Verse 12: "And you, son of man, say to the children of your people: the righteousness of the righteous shall not save him on the day of his transgression, and the wickedness of the wicked shall not cause him to stumble on the day he returns from his wickedness, and a righteous man cannot live by it on the day he sins." Now He comes and tells them: I want you to know that when a person does teshuvah, Hashem does not look at all upon his previous deeds. I want you to know that when a person does teshuvah, his history is erased. The righteousness of the righteous shall not save him on the day of his transgression, and the wickedness of the wicked shall not cause him to stumble on the day he returns. Whether for good or for bad. Whether it was a righteous person who now decided to become wicked, his righteousness will not be remembered to him, or whether it was a wicked person who has now decided to become righteous, his previous wickedness will not be remembered to him. And here He tells them: know that this is completely different from human nature. Human nature is that if someone did me harm, then we take revenge and bear a grudge, and even if he came and asked for forgiveness, we would tell him outwardly, muttering with faint lips, we forgive you, but we would prefer never to see him again. The inner anger, the more serious and difficult the matter was, the inner anger will continue and accompany us. That is human nature. But He tells them, with a person it is the same in reverse too. If there was someone who was very very very close to us, but now has done something not good, then in the end we do not say, well, so I forget all the good he did. Rather I still remember all the years that he was very very faithful. But He tells you, know that with the Holy One, blessed be He, it does not work that way. With Hashem, may He be blessed, if a person was wicked all his days and became righteous at the end, all his wickedness is forgotten. And likewise, if he was righteous all his days and became wicked at the end, all his righteousness, all the earlier righteousness, is forgotten. And what case is this? This refers to one who regrets his earlier deeds. What is "one who regrets his earlier deeds"? "Regrets" is from the language of one who is distressed, who repents. He says: what a pity that I was righteous, what a fool I was. Had I not been righteous I could have enjoyed life, but how long, thirty years I was righteous, I wasted my time. This is called one who regrets his earlier deeds. Ah, you wasted your time? The Creator of the world says: indeed you wasted it. All those mitzvot will not be remembered to you. But if after thirty years of being righteous he began to act wickedly, and they ask him why? He tells you: because my evil inclination overcame me. Do you regret having been righteous? No, would that I had been righteous all my days, but the inclination overcame me. Here his righteousness will be remembered to him. He will receive reward for his righteousness. That righteousness will not be forgotten to him.
And this is what He comes and says here. The wicked one who returns from his wickedness will not stumble over his previous wickedness, why? Because it has already been forgiven and pardoned. And a righteous man cannot live by it on the day he sins. That is to say, even if the righteous man sins an inadvertent sin, not a transgression, then He tells him: ostensibly this righteous man thinks I am better than the wicked one, my level is higher than the wicked one, they tell him: no, the wicked one, after he returned in teshuvah, his level is higher than yours. His condition is better than your condition. This is what He says: and a righteous man cannot live by it on the day he sins. A righteous man cannot live by it, meaning if he sins inadvertently, he cannot live by it compared to the wicked one, the moment you sinned and the wicked one returned in teshuvah. "When I say to the righteous he shall surely live, and he relies on his righteousness and does injustice, all his righteous deeds shall not be remembered, and for his injustice which he committed, by it he shall die." As we said, when I say to the righteous he shall surely live, he saw that behold, life has been decreed upon him, and he did injustice, so if that is so, one can begin to enjoy life, he did injustice, all his righteous deeds shall not be remembered. As Chazal say, this refers to one who regrets his earlier deeds. The Radak asks: this person, from this verse do you understand that he regrets his earlier deeds or not? What do you say? This verse ostensibly implies that he does not regret his earlier deeds. When I say to the righteous he shall surely live and he relies on his righteousness and does injustice. Is this called one who regrets his earlier deeds? He asks him: why do you commit transgressions? Oh, you know, this is a righteous person, do you know how many mitzvot I have in the bank? I have billions of mitzvot. So now I am eroding it a bit. So in the end we do not say, well, so I forget all the good he did. Rather I still remember all the years that he was very very faithful.
