who bore us? Blood and repulsive filth - we were soiled with bad character traits learned from the nations. And what is the meaning of "lemish'i"? In a manner that smooths its flesh. "Mish'i" means smooth, as in "Esau was a hairy man, and Jacob was a smooth man" (ish chalak), which the Targum renders as "she'i'a" - smooth. Even today, a depilatory cream that removes hair chemically rather than with a blade is called mish'i. In other words: your flesh was not smoothed.
The third: salting the baby to strengthen its flesh. This is unfamiliar to us today, but it was their custom to apply salt to the baby's body to firm up its skin and flesh.
The fourth: swaddling it to straighten the limbs. Anyone who has attended a bris performed by Rabbi Machfud has seen this, and in Yemen it was very common - and not only at the circumcision: they would bind the baby's legs firmly and straighten them so that they would grow straight. This was practiced as far back as the times of Chazal. The Malbim explains: since in the mother's womb the flesh is spongy and the limbs are bent, its head between its knees and folded like a notebook as the Gemara describes, it must be straightened out. The analogy for the nation: to strengthen its individuals and straighten the collective, appointing leaders and judges over them, until it becomes like an upright, strong, and robust body whose limbs are properly aligned. Yet none of this was done for you. You were left to grow crooked, with the pollution of blood and filth, with the umbilical cord still binding you to the nations, and without your flesh being strengthened. The reality of the Jewish people was dire - and it will immediately be described how, out of this very reality, the Holy One, blessed be He, took them and built a wondrous, unique nation.
לֹא־חָסָה עָלַיִךְ עַיִן לַעֲשׂוֹת לָךְ אַחַת מֵאֵלֶּה לְחֻמְלָה עָלָיִךְ וַתֻּשְׁלְכִי אֶל־פְּנֵי הַשָּׂדֶה בְּגֹעַל נַפְשֵׁךְ בְּיוֹם הֻלֶּדֶת אֹתָךְ׃ - No eye pitied you, to do any of these things for you, to have compassion upon you; but you were cast out into the open field in the loathsomeness of your person, on the day you were born.
The verse uses two terms: "to spare" (lachus) and "to have compassion" (lachmol). The Malbim distinguishes between them, a principle he repeats in several places. "Chas" means one spares something because he has a need for it, because it is of value to him. As in, "and let not your eye spare your vessels" - I care about the utensils and therefore spare them; or "you had pity (chasta) on the gourd" - you found utility in the gourd. By contrast, "chomel" describes one who desires the existence of the thing for its own sake: the object is good in my eyes, and even if I will derive no benefit from it, it is a shame to destroy it, though I gain nothing from it. As in, "for the people spared (chamal) the best of the sheep and oxen, so as not to destroy them."
And here: the Amorite father and the Hittite mother did not spare her out of their own need, for there is utility in raising a child - having a second and third generation, the continuity of offspring. Nor did they have compassion on her in the second sense: that even if no benefit will accrue to me, at least have pity that it should survive, for it is a shame to destroy it. Even that was absent. Consequently, she was cast out from the settled land into the open field. And what is "the field"? The land of Egypt, where they were mistreated and subjected to "all manner of service in the field."
Targum Yonatan applies "and you were cast out" to the casting out familiar to us from Egypt: "V'la chasas aleichon eina d'Pharaoh" - who did not pity you? Pharaoh. "Lema'avad l'chon tavu chada l'rachama aleichon" - to do you a single kindness, to have mercy on you. "Vegazar aleichon gezirat gemira" - and he decreed upon you a decree of extermination, "lemirma d'churachon b'nahara l'avada yatchon" - to cast your male infants into the river to destroy you, "b'idan d'haviton b'Mitzrayim" - during the time you were in Egypt.
וָאֶעֱבֹר עָלַיִךְ וָאֶרְאֵךְ מִתְבּוֹסֶסֶת בְּדָמָיִךְ וָאֹמַר לָךְ בְּדָמַיִךְ חֲיִי וָאֹמַר לָךְ בְּדָמַיִךְ חֲיִי׃ - And I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, and I said to you, 'In your blood, live!' and I said to you, 'In your blood, live!'
The Radak explains that the parable and metaphor correspond to Aaron, Miriam, and Moses, whom the Holy One, blessed be He, sent to redeem Israel and tell them, "Cast away every man the detestable things of his eyes, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt." It is written that Aaron was already prophesying to the people even before Moses, in order to distance them from idolatry.
