Yechezkel chapter 33. "And the word of Hashem came to me, saying: Son of man, speak to the children of your people and say to them: A land, when I bring a sword upon it, and the people of the land take one man from among them and set him for them as a watchman." Hashem tells him: speak to the children of your people and say to them, a land, when I bring a sword upon it. A land facing the danger of war. What do they do? How can they make sure they will not suffer a surprise attack? They take one man from among them, meaning from their edge (from the word katzeh, edge), and set him for them as a watchman. He will be the watchman. This is the plain meaning of the verses. In other words, this person is like, to put it in modern terms, a satellite. Today satellites are supposed to see at every given moment whether some plane is taking off from an airport in Syria heading toward us, whether there is some movement of tanks, say, toward Lebanon or Egypt, and so on. In their day, for this purpose they would station a watchman. Or, for those who remember, the ancient Viking ships, you see someone would climb up to the top of the mast and look with a telescope, yes, a single eye telescope, and look to see from which direction ships are coming, from which direction there is danger. This person was called the watchman. Now all of this is a parable, as we will see further on. He is essentially giving them a parable whose explanation we will see as the matter unfolds.
The Malbim explains that there are two types of watchmen. There is a watchman who is stationed to see whether an enemy is approaching the city. In contrast, there is another watchman who, after the enemy has already approached the city, is placed there so that you can watch the watchman, watch the enemy, and observe from which side he intends to break into the city, from which side he wants to wage war, from where we can hurl arrows and catapult stones at him so he does not enter. This is the second type of watchman. The Malbim says there are three differences between the watchman who stands permanently on the wall to see if someone is approaching, and the second watchman who stands there when the enemy has already approached and is supposed to watch his actions. Three differences.
The first difference: the watchman stationed to see if some enemy is approaching, you set up many of them, first of all. From every side, because I do not know from which side he will come to the city, from the south or from the west or from the east, so you set up many watchmen. This is not the case with the watchman who stands after the enemy has already come; one watchman is enough for me, because I already see the enemy and from which side he comes, so it is enough for me that he stand here and observe, see what movements the enemy is making. Second thing: the watchman who sees whether the enemy is approaching, does he need to be some strategist? A war expert? With how many falafels (medals) on his shoulder? He does not need that. What does he need to have? Good eyes, good vision. If he sees well, that is enough. Nothing more is needed. In contrast, when we are talking about someone who is supposed to track the enemy's moves when he is already at the gate of the city and to see what his actions are, here I must have this watchman be a strategist, a tactician, someone who understands the moves of war so that he can see and understand and correctly interpret every move the enemy makes when he is here beside the city. He must open the cover of the telescope. He may not look through a closed telescope. Another thing, the Malbim says: the watchmen who are the first watchmen we mentioned, who come to observe that people or enemies do not approach the city, these are watchmen whom the king or the army commander stations. Why? So that if something happens, they will immediately notify the king or notify the army to go out toward the enemy. But the second watchman who only observes after the enemy is already here, and he watches to see what his plans are, him the whole nation stations. Why? Because here it is not necessary for someone to come and say, ah, army, get ready, go out, there is an enemy. The enemy is already here, everyone knows he is here. We, the whole nation, want to station someone who will tell us when we need to flee. And therefore the whole nation stations the watchman. Because here it is not to notify the army; the army already knows that there is an enemy army beside us. Here the nation needs to station an expert strategist watchman who will understand the moves so that he will know at what stage the battle situation is lost and will tell us, gentlemen, while your soul is still within you, flee, because in five minutes the city falls into enemy hands.