What did I do? How many merits do I have? Does he regret them? Not at all. On the contrary, he sees them as merit. So I can also do a bit of injustice. Why? Because I did much righteousness. Calculated? Precisely calculated. I have such a plus in the bank that no matter how much overdraft I have, my plus will still cover it. So on the contrary, this is not one who regrets his earlier deeds. What is one who regrets his earlier deeds? Ah, what a pity that I kept mitzvot, I just wasted my time. Here it is the reverse: it is good that I kept mitzvot, it gave me a plus in the bank, now I can commit transgressions.
So the Radak has this difficulty, he says: ostensibly from the language here it does not imply that this is about one who regrets his earlier deeds. The Radak says: he means to say that he thinks his righteous deeds which he did will benefit him even though he regrets them, for the matter of his regret is out of love, out of his love for worldly love and to do what his heart desires, and he regrets the time that passed in which he did not act according to his heart's desire. The Radak says: both things can be true together. That is, he comes and says, they ask him: what do you say about that time? He says: oh, how many merits I have from that time, I did many mitzvot, I can now commit transgressions. They tell him: but tell me, are you pleased with that time in which you kept mitzvot? He tells them: listen, if I had what I know today, I would have preferred not to keep those mitzvot. Would that I had also used that time for worldly pleasures. So in fact he regrets that time. But now that it already exists, well, then at least I have a plus in the bank, I can begin to commit transgressions. That is, both things can be true. On the one hand I regret that I did not use that time for transgressions, which is regretting one's earlier deeds, and on the other hand, after the fact, once I already have merits, then I say I already have permission, so to speak, to commit transgressions.
"And when I say to the wicked you shall surely die, and he turns from his sin and does justice and righteousness." He says: on the other hand, when I say to the wicked you shall surely die for the transgressions he committed, and he turns from his sin. "His sin" is an inadvertent sin. And does justice and righteousness. Justice is between man and his fellow. That which is between man and his fellow is called "justice," as in "and these are the judgments (mishpatim) which you shall set before them," where it speaks of damages between man and his fellow. And does justice and righteousness. Righteousness (tzedakah) is already between man and God. Righteousness in the sense of righteous conduct toward the Creator of the world. And now He will explain. Corresponding to the first matter, justice, which is between man and his fellow, is the next verse. "The wicked shall restore the pledge, repay the robbery, walk in the statutes of life so as not to do injustice, he shall surely live, he shall not die." He says: the wicked shall restore the pledge, regarding the transgressions between man and his fellow, something he stole the wicked one restores, he returns the robbery. Something he robbed he repays its value. Ah, corresponding to that which is between man and God He tells you: he walks in the statutes of life. He walks in the statutes that will bring him to the life of the World to Come. He is careful henceforth not to do injustice. Therefore He says to such a person: he shall surely live, he shall not die for his previous sins, rather life is decreed upon him.
"None of his sins that he committed shall be remembered to him, he has done justice and righteousness, he shall surely live." None of his sins that he committed shall be remembered to him, Hashem will not mention them to him. Why? Because, on the contrary, since he did justice and righteousness in teshuvah out of love, what do all the iniquities and willful sins become? Merits. So He says: if that is so, all... note how the verse is to be interpreted, none of his sins that he committed shall be remembered to him, he has done justice and righteousness! Where did he do justice and righteousness? In his sins which he committed, do you understand? His sins which he committed will not be remembered to him because they in fact became categorized as justice and righteousness. He has done justice and righteousness, those sins became in the sense of justice and righteousness. And therefore he shall surely live.
So they say... what do we do on Rosh Hashanah? What do we do with all our transgressions? "You shall cast into the depths of the sea all their sins," correct? We take the transgressions and cast them into the depths of the sea. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev says: what do we do on Sukkot? The water libation. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev says: "and you shall draw water in joy." What does this mean? Go now to that same stream into which you cast all your transgressions, and draw from them, take them out now, bring back all the transgressions, go search for them. Why? Because Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are teshuvah out of fear, the dread of judgment. In contrast, Sukkot is teshuvah out of love, out of joy. So now, "and you shall draw water in joy," since you are doing this in gladness, in joy, I am now going and rectifying, I have now done teshuvah on this out of love, so I now go to search for them so that they will in fact become categorized as merits.