"And I saw you wallowing in your blood" - soiled in the blood of birth. The Radak explains that they were wallowing in the mortar and clay from which they made the bricks, and they did not even have the leisure to clean themselves, for that required spare time, whereas they were forced to make bricks day in and day out without rest. They were unable even to maintain basic cleanliness, and were wallowing in their filth.
"And I said to you: In your blood, live!" - Radak explains: Do not fear that you will die from the crushing labor and the filth; rather, from this very state you will live and flourish like the plants of the field. And "live" is an imperative: you shall live and survive out of this reality. Regarding the repetition, Radak explains, as is his approach, that Scripture typically doubles words to reinforce the matter.
Chazal, however, interpret the repetition homiletically: "In your blood, live" - the blood of the Pesach offering; "in your blood, live" - the blood of circumcision (or vice versa, since they first circumcised themselves and only then offered the Pesach sacrifice). For Scripture describes the Jewish people as being in a state of "naked and bare", meaning completely devoid of any merit and lacking any mitzvah through which they could be redeemed. What, then, brought them to life? These two merits.
We have already discussed that these were very fragile merits. Initially, the Jewish people did not come to take a lamb for the sacrifice because doing so required them to undergo circumcision, which they were unwilling to do. What did the Holy One, Blessed be He, do? He spread the aroma of the Pesach offering throughout all of Egypt, infusing it with the scent of Gan Eden. Everyone smelled it and asked, "From where does this wonderful fragrance come?" They were told, "One must be circumcised first." Only then did they go and circumcise themselves. It turns out that the entire matter of the Pesach offering came only after circumcision, and the circumcision itself came only after they craved the aroma - and that aroma was orchestrated by the Holy One, Blessed be He, Himself. Yet in the merit of two such mitzvot, seemingly so frail and performed almost under duress, they were already deemed worthy of redemption. From here lies the answer to anyone who asks: What merits do we possess to be redeemed? See how faint the mitzvot were back then, and yet they served as the cause for redemption. How much more so is the Jewish people today, full of mitzvot like a pomegranate, worthy of being redeemed!
The Malbim explains: The benefactor passes by, sees the abandoned girl, and goes to rescue her. "Wallowing in your blood" - there are two types of blood here: not only the birth-blood with which she was soiled, but since they cast her out, she was wounded and bled from the trauma as well. He looks over her and says to her: Live despite the blood of these wounds; do not fear that you will die on their account. The deeper meaning is that the Holy One, Blessed be He, watches over them during the exile; even though Pharaoh struck them, killed, and wounded, the Holy One, Blessed be He, watched over them so that there would not, Heaven forbid, be destruction to the Jewish people.
רְבָבָה כְּצֶמַח הַשָּׂדֶה נְתַתִּיךְ וַתִּרְבִּי וַתִּגְדְּלִי וַתָּבֹאִי בַּעֲדִי עֲדָיִים שָׁדַיִם נָכֹנוּ וּשְׂעָרֵךְ צִמֵּחַ וְאַתְּ עֵרֹם וְעֶרְיָה׃ - I made you a myriad like the growth of the field, and you increased and grew great, and you attained fine ornaments; your breasts were formed and your hair grew, yet you were naked and bare.
In this reality where he found her in the field, he likens her to the plants of the field. She multiplied and grew until the time of blossom and budding arrived, in the words of the Malbim - beautiful flowers and adorned blossoms, which are the glory of the growth. And what are those ornaments? "Your breasts were formed and your hair grew", indicating that the time of love had arrived. Yet "you were naked and bare" - and in practice, a time of love cannot take place, since there are no clothes and the vulnerable areas are exposed.
The deeper meaning: The Holy One, Blessed be He, watched over the Jewish people so that they would be fruitful and multiply - "And as they afflicted them, so they multiplied and so they spread out", which corresponds to "I made you a myriad like the growth of the field." This continued until the time of redemption arrived - "and you increased and grew great, and you attained fine ornaments." And who brings us into fine ornaments? "Your breasts were formed" - breasts always represent nursing, the giving of milk, hinting at Moshe and Aharon, who nurtured the Jewish people like nursing parents, raising them and imparting the Torah to them. Thus, the redeemers were already prepared. However, "yet you were naked and bare" - the Jewish people were still bare, devoid of Torah and mitzvot. And garments are the garments of the soul, as we have mentioned many times and as is found frequently throughout the words of prophecy: garments represent merits, mitzvot, and good deeds. "Remove the soiled garments from upon him" is homiletically interpreted as referring to sons who married foreign wives, and so on. Garments are akin to the celestial robe (chaluka derabbanan) worn in the World of Truth, woven from a person's merits and deeds in this world. Thus: indeed you multiplied and grew, and indeed the redeemers are ready, but you have no merits and no mitzvot to adorn yourself with - you have reached the time when you are due to be redeemed, yet the merits are lacking.
