Chapter 3 of Yeshayahu opens a new stage in the prophecy. Following the preceding rebukes, the prophet comes, and in the words of the Malbim: "relates how the sun of the nation set at that time, and how it lacked every form of perfection necessary for the success of the people." Here begins a detailed description of the decline of Jerusalem's stature and of the entire nation, and of the absence of all those things essential for a nation to attain its perfection.
כִּי הִנֵּה הָאָדוֹן יְהֹוָה צְבָאוֹת מֵסִיר מִירוּשָׁלַ͏ִם וּמִיהוּדָה מַשְׁעֵן וּמַשְׁעֵנָה כֹּל מִשְׁעַן־לֶחֶם וְכֹל מִשְׁעַן־מָיִם. - For behold, the Master, the Lord of Hosts, is removing from Jerusalem and from Judah support and stay, every support of bread and every support of water.
"From Jerusalem" - this is the royal capital; "and from Judah" - this refers to the entire tribe, all the cities of Judah and not just Jerusalem. And what is the difference between "mashen" and "mash'enah"? A mashen is a major support upon which one leans, whereas a mash'enah is a minor support. The Malbim establishes a rule here: whenever Scripture wishes to contrast a strong entity with a weak one, the strong is expressed in the masculine form and the weak in the feminine form. In other words, nothing strong will remain to lean upon, nor even a minor prop.
From here on, the prophet explains that the success of a nation depends on seven things, and in each of them, he demonstrates that neither a great support nor a minor stay will remain. First, for a nation to be strong it needs economic power - that there be wealthy individuals among it who support the needy. Regarding this it is said, "every support of bread": no one will be found to help and support the poor and destitute. And not only that, but "and every support of water" - water is less expensive, representing a minor support, and even that will not be found.
גִּבּוֹר וְאִישׁ מִלְחָמָה שׁוֹפֵט וְנָבִיא וְקֹסֵם וְזָקֵן. - The mighty man and the warrior, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder.
Another thing a nation requires is heroes, strong men who will rescue it from its external enemies. And what is the difference between a "mighty man" (gibor) and a "warrior" (ish milchamah)? A mighty man is someone naturally heroic and powerful, like Shimshon who was born mighty. A warrior is a person who may not be naturally strong, but is skilled in the tactics of warfare, having studied techniques and strategies on how to fight effectively. The mighty man is the great support, and the warrior is the minor stay - and even that will not exist.
Third, a nation needs good leaders who judge between one person and another and establish justice. Fourth, it needs prophets who guide the people along the spiritual path, in matters between man and God. And regarding both, the prophet says they will not be present. The Malbim emphasizes: "judge" here does not mean an ordinary judge of a beit din, but a judge-leader, like Yehoshua and his counterparts during the era of the Shoftim (Judges). How does he know this? Because the structure of the verse always places the major element first, followed by the minor support. If "judge" were merely an ordinary court judge, an elder is of higher status than a judge, so how could Scripture place the judge before the elder? Necessarily, this refers to judge-leaders whose stature exceeds that of elders. No such judges will be found, nor will even the elders, who are of lesser rank than they, be found.
And similarly with the prophet: a prophet is one who knows directly from Hashem. The prophet says that not only will there be no prophet, but even a diviner - one who predicts the future according to the rules of astrology and the constellations, who represents the minor support - even he will not be present.
שַׂר־חֲמִשִּׁים וּנְשׂוּא פָנִים וְיוֹעֵץ וַחֲכַם חֲרָשִׁים וּנְבוֹן לָחַשׁ. - The captain of fifty and the dignitary, the counselor and the skilled craftsman, and the one who understands whispering.
"The captain of fifty" is an official of authority and rank, an important man who rules over fifty men. "And the respected man" is not a ruler, but people respect him and heed his words. Such people will not exist at that time. "And the counselor" - these are those who sit first in the kingdom, supervising all affairs of the nation, and the phrasing includes both great and small counselors, both a stay and a staff.