Therefore it is written that on Rosh Hashanah... therefore it is written on Yom Kippur... on Sukkot, from what do we make the sukkah? The sechach, from what do we make it? The refuse of the threshing floor and the winepress. With what did Adam sin? He ate, some say it was grapes, it was a vine, some say it was wheat. Now, Adam corrupted with the vine itself, with the grapes themselves. Adam corrupted with the wheat itself. When Sukkot comes we go to take the refuse of it. We begin to search where the refuse of the threshing floor is, of the wheat. Where the refuse of the winepress is, because we are going to rectify it. Why? Because when Adam sinned, what did he do? Through his sin he caused the tree, instead of the tree being entirely fruit, it became a tree that produces fruit, but it itself is not fruit. The tree itself can no longer be eaten. In contrast, when the man... before he sinned, the tree itself could be eaten, it was fit to eat the tree itself, the fruit tree producing fruit. The world was perfected. We now go and take this refuse and from it we make a sukkah. Why? As if we come and say: we come to rectify what Adam did, and on the contrary, we now search for our sin because we did teshuvah out of love, so this sin becomes a merit. We go to search for the refuse so that from this refuse, what do we now produce? We now produce the reward and payment for the transgressions we committed which in fact now become mitzvot.
The Gemara says: "and you shall take for yourselves on the first day." Chazal ask: what is "first"? It is on the fifteenth, it is not on the first. Chazal say: this is first for the reckoning of iniquities. So there is an interpretation everyone knows, first for the reckoning of iniquities, that since until now we were busy with building the sukkah, buying the four species, with all the matters of the festival, there was no time to commit transgressions. The festival arrived, that is it, the time began to commit transgressions. A person is free, begins to commit transgressions. This is one interpretation. But there is an interpretation according to the line we explained: and you shall take for yourselves on the first day, first for the reckoning of iniquities. Now on the first day, since the willful sins have become merits for us, so we begin to say: come, how many iniquities did we commit? Let us search for them. I begin to reckon how many transgressions I committed because they now become merits for me. This is first for the reckoning of iniquities. What iniquities do I have? Come, let us count the iniquities I committed, because every iniquity I committed is a merit. Every iniquity I committed becomes categorized as a mitzvah. Therefore they say that in the place where masters of teshuvah stand, even the completely righteous cannot stand. Because for the masters of teshuvah, all those transgressions become merits.
And therefore it is also written regarding Elazar ben Durdaya, that he was called Rabbi. Rabbi wept, [saying] there is one who acquires his world in a single hour, and not only that but they call him Rabbi, for it is written there they said to him: Rabbi Elazar ben Durdaya is invited to the life of the World to Come. They ask: what, over this one minute that they call him Rabbi, over this Rabbi is distressed? Rather the meaning of the matter is: all his willful sins of all sixty, seventy years, all of them at this moment become merits. So in fact it turns out that he is a Rabbi for sixty years, he is a Rabbi for seventy years. That is, for seventy years he in fact accumulated merits, because the willful sins became merits. This is what He in fact mentions here. None of his sins that he committed shall be remembered to him, he has done justice and righteousness. On the contrary, these sins are in fact in the category of justice and righteousness, since they have now become a merit.
"And the children of your people say: the way of Hashem is not fair, but it is their own way that is not fair." And the children of your people say, the Holy One, blessed be He, tells Yechezkel: the way of Hashem is not fair. That is, they do not understand it. They do not understand it. Why? Because with us, as we said, it is the reverse. We remember what was most of the time. What happened at the last moment, that we do not remember. That is how it is with human beings. If it was good the whole time and at the last moment it ended on a jarring note, we do not remember it. We remember all the time that it was good. If it was bad the whole time and only at the last moment there was something good, we do not remember the good, we remember what was the whole time. Therefore they say: the way of Hashem is not fair. How can it be? This is not according to what is accepted by us, this is not according to what we are used to. The Holy One, blessed be He, tells them: tell them that this is because it is their way that is not fair. That is, Hashem tells them, after he returns from his previous deeds, one must pass over the iniquity and forgive the transgression. But it is their way that is not fair. That is, one can explain in two senses. One sense is: your conception is not fair. Your understanding is not correct. And there is another possibility, that He says: no, no, tell them that what I say is very logical, for it is their way that is not fair. That one was wicked until today, but does he continue to be wicked? No, he changed his way. So his previous way, the way of the wicked, is no longer fair. It does not continue. So consequently it is fitting to judge them as righteous. On the contrary, Hashem says, My way is the more correct one.