The Malbim says: according to this we can now explain the verse. "A land, when I bring a sword upon it." I bring a sword upon it, tell me, are we talking here about an enemy who has not yet come, or an enemy who is already here? "I bring a sword upon it," the sword is already here, I bring it upon it. I am bringing a sword upon it. It is not that the enemy has not yet arrived; I have already brought him. So there is no need to station many watchmen. So he says: first of all, who takes the watchman, we said? The king or the nation? "And the people of the land take." Therefore the verse says, who appoints the watchman in such a situation? "The people of the land take." How many do they appoint? Many people or one person? One. Since we said, only when I do not know from which direction the enemy will come do I need people in all directions. But when the enemy is here and he is on this side of the city, I do not need many people, I only need someone to track what his plans are. And therefore it says, "the people of the land take one man." One person is enough. Now, what kind of person does he need to be? An officer, or is even a simple, ordinary man enough? He must be an officer, an expert, because he now needs to interpret their moves, he needs to be a military man. And therefore it says, "the people of the land take one man from among them" (miktzeihem). From the officers (ketzinim) among them. Such a person is needed. Not just any person. From the officers of the nation, he will be for them a watchman: you will stand here beside the wall, warn us, if you see some suspicious movement, if you see some attack coming from a certain direction, if you see some particular opening that is weaker and through which they are coming to attack, you must immediately notify us, the nation, so that we will know how to conduct ourselves.
Now what happens if this watchman betrayed his duty? That is one possibility. The second possibility, he fulfilled his duty. The prophet will now focus on the two possibilities and essentially show us what happens in both situations. "And he sees the sword coming upon the land, and he blows the shofar and warns the people." The first possibility, that he faithfully fulfilled his duty. He sees the sword coming upon the land and he understands the situation is lost, what remains to be done? To warn the people: gentlemen, save your lives as spoil. There is nothing to be done. Hurry and flee. He blows the shofar. "And the listener hears the sound of the shofar and does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him, his blood shall be upon his own head." If the listener heard, and did not take precautionary measures, they say, did you hear that there was a shofar? Yes, I heard, so what, there was a shofar on Rosh Hashanah too, what are you... it was a shofar. Yes, but this is the watchman's shofar. Fine, but we have a few other matters here, do not pressure me. Do not pressure me. And then the enemies came in and cut off this person's head. Well, his blood shall be upon his head. They tell you: sir, you are to blame. The guilt of your death is upon yourself. Do not blame someone else, do not blame the watchman. There were signs here, you could have taken them into account and you did not. And even if you say, but I do not recognize the type of shofar blast, I thought it was someone who, say, just blew the shofar for his own pleasure, I did not know that a shofar blast, say, in certain rhythms, say, a shofar blast with a rising and falling melody, means to go into the shelters or flee for your life. I did not know that. That is the next verse. "He heard the sound of the shofar and did not take warning, his blood shall be upon him." He tells you: but at any rate you heard the sound of the shofar. You are right, you did not exactly know how to interpret it. But you did hear the sound of a shofar, correct? You should have gone to ask, gentlemen, I heard something different here, the sound of a shofar. It is not every minute or every moment that you hear the sound of a shofar, it is not heard every day. What is this? Tell me, what is going on here? That is what you should have done. He heard the sound of the shofar, you should have taken warning, you should have fled. From this, this means to say, this person, his blood shall be upon him. You did not take heed to repent, his blood shall be upon him.
The Malbim says: regarding the sound of the shofar there is an additional matter beyond what we said, that through it he would flee. He says there is an additional matter, there is a moral aspect. The sound of the shofar arouses to repentance. They would sound the alarm about the troubles so that the nation would repent. And this is also the matter of the Ashkenazim blowing the shofar every month of Elul; it arouses repentance. So this is what he tells you: he heard the sound of the shofar and did not take heed to repent, his blood shall be upon him. That is to say, here there is a repetition, because at the beginning you said his blood shall be upon his head. Why again his blood shall be upon him? He tells you: at any rate you had the option to repent. Why did you not repair your soul through repentance? Had you repented, then at least even if you had died, at least it would have been as a righteous person. But now, you did not repent and you also lost your life, so essentially both his blood is upon his head and his blood is upon him. He has neither life nor the life of the World to Come, because he did not repent. The end of the verse is, "but he, if he takes warning, saves his life." If he truly took warning, truly fled, he saved his life.
