Sefer Yeshayahu, chapter 54. "Sing, O barren woman who has not given birth, break forth in song and shout for joy, you who have not gone into labor, for the children of the desolate one are more than the children of the married one, says Hashem." "Sing, O barren woman" refers to Yerushalayim, Yerushalayim who was barren like one who had not given birth. "Break forth in song and shout for joy, you who have not gone into labor": break forth in song, shout with joy, and rejoice, you who have not gone into labor. "Chalah" refers to a woman giving birth: before the birth a pang seizes her, a pang like a woman in childbirth. "Chil" comes from the language of trembling. So it says "has not gone into labor," for who is this one who was not seized by pangs before her birth? Now break forth in song and shout for joy. "For the children of the desolate one are more than the children of the married one, says Hashem": for the children of the desolate one, the people of Israel who were in a state of desolation, will be far more numerous than the children of the married one, the nations, the children of Edom. Up to here is the plain meaning of the verse, according to the explanation of the Radak.
Perhaps a small grammatical note. The Minchat Shai says that in some books "the desolate one" (shomemah) is written defective (chaser) and in some precise ones it is full (malei). That is, is shomemah written with a vav or without a vav? I want to read you his language: "And I sit desolate when I see the multitude of variations that have entered the books, and the matter grieves me greatly, for every single day the books multiply as never before, and the printers walk in darkness and have no light, and there is none who seeks and none who inquires." How accurate these words are, and they are sevenfold more accurate in our generation. For if once they still maintained a certain precision, the new books, unfortunately, in most matters, peshat, remez, derash, kabbalah, most of them are corrupted. Corrupted, for today it is very easy to publish books, and as a result people are no longer meticulous about how they publish, defective, full, they do not pay attention to how they write, sometimes crude spelling errors, sometimes verbal errors, sometimes missing lines, terrible and today. So he writes this in his generation, and in our generation, where anyone with a printer becomes a publisher, brings books to light, he already has books, and as a result of how simple it is, a keyboard and a printer. So he says, I see the multitude of variations that have entered the books, every single day they multiply, the printers walk in darkness and thereby do not pay attention to what they write. He brings here that the cause of the variation is that there are additional places, it is written "and Tamar remained desolate," "He has made me desolate all the day," "for the children of the desolate one are many," it was not clarified which is full, and so a corruption arose whereby people thought that here shomemah is defective, without a vav.
Good, let us return to the explanation of the verse. "Sing, O barren woman." The Radak says the explanation of the verse is as its Targum. The pregnant woman goes into labor near her birth, meaning before the birth a pang seizes her. "And the children of the desolate one are many": even though Yerushalayim for long periods was in a state of desolation, waste, her children did not dwell in her, nonetheless the verse promises us here that the Holy One, blessed be He, will return and settle Yerushalayim. And they will be more than the children of the married one. Who are the children of the married one? These are the idolaters. The idolatrous nation is like a woman sitting with her husband, therefore she is called the children of the married one. The widow is the desolate one, she is Yerushalayim who, as it were, sits without her children. But let us note, says the Radak, that he did not say she is truly like a widow, but rather as it is written in Eichah, "she has become like a widow." Why "like a widow"? Like a widow and not truly a widow, for a real widow has her husband dead, whereas here her husband still exists and merely waits for the people of Israel to repent so that the Master of the world may return to us.
