The Gemara in Sanhedrin 97 expounds the verse "and truth is lacking," which is one of the signs of the footsteps of Mashiach, one of the signs of the era leading up to the coming of Mashiach, that truth will be lacking. The Gemara there brings many other harsh things which, sadly, have all come to pass among us, and Mashiach is truly at the very doorstep, for everything Chazal describe there, a daughter rising against her mother, a bride against her mother in law, a man's enemies are the members of his household, the men of the border going from city to city, and everything written there, has truly already been fulfilled in us. But we will focus on what is written here: "and truth is lacking." The Gemara asks: what is meant by "truth is lacking"? The school of Rav said: it teaches that truth becomes bands upon bands and departs. What is meant by "and he who departs from evil is deemed mad"? The school of Rabbi Sheila said: whoever departs from evil is deemed mad by people. Let us read Rashi.
First, before that, what does "truth is lacking" mean? Truth will be bands upon bands. And I think there is no generation in which truth is bands upon bands like ours. Everyone claims truth is with him, everyone is sure he is right, everyone knows that what he does is the correct thing, and all the rest is vanity and vexation of spirit. And I am not speaking about secular and religious, I am speaking of truth being lacking within the camp of the mitzvah observant public. And I am no longer even speaking of the shades of kippot, I am speaking sometimes even within the community that is considered part of the Litvish world itself, and suddenly you see two opinions, you see those who accept and those who do not accept, those who claim there are compromises and those who say there are no compromises, and in short, there is no way, we were never in such a state where truth is so much divided into bands upon bands. And truth is lacking. And I am not now coming to decide what is truth and what is not truth, all I want to show is how this very thing has been fulfilled in us. We are already in a generation in which truth is lacking.
The Gemara says, what does "lacking" mean? Bands upon bands. Each band is sure it is the truth. "And he who departs from evil is deemed mad," that he who departs from evil is deemed mad by people. Rashi says: he who departs from evil is deemed mad by people, all the world says of him that he is a fool. That is, "mistolel" is a term of foolishness, like "He leads counselors away stripped (sholal)." The intent is to lead him astray, in the manner of folly. He who departs from evil, a righteous man, a God fearing man, a man who serves Hashem, they say, listen, something's gone off in him, he has a screw loose. Why do you suddenly see him swaying like that, taking, watch him take an apple, start talking to it, then start eating. Something's not right with him. I tell you, how, how one person once said, he said he would rather his son, some professor, of those who fought and fought, he and his wife and his whole crowd, they founded the league against becoming religious. He has children who became religious, his son became an avreich in Kiryat Sefer, a God fearing Jew. So he said he would prefer his son come back from Goa drugged on some mushrooms he took there, rather than come back to Torah observance. They asked him, to such an extent? He said to them, from drugs one can be weaned. Do you hear? Look, whoever departs from evil, a person who becomes God fearing, becomes a ben Torah, becomes refined, knows his purpose in the world, does the will of Hashem, this person is considered to have a defect, he has an issue, something's not right with him, something went wrong in him. Who is the normal one? The beasts walking on two legs, who bray after every desire, who are drawn to every physical and material matter, people who made their belly their god, they are the sane ones. Whoever understands a little that a person needs to elevate himself somewhat here, whoever understands that a person should be a bit more spiritual, whoever departs from evil, he is deemed mad. Something's not right with him, something went awry with him. And this is one of the signs of the footsteps of Mashiach, which sadly we see today in the most extreme form.
The Ben Ish Chai, Rabbeinu Yosef Chaim, learns what the Gemara says here in a positive way. What the Gemara says, "truth will be lacking," becomes bands upon bands, the Ben Ish Chai says, this is in a positive sense. What is being spoken of? "Truth will be lacking," says the Ben Ish Chai, that is, the wisdom of truth. How fitting are these words for the one who said them, the Ben Ish Chai, the minister of the house of the Zohar. "And truth," this speaks of the wisdom of truth. The wisdom of truth, we all know, refers to Kabbalah, the hidden part of the Torah. Will it be lacking? Not that it will not exist, it will be bands upon bands. Toward the footsteps of Mashiach there will be those engaged in the wisdom of Kabbalah in bands upon bands. And this we also see today. There are bands upon bands. And if you ask, why is it bands upon bands? Because within the wisdom of Kabbalah itself there are different approaches. There is the way of Chassidut, there is Ashlag, there is the Gra, there is the Ramchal. The approach of Kabbalah itself is divided into schools upon schools, each school essentially learning the same line, everyone learns the teaching of the Arizal, but each school takes it in a different direction. One goes in the direction of the Rashash, one in the direction of bringing the matters down to the world of action, and so on in this manner. So this is an aspect of bands upon bands in the study of Kabbalah. How true and correct are these words in our times.