"But the watchman, if he sees the sword coming and does not blow the shofar, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes a soul from among them, he is taken in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from the hand of the watchman." The verse says, "and the watchman, if he sees the sword coming and does not blow the shofar," he betrayed his duty. This is the second possibility. Why do you not blow the shofar? Leave me alone, I have no strength. And also, do you think it is simple to blow the shofar? It is an effort. I am also tired. Besides, do you know how long it has been since they paid me a salary? What am I, do I think maybe they will be late with my payments and I am still going to blow the shofar for him? He did not blow the shofar. And as a result, the people were not warned. As a result, the people were tranquil, quiet and at ease, and the enemies came by surprise. "And the sword comes and takes a soul from among them. He is taken in his iniquity." What does "he is taken in his iniquity" mean? Notice. The person from the city who died now, they tell you, ah, why did he die? He is not to blame, the watchman is to blame. They tell you, no no no no. He died in his iniquity. Had he not had a cause of his own, his own iniquity, he would not have died. "A man shall die in his own sin." This person who walked here in the city tranquil and at ease because there was no shofar sound, and in the end died, this is in his iniquity. Now he adds for you, he is taken in his iniquity, and his blood I will require from the hand of the watchman. This means, the watchman cannot wash himself in the cleanness of his hands and say, sir, if you had no iniquities you would not have gone. If you went, evidently you have iniquities. So I am clean. They tell you, no, sir. Through whom was this death brought about? Through you, the watchman, because you betrayed your duty. This is what is called "guilt is rolled through the guilty." Since through you the trouble came, take into account that his blood I will require from the hand of the watchman. And this is exactly the case in every single instance in which a person murders his fellow. Did this fellow have to die or not? Certainly. Is it possible for a person to die a moment before it is written for him above? It must be so. Ah, if he has to die then why do you charge me with murder? I killed a man who was already dead. He has to die anyway. Rather, the explanation of the matter is this: who told you to be an executioner? Who told you to be the one through whom the guilt is rolled? You volunteered for the guilt to be rolled through you; guilt is rolled through the guilty, pay the price.
"And you, son of man." Now he turns to the prophet. "I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel, and you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them from Me." He now tells him, listen, Yechezkel, you are the watchman here in the parable. I have made you a watchman. Just like that watchman who is supposed to warn the people, so too you are the one who is supposed to warn the people about troubles, about the destruction that is to come, you are supposed to arouse them to repentance. He tells him: you, if you warn them, you have saved your soul. And if not, Heaven forbid, then just as in the parable, Heaven forbid, their iniquity will be dependent on you. "When I say to the wicked, wicked one, you shall surely die, and you have not spoken to warn the wicked from his way, he, the wicked, shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand." Exactly like the parable we spoke about regarding the watchman and the people who were not warned of the sword, in the same measure, when I send you to prophesy and tell the people, wicked one, you shall surely die, meaning you die because you are wicked. Repent, become righteous and you will not die. That is the emphasis. Wicked one, you shall surely die. If you are not wicked you will not die. And you did not speak to warn the wicked from his way, but he continued in his evil way. Therefore you cause two evils. First, he is wicked, he shall die in his iniquity. First of all he will die. Second, this will be in his iniquity. He dies with iniquity on his shoulders. Had you warned him, there would have been no iniquity in him, and he would have died innocent. But since you did not warn him, you caused him evil in two ways. First, you caused his death; second, you caused his death as a wicked man. Had you warned him, first, you could have caused him to continue living; second, when his time came he would have died as a righteous man. You did him two evils. And therefore his blood I will require from your hand.
"But you, if you warn the wicked from his way to return from it, and he does not return from his way, he shall die in his iniquity, but you have saved your soul." He tells him: you, if you warned the wicked from his way to return from it, and this wicked man in the end did not repent, but you did your part, you fulfilled what was incumbent upon you. "And he does not return from his way, he shall die in his iniquity." That is to say, first, notice, it does not say here "he, the wicked, shall die in his iniquity." As it says above, "he, the wicked, shall die in his iniquity" in verse 8, but rather it says here "he shall die in his iniquity." That is to say, he will repent a little, and even if he dies, he will die as a righteous man. Without his iniquities. Therefore it says here, he shall die in his iniquity. "And you have saved your soul." That is to say, first, it may be that he will repent a repentance that will bring him from death to life. And even if not, because the decree has already been decreed, the decree is sealed and it was determined for him that he would die, but at least he will not die as a wicked man. He will die as a righteous man, because he repented, so he will have the World to Come. And second, you have saved your soul. Essentially what the verse says here is that even if the Creator of the world tells him you need to die because of the sin you committed, because there are iniquities that have no atonement except death, such as for example desecration of Hashem's name, correct? So he will die in his iniquity, but he is not wicked, because he has already repented. The death is a kind of scouring. But he repented.
