But the one who takes refuge in Me, who is it that relied on the Master of the Universe? Chizkiyahu. "And the one who takes refuge in Me shall inherit the land." The one who takes refuge in Me shall inherit the land: he relied on the Holy One blessed be He, and he inherited the land, and the Holy One blessed be He saved him, and the Holy One blessed be He heard his voice, and the Holy One blessed be He killed the entire army of Sancheriv and saved Yerushalayim. So you see that the one who takes refuge in Me shall inherit the land and possess My holy mountain. My holy mountain, this is Yerushalayim.
The Radak says: true, this refers specifically to the matter of Ashur and Chizkiyahu, but it is also a parable for all the situations in which the people of Israel take refuge in forces external to the Holy One blessed be He, how in the end whoever takes refuge in them falls, and whoever trusts in Hashem, kindness surrounds him. And we have already seen that all the powers they historically took refuge in always disappointed. Once, in the past, they relied on the French. Whoever remembers, the State of Israel was a European state. Europe, French films, French Mirages, everything was French. Until they turned their back on us so completely that we understood that salvation would not sprout from them. Yes, this we said, yes, it was de Gaulle himself. Afterward, yes, afterward we came to America. America, oh, we have America, the big brother who will help us and save us. And then Obama sits there like this, Obama, by mistake they recently called him Osama in some headline, apparently there is not much difference. Obama sits there like this with his feet on the table, talking to the Prime Minister. And again release prisoners, and again this, and again, and again. And now they are going to make a deal with the Iranians, and it will be fine, do not worry, it will be fine, just do not attack, it will be fine. On them you will rely? They are the ones who will help you in a time of trouble? Says the Holy One blessed be He, all our hope has disappointed. All our hope has disappointed, all those we relied on, behold we have seen that our help is vanity. How does the prophet say there, how does Yirmiyahu say in Eichah, "as for us, our eyes still yearned in vain for our help," I do not remember exactly the wording of the verse, but until the very last moment they still thought Egypt will yet save us. Egypt will yet save us. Like those in the flood, when the flood already covered the treetops, and they say, listen, this is really something unusual, it is about to stop, the water probably any minute now, it will stop soon, this whole thing will end soon. Egypt will yet save us. It is those on the Titanic who sit and play music until the very last moment, until it starts glug glug taking on water, they are still playing. So this is how they still rely on the gentile to help us. Says the Holy One blessed be He, "a wind shall carry them all off, a breath shall take them away." Why will you not rely on the Master of the Universe?
Someone told how he was at a General Staff session, and they sat there, they did a review of what happened in the operation in Gaza, the last operation in Gaza, Tzuk Eitan, in which there were many miracles, Oferet Yetzuka, in which there were great miracles. And he tells that they sat there at the General Staff and sat to draw conclusions from everything that happened and... So he says that some man of senior rank stood up there, and he was religious, and he said: listen, my masters, we have no other definition for what happened here, what happened here is simply an open miracle. We saw open miracles at every step. And once we spoke here at length about soldiers who were there and simply saw miracles with their own eyes, open miracles. And he says, the amazing thing was that everyone was silent. He says everyone was silent. He says, and you do not know what progress that is. The army, its entire essence is "my strength and the might of my hand." The army, its entire essence is the techniques of the IDF, the advancement of the IDF, the weapons of the IDF, the intelligence of the IDF. He says they live "my strength and the might of my hand" twenty four hours a day. And suddenly, and suddenly he says that someone comes and says such a thing and they are silent, he says to ask them to give thanks, another twenty years would have to pass. But, but the very silence, he says, this is already progress, tremendous progress. This is a miracle considered no less than the first miracle. The very fact that they were silent. In America it is very common that after they win a war, the president stands and says we thank the Master of the Universe who was our help. And I do not come to accuse the people of Israel, because for an American, I told you once, it is very easy to give thanks, because it obligates him to nothing. But a Jew who gives thanks, he knows that immediately afterward they will ask him, wait, what about keeping Shabbat? What is this thank you Master of the Universe, and what, and what next? So therefore for a Jew it is much harder, because a Jew knows that the Holy One blessed be He does not buy mere lip service. Say something, what do you intend to do with this? Thank you Master of the Universe and what? And you will continue as you have done until today? But the very fact that people are already willing to be silent and accept such a thing, that such a statement can be made and people accept such a thing, he says this is a tremendous achievement, as someone who has been in the army for years, this is a tremendous achievement. So everyone understands that "a wind shall carry them all off, a breath shall take them away," but the one who takes refuge in Me shall inherit the land, whoever trusts in Hashem is the one who will inherit the land.