The Ben Ish Chai says another thing, he says there are in our times, this is how he writes about his time, private individuals studying Kabbalah. That is, people studying Kabbalah on their own, each in some corner, in secret. As is told about the Chafetz Chaim, that once he followed his rabbi, and when he entered the synagogue, he saw him hiding a certain book in the geniza. So when his rabbi, Rav Nachum of Horodna, left, he entered after him into the synagogue to search in the geniza. And then he discovered that he was engaged in Kabbalah, the Etz Chaim, he saw him studying Kabbalah books. Well, one night after that he decided to hide in the beit midrash. He hid in the beit midrash, in the women's section I believe, when his rabbi arrived. When his rabbi came there and was standing and he saw him begin to learn with such fervor, taking out the book, starting to learn with such fervor, and the Chafetz Chaim tells that he saw fire around Rav Nachum of Horodna. Literally fire enveloping him. And he immediately understood that this was not a consuming fire, it was the fire of engaging in Torah. And the astonishing thing about the whole story is that the Chafetz Chaim was then thirteen years old. That is, at thirteen he was able to see the fire around Rav Nachum of Horodna. Be that as it may, in the past everyone studied privately. Everyone studied privately, they did not study the hidden wisdom publicly. But he tells you that in the future they will study it just as they study Tehillim. This is the language of the Ben Ish Chai. And you will find them in bands upon bands in the beit midrash.
"And he who departs from evil is deemed mad," that is, the era will be an era of spiritual ascent, so that whoever merely departs from evil, meaning what? That he has departed from evil? He is not yet perfect, he is not yet in the category of doing good, he has only departed from evil, such a person will be considered a fool among people. For the complete tzaddik must depart from evil and do good. You understand, he learns this in a positive way. That is, knowledge will increase, there will be righteousness, so that whoever merely departs from evil is in the category of "deemed mad," he is like a fool, not counted. Who is counted? Not enough that he departs from evil, he also does good. Ah, that is a tzaddik. Him they would esteem. This is what the Ben Ish Chai says about the future, and we hope our eyes will see and behold His return to Zion in mercy, and these words will be realized before our eyes.
Verse 16: "And He saw that there was no man, and He was astonished that there was no intercessor, therefore His arm brought salvation to Him, and His righteousness sustained Him." And now Rashi says, Hashem relented from the evil, the Holy One blessed be He wants to redeem us, but what can be done, "and He saw that there was no man," there is no tzaddik to stand in the breach. "And He was astonished that there was no intercessor," Hashem was astonished, astonished, Rashi says, like a person standing and wondering and silent in his bewilderment. The world was desolate, meaning whoever sees it is astonished. The intent is stunned, silent from great bewilderment. Why? "Because there was no intercessor." There is no one to intercede on their behalf. "To intercede" means to pray. There is no possessor of merits to pray on behalf of the people Israel. When this is the situation, "His arm brought salvation to Him, and His righteousness sustained Him." As it were, if we have no merits, if we have no strength, then the one who acts is the Holy One blessed be He. "His arm brought salvation to Him," the arm of Hashem, "and His righteousness," that is, from the aspect that Hashem is righteous, from that aspect He will redeem us, without our being worthy and fitting ourselves.
And indeed the Radak here expands somewhat on this matter and stands and asks and wonders. In the Torah we see "and you shall return to Hashem your God and hearken to His voice," and after that "then Hashem your God will return your captivity and have compassion on you." That is, we see it is dependent upon us. We do teshuvah, Hashem will return our captivity. "And you shall seek from there Hashem your God and you shall find, if you seek Him with all your heart and all your soul." Why "you shall find"? Because you seek Him. That is, an awakening from below is needed, an action on our part is needed. This implies that through teshuvah, through this the ingathering of exiles will come. Through our changing our deeds, through this we will become worthy and fitting. Says the Radak, but by us it is written the opposite. "And He saw that there was no man, and He was astonished that there was no intercessor." There is no one doing teshuvah, no one praying. In the wake of this, "His arm brought salvation to Him and His righteousness sustained Him." His arm, not ours. We have no part in this matter. The Radak asks, seemingly this is a contradiction.