"And when the righteous turns from his righteousness and does injustice and dies by them." When the righteous turns from his righteousness, that is, he regrets his good deeds and now does evil deeds, and dies by them. What is the meaning of "and dies by them"? Why is it not written "and dies by his wickedness"? When you say "and dies by them," what kind of language is this? It is not understood. When the righteous turns from his righteousness and does injustice and dies by them. "By them" in the plural. Both because of the righteous deeds, and because of the injustices. And these, because of the injustices, I understand. But because of the righteous deeds? He returns because of... because of the righteous deeds he shall die? This is not understood. To what may the matter be compared? A parable of two young men who were brought before a judge. One young man was from a good family, and the second young man was from a bad family. Not a mafioso, but a crime family, from a bad family, everyone there is from good families. But he grew up, Hashem have mercy, a broken family, drug-addict parents, in short, a mafia family. They erred, [the one] who was from a good family, the judge gave him two years in prison. That one who was from a bad family, he gave him a severe warning and a five-year suspended sentence, and dismissed him with community service. That one was astonished, he says: my lord judge, once I rebelled, once I transgressed, you give me such a severe punishment? And him, who is always set on a bad path, to him you give a light punishment? The judge tells him: absolutely. He tells him: you, I know your father, he is a righteous man. Your family I know, they are all God-fearing and wholesome people. And you, from such a family, went and did this? He tells him: this is a severe and terrible iniquity, an unforgivable iniquity. And therefore the claim against you is harsh. But he, poor thing, where he grew up, that he did not become worse is already a merit. He says: this is what is written here. The righteous man who goes and does injustice, this is much much worse than an ordinary person going and doing injustice. Why? You had insights, you reached levels, you knew the aspect of Godliness. How could you have been capable of abandoning all this and going to do injustice? Consequently that one knew nothing, understood nothing, so he went and deteriorated into transgression. But you knew and recognized the greatness of the Creator. You who went and did injustice, the claim against you is greater. And therefore this is what He says here: when the righteous turns from his righteousness and does injustice and dies by them. Your previous righteousness too, it too will be a cause of your death now. Because that you were such a righteous person in the past should have prevented you from doing the wickedness now. So it turns out that in fact that righteousness is one of the causes of the great punishment you will now receive.
"And when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does justice and righteousness, by them he shall live." Likewise, when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does justice and righteousness, by them he shall live. What is "by them"? The Malbim says, according to that line: when there was a person who was wicked for years, and now he became righteous. For whom is it easier to be righteous? For one who anyway grew up in a house of righteous people, or for a person who was very far and became accustomed to all sorts of evil desires and corrupt practices? For whom is it easier? Certainly for the one who grew up in good company. But the second one had corrupt habits, he had evil desires, he had many things that were negative. Now go and overcome this nature and go and change it, that is very hard. This is what He says here. When the wicked turns from his wickedness and does justice and righteousness, by them he shall live. That you were a great wicked person from the outset is a great reason to give you greater reward now for the righteousness you do. Because it shows that it was much harder for you to break your nature. You deserve much greater reward than the one who was not such a great wicked person from the outset. Just as to the righteous we say: you deserve a greater punishment because you were a great righteous person, how did you become wicked? So too we say to the wicked: you deserve a greater reward because you were a great wicked person, how did you succeed in overcoming this and becoming righteous? You deserve a greater reward. And does justice and righteousness, the meaning is that now that wicked one begins to do justice, meaning uprightness and fairness between man and his fellow, and righteousness, and he straightens his ways also between man and God, by them he shall live. What is "by them"? Both over his previous wickedness and over his righteousness now. Because for his righteousness now he will receive much greater reward because of the previous wickedness. Now according to the plain meaning we explained earlier according to the Radak, then "by them he shall live" is certainly understood. Because, as we said, the willful sins become merits for him because he did teshuvah out of love, so "by them he shall live," even over the willful sins you shall live. Because they became merits.