The Malbim says: "when you cry out, let your collections save you." Says the Malbim, when you cry out that your collections should save you, what are your collections? As he continued, as he began with the parable and continues and says, you went and whored with other men, and in your crying out you expect them to be the ones who will come and save you. But "a wind shall carry them all off." Why actually, what does he want to compare here? The parable here fits precisely. Like the one who commits adultery with a woman, who has no interest in her at all, but only wants to satisfy his lust, so too when you think you are forming a bond with the Egyptians and with Ashur and with the nations, you think they really care about you. The first moment they can, they will turn their backs on you. Rather, what? They have some temporary benefit from you, this benefit they want to receive, like the woman who whores. Where is the test? "When you cry out." Come, cry out now, and you will see all those who were with you until now, those who flattered you, come and see now whether they are with you. "A wind shall carry them all off, a breath shall take them away." What does this show you? That their entire purpose was only to receive from us, but in truth they had no aim to form a real bond with us. A wind shall carry them all off, you will see that there is no substance in them.
In contrast, "the one who takes refuge in Me shall inherit the land and possess My holy mountain." The Malbim explains: there is a difference between inheritance (yerushah) and possession (nachalah). Says the Malbim, yerushah comes to express an emptying of property from the domain of the bequeather into the domain of the heir, until the bequeather becomes destitute. What is "rash"? Poor. Therefore it is called yerushah. Yerushah means that he is emptied of the asset. He is emptied, this is from the language of "rash," he becomes destitute, and through this he bequeaths to me. Therefore it is written "to dispossess many nations." For example, the victory against the enemies is called "to dispossess nations." It is not called "to inherit nations." Why? Because dispossession means to make him destitute and to receive. Now it may very well also be that I speak of yerushah, because the deceased, the departed one, is left destitute, and he leaves the money to those who come after him. In contrast, in contrast when we speak of nachalah, nachalah means continuity. He had a possession, he continues the possession to his sons after him. This is "to give as an inheritance to his seed." And therefore says the Malbim, you will see the expression nachalah not necessarily regarding earthly and physical matters. Torah, for example, "the simple inherit folly," "our fathers inherited only falsehood." You see the expression of nachalah also regarding matters of the intellect, regarding abstract matters, not necessarily physical and earthly matters. We also find here yerushah applied to the term nachalah, as it is written "every daughter who inherits a nachalah." So regarding yerushah too it is fitting to say, sorry, regarding nachalah too it is fitting to say yerushah, but for dispossessing nations we will not say to give nations as a nachalah. Here he says, "shall inherit the land" (yinchal) and also "shall possess" (yirash). What does this mean? Says the Malbim: "and the one who takes refuge in Me shall inherit the land and possess My holy mountain." He shall inherit the land, not only shall he inherit the land as an inheritance that comes to him from his fathers, but he shall also dispossess the nations found here, turn them into destitute ones, that is, from the language of "rash," poor, and take their land, and he shall possess My holy mountain, for My holy mountain is more important, and on a higher level. Whenever the prophet writes, he goes in gradation. He merited this and received also this, and even this. He always goes from the light to the heavy, from the few to the many. So here they will inherit the land as they inherited from our fathers, and not only that, but they will also dispossess My holy mountain from the nations dwelling there, and he shall possess My holy mountain whose level is higher than the land, for "the land" speaks of the entire land, and "My holy mountain" speaks of the Temple Mount, speaks of the place of the Temple, which is a more exalted place.