The Malbim explains: the metaphor here likens the country to a mother giving birth. We the people, the children of the country, are the sons. So Tzion, Tzion is really the Land of Israel or Yerushalayim more precisely, is like a barren woman, she does not give birth to children, she sits desolate. And afterward He says to her: know that nevertheless children will come to her from afar. That is, the people of Israel will arise, Tzion will stand astonished, who bore me these? Where did these come from? And then He promises her: know that you too will sing, even though you did not give birth. That is, you did not, as it were, bring them, in any case you lost nothing, your children are more numerous than those of the desolate one. But you will profit from this. And why? A woman before she gives birth cries out from great pain, she is in her labor pangs. So too, says the Malbim, the country in the stages of its establishment, before it becomes a nation and a kingdom, passes through very difficult periods. And so you will see that almost every land in the world, on the way to independence, passed through difficult periods, there were wars, even the United States, unbelievable what killings and what harsh wars between the South and the North. And so on, whoever knows what is happening in Russia and Chechnya and all the places that want to gain independence, those who want to gain independence have very difficult wars. The Kurds who want independence in Iraq, the Palestinians who kill us without mercy when they want independence in their land. In the first stages there are always difficult wars. But He comes and promises here that Tzion will be in such a state that when a great nation comes to her, when the entire people of Israel returns to her, it will be without labor pangs and contractions. Like a woman who gave birth and did not go into labor. "Sing, O barren woman who has not given birth, break forth in song and shout for joy," why? Because "you have not gone into labor," you did not undergo the pangs of a woman in childbirth before the birth. That is, He is speaking here of the future redemption, that when all of Israel gathers here, it will be in a short time without pain. Without the symptoms of a woman before birth. And that is what He says, "break forth in song and shout for joy," you should rejoice over the fact that you did not give birth. Why? Because since through this you did not go into labor, through this you did not undergo the illness, the trembling that every country undergoes in the stages of its birth. And even so, you might think: if so, then perhaps as a result my children will be few? He says no, the children of the desolate one are more than the children of another country that was married and went into labor, that underwent this whole process of pain before birth. Do not think that because you will not undergo it, your children will be few, no, the children of this one who was desolate, Yerushalayim, are more than the children of the nations who dwelt on their land and fought for their independence and suffered and absorbed much bloodshed, they had many killed, but your children will be more numerous than their children.
The Malbim says: note that it is written here "barren, has not given birth." Everyone raises the difficulty here, "barren, has not given birth," this is redundant, a superfluous repetition. Says the Malbim, we spoke about this in the past when we studied the mother of Shimshon who was "barren and had no child." What is the redundancy of "barren and had no child"? So the Malbim explains that there is a situation of a barren woman who has given birth. Today this is known in medicine as secondary infertility. A couple married, the woman gave birth to a child or two, afterward she wants to conceive again and cannot. This is called secondary infertility. Sometimes you see people who have no children for 15 years, and after 15 years a child is born to them again. There are those for whom it is by choice, but for most of the world it is not by choice but stems from secondary infertility, we have no power to control it and treatments and all sorts of things are needed until Hashem has mercy. So too here, "sing, O barren woman," there is a situation where she is indeed barren now but gave birth in the past. He says no, here "sing, O barren woman," which barren woman? One who also did not give birth. A barren woman who never gave birth before. As it is written regarding the wife of Manoach, "behold now you are barren and have not given birth." "Sarai was barren, she had no child." What does this mean? Barren and also never gave birth before. It is written here "has not given birth" and "has not gone into labor," "break forth in song and shout for joy, you who have not gone into labor." Ostensibly every birth also entails going into labor, entails pangs and trembling as we explained. Says the Malbim: not necessarily. It is possible to go into labor and not give birth. As it is written, "we were with child, we writhed in pain, but we gave birth to wind." Sometimes she goes into labor, there are great pains, there is a process of labor, she gave birth to wind, nothing, a miscarriage comes out, nothing, she did not give birth. And conversely it can be the opposite. It can be that a woman gave birth and did not go into labor. She was not in the note of Chava. She gave birth like a hen's egg. In one moment, without an epidural, without anything, this is rare, few, but there are such, such things happen. We find, then, that there is going into labor without giving birth, and there is giving birth without going into labor. And therefore He says here "has not given birth and has not gone into labor." That is, both of these things did not occur.