"And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel: thus you have spoken, saying, for our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and in them we waste away, so how can we live?" Now the Holy One, blessed be He, comes to confront the claims that the people of that generation had. Hashem tells him: you shall say to them, they are claiming, after all, our transgressions and our sins are upon us. We admit, we committed transgressions and sins. But repentance does not help us. In simple words, do not sell us illusions. Why? They say it is like a king who gave some order to his servants, for example to build a bridge here. And they transgressed his command. First, essentially, by defying the king's word you are rebelling against the kingdom. Second, there was supposed to be a bridge here, there is no bridge here. Because you did not fulfill the king's decree. Now, for these two things repentance and regret do not help. Why? You rebelled against the king, what will repentance help? There is no bridge here, what will repentance help? This is essentially what is found here in the verse. You say, for our transgressions. What does "our transgressions are upon us" mean? I rebelled against the Creator of the world. This is a terrible transgression. Our transgressions are upon us. And moreover, and our sins. Our sins too are upon us. That is to say, the very fact that we ruined the service of the Creator, what needed to be done and we did not do, how will repentance help for this? Another thing they come and claim: after all, the commandments and the warnings came for our benefit. Like a doctor who comes and tells you, take such and such medicine, it will help you. So too the commandments, they are, in the language of the Zohar, 613 pieces of advice. They are advice for us, for our good. Now, all this is well if immediately when the patient began to fall ill, he went to the doctor, the doctor arranged medicines for him and he began to take them. Imagine that the doctor gave medicine, the patient did not take it, until he reached the gates of death. Now, out of goodness, bring me, bring me now the medicines. What will it help you? What will it help you? It could have helped when the illness was at its beginning. But you, whose wound is incurable, when the gangrene has already spread, for example, throughout the leg, you tell me now bring me the medicine, what will it help? There is no choice but to amputate the leg. Or the gangrene has spread throughout his body, there is no choice but death.
And this is what they claim as an additional argument. "And in them we waste away." We have already reached a state of gangrene. We have already reached a state in which repentance will not help, repentance will no longer avail. Since at the beginning, at the proper time, we did not take the medicine. "So how can we live?" So how do you come and tell us, repent, regret, listen and hearken to the sound of the shofar and through this you will emerge from the trouble. Against this argument, Hashem sends through the prophet a reply. "Say to them, as I live, says Hashem Elokim, do I desire the death of the wicked? Rather, that the wicked return from his way and live. Return, return from your evil ways, and why should you die, house of Israel?" He comes and tells them, as I live, says Hashem Elokim. I swear to you that this answer that I am now telling you is a true answer coming from Me, Hashem, blessed be He, and I swear that so I will do. This is an amazing thing. If a person comes and tells you something, he says, I am telling you that this is so. And you do not accept it. He tells you, I promise you that this is so. That is to say, this is something even more unbelievable, that he needs to promise. If he comes and says, I promise you on my honesty that this is so. This shows even more that the matter is illogical. If he comes and says, I swear to you that this is so. This shows that it is entirely illogical, to the point that he must take an oath. Now, if this person is an ordinary person, then we say, well, he needs to verify his words because it may be that people do not so readily believe what he says naturally. But if it is a righteous person telling us this and swearing about it, that is to say it is so illogical that even a righteous person I would not have believed had he not sworn. If it is the Creator of the world Himself who comes and says, I swear to you that this is so, that means it is completely devoid of logic, to the point that, so to speak, so to speak, even the Creator of the world people would not have believed had it not been for an oath. The masters of mussar say: this is repentance. The commandment of repentance is something so illogical, that a person committed a transgression and a person ruined, as the Mesilat Yesharim says, suppose he fathered a mamzer, suppose he murdered a soul, behold his ruin exists in the world, what will repentance do for him now? What will repentance help him? It is illogical, not grasped by the mind. It is so illogical that the Creator of the world Himself in His glory must come and say, I swear to you that this is so! To such an extent this shows us how much this matter cannot be grasped by the mind, that Hashem must come and swear, I do not want, I do not desire the death of the one who dies, but rather that the wicked return from his way and live, return, return from your evil ways, and why should you die, house of Israel.