And it says "pave, pave, clear the way, remove the stumbling block from the way of My people." And it says "pave, pave," Rashi says, thus said the prophet in My name to My people: build a paved road, clear the evil inclination from your way. What is there to pave? What is "remove the stumbling block"? Who is the stumbling block? It is the evil inclination. What is there to pave? To walk on a paved path so that the evil inclination will not cause us to stumble along the way. "Remove the stumbling block," the stumbling block means the stones that constitute an obstacle on the way. And what is this? These are thoughts of wickedness. Why? Because a person who contemplates a transgression, in the end arrives at the transgression. So arriving at the transgression is the fall. The contemplation of the transgression is the stumbling block. The stumbling block is the trap, the stone that lies in the way. Remove the stumbling block, distance from yourself thoughts of transgression, and you will not arrive at the transgression. And therefore he says first of all remove the stumbling block from the way of My people, and through this you will not arrive at the body of the transgression itself.
The Radak says: "and it says pave, pave, clear the way." Says the Radak, this is a continuation of what we saw above, "shall possess My holy mountain," who? Whoever takes refuge in Me. The one who takes refuge in Me will say, when the enemy is defeated and falls before him, "pave, pave, clear the way." What does this mean? The obstacles that were on the way have been removed. That is, the enemy, because of whom the people of Israel could not reach Yerushalayim since the enemy stood there against them, now this obstacle has been removed and lifted, and behold now the people of Israel can arrive and they will inherit the land, whoever takes refuge in Hashem. Until now there were obstacles that the enemies set up, but now "pave, pave, clear the way," for behold now whoever takes refuge in Hashem inherits the land, possesses My holy mountain.
Yonatan translates: "pave" means that they remove the stones from the roads, so that people who pass along the roads will not stumble on them. Some explain, the Radak wants to explain "pave, pave, clear the way," meaning pave the road. What is "pave the road"? Says the Radak, that they place stones so that it will be possible to travel on the road. Today we put down asphalt, but whoever has seen the roads of old, or as was customary in England and in all the more advanced places, they would place stones and travel on the stones. Yes, they would place stones upon which the wagons traveled and so on. This is what he says, "pave, pave," meaning pave the road by placing stones. In contrast, according to the Targum Yonatan, the meaning is clear the stones from the road. That is to say, if there is a road, even a dirt or gravel road, but there is some protruding stone in it, then he means those stones, remove them, this is how it would be according to the Targum Yonatan.
The Malbim says: this section is a new matter. After we saw that above in chapter 55 he spoke about repentance, and from chapter 56 until here he describes the wickedness of their deeds, as we saw that he compared them to a whoring woman and came to describe the terrible corruption that was among them, now he comes and says to them: now pave a new road, return in repentance. He spoke at first about repentance in order to arouse them, as is the way of the preacher to arouse the people, he needs to detail their sins, as we saw the prophets do, they detail their sins, so that through the people understanding "we have sinned, we have sinned and rebelled," then there is room to speak with them to do repentance. For "behold I will bring you to judgment for your saying I have not sinned." The greatest sin is when you say "I have not sinned." And when the prophet proves their sins to them, now it is possible to come and speak with them about repentance. And now he comes and says, "pave, pave," Hashem will pave a way to receive the sinning people so that they return in repentance before Hashem. "Pave, pave" means pave a new road, in a place where there was no road, pave a road. In a place where there was a road but it became ruined, one needs to straighten the ruined road. And this is the second part, "clear the way." What is "clear the way"? There was a road, but what happened, this road apparently has not been traveled for a long time, obstacles accumulated on it, so remove the stumbling block. This comes to express two situations. There are those who were never on the way of Hashem, and they need to pave anew. There are those who were on the way but strayed, what happened is that "it was all overgrown with thorns, its face covered with nettles," the road now received obstacles. So to them we say "clear the way," those whose way became ruined, clear the road to make it fit again. And in a place where the road is still in order, but there are only a few obstacles, "remove the stumbling block from the way of My people." And this here speaks of people who have not yet strayed from the way, they are still on the way, but what happened, they have local deviations. They have a few things regarding which they are lax in the mitzvot. So they do not really need "clear the way," the road has not filled with impassable obstacles that need to be cleared because he abandoned the way. No, rather he still walks on the way, but the way is difficult to walk. So to them, "remove the stumbling block from the way of My people." That is, those who need only to fix the details of their deeds, they too will fix their deeds.