וָאֶעֱבֹר עָלַיִךְ וָאֶרְאֵךְ וְהִנֵּה עִתֵּךְ עֵת דֹּדִים וָאֶפְרֹשׂ כְּנָפִי עָלַיִךְ וָאֲכַסֶּה עֶרְוָתֵךְ וָאֶשָּׁבַע לָךְ וָאָבוֹא בִבְרִית אֹתָךְ נְאֻם אֲדֹנָי יֱהֹוִה וַתִּהְיִי־לִי׃ - And I passed by you and saw you, and behold, your time was the time of love; and I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness, and I swore to you and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord God, and you became Mine.
The Malbim explains: The Beloved passed by a second time and saw that the time of love had arrived - the time of redemption had come - and now He needed to spread His wings over her. The idiom is like "and spread your robe over your maidservant" that Ruth said to Boaz, which signifies taking someone exclusively for oneself. Here too, "and I spread My wing over you" - I will designate you exclusively for Me and My Name, as it is written: "My firstborn son is Israel." Through this, "and covered your nakedness" - through the mitzvah of circumcision. As long as Israel were uncircumcised, there was a disgrace about them, an aspect of nakedness, but through the mitzvah of circumcision, He cleansed them from the foreskin and the filth. "And I swore to you and entered into a covenant with you" - like "and I remembered My covenant", for the Holy One, Blessed be He, made a covenant with us guaranteeing our redemption. "And you became Mine" - this refers to the Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, where the Holy One, Blessed be He, took us and set us apart exclusively for Himself.
וָאֶרְחָצֵךְ בַּמַּיִם וָאֶשְׁטֹף דָּמַיִךְ מֵעָלָיִךְ וָאֲסֻכֵךְ בַּשָּׁמֶן׃ - Then I washed you with water, and thoroughly rinsed your blood from upon you, and I anointed you with oil.
All the necessary measures that were neglected at birth are now completed, one by one. "You were not washed in water" - and now, "Then I washed you with water, and thoroughly rinsed your blood from upon you." "You were not salted" - and now, "and I anointed you with oil," to soften and soothe the flesh. "Nor were you swaddled at all," meaning that no one wrapped you in garments - and now, "I clothed you in embroidered work."
And the allegory: The Holy One, blessed be He, stripped away from the Jewish people the false notions and ideological corruption that had clung to them in Egypt. "The Egyptians dealt ill with us (vayarei'u otanu)" - meaning they made us wicked (ra'im), for we became idolaters like them, and our outlook became corrupted and distorted. And how was this washing accomplished? The Malbim explains: through the waters of the Red Sea. And what did this washing bring about? "And they believed in Hashem and in Moshe His servant." Although they did not immerse bodily in the sea, through those waters they acquired faith. In doing so, the false beliefs and idolatries of every kind were dismantled, and they perceived that Hashem is God. Afterward, He anointed them with oil - the sacred anointing oil, corresponding to "There He made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He tested them," the decrees that the Holy One, blessed be He, taught Israel. Next, He clothed them in embroidered work - this refers to the wondrous revelation at Mount Sinai, where He gave them the Torah and mitzvos, which are spiritual garments, as it says, "and let them wash their clothes." From there came "and you flourished into royalty" - that they might become for Him a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
וַתַּעְדִּי זָהָב וָכֶסֶף וּמַלְבּוּשֵׁךְ שֵׁשׁ וָמֶשִׁי וְרִקְמָה סֹלֶת וּדְבַשׁ וָשֶׁמֶן אָכָלְתְּ וַתִּיפִי בִּמְאֹד מְאֹד וַתִּצְלְחִי לִמְלוּכָה׃ - You were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was fine linen, silk, and embroidered work; you ate fine flour, honey, and oil; you grew exceedingly beautiful, and you flourished into royalty.