Regarding what you come and say, how is it possible, a person who rebelled against the king, acted against his will, how is it possible that in such a situation he has a remedy? How will repentance help him? He tells them, the command of the Creator of the world is not like the command of flesh and blood. The command of flesh and blood, if you did not obey me, I want to take revenge on you. Ah, you did not do it? I will now show you what this is. I will punish you. I will kill you. This is when a king gave a command and his servants did not obey. But the Holy One, blessed be He, His goal is not to kill His creatures. Rather, on the contrary, the Holy One, blessed be He, even when He gives a punishment and even if it is a death punishment, the goal is not for you to die, but rather to repair you, to purify you. And so that through this you will see the threat and the danger toward which you are heading and repent. And this is what He tells them, as I live, says Hashem, do I desire the death of the wicked, this is not the desire, this is not the purpose, this is not the goal, the death of the wicked, there is no such goal. What is the purpose? Rather, that the wicked return from his way and live.
Notice, the Malbim here has an original interpretation. The Malbim says: even when I kill the wicked, there is no goal in the death of the wicked, but rather in the wicked returning from his way. One must understand such a thing, he is already dead, what does "the wicked returning from his way" mean? Rather, the intention is this. Even when I kill wicked man A, this is not the purpose, but rather the goal is that wicked man B return from his way and live. This is in the sense of "so that they will see and fear." When I put a certain person in prison or send him to the gallows, for him it will no longer help. It helps for you, that you will not repeat the deeds he did, because you will see where one can end up. Why does the Malbim explain this way? That is to say, why not interpret the verse in the ordinary way? Because the Malbim has a principle that whenever he repeats the same word twice, it is not referring to the same first one, because if we are speaking about the first one, you mentioned him once, that is enough. If he repeats the same word twice, that means we are speaking about another. And notice, here too this precise wording is expressed. As I live, says Hashem Elokim, do I desire the death of the wicked, rather that he return from his way and live. That is how it should have been written. Why does it say, rather that the wicked return? You already said, do I desire the death of the wicked, rather that he return from his way. Why again "wicked"? Do I desire the death of the wicked, rather that he return from his way and live. Rather, from the fact that he mentioned "wicked" again, it is implied, the Malbim says, that we are speaking about another wicked man. I do not desire the death of wicked man A, even if he dies, the goal is that wicked man B return from his way and live. My goal is that a second wicked man will return from his way, take it to heart and repair his deeds going forward.
Now, what do you come and claim, you say, in them we waste away, it is already like gangrene, there is nothing to be done, the limb must be amputated, there is no possibility of curing it anymore. To this claim He comes and tells them, return, return from your evil ways. That is to say, you still have a possibility of healing. And why should you die, house of Israel? A doctor does not tell a patient, take the medicine, if he thinks the situation is beyond return. That it is an irreversible situation. They do not say, take the medicine. If I say take the medicine, that means the situation is still changeable. And therefore He tells them, return, return from your evil ways. Change your evil ways, change your corrupt deeds, because repentance still applies to you. Repentance can still improve your situation. And therefore Hashem comes and argues against their claims, there is nothing to be done, repentance will no longer avail us, Hashem tells them, on the contrary, repentance will help you and change your situation for the good, and therefore do not make excuses, but return to Hashem and Hashem will again have mercy upon you. In the coming verses Yechezkel deals with the question of repentance and with the issue of one who regrets his former deeds. That is to say, how repentance is actually effective, and what happens when a person regrets his former evil deeds or his former good deeds. What happens then? What happens to those deeds.