"For thus said the High and Exalted One who dwells forever and Holy is His name, I dwell on high and holy, and with the contrite and lowly of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite." Thus said Hashem, thus said the High and Exalted One, on high, the High and Exalted One who dwells forever and Holy is His name, I dwell on high and holy. Rashi says, what is "I dwell on high and holy"? I dwell, the place of My dwelling is in a place high and holy. And if so, there would be room to say that one who dwells in such an exalted place, what has He to do with those of clay who sit here below? Says the Holy One blessed be He, and nevertheless, from there I watch over "the contrite and the lowly of spirit," I lower My Shechinah down to him. The lowly and the crushed, to him I lower My Shechinah. "The lowly," says Rashi, these are the contrite, those who suffer poverty and illness, says the Holy One blessed be He, with them I dwell.
For thus said Hashem, the Radak explains: "who dwells forever" (shochen ad). What does "who dwells forever" mean? The Holy One blessed be He dwells for all eternity. "Adei ad" means forever. The Holy One blessed be He exists forever. And "shochen," he says, is from the language of one who continuously maintains his dwelling in one place, says the Radak, based on this He is called "shochen." "The Holy One blessed be He who dwells forever" means He continuously maintains His dwelling here in the world and watches over what happens to the creatures forever. This is the meaning of "who dwells forever," I dwell with you, from the language of dwelling place (mishkan). "And Holy is His name." Holy is His name, as we saw that the Serafim say "Holy, Holy, Holy," so they designate Hashem, so Holy is His name. What is the meaning of the word "holy" (kadosh)? When one says holy, what should one intend? Exalted and set apart. The Holy One blessed be He is holy, exalted, exalted, set apart from us. The whole matter of sanctifying oneself means to separate ourselves, to set ourselves apart. "Behold you are consecrated to me" means set apart to me from all the world, to be exclusive to me alone. Incidentally, this is also the reason that "kedeshah" (a harlot) is actually the opposite of "kadosh," even though it seemingly is not understandable to us how two opposite expressions dwell in the same root. This is kadosh, this is kedushah and this is kedeshah. It is the same idea. Holiness is separated from worldly matters, it is holy and exalted for the service of Hashem. And so too the kedeshah, she is separated and set apart for the matter of harlotry. She separated herself and dedicated herself to harlotry. Kadosh always means to be set apart. "Who sanctified us" means Hashem exalted us and separated us from the material through the fulfillment of the mitzvot. So too Hashem, Holy is His name, that is, the Holy One blessed be He is exalted and set apart above all those of clay. What does the Holy One blessed be He say? "I dwell on high and holy." I dwell in a high place and with holy ones I dwell. And even though I dwell on high and holy, in the world of the spheres, the world of the angels, not here in the lower world, says the Holy One blessed be He, this does not prevent Me from dwelling also with those below, "and with the contrite and lowly of spirit," to dwell also with them. Even though you see that they are in trouble, do not think, ah, he is in trouble, Hashem has abandoned him. He says, no, do not err. Even though the people of Israel are in exile, the Holy One blessed be He says "I dwell on high and holy," I dwell both with the high and holy and equally with the poor and lowly of spirit, with the crushed one too I am found with him. And do not think that if you see him suffering, then the Holy One blessed be He is not with him. I told you once a parable that someone wrote, that a certain man, a man wrote a story once, the story of his life. And he wrote that he feels that the Holy One blessed be He, he says, as if walking on the sand, and I see along the entire way a pair of footprints beside me. And then I know that the Holy One blessed be He, by Hashem's kindness, is with me constantly. The Holy One blessed be He, "Hashem is your shade at your right hand." But a question I will ask You, Master of the Universe, why specifically in the hard periods, specifically in the periods in which I went through crises, then I saw only one pair of footprints, I did not see another pair of footprints beside me. Why, Master of the Universe, specifically in the hard periods were You not with me? The Holy One blessed be He says to him, know, My son, that specifically in the hard periods I was with you, and I was with you at the highest level. And if you wonder why you saw only one pair of footprints, know, says the Master of the Universe, that they are Mine, because you in those periods I carried in My arms. The meaning of the matter, to know that a person is in trouble, this is the time in which he is with the Holy One blessed be He at the highest level. So even if you see, says the Malbim, that the people of Israel are in troubles, lowly and contrite, nevertheless do not think that this is a sign that Hashem is not with him, but on the contrary, says the Holy One blessed be He, I dwell and I am with them in trouble, in the manner of "I am with him in trouble."