Yechezkel says, "Not for your sake do I act, house of Israel," "and I will bring you out from the nations" and "I will purge out from you the rebels and those who transgress against Me, from the land of their sojournings I will bring them out, but to the land of Israel they shall not come," and so forth. And also in the Torah it is written "and I will remember for them the covenant of the first ones." You see from all this that it is from Him, unconnected to us. Hashem will remember the covenant of the first ones, we are not worthy. "I brought you out from the nations," not for your sake. Rather in His merit. The Radak asks, what is the truth? Does it depend on us or does it not depend on us? Says the Radak, if we want to delve deeper we will see that Chazal already addressed this question. Are the people Israel redeemed in the merit of doing teshuvah, or even without doing teshuvah? Rabbi Yochanan said, the son of David comes only either in a generation that is entirely worthy or in a generation that is entirely guilty. In a generation that is entirely guilty, as it is written "and He saw that there was no man and He was astonished that there was no intercessor," and then afterward "His arm brought salvation to Him." So this option is in a situation where the whole generation is guilty. There is no choice, Hashem is compelled, as it were, to redeem us by His own power. In a generation that is entirely worthy, "and Your people are all righteous, they shall inherit the land forever." In whose merit? In the merit that they are all righteous. And regarding this Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said, a contradiction. "And behold with the clouds of heaven one like a son of man was coming," and it is written "lowly and riding on a donkey." We learned this, whoever wishes can listen on the recording of the Book of Daniel. On one hand you say "behold with the clouds of heaven," Mashiach will come with the clouds of heaven. On the other hand you say he will come lowly and riding on a donkey. Lowly and riding on a donkey is not with the clouds of heaven, it hints at lowliness, at a low level, lowly and riding on a donkey. If so, what is the reality really? The Gemara answers, if they merit, with the clouds of heaven. If they do not merit, lowly and riding on a donkey.
Behold you see, says the Radak, the same principle I taught you, that essentially there are two options for redemption, there are two paths to redemption. There is a path of redemption of "behold with the clouds of heaven," if we do teshuvah, if we awaken, then Mashiach will come as it were from heaven, everything in a miraculous and wondrous manner. And if we are not worthy, then he will come in a physical and material manner, lowly, riding on a donkey, as a physical reality. And regarding this Rabbi Eliezer said, if Israel does teshuvah they are immediately redeemed. And on the other hand we see there is an aspect of "in its time." The redemption will come in its time. So is it "I will hasten it" or "in its time"? We already said once, some say that if they are not worthy of "I will hasten it" they will receive it "in its time." Well, fine, that is one option. But truly "be'itah" here is not spelled with a tet, it is with a tav, and the meaning is "in its time," there will be a time when whatever will be will be, the redemption will come. Worthy, not worthy, righteous, wicked, there will be a time when the redemption comes. And this is "in its time," there is a fixed time from Him. In contrast there is "I will hasten it." So if it comes from us, if we awaken, then we will be worthy of redemption, first by our own power, second we will merit "behold with the clouds of heaven," Mashiach will come in a spiritual way, and we will be redeemed early. And if we are not worthy, then the redemption will come in the end, but "I will purge out from you the rebels and those who transgress against Me," and lowly and riding on a donkey will come, and we all know that in the prophecy of Gog and Magog too there are two prophecies. We spoke about this at length, whoever wishes can listen in the chapters on Zechariah and the prophecy of Gog and Magog. There we understand that there are two paths. One path is terrible and dreadful, whoever reads there sees harsh things for the people Israel, and another path that is much more user friendly. And it all depends on us, which path we choose. If we choose the good way, then the people Israel will merit a redemption in which only the nations are struck. And if not, there is another way in which a third of the people Israel, Heaven forbid, will die, and other harsh things written there in the prophecy. What is the truth? Both are true, these are two options. The question is which path you choose. Choose the easy path through teshuvah, and we will merit the good way. And if not, then Heaven forbid the opposite.