"And you say: the way of Hashem is not fair; each according to his ways I shall judge you, house of Israel." He tells them: and if even on this you will say the way of Hashem is not fair, He tells them the answer to this: each according to his ways I shall judge you. I do not look at what was in the history. I do not look at what was in the past, but at his ways. I look according to what is happening with him now. If I see now that he changed for the good, I judge him according to the good. If I see that he changed for the bad, I judge him according to the bad.
"And it was in the twelfth year, in the tenth month, on the fifth of the month of our exile, the fugitive from Jerusalem came to me saying: the city has been smitten." Here at this point He already moves to another matter. He begins to tell that in the twelfth year of our exile, "our exile" meaning the exile of Yehoyachin. Yechezkel was exiled in the exile of Yehoyachin. In the tenth month on the fifth of the month. "In the tenth" refers to which month? The month of Tevet, correct? That is the tenth month. In the tenth, on the fifth of the month. "On the fifth of the month" means the fifth of the month. The fugitive from Jerusalem came to me. The fugitive came from Jerusalem and then he comes and tells me: the city has been smitten. The city was conquered. The city was conquered and its people were struck down.
Hashem told Yechezkel in prophecy, He told him: you will see that on the day of the destruction the fugitive will come and bring you the tidings of the destruction, and then from then on you will speak and no longer be mute, and you will be a sign for them. I will read to you the written text. This is in chapter 24, verse 25. "And you, son of man, is it not on the day I take from them their stronghold, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes and the longing of their soul, their sons and their daughters." Their stronghold, the joy of their glory, is the Beit HaMikdash. And also their sons and daughters, that they too will go by the sword. "On that day the fugitive will come to you to make you hear with your ears." A fugitive will come to you who will have escaped from the battle here in Jerusalem, he will come to you in Bavel to make you hear with your ears, he will sound in your ears the harsh tidings. "On that day your mouth will be opened with the fugitive, and you will speak and no longer be mute, and you will be a sign for them, and they will know that I am Hashem." He says the report will be only to make you hear with your ears. What is the meaning? The prophet hears in another way. In what way? In a spiritual way. When someone comes to bring me tidings, that is physical hearing. So He tells him: the hearing that you will hear will be to make you hear with your ears. You will hear it with your ears, meaning from flesh and blood. It is not that I will then come to tell you, I am informing you now. But then a fugitive will come and bring you the tidings.
Now Hashem told him: "and I will make your tongue cleave to your palate, and you shall be mute, and you shall not be a man of reproof to them, for they are a rebellious house." This is how Hashem told him in prophecy. There will be such a situation that you will be mute, you will be like a mute person. But when the fugitive comes, from that time your mouth will be opened. Then you will begin to speak prophecies to Israel. What is the meaning? Yirmiyahu was the prophet of the destruction. He is the one who prophesied about Jerusalem that it would be destroyed, he is the one who prophesied about all that was destined to be. Not Yechezkel. Yechezkel was not designated to prophesy about the destruction. And therefore we see that Yechezkel in this period, Hashem told him: be mute now, I will make your tongue cleave to your palate and you shall be mute and shall not be a man of reproof to them. But after the destruction already occurred, here the role of Yirmiyahu ends, here the role of Yechezkel begins. Here the exile, we see that in exile they still had a command from Yirmiyahu who told them: bear sons and daughters there and build houses, for you have another seventy years to be there. There everything now depends on Yirmiyahu. But once the Temple was destroyed, then the mission of Yechezkel began. From then his mouth was opened to prophesy and was no longer stopped. And this is what He says here, and when the fugitive comes then your mouth will no longer be mute and you will begin to prophesy to them, as we will see further on, and he also had prophecies about this matter of the redemption, and about this matter of the vision of the dry bones, as we will see further on.
"And the hand of Hashem was upon me in the evening before the coming of the fugitive, and He opened my mouth until he came to me in the morning, and my mouth was opened and I was no longer mute." He says: indeed the hand of Hashem was upon me in the evening before the coming of the fugitive. The meaning is: the spirit of prophecy came to me, and then this spirit of prophecy opened my mouth. That is, until this time that he came to me, the prophecy spoke within me. What did the prophecy tell me? It told me that from now on I can open my mouth and prophesy, because from now on they will be ready to listen to me. And indeed that is how it was, that from that point he prophesies to them and the people were ready to receive his prophecies.