The Malbim explains that in fact, as he began to say, that here there is really a claim of the people of Israel, a claim against the people of Israel, do repentance, behold you see you rebelled, behold you see how much you corrupted, and then he says to them "pave, clear the way," straighten a road for yourselves, and let each one straighten his ways according to the degree of deviation that was in him. Says the Malbim, against this the people of Israel argue to the Master of the Universe, they have three claims. One claim, they, these three claims incidentally are what the Malbim explains here in the verse. One claim, the people argue, "for thus said," the people of Israel say, the High and Exalted One who dwells forever. The Holy One blessed be He, first, He is high and exalted. That is to say, whenever I measure a sin, toward whom is it? One who angered the grocer is not comparable to one who angered the greatest of the generation, is not comparable to one who angered the Master of the Universe, may thousands of distinctions be made. So if so, we sinned before Hashem, and Hashem is high and exalted. How could such a thing be atoned for? This is a sin that will never be atoned for. This is one claim. The evil inclination is very creative, it has claims to invent for us, the main thing is that you do not do repentance. So first of all, and not only this, also what, what is very creative about this claim? It gives us a good feeling. You, you are about to do repentance, you do not even know who the Master of the Universe is. Let me explain to you, I have comprehension, I understand who the Master of the Universe is. And when I understand who the Master of the Universe is, I understand that repentance is not applicable, because do you know whom you angered? You understand, on the contrary, he even feels good about himself, he knows who the Master of the Universe is. So the first claim, high and exalted. Do you know what it means to rebel against the word of Hashem? What repentance is applicable to this? The second claim, who dwells forever. "Who dwells forever" means without changes. He remains the same constantly. And this we already saw above was part of the claim of the philosophers, how can repentance help with someone who has no change in Him? The Holy One blessed be He does not change. In us change is applicable. We were young, we grew old. Once I wanted, today I no longer want. Once I did not want, today I want. With the Holy One blessed be He there is no change. So if the Holy One blessed be He is now angry with you, how would He suddenly change to love you? You understand, change is not applicable with Him. Again, here too the evil inclination uses the same conception, that do you know who the Master of the Universe is? He is not flesh and blood, what do you think, that you do repentance and it is done? It is not like that. The third claim, Holy is His name. The Holy One blessed be He is holy and exalted. In what would the Holy One blessed be He, in what would a servant find favor with his master? It is not applicable that I, as one who defiled himself, because one who has degraded himself, should have any access and place for repair with someone who is so holy and exalted. Against this, says the Malbim, the prophet answers them and says, even though the Holy One blessed be He is high and holy, indeed so, but "I dwell with the contrite and with the lowly of spirit." Against what they said "high," this is against "high and exalted." "Holy," this is against "Holy is His name." And "I dwell," this is against "who dwells forever." The meaning of the matter, he answers them replies to all these claims. And the answer is essentially that all the claims you made not only are they not a reason to negate repentance, but on the contrary, they are a reason that you need to hurry to return in repentance and your repentance will be accepted. The very claim that you say the Holy One blessed be He is high and exalted, you say Hashem is high and exalted, do you know whom you angered, the Master of the Universe, what repentance is applicable to this? He says to you, know, on the contrary, it is precisely because of this. Because since Hashem is so high and exalted, even the heavens are not pure in His eyes. That is to say, there is no one before the Holy One blessed be He of whom one can say, good, he has merit with Me. He is worthy before Me. He is fitting before Me. Even the heavens are not pure in His eyes. Even the heavens, as it were, have a deficiency relative to the Holy One blessed be He. And if so, the world could not exist. So how does the world nevertheless exist? Precisely because the Holy