"And the skilled craftsman" (chacham charashim) - there are two types of wise men: those wise in theoretical wisdom, in the sciences, and those wise in practical wisdom, in crafts, like an artisan skilled in carpentry or ironwork. The prophet says that there will not be found among them a master in either of these. And what is the connection between "charashim" (craftsmen/plowmen) and wisdom? The root of the expression comes from plowing (charishah) the earth, and from there the term was applied to all forms of wisdom. The Malbim explains beautifully: when we want to say that someone delved deeply into a subject, we say he "plowed through all the material" - he studied it in depth. Therefore, a great scholar is called "chacham charashim," one who has plowed deeply into the matter and reached a high level of understanding. As the Malbim puts it: "For one who digs in the field of contemplation will harrow the valleys behind him." Whoever digs and delves reaches the very essence of the matter. These two types correspond to the craftsmen and smiths (cheresh u-masger) who were exiled from Jerusalem, and neither of them will remain among you.
"And the skilled enchanter" (nevon lachash) - some explain that this is someone who knows how to whisper an incantation over a wound, performing certain actions to heal, which is the lowest level of wisdom, and even this will not be found among them. The Malbim explains that the root of the word refers to one who speaks in a faint, muted whisper, as in "all my enemies whisper against me" (Tehillim 41:8). Therefore, he called these people "nevon lachash" - experts in how to whisper over an affliction in order to heal it.
וְנָתַתִּי נְעָרִים שָׂרֵיהֶם וְתַעֲלוּלִים יִמְשְׁלוּ־בָם. - And I will make youths their officers, and wanton babes shall rule over them.
When there are no ministers and no leaders, no sages and no prophets, no judges and no elders - what is left? Only the youths remain, empty-headed people, and they will become the ministers. "And wanton babes shall rule over them" - capricious desires will rule over the youths themselves, meaning those rulers will be enslaved to their own base lusts, and yet they are the ones who are supposed to rule over us. But the very ABCs of a ruler is how capable he is of ruling over himself; of one who restrains himself, the Holy One, Blessed be He, says, "This one shall rule over My people" (I Shmuel 9:17), for whoever restrains himself and governs his own impulses and will is fit to be a king. But as for these, whose lusts rule over them, how can they rule over us? The Malbim explains that "ta'alul" comes from the root of "lehit'allel," to act wanton and abuse, signifying something that stems from an evil trait of the soul, corrupt character and forces that torment and toy with a person.
וְנִגַּשׂ הָעָם אִישׁ בְּאִישׁ וְאִישׁ בְּרֵעֵהוּ יִרְהֲבוּ הַנַּעַר בַּזָּקֵן וְהַנִּקְלֶה בַּנִּכְבָּד. - And the people shall oppress one another, every man against his fellow; the youth will act insolently against the elder, and the base person against the honorable.
Lest you say: perhaps there will be no leaders, but the nation on its own is elevated and virtuous, and does not truly need leadership. To this the prophet says, "And the people shall oppress one another." The Malbim explains: "nigas" denotes pressure; people will be pressured, each by his fellow. And what is the nature of this pressure? In Lashon HaKodesh there is a "noges" (taskmaster/oppressor), there is "lochetz vedochek" (one who presses and squeezes), and there is a "nosheh" (creditor). All express exerting pressure on another, yet they differ from one another: a "noges" imposes labor upon his fellow that the other does not owe him at all, which is why the term applies to tax exaction - I owe you nothing, yet you oppress me and make demands, just like the Egyptians who oppressed us when we owed them nothing. The difference between a noges and one who presses and squeezes (lochetz vedochek) is that the noges takes something from you, whereas one who presses and squeezes torments and causes you anguish without taking anything from you. And the creditor (nosheh) demands something that is indeed owed to him, like one who lent you money which you have not repaid, and now he demands his debt.