The Radak explains that this entire section, culminating in "and you flourished into royalty," is an elaboration of the metaphor describing the abundance of good bestowed upon them in the wilderness: in food, drink, every delight, clothing, and footwear. That is to say, the Radak interprets these verses according to their plain meaning - all these depictions of material pleasures refer to literal material bounties granted in the desert: "Your garment did not wear out upon you, nor did your foot swell, these forty years." The Malbim, by contrast, interprets everything as spiritual expressions: the garments symbolize the Torah and mitzvos received at Sinai, the anointing with oil signifies "There He made for them a statute and an ordinance," and so forth. Simply put, both perspectives are true, and both are the words of the living God: this encompasses both the material blessings and the spiritual ones, for which the material serves as an allegory.
וָאַלְבִּישֵׁךְ רִקְמָה וָאֶנְעֲלֵךְ תָּחַשׁ וָאֶחְבְּשֵׁךְ בַּשֵּׁשׁ וַאֲכַסֵּךְ מֶשִׁי׃ - I clothed you in embroidered work, shod you with tachash skin, bound you around with fine linen, and covered you with silk.
This verse corresponds to the four priestly garments. "I clothed you in embroidered work" - the undergarment worn against the body, the tunic (ketones), which was embroidered. "Shod you with tachash skin" - the breeches (michnasayim), which on a woman correspond to shoes, since they constitute the lowest part of the clothing. "Bound you around with fine linen" - the turban (mitznefes) worn on the head of the priests, as Targum Yonasan renders: "And I consecrated from among you priests to minister before Me in turbans of fine linen." "And covered you with silk" - the Kohen Gadol, whom I enveloped in colorful garments, a covering that wraps over the head and body.
The Radak cites a Midrash: Rabbi Yehudah ben Rabbi Simon said: The Holy One, blessed be He, declared: Do not imagine that you are repaying Me with the thirteen materials you set aside for Me, corresponding to the thirteen things I did for you in Egypt. The thirteen materials set aside by Israel were the donations for the Mishkan - gold, silver, copper, turquoise wool, purple wool, scarlet wool, fine linen, goats' hair, and so forth. Corresponding to them are the thirteen acts mentioned here: "Then I washed you with water," "and thoroughly rinsed your blood," "and I anointed you with oil," "I clothed you in embroidered work," "shod you with tachash skin," and so on.
And the Holy One, blessed be He, says to them: Do not think that by doing so you are settling the score with Me measure for measure, one for one, closing the account. And nonetheless - I credit it to you as if you were indeed bestowing a favor upon Me. This is as David said: "I will sing to Hashem, because He has dealt bountifully with me (gamal alai)" - I will sing to Hashem because even though everything I give Him is already His, the Holy One, blessed be He, considers it as though I am conferring a benefit upon Him. What is more, I even preserve this merit for your future, and in the World to Come I will reward you corresponding to these thirteen things: "And Hashem will create over every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night, for over all the glory shall be a canopy. And there shall be a sukkah for shade in the daytime from the heat, and for a refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain."
We find, then, that there are two gifts here: first, that the Holy One, blessed be He, considers what we gave to Him - even though everything is His - as if we bestowed a favor upon Him; and second, that He does not offset and close the account, but rather grants reward for it in the World to Come. This is out of the sheer goodness of Hashem, blessed is He, and this is the meaning of: "I will sing to Hashem, for He has dealt bountifully with me."
Chapter 16 opens with the parable of the abandoned newborn girl: the Jewish people was born in the land of the Canaanite, to an Amorite father and a Hittite mother, and none of the four post-birth cares were performed for her - the umbilical cord connecting her to the nations was not cut, she was not washed of her blood and filth, she was not salted to be strengthened, nor swaddled to be straightened. No one pitied her out of self-interest, nor had compassion on her for her own sake, and she was cast out into the open field, into Egypt. There, the Holy One, blessed be He, passed over her and said to her, "In your blood, live!" - by the merit of the blood of the Pesach offering and the blood of circumcision, even though these were fragile mitzvot performed almost under compulsion, and He watched over her so that she would not be annihilated. He multiplied her like the growth of the field and prepared redeemers for her - Moshe and Aharon - even while she was still bare of merits. Then He spread His wings over her, dedicated her to His Name, made a covenant with her, washed her in the waters of the Yam Suf from her false beliefs, anointed her with the oil of the statutes, clothed her in the garments of the Torah at Sinai, and she prospered into royalty - a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And corresponding to the thirteen things He did for us, we set aside thirteen items for the contribution to the Mishkan; and even though everything belongs to Him, He considers it as though we bestowed a favor upon Him, and He furthermore preserves for us a reward in the World to Come.