One blessed be He, "if You keep account of iniquities, Yah, who could stand?" Therefore in proportion to His greatness, in that proportion the Holy One blessed be He accepts repentance. That is to say, what does the prophet do? He answers them, Hashem is high and exalted, He is much more high and exalted than you think. And since He is much more high and exalted than you think, there is nothing in the world that has existence. How does existence nevertheless apply? You must say, through repentance. You must say that it is through repair, because without this the entire world could not exist, due to His great greatness and exaltedness. Against the second claim, that they argued that Hashem is unchanging, the Holy One blessed be He, He is holy. He says to them, on the contrary, it is precisely because of this. Because "My thoughts are not your thoughts." And we already saw above that he confronted this conception. What do you want to say? Hashem has no changes, do you think you understand the Master of the Universe? And you already determine that He has no changes, and since this is so it is not possible. He says, it is true that the Holy One blessed be He has no changes, but you do not even begin to understand what the thought of the Creator of the world is. And if the Holy One blessed be He says that there is repentance, that is to say that both these opposites must be reconciled. And if you have no way how to reconcile them, know that in any case it is so, because the Holy One blessed be He, even though there is no change in Him, says repentance will be accepted. So if the Holy One blessed be He said this, why do you think you understand more than the Master of the Universe? You already know the Master of the Universe and already draw conclusions that such a thing is not possible. The Holy One blessed be He says "My thoughts are not your thoughts," in your understanding someone who has no change cannot possibly have been angry with me once and today be reconciled to me. But you have not begun to understand the Master of the Universe. And if you have not begun to understand the Master of the Universe, with the Holy One blessed be He this is indeed possible. And the Holy One blessed be He says, if so, on the contrary, these claims obligate the repentance that the Holy One blessed be He will indeed accept their repentance. "And with the contrite and lowly of spirit," says the Holy One blessed be He, one who returns in repentance essentially it is from two reasons. Either through afflictions, this is called "contrite" (dakka), Hashem crushed him, as it were, with afflictions, or through his being of lowly spirit, there is humility in him. To return in repentance requires humility. Because a person who is arrogant, forget it, what do I care, what is this, a person does not return in repentance. A person who has humility in him, then he says, I was not right, I acted improperly. This is the basic requirement for a person to return in repentance. So against "lowly of spirit" he says, the Holy One blessed be He revives the spirit of the lowly. And against the "contrite," the crushed people, those suffering in afflictions and tormented, he says "to revive the heart of the contrite." The Holy One blessed be He revives their heart. The heart is the external vessel, the crushed one, the afflictions, the body that suffers. And the spirit is the internal part. A person who is crushed in his soul, then we say he has a lowly spirit, this is something internal, of the soul. So Hashem revives the spirit of the lowly. And in contrast the physical suffering, Hashem revives the heart of the contrite. So do not worry, out of your situation Hashem desires your repentance, and accepts your repentance, and your repentance is necessary and Hashem desires it.
"For I will not contend forever, nor will I be angry for eternity, for the spirit that enwraps comes from before Me, and the souls I have made." "For I will not contend forever," Rashi says, if I bring afflictions upon a person, I do not bring this upon him for eternity, I am not angry for eternity. "For the spirit that enwraps comes from before Me," says the Holy One blessed be He, when will I remove the afflictions from upon him? When I see that the spirit that was given from before Me, that I placed in him, "enwraps," meaning he confesses and submits over the wrong he did, like those "wrapped" in hunger, meaning he recognizes his mistake. When the spirit from before Me enwraps, the souls which I made from before Me are wrapped, meaning they regret their evil deeds, then I will subdue the anger and the wrath that I have against him. This is according to Rashi.