I want to bring an additional explanation in the name of the Alshich. We usually study with the Malbim but here the Alshich has a very wonderful explanation on these verses. And truly by the grace of Hashem, by chance I came upon it. And I would like to see, first he asks several questions and afterward we will see the explanation of the matter. Usually on verses that contain haftarot there are more explanations. For many of the commentators explained the haftarot. They did not explain the Tanach in order, but he explained the Chumash, and afterward explained the haftarot. And therefore one can find many more explanations on the haftarot than one can find in explanations on the Tanach in the ordinary way. So the Alshich asks several questions here. First of all, how can one say "sing, O barren woman who has not given birth, break forth in song and shout for joy, you who have not gone into labor"? There is a verse that is the opposite, contradicting this, that says "for Tzion has gone into labor and also given birth to her children." Decide: has Tzion gone into labor and also given birth to her children, or has she not given birth and not gone into labor? An apparent contradiction from verse to verse. And further he asks, we see plainly that she did give birth. Who is this if not the people of Israel? Who is this if not Yerushalayim who gave birth to her children? Another question, he says "the children of the barren one are many," "for the children of the desolate one are more than the children of the married one." He says this is not the correct expression. You are saying that the barren woman's song is that she did not give birth, you should have said "for the children of the barren one are more than the children of the one who gave birth." The song of the barren woman who did not give birth, what should she rejoice over? That this barren woman will have more children than the woman who did give birth. What is "the children of the desolate one are more than the children of the married one"? He began with a jug and ended with a barrel. Ostensibly he ends not on the same matter with which he began. Another thing, he says "the children of the desolate one are more than the children of the married one." He asks further, if she is barren then it is presumably known that she did not give birth, as the Malbim asked and we already saw that the Malbim answered this. And if this is her name, that He calls her barren because she did not give birth, then why say "sing, O barren woman who has not given birth"? It needs to be explained afterward. Her name is barren, and you know that this barren woman did not give birth. Say from the start, "sing, O one who has not given birth." Rejoice, you who did not give birth. Another difficulty, he says "break forth in song and shout for joy." You already said "sing." What is the difference between "sing" and "break forth in song"? You are again repeating yourself, ostensibly in a repetition that is superfluous. Another thing, which comes first? Is there birth, or does the labor pang come first? "A pang like a woman in childbirth." First there is the pang, afterward comes the birth. Note, "sing, O barren woman who has not given birth, break forth in song and shout for joy, you who have not gone into labor." It should be said the other way around. "Sing, O barren woman who has not gone into labor, break forth in song and shout for joy, you who have not given birth." First the pang, afterward giving birth. First the pains, afterward the birth. One last thing before we see the explanation, he says ostensibly it should have addressed her directly. "Sing, O barren woman who have not given birth, break forth in song and shout for joy, you who have not gone into labor." You should rejoice, you, for He is addressing Knesset Yisrael, rejoice, you will see children whom you did not bear. You will have children over whom you did not go into labor, you were not in pain over them. Why is it written in third person? "She has not given birth, she has not gone into labor."
The Alshich explains. But it will say, says the Alshich, this is speaking as a parable of a woman who was barren for 10 years or more. And afterward this woman gave birth to many children. These children did not remain, they did not endure in her possession. Some of them died, some were taken captive. The woman remained alone, without her husband and without her children. And then that woman grieved and said, woe is me. What is "woe is me"? Woe is me that I had few children. For if I had had many children, then there is a chance that from the multitude, for so many were lost, so many were exiled, there is a chance that at least some would have remained to me. But now that I gave birth to few, then the moment they were taken, everything was taken. So over this she actually grieves: why did I not give birth to many children, whereby now in my distress and in their exile I would still have children remaining to me. But in time her children were remembered and came to her and returned to her. And then they say to her, rejoice over the fact that you did not give birth in those days when you were barren, sing over the fact that you did not give birth then. Why? Because first of all you gained that you did not undergo the pangs of a woman in childbirth. To give birth is not simple. The pangs and the difficulty and the grief and the pregnancy, all this is truly not simple. So first, you have no grief, you did not undergo this grief of birth. What will you say, but perhaps I would have had more children? They say to her no, behold they have all gathered and come to you. You see that in the end they all arrive. You see that in the end all those you worried about, where did they go, behold in the end they return. What will you say, but I could have had other children? Those other additional children would also not have remained. And they too would have gone. And according to what we will soon see, not simply gone, but gone never to return. And you, in the merit of not having given birth, at least merited that other children came to you, whom you did not have to labor to bear and toil and weary yourself so much for. This is the parable, and come hear how wonderful the meaning is.