"And the word of Hashem came to me saying: son of man, the inhabitants of these ruins upon the land of Israel say: Avraham was one and he inherited the land, and we are many, to us the land was given as an inheritance." What claim is here? What do these people want? After the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed, there were still many people who were in Jerusalem and in Yehudah, dwelling there in ruins, in fields, in caves. They thought that there is still settlement here in the Land of Israel, and consequently the sanctity of the Land of Israel has not been nullified. So we have a reason to remain here. The prophet had told them that the land would be desolate, from the bird of the sky to the beast they wandered and departed. We saw for fifty-two years not even a bird passed here in the Land of Israel. And also the first sanctity was nullified, because the first sanctity sanctified for its time and did not sanctify for the future. It did not sanctify for the future. But the inhabitants of these ruins say: no, not at all, this sanctity still exists. The Land of Israel is still in its sanctity. So what, what do you claim this from? They tell you: we have a kal vachomer. Avraham was one. Avraham was only one person who believed in Hashem, and nevertheless his merit is what brought the inheritance of the land, Hashem promised him the land. So if that is so, we who are many people who believe in Hashem, all the more so the land is assured to us. This is their kal vachomer. Now they have another argument. And in particular, and we are many, to us the land was given as an inheritance. What is easier, to give for the first time, or after you were given it to hold on to the thing? It is much easier to hold on. Avraham, Hashem took and gave him the land, even though he was one. We are, first, many, second, of us what is required only? Only to hold the land, this is not a renewed giving. So if he could receive the land, all the more so we can hold the land. And therefore they understood that they could continue to be there in the holy land.
Therefore say to them: "thus said Hashem Elokim, upon the blood you eat and lift your eyes to your idols and shed blood, and shall you inherit the land?" He comes and makes harsh claims against them. He tells them: after all the land was given only on condition that they keep the mitzvot of Hashem. All the land was given only on condition that they do His will, may He be blessed, for the land is Mine. He tells them: but you are truly truly not going in your proper way. He tells them: for with you I see that upon the blood you eat. You eat over the blood. Upon the blood you eat, in its plain sense that they eat non-kosher, only He says here there are three transgressions here: forbidden relations, bloodshed, and idolatry. "And shed blood," says the Malbim, this is bloodshed. Forbidden relations is in the next verse. "You stood upon your sword, you did an abomination, and you defiled each man his fellow's wife, and shall you inherit the land?" The Radak and the Metzudat David explain: they say, what is "upon the blood you eat"? This is a type of idolatry that they had a rule that they would slaughter the sacrifices that they slaughtered to demons, they would eat around the blood that they would pour there on the ground, they would eat around the blood and also eat the meat with the blood. This is "upon the blood you eat and lift your eyes to your idols."
"You stood upon your sword." You still shed innocent blood. "You did an abomination." Why does He say "you did" in the feminine? The Radak says: because He speaks here against the females. Yes? So therefore He speaks here "you did an abomination," against the women. Or some say "you did"... you did an abomination, Rashi explains that the meaning is homosexual relations. And from where does Rashi know it is homosexual relations? Because it is written in the feminine, "you did an abomination." That is, you males acted like women. The Malbim says: "you did an abomination" means you coerced by sword into abomination. The meaning of the matter is, by force you compelled people to do abomination. And this is the meaning of "you stood upon your sword and did an abomination." Because one cannot come and explain, according to the Malbim, that this refers back to bloodshed, because bloodshed is written in the previous verse, "and you shed blood." So what is "upon your sword"? You stood upon your sword, you did an abomination, meaning through your sword you compelled people to do abomination. And shall you inherit the land? And do you think with all this to inherit the land?