The Radak says: "for I will not contend forever." Says the Radak, from as long as the people of Israel exist, one could perhaps say from as long as man has existed in the world, but even if we suffice with only the people of Israel, says the Holy One blessed be He, I have always had a quarrel with them. For forty days after the people of Israel received the Torah, they already made the calf. I have always had a quarrel with them. On the very day that the Temple was dedicated, on that very day Shlomo brought Pharaoh's daughter there. That is to say, we see that there was not even a breathing space for the people of Israel of a stage in which they would be righteous. And if we wish to go back to history, then it is exactly the same also with Adam. On the very day on which he was created, on that day he sinned and on that day he was expelled from the Garden of Eden. "From the day they became a people to Me until now," says the Radak, I have been in a quarrel with them. They sin and I am angry with them. The Holy One blessed be He comes and says, I will not contend forever. This quarrel, this anger, will not be forever. From what does man's sin stem? From the fact that there is a heart of stone in him. Says the Holy One blessed be He, I will remove from the people of Israel the heart of stone, and I will make them walk in My statutes. "For the spirit that enwraps comes from before Me," says the Holy One blessed be He, the spirit that is in man, from before Me it enwraps and clothes the body, and this spirit is what will guide him in the straight path. For indeed when a person walks in a crooked path, the matter stems from the body, from its desires, from its pleasures, from matters of physicality. The soul always draws toward the higher realms. Says the Holy One blessed be He, the spirit from before Me enwraps, since the spirit is from Me, it is what will compel the body to walk in a good path, and not as today's reality where the body draws the spirit and the soul after it toward the animalistic desires of the wishes of the body. But it will not be so forever, rather the souls which I made by Myself alone, says the Holy One blessed be He, I will give those souls and that spirit a much greater, more abundant power, so that through this the land will be filled with knowledge of Hashem as the waters cover the sea. And when is this? This speaks of a time when the people of Israel will have come out of exile. That is to say, so as not to misunderstand, it is not that suddenly there will be no free choice, rather we are speaking of a stage in which the people of Israel have already come out of exile, and in which there will remain specifically those most cleaving to Hashem, then he says, I will remove from them the evil natures and the desires and the evil traits. Besides this, says the Radak, there is what Onkelos translates. Onkelos translates: "for the spirit that enwraps comes from before Me," the Targum says, "for I will not exact punishment forever, nor will there be anger forever, for the spirit of the dead I am destined to return." According to the Targum, "the spirit that enwraps comes from before Me" means I am destined to return the spirit that will come back and enwrap the body. This is a third interpretation. "The spirit that enwraps comes from before Me" means it will return, the soul will return and descend back to the body, meaning the dead I am destined to revive.
The Malbim explains: "for I will not contend forever." Says the Malbim, sometimes the Holy One blessed be He punishes a person and contends with him, He has a quarrel with the person. Regarding this he says "I will not contend forever." Sometimes the Holy One blessed be He does not punish the person, He does not contend with him, He only hides His face from him. He is angry with him, He is wrathful with him, and hides His face from him. And this is the second part, "nor will I be angry for eternity." There will not be a situation where forever I hide My face and there will be wrath upon the people of Israel. Now pay attention, says the Malbim, the clauses of the verse correspond. We explained several times that the clauses of the verse corresponding means that the verse divides into four sentences, and sentence one corresponds to sentence three, sentence two corresponds to sentence four. That is to say, they complement one another. And then says the Malbim, the verse is to be explained thus: "for I will not contend forever, for the spirit that enwraps comes from before Me. Nor will I be angry for eternity, for the souls I have made." And the Malbim explains and says, "I will not contend forever, for the spirit that enwraps comes from before Me." The meaning, I will not punish the person forever. Why? Because the spirit of the person, says the Holy One blessed be He, is from Me. How would I crush him forever? The spirit is indeed from before Me, the spirit that comes to the person, that enters, is within him, as it were a person has compassion on the work of his hands. The Holy One blessed be He too has compassion on the work of His hands. Says the Holy One blessed be He, the spirit is from Me. And if the spirit is from Me, then I will not have a quarrel with him forever, I will not forever afflict the person on account of his evil