Says the holy Alshich, like this parable it happened to Yerushalayim. The Alshich explains, the heavenly Yerushalayim is the place from which all the souls of Israel emerge. And behold we see that from that same source from which the roots of the nations emerge, this is a source that flows without limit. We see that they multiply without end. There are a billion Chinese and a billion Indians. The Kenizzites, Pathrusim, Casluchim, and such, their troops and their kings are without number, and this is even before a king reigned in Israel. Even before we at all began the work, you see this chieftain and that chieftain and that chieftain. Thus it is written, as the simple one said, see how he entered there with the camel, and this camel was full of thorns, full of straw, he said to him, do not worry, the house of Yosef is a flame, one spark of yours finishes off all of them, one spark of yours ends everything. So at first when one looks, one sees, come see what there is here, how many nations, they have so many children, so many peoples, we have not yet begun. Ostensibly it turns out then that we were in the category of a barren woman. Until Avraham came, we had not yet even begun to give birth. And when Avraham already arrives, this is truly barren. At the age of 100 Avraham Avinu gave birth. And afterward Yitzchak, again, Yitzchak was altogether born from what was considered impossible for him to bear, and it was only in the end after he underwent the Akeidah, becoming in the aspect of the female, and even after that he stood before Rivkah, "and he entreated Hashem opposite his wife, for she was barren," even then it did not go easily. And afterward too with Yaakov, there too we see that Leah was barren and Hashem remembered for her what had been, that she was hated, and opened her womb. And Rachel certainly we see explicitly in the verses was barren. So we see that with the people of Israel everything goes with difficulty. Until the souls come out, until it arrives, until the people of Israel develops, everything is out of difficulty. And with the nations we see everything goes so easily. And so Knesset Yisrael could come and complain and lament, woe is me over the former barrenness, woe is me that I did not give birth then. For if I had given birth then, then now that the people of Israel are exiled, how many were we? Millions, and we were exiled. Perhaps if we had been a billion, some would have remained here. Perhaps if we had been a larger quantity, then at least what would have remained to me, like the parable we said, that her children went, if I had had more children, some would have remained. The verse comes and says to her, "sing, O barren woman," she should rejoice over what, over the fact that she was barren. "Sing, O barren woman" refers to the past. And therefore He says, He does not address here directly, that we "sing, O barren woman who have not given birth." He says no, no, He speaks of "has not given birth" regarding the past, and therefore it is in third person. Rejoice over the fact that then you did not give birth. Rejoice over the fact that then the Holy One, blessed be He, brought the people of Israel drop by drop, slowly, He did not bring them in such enormous quantities as the nations. And why? He asks ostensibly an enormous question. For I, if no trouble happened to you, I can say it is fine, be at ease, trouble could have happened to you and did not. But should you begin to dance over the fact that no trouble happened to you? We break forth in song over something good that happened to us. Not over the fact that no trouble happened. So he asks, if so, ostensibly there is no song except from joy. What are you saying to her, you did not lose out. "I did not lose out" is not some great joy. This is not a sufficient reason, you did not lose out. But a joy that produces song? He says, and here you will understand, He says to her "break forth in song and shout for joy," it is fitting for you to break forth in song from joy, and not merely joy, but a joy that also goes outward, that is in the aspect of shouting. And why? Because since "she did not give birth, she did not go into labor." What is the meaning? Why indeed did the Holy One, blessed be He, multiply the nations without end, while the people of Israel with much difficulty in many stages? Why indeed is it built this way? So says the holy Alshich for a very simple reason. The filth increased in the world. We all know sand there is much of, diamonds there are few. And until you find the diamonds, how much digging and how much blood you spit out until you find one diamond worthy of the name, clean, refined, how hard this is. The nations are sand. Sand, stones, mud, there is much, without end, however much you want, without limit. In contrast the people of Israel, the Holy One, blessed be He, wanted to bring them forth refined. What do you say, why did Avraham not give birth at a younger age? If Avraham had given birth to Yitzchak at a younger age, would Yitzchak have come out refined? For in the merit of Avraham giving birth to Yishmael and placing his filth in him, Yitzchak