Thus, there will be no peace among them; they will not live in tranquility and harmony, but rather one will choke the other and one will torment the other. What is more, "the youth will act insolently against the elder" - the young person, who is commanded by the Torah to respect the elder, will haughtily lord over him; "rahav" is a term denoting arrogance and pride. "And the base person against the honorable" - naturally, a low and base person shows respect to an honorable man, yet here Jerusalem will sink lower and lower until the base person despises the honorable.
It is told of several great Torah leaders who were walking past a place where empty youths were sitting on a bench. One of the sages said to his companion: "Look, the days of Mashiach have arrived, for this is the era of which it was said that the presence of the elders will not be respected by the youth - elders and leaders of the generation are passing by, and these young men remain seated." His companion replied: "You are entirely mistaken; we are still far from the days of Mashiach. In the days of Mashiach, we will be the ones sitting on the bench, and those empty, reckless youths will be the ones walking by, and they will say to one another: 'Did you see that? We passed by, and these old men did not stand up in our honor!' This is the meaning of 'the youth will act insolently against the elder' - the youth will act arrogantly toward the elder, complaining: 'Didn't he see that I passed by, and yet he did not stand?'"
And gentlemen, we have already reached this era. A base member of the Knesset comes along - an immoral person, a desecrator of Shabbat, an eater of non-kosher food - and a complaint is raised: Why didn't the Rav show him honor? And who are you that they should honor you? Just because you received an office through political maneuvering and hand-outs of jobs, you have become an authority, a man de'amar? What have you learned, and what do you know, that people should respect you for it? This is the situation of "the youth shall act brazenly against the elder": a youth stripped bare of every mitzvah arrives, corrupt and wicked, and harbors grievances against the Gadol HaDor as to why he did not call him, why he did not speak with him, why he did not invite him. We are already in the time ripe for the coming of Mashiach.
The Midrash says: "The youth shall act brazenly against the elder" - one to whom grave transgressions seem trivial will come and behave arrogantly toward one to whom minor matters seem grave. A person completely devoid of mitzvot, in whose eyes the most severe transgressions - capital offenses punishable by court execution and stoning - appear light, and who tramples upon them as though they were merely muktzeh on Shabbat, will act haughtily against the tzaddik, to whom even a minor mitzvah seems grave and who is so meticulous regarding it. This is the meaning of "and the base against the honorable."
Our Sages said in Masechet Chagigah (folio 14a): Yeshayahu pronounced eighteen curses upon Israel, and his mind was not put at ease until he said to them, "The youth shall act brazenly against the elder, and the base against the honorable." And what are they? As it is written: "For behold, the Master, the Lord of Hosts..." etc. "Stay" (mashen) - these are the masters of Scripture; "and staff" (mash'enah) - these are the masters of Mishnah; "every stay of bread" - these are the masters of Talmud, as it is stated, "Come, eat of my bread"; "and every stay of water" - these are the masters of Aggadah, who draw the heart of a person like water.
"The mighty man" - these are the masters of halachic traditions; "and the man of war" - one who knows how to engage in the give-and-take in the battle of Torah; "the judge" - a judge who renders a true judgment in complete truth; "the prophet" - in its literal sense; "the diviner" - this is a king, as it is stated, "A divine oracle is on the lips of a king; his mouth shall not transgress in judgment"; "the elder" - one who is fit to sit in the yeshivah; "the captain of fifty" - one who knows how to deliberate upon the Five Books of the Torah. Alternatively, Rabbi Abbahu said: From here we learn that they do not appoint a public interpreter (turgeman) under fifty years of age.