"Thus you shall say to them: thus said Hashem Elokim, as I live, surely those in the ruins shall fall by the sword, and the one upon the open field I have given to the beast to devour, and those in the strongholds and in the caves shall die by pestilence." He tells them: therefore thus said Hashem, know for yourselves, as I live, surely those in the ruins shall fall by the sword. In those very places where they are, for we said that they hid in the ruins, hid in the caves, He tells them: know for yourselves, they will fall by the sword. And whoever hides in the field where there were no enemies, an evil beast will devour him. And those who are in the caves, they will die by the pestilence, the plague. "And I will make the land a desolation and a waste, and the pride of its strength shall cease, and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate with none passing through." I will make the land a desolation and a waste. That is, this land will be desolate and wasted. Yes? The doubling is for an abundance of desolation, a desolation and a waste. To tell you there will be a terrible desolation. And the pride of its strength shall cease. "And the pride of its strength shall cease" means the thing that was its pride, its might, will be nullified. And the mountains of Israel shall be desolate with none passing through. Since this place will be so desolate, they will not even pass through it. Why? Because where does a person pass through? A place where there is food, drink, one can buy, one can... there is an inn, there is life. But the land will be so desolate that there will not even be those passing through there. "And they will know that I am Hashem when I make the land a desolation and a waste over all their abominations which they did." Through this they will recognize that this desolation is something that came through Providence, it is not something that was by chance. Rather they will understand that it is planned. How can it be that this land which was so fertile will be desolate in such an extreme manner? So they will understand that all this is over all their abominations which they did.
"And you, son of man, the children of your people who speak about you beside the walls and in the doorways of the houses, and one speaks to another, each man to his brother saying: come please and hear what is the word that comes forth from Hashem." He says... look at this, how astonishing it is that even then the nature of the world is one and the same, reality has not changed. For Hashem told him: you will now begin to prophesy. Until now your mouth was mute, from now on I give you permission to speak. He tells him: know that the people, seemingly openly, accept your words, but in secret they practice idolatry. In secret there, beside the walls and in the doorways of the houses, there they speak disparagingly about you, there they mock you. And one speaks to another, when he speaks to a distinguished man, one to another, meaning distinguished among the people, and even each man to his fellow, meaning a person to his fellow, they come and say: come please and hear what is the word that comes forth from Hashem. As if they so want to hear what Hashem says, but on the other hand, when they are beside the walls and in the doorways of the houses, there in secret they do their deeds in darkness. "And they come to you as a people comes, and they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words but do not do them, for lust is in their mouths they act, after their gain their heart goes." He says: and they come to you as a people comes. They come to you as the people gathers to come and hear some sermon or some words of mussar that they wish to hear. And yet He tells him: and they sit before you as My people and hear your words, but they do not do them. But as for fulfilling, they fulfill nothing. Instead of coming and fulfilling and accepting mussar, moreover, since lust is in their mouths, they even mock and make fun of the things you say. And not only that, after their gain their heart goes. That is, their heart is far from Hashem and they also actually still perform acts of gain, acts of robbery, acts of injustice. So all this is only an impression, do not be moved by what they do. This is how Hashem reveals to him in prophecy.
"And behold, you are to them like a lust song, of beautiful voice and playing well, and they hear your words but they do not do them." He tells him: they merely come to hear you, for the prophet spoke in eloquent language, in very lofty language. Look, we need commentaries to understand what the prophet says. So sometimes they would come to you in order to hear the eloquent language, the richness of expression. But for them it is like a concert. They did not come in order to receive mussar. And you will be to them like a lust song, of beautiful voice and playing well, it sounds pleasant to them, but no one pays attention to the things you bring forth from your mouth. And they hear your words but they do not do them. They do not fulfill the things, they only pay attention to the pleasantness of the eloquence and the quality of the song and the beauty of the speech, that is what is important to them. He examines whether what you said fits and whether it is in the proper meter and whether it rhymes and is beautiful, that is what they examine in you. But they do not accept the mussar.
"And when it comes, behold it is coming, and they will know that a prophet was in their midst." He says: but when it comes, when the evil comes, behold it is coming, once the evil has already occurred, and they will then no longer be able to rectify, it will already be too late, but then they will understand retroactively: a prophet was in our midst. We were foolish, a prophet was in our midst and we did not pay attention to his words. But then, as He tells him, then it will already be too late, then to rectify will no longer be possible. Therefore He tells him: tell them to accept the mussar now, before such a situation comes when they will be forced to accept the evil, and then when they understand it was for their good, doing so will not change their situation.