came out more refined. So was it good that he bore him late or not good? Certainly good. And if Yitzchak had given birth to Yaakov first, it would save us much headache of quarrels with Eisav who wants to kill Yaakov, who feels the birthright belongs to him, Yaakov is the firstborn. Good or not good? Very bad. Yitzchak's filth he placed in Eisav, and thus he gave birth to Yaakov when he was more refined. And by the way we explained this in the past, that Avraham Avinu, what is his attribute? Chesed. Chesed, what is the filth of chesed? That is, if we take chesed to its most extreme degree and search for the filth of chesed, the worst thing in chesed, what is it? It is licentiousness. It is forbidden relations. For regarding forbidden relations too the Torah writes "it is chesed." For forbidden relations too are a kind of chesed. It is a kind of giving, but giving in impurity. One gives pleasure to his fellow but in impurity. Who took this? Yishmael. Avraham Avinu placed the extreme of chesed, the filth of chesed, in Yishmael. Ten measures of licentiousness descended to the world, nine were taken by the Arabs. From where? This, this is the aspect of chesed of impurity that was in Avraham, this he gave to Yishmael. Yitzchak, what is his attribute? Gevurah. What is gevurah of impurity? What is gevurah in its extreme that is the portion of impurity of gevurah? It is murder. It is murder, for gevurah means let the law pierce the mountain. It means to go with great force. And if you take this to the extreme, you become a murderer. For if someone did not act according to law, then immediately you cut off his head. This is gevurah. Who took the gevurah of filth, the filth of Yitzchak's gevurah? Eisav. What is Eisav? "By your sword you shall live." This is the essence of Eisav whose entire essence is red, murder. And from them, after the filth of chesed was placed in Yishmael and the filth of gevurah was placed in Eisav, Yaakov comes forth when he is in the aspect of Tiferet. His bed was complete, Yaakov is refined. And so, says the Alshich, this is what is written here. Rejoice, because when it was in the early generations even before the generation of Avraham, the filth of the serpent was abundant. The power of impurity in the world was immense. And in such a situation if children were born, they would be born filthy. They would be born with that same power of impurity of the nations. What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He diminished the seed of Avraham and the seed of Yitzchak and delayed them and brought Avraham in a later generation. And so through this the whole situation is that the people of Israel came out more refined. And this is what He says, "for the children of the desolate one are more than the children of the married one." Come see that in the end your situation is far better. For if you ask them, there are many, the children of the desolate one are those children who were born after we were desolate. The entire period of the barrenness, from the root of the souls of Israel no souls came out. When all the nations go on multiplying, do not be alarmed, the children of the desolate one are more than the children of the married one. These children will be more numerous than the children of the married one. For if we look at who the children of the married one are, these are those who were born, for example, from Eisav. And Eisav is Amalek, he is the root of Amalek. And from them Tzur which was carved out in its kingdom, and then they could all be destroyed. So who has more? The children of the married one, those who bore in quantities, or those who were in the aspect of desolate? The children of the desolate one will be many, this one who was desolate, more than this one who is in the aspect of married, who are Amalek and the rest of the nations and the peoples of Edom who multiplied without end. And so, how good it is for you, how you should rejoice. Not as we said before, no good thing happened to me so I, excuse me, no trouble happened to me so I do not rejoice with special joy. No, here it is not that no trouble happened to you, a most praiseworthy thing happened to you, that the Holy One, blessed be He, waited until all the filth came out in order to bring you forth, the people of Israel, refined and worthy. For the closer we are to the sin of Adam HaRishon, the more the sin of the primordial serpent seeped through. The venom of the primordial serpent, the filth and impurity of the primordial serpent, had much more vitality, they had much more existence. The more the generations go on and grow distant, through this that power of filth goes on and diminishes. And this is what He says, "the children of the desolate one are more than the children of the married one." Know that there is here an enormous tiding that the Holy One, blessed be He, promises, "says Hashem." The Holy One, blessed be He, promises, that the fact that you did not bring forth children then is a great joy for you, for you are destined to have children who are refined and they will be far more numerous than the children of the married one.