"And the honorable man" - one on whose account favor is shown to his generation, Above through his merit, such as Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa, and below, such as Rabbi Abbahu in Caesarea. "The counselor" - one who knows how to intercalate leap years and determine the new months. "The wise man" - a student who makes his teachers wiser. "The artisan" (charashim) - when he opens his mouth, everyone becomes as deaf mutes (chereshim), for no one is able to open his mouth to utter a word, but all are entirely attuned to what this sage has to say. "And the eloquent orator" (navon lachash) - one who understands one matter from another; "whisper" (lachash) - one who is worthy of having the words of Torah transmitted to him in a whisper, like those matters that are transmitted only person-to-person and to a wise man who understands from his own knowledge, such as Ma'aseh Merkavah and the like, which are not transmitted publicly but in secret and not by way of publication. And they further said: The secrets of the Torah are transmitted only to one who possesses these five attributes - a counselor, a wise man, an artisan, and an eloquent orator.
Terrible curses are listed here, a state of deterioration after deterioration until the Jewish people are emptied of everything good. And our Sages said that his mind was not put at ease until he said, "The youth shall act brazenly against the elder," which is the eighteenth curse, and only then did he cease cursing them. On the surface, this is astonishing: did Yeshayahu have a desire to curse, such that once he delivered the final curse he calmed down? Heaven forbid that we should say so! Was Yeshayahu an enemy of Israel? And why is it that specifically upon reaching the lowest tier, the mud beneath everything, his mind was eased? Several explanations exist for this, some by way of an insightful homily (vort) and some closer to the plain meaning.
The first explanation, from the Iyyun Yaakov: Heavenly conduct mirrors earthly conduct. If in this world the great nullify their will to the small, so too in Heaven - the angels and celestial princes, who are great, will nullify their will to the small, to us, to what we pray and request. Yeshayahu feared that after all the curses we would pray and our voices would not be heard, for the heavenly angels are great, so how could they listen to the small? He said: No! In that generation, the youth will act brazenly against the elder, and the elders will be subservient to the youth, the great to the small. If so, in Heaven too they will listen to our voice and receive our prayers. And with that, his mind was put at ease.
A second explanation, in the name of the Anaf Yosef: "The youth shall act brazenly against the elder" - the youth devoid of Torah will act haughtily toward the elder and say to him, "What do you think of yourself? I too have studied, I too know, and I can refute your words." We see this in our own generation as well: a youth who is still in yeshivah writes against the Gedolei HaDor and their rulings, in Torah journals whose names will not be mentioned, speaking haughtily with phrases like "it escaped his grasp," "he failed to notice," and the like. Where is the honor of the Torah? A man of ninety years - if only you could remember what he has already forgotten! - and you write about him in such insolent terms? This is a degradation of the Torah. Yet despite this, Yeshayahu was comforted. Why? Because until now, he had heard that the masters of Scripture, masters of Mishnah, masters of Gemara, masters of in-depth analysis, and intercalators of months would all cease, and no wisdom at all would remain. But when he was told that a generation would arrive in which the youth boasts over the elder, saying, "I am wiser than you and I have proofs to refute your words," he understood from this that there would still be young men learning Torah, and Torah would not be forgotten. To be sure, this is a curse, and to be sure, it is improper, but if the entire dispute is over who is wiser in Torah, so be it, so long as they do not quarrel over who is wealthier. The Torah still holds glory in their eyes, and if so, there is still hope for redemption.
Similar to this is the story told of a wealthy man who came to a Rebbe. The Rav asked him: "Do you donate? Do you give tzedakah?" He replied, "May the Rebbe permit me not to pride myself on the donations I give." The Rebbe said to him: "Go ahead and boast! The main thing is that you give! Do not secretly throw in ten shekels just to avoid feeling proud; give a million dollars and publish it in the newspaper, take pride in it, so long as the poor have food to eat."
A third explanation, also from the Iyun Yaakov, is very straightforward - and the nature of straightforward explanations is often to be the truest ones: "The youth will act insolently toward the elder" means that the youth will not accept rebuke from the elder, for he behaves arrogantly toward him. And if he does not accept rebuke, the elder is no longer held accountable for the youth's sin, and the great leaders are not held liable for the sin of the generation. This had been Yeshayahu's worry throughout that entire prophecy: descent after descent, and woe to the elders and sages who would be held accountable for the generation's sin, charged with "Why did you not protest?" But when he reached "The youth will act insolently toward the elder," he understood why they did not protest, saw that they would not be held liable for it, and his mind was eased.