deeds. "Nor will I be angry for eternity," why? For "the souls I have made." "I will be angry" we explained refers to the hidden wrath, the hiding of the face. Says the Holy One blessed be He, this too will not be forever. Why? Since "the souls I have made." And if so, a portion of God from above, how could I forever be in wrath against it? As we said that a person has pity on the work of his hands, as they showed Yonah with the gourd plant, says the Holy One blessed be He, how would I not have compassion and pity on much cattle, how would I not have compassion and pity on the people of Nineveh? So says the Holy One blessed be He, if the spirit is from before Me, if the souls I made, then how could it be that forever I would be with them in anger and forever be strict with them and keep their sin for them for eternity? Says the Holy One blessed be He, there will be a stage in which the world will be repaired and the wrath will no longer be constant. Let us note, says the Malbim, it is written here "forever" (le'olam) and it is written here "for eternity" (lanetzach). What is the difference between whether I say this thing I will not do forever, and whether I say this thing I will not do for eternity? Ostensibly "forever" and "for eternity" in our spoken language are the same thing. Says the Malbim, no. Know that there is a great difference between "forever" and "for eternity." When I speak of "forever," I speak within the framework of time. The Malbim defines this as the moving time. The moving time means the movement of time. Time passes. Time passes, this is seen only within the framework of time. But there is a framework that is above time. So before we speak of the above-time, let us speak of the framework of time. When we speak within the framework of time, then it may be that I speak of "forever," all the days of the world. But again, the physical world here that lives within the framework of time. As "the heavens will vanish like smoke," until when? Until the heavens vanish like smoke the world ends. It speaks of "forever," but still within the framework of time. Or I can say the life of the person, again within the framework of time, "and he shall serve him forever." What is "forever"? To his lifetime. To the lifetime of the Levites. To the lifetime of the servant, as it is brought there that it is only fifty years. In short, "forever" is always within the framework of time. So it can be limited to the lifetime of the person, it can be limited to the lifetime of the world, in which case they speak with you of periods of thousands of years, but "forever" is within the framework of time. In contrast, "eternity" already speaks of above time. What is defined as the divine time, as the time of the angels. And already several times, many times, we have spoken about the fact that there is a reality that is above time. That is to say, a place in which time does not pass. It is hard for us to understand how there is such a thing, but today even science understands this, that there is a reality that is above time. And Einstein already in the theory of relativity speaks about the fact that in a place where there is matter there is time, in a place where there is no matter there is no time. Theoretically, says Einstein, if you take a child, fly him in a spaceship at the speed of light, then time simply will not pass over him. In twenty years you bring the spaceship down, he will remain the same age. And it is also possible to test this today, pilots in spacecraft that reach high speeds, time slows down. It is not possible to reach the speed of light, at the speed of light he would be nullified, he would turn from mass into energy. But in any case, you see the clock, time slows down. The meaning of the matter is that there is a reality that is above time. And incidentally, I already told you once that Einstein was 800 years late, because the Ramban already writes this, that time depends on the existence of matter. A place where there is matter there is time, a place where there is no matter there is no time. Consequently the question of what the Holy One blessed be He did a thousand years before the world was created is foolish. There is no such thing. The world was created, matter was created. Before the world was created, there was no matter, time was created. Before the world existed, there was no matter, and if there was no matter then there was also no time. So then, this is a relative reality. And if so, when one speaks of eternity, one speaks of the reality in which there is no time. The Holy One blessed be He is above time. I explained more than once that when it says "Ancient of Days," for example what appears in the book of Daniel, it does not mean old. What, this object, it is ancient (atik yomin). This is a distortion, what is the Holy One blessed be He, ancient as it were? What, Hashem is old? Old is always limited in time. "Atik yomin" its literal meaning is removed from the days. All of us are within the framework of the days, meaning all of us are under the umbrella of time. So we belong within time. But the Holy One blessed be He is removed from time. This is the meaning of "Ancient of Days." He is removed, obligated, removed from the framework of the days. So that is to say He is above time.