According to this now the questions will be resolved. We asked, He says "for Tzion has gone into labor and also given birth to her children." So how do you say "has not given birth"? According to this it is wonderfully understood. She did not give birth then. How good for us that she did not give birth then. For if she had given birth then, in the period when the filth increased, we would have come out with the same filth as the nations, the Gemara says their bodies are corrupt. The Gemara says there is in them, in the nations, the filth of the serpent. How good that she did not give birth then. Certainly "Tzion has gone into labor and also given birth to her children," this is in a later period when they were more refined. And this is what is also understood, what is "has not given birth and also has not gone into labor." Since he explains that how much you should rejoice that she did not give birth, for if she had given birth then she would have gone into labor. The meaning is, if you had given birth then, then what kind of children are these? Children of trembling, of illness, children who are not worthy, defective children. So rejoice that she did not give birth, and the main joy is what? "Break forth in song and shout for joy, you who have not gone into labor." Rejoice over the fact that you did not bear children then, for if this were the bearing of children then, this is going into labor, these are children who have illness in them, these are children of pang and trembling, these are not children worthy of you. And over this, then, Knesset Yisrael should rejoice.
Verse 2. "Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, do not spare. Lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes." "Enlarge the place of the tent." Here the prophet comes to express the reality of the people of Israel in the future. For He says "the children of the desolate one are more than the children of the married one." The people of Israel will be more numerous than all the children of the other nations. From the multitude of children who will come to us from the exile. And therefore "enlarge the place of the tent," which is Yerushalayim, "and the curtains of your dwellings," meaning the curtains with which one draws out the dwellings of the tent, spreading out the tent, which is the rest of the mountains of Israel, "let them stretch out, do not spare." The meaning is "let them stretch out," the one who spreads the curtains will draw them from afar. If the tent is normally like a triangle, let us define it like a scouts' tent, when I want more people to sit in it, what do I do? I raise the ceiling and pull it to the sides. And then through this more people can enter. This is what He says, "stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, do not spare," do not diminish. Since a great multitude of the people of Israel is destined to come who will need to settle here in the land. And not only this, but when He speaks of "stretching out the curtains of your dwellings," He is really speaking, says the Radak, of the expansion of the Land of Israel. And these matters are written explicitly in the verses. In Zecharyah it is brought, "The burden of the word of Hashem is in the land of Chadrach, and Damascus is its resting place." Where will its resting place be? Damascus. The meaning is the Land of Israel will expand up to Damascus. "And Chamat too shall border on it, Tzur and Tzidon." Chamat shall border on Tzur and Tzidon, these will be the borders that will include Tzur and Tzidon. And also as brought in Zecharyah, "All the land shall be turned into a plain from Geva to Rimmon south of Yerushalayim, and it shall be raised up and dwell in its place from the gate of Binyamin to the place of the first gate, to the corner gate, and from the tower of Chananel to the king's winepresses, and they shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more destruction, and Yerushalayim shall dwell in safety." As Yirmiyahu says, "Behold, days are coming, says Hashem, when the city shall be built for Hashem from the tower of Chananel to the corner gate," and so on. We see that Yerushalayim is destined to expand, and these are matters of verses explicit in Chazal that Yerushalayim is destined to be like all the Land of Israel, and the Land of Israel like all the world. The meaning is that Yerushalayim is destined to expand, and this is what the prophet hints at here, "enlarge the place of the tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, do not spare."