A fourth explanation, more intricate, is also from the Iyun Yaakov: It is written, "Lest there be among you a root producing gall and wormwood... and he blesses himself in his heart, saying, 'Peace shall be with me'... and every curse written in this book will settle upon him." The curses in Parashat Ki Tavo are phrased in the singular to teach us that the leader of the generation is held accountable for the sin of the entire people, which is why it says "will settle upon him" in the singular. When is this so? When the leader is esteemed in the eyes of the people, so that when he suffers they feel distress, and when he is in pain they share his pain. But if the leader is not esteemed in their eyes, and the wicked person says, "Peace shall be with me" - "The leader is suffering? Good for him, as long as nothing happens to me and no trouble reaches my tent" - regarding this the Torah says, "and every curse... will settle upon him": the punishment shifts from the leader to the wicked person himself. The moment that "the youth acts insolently toward the elder," it is a sign that they have no respect for the great leaders. And once there is no respect for the leader, he no longer shields you, and you will bear your own punishment. Through this, his mind was eased, seeing that in the end the wicked person pays the price rather than the righteous leaders.
A fifth explanation, cited in the name of the Ateret Chaim of Sanz: When Yeshayahu prophesied eighteen curses and foretold that Torah would be forgotten from Israel - that there would be no masters of Scripture, no masters of Mishna, and no masters of Aggadah - he wondered what that generation would do without Torah scholars, without shepherds, and without leaders. But when he said, "The youth will act insolently toward the elder, and the base toward the honorable," he thought: Wait, even though they will disrespect them, there still is an elder, there still is an honorable person! There will still be great leaders in Israel, and if there are great leaders, there is someone to draw them close; there is a shepherd who can bring the flock back.
A sixth explanation, in the name of Rabbi Yisrael of Chortkov: The prophet sees all this in prophetic vision, seeing curse after curse after curse, and is terrified by the terrible calamities unfolding before his eyes. However, he knows that the count of curses is eighteen, and no more. When he saw the eighteenth curse in his prophetic vision - "The youth will act insolently toward the elder" - he realized that he had reached the final one, and after it comes Mashiach. Through this, his mind was eased, for now the redemption must surely arrive.
And a final explanation, in the path of Chassidut, based on Rabbi Mordechai of Slonim: When a great sage is accorded honor by the people, it is sometimes difficult for him to protest against their conduct. They honor him, show him reverence and prestige, so how can he challenge them and ask, "Why are you desecrating Shabbat?" If so, how can the generation ever be rectified? As long as the youth and the wicked show respect to the righteous, the righteous feel restrained from rebuking them. But when Yeshayahu saw that "the youth will act insolently toward the elder, and the base toward the honorable," that they will begin to disparage the elders and speak against them with arrogance and disdain - he understood that here, the sage will no longer hold back; there are no longer pleasant relations or social considerations to maintain, and he will step forward to rebuke them properly. And from the moment rebuke is heard, redemption will follow. Through this, his mind was eased.
Chapter 3 opens with a depiction of the removal of every stay and staff from Jerusalem and Judah: every form of support, both great and small, in every sphere - economy, valor, justice, prophecy, governance, counsel, and wisdom. In their place will stand shallow youths governed by their whims and desires, and the nation itself will disintegrate from within, with man oppressing fellow man, the youth acting insolently toward the elder, and the base despising the honorable. Our Sages enumerated eighteen curses here, all pointing to the loss of Torah knowledge and Torah scholars, and the prophet's mind was not eased until he reached "The youth will act insolently toward the elder." In all the explanations we have seen, that final curse also carries comfort within it: there are still elders and honorable men, there is still Torah being debated, the punishment shifts to the wicked person himself, rebuke will once again be voiced, and after the eighteenth curse, the redemption already arrives.