The Malbim says: "enlarge the place of the tent," this is in order to hold the multitude of children. The tent is the place where one dwells. And sometimes it happens that guests arrive, those who attach themselves, so they too arrive at the tent, so "the curtains of your dwellings." The curtains are around the tent. Says the Malbim, these too He says, that which is around, these too you shall stretch out. "Let them stretch out." Why? Since there are still more attached ones and more additions. "Do not spare," what is "do not spare"? Without stopping, continually. The meaning is that they will come and come and come and come and come. Always the newly coming children will multiply, and always one needs to add more dwellings. And also "lengthen your cords." "Your cords" are the cords with which the tent is tied. And with them, when one wants, one lengthens it, when one wants, one shortens it. He says to her, know that you will need very long cords. So from the start when you prepare the cords, "lengthen your cords." In simple words, if you are about to prepare housing developments, do not prepare, you say the projection is for 100,000 people. No, no, enlarge the projection, make it a million people. Enlarge. This is "lengthen your cords." When you prepare ropes for the purpose of enlarging the tent in the future, prepare long ones. You will need them. "Lengthen your cords." Why? Since a great multitude is still destined to come.
The meaning: "For you shall spread out to the right and to the left, and your seed shall inherit nations and settle the desolate cities." "You shall spread out to the right and to the left" is like what is written, "and you shall spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south." "And your seed shall inherit nations," if right and left are south and north, then "your seed shall inherit nations" is east and west. "And the desolate cities," "neshamot" means desolate, "and the desolate cities they shall settle." Cities that were desolate of the rest of the Land of Israel, these too they shall settle. The Malbim says: "you shall spread out to the right and to the left," you shall break through the borders on the right and on the left, and the Land of Israel as we explained will expand beyond its borders. Until "your seed shall inherit nations," our place will not suffice and we will need to inherit from the lands of the peoples, as we saw that David made conquests in Syria and in other places. And even this will not suffice, until "they shall settle the desolate cities." Also with the nations, after we take all the settled cities, we will still need to use desolate cities, meaning places where they do not settle, in order to break through there as well. Only that with David as we explained there was a claim. And the claim was, for in the Torah, we explained this at length when we studied the section of King David and the conquests he made, in the Torah it is said that "every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours." And on the other hand we see that in the Torah borders were stated. "To the last river," and there are descriptions "to the sea," and so on. So decide, is it "every place on which the sole of your foot treads" or are there borders? So we explained there, the borders are the minimum. The people of Israel, when they arrive in the land, must conquer the land within its borders, for this is the promised land. From then onward, after we have completed this, from then onward "every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours." This can be Damascus, this can be Iraq, this can be any place to which we spread out, it will remain ours. But all this on condition that we took the base, the source. But if in the time of David they had not yet completed the conquest of all the Land of Israel, and David went and conquered in Syria, in Chalav, went and reached places where the Torah promises everything will be yours, they say to you, we have not yet acquired this in an absolute manner. All this is if you have finished and completed conquering the land. But if the promised land you have not yet finished and you go to spread out over other places, those other places are certainly not promised to you. And this is what He says here, "your seed shall inherit nations," this is only after we settle the land properly. And only after we have truly conquered all that belongs to us from the side of the original borders of the land, only then is there a promise that "your seed shall inherit nations and settle the desolate cities."