The Radak himself wishes to say, says the Radak, we see that they were uncertain whether the ingathering of exiles will be through teshuvah or not. And this is because of the apparent conflict among the verses, for one verse you see this way, another verse you see otherwise, as he brought us an array of verses. Says the Radak, come now see his approach. And it is possible to reconcile the verses, for the majority of Israel will return in teshuvah after they see the signs of redemption. On one hand it is written that they will return in teshuvah, on the other hand it is written that we are not worthy and Hashem will bring the redemption. Both matters are true. Hashem will bring the redemption, the redemption will begin, and then the majority of Israel will return in teshuvah. Behold both matters are true. The redemption began, there is no man and no intercessor, there is nothing, the redemption began. But on the other hand you say they will do teshuvah? Yes, immediately after the beginning of the redemption they will do teshuvah. When they begin to see the beginning of the redemption, then they will begin to do teshuvah. Says the Radak, and what is written "and He saw that there was no man," this is the collective Israel who will not return in teshuvah until they see the signs of redemption. So indeed there is no man, indeed there is no intercessor. And "man," he says, always refers to the collective. Like "and every man of Israel swore at Mitzpah." "Man" means the collective, there is no man. For you cannot say regarding individuals, says the Radak, there was never a situation in which there were no individual tzaddikim among the people Israel. Even in the harshest periods. Even in the periods of Achav king of Israel and the other wicked ones, there were among them also tzaddikim. Among those people there were also tzaddikim, in that generation there were also tzaddikim. This means, you cannot say "there is no man," that there are none at all. When it speaks of "the man of Israel," that "man" means the collective Israel, there is none. Says the Holy One blessed be He, is the collective Israel righteous? Worthy of redemption? There is none. And then through this the Holy One blessed be He will begin the process of redemption, and also what is written about "a generation that is entirely guilty," do not mistakenly think all are guilty. No, there is no such thing as entirely guilty, there are always tzaddikim. And so, the Holy One blessed be He will begin the process then, in a generation where there is no man and no intercessor, and then afterward through this the people will awaken to do teshuvah, and then many will return in teshuvah.
And then when Hashem wants to bring the redemption, and as we said at its beginning there are no fitting people, "His arm brought salvation to Him." The intent is there is no helper, no one to sustain, but rather the arm of Hashem alone. What does "helper and sustainer" mean, does Hashem need our help? Says the Radak, yes. The deeds of a person and his righteousness are like helpers and sustainers to the One who saves him. In truth Hashem does not need us. But since the Holy One blessed be He instilled in His world a reality in which we pray, we learn, we add strength in holiness, then, we spoke about this at length in Nefesh HaChaim, whoever wishes can listen on the recording of Rav Chaim of Volozhin, he expands on the matter of "give strength to God." There is an aspect that you give strength to the Shechina. And there is an aspect that Heaven forbid, Hashem protect us, that a person gives strength to the sitra achra, to the forces of impurity in the world, that a person weakens the Shechina and the holiness and transfers the power to the forces of impurity. We already spoke about this, that we are not speaking of His essence, but rather of the reality revealed to us after the emanation of the sefirot, and there it is truly applicable that a person gives abundance into the sefirot of holiness, and through this the abundance descends to us. And there is, Heaven forbid, a situation where a person creates blockages in the pipeline, and then the abundance does not descend to us, but rather descends to the nations. And through this we are not fitting and not worthy of redemption. And if we are not fitting and not worthy, by what power will Hashem act? Only by His own power. Not by the power of the man below who would pray and learn Torah and through this add and give strength to God.
There is a further aspect, and this is the matter of "He will set over them a wicked king like Haman," like one who considers himself spiritual or all kinds of things of this sort. The Holy One blessed be He will indeed bring the redemption, but it will be along an unpleasant path. This means, the people Israel will need to awaken, but this awakening will come through difficulty. And it may well be that this is what the Radak includes in his words when he says they will return after the beginning of the redemption. Seemingly, why would they return? For if everything goes smoothly, even without my doing mitzvot, wonderful, Master of the World, excellent, continue, it's fine, this is lovely, this is marvelous. The redemption is marvelous, very good. For the wicked one, when he sees he has good in his wickedness, persists in his wickedness. He does not return in teshuvah. It is very possible to say that the Radak's intent is that the redemption will come along a difficult path. We see redemption, we see that the people Israel returns to its land, but you see that the most dangerous place for a Jew to live is the land of Israel. After Syria. Yes, you see that essentially this is a place where we began the redemption but we are stuck. And this itself will awaken to teshuvah. So it may well be that this is included in what Chazal said, "He will set over them a wicked king like Haman," when the people Israel sees that the redemption is beginning but something is creaking, sees the enemies standing over us to destroy us, this will help us, that on one hand we see the hand of Hashem, the people Israel returning to its land, what people Israel, a small portion, but a portion of the people Israel returns to its land after two thousand years of exile and begins to rebuild its land anew, and "but you, mountains of Israel, you shall give forth your branches and bear your fruit for My people Israel, for they are near to coming," and the land which was desolate like a widow who is veiled and mourning, suddenly begins to give its fruits, for regarding this the Gemara says you have no clearer sign of the end than this. That is, we begin to see here a shining of the face. But we see that this matter is halted. And this itself will bring the people to teshuvah. As we see that in the last generation there is an awakening to teshuvah that we did not see in previous generations. We did not see it thirty and forty years ago. So in practice the matters come hand in hand. Together with the Holy One blessed be He on one hand beginning to redeem the people Israel, at the beginning of the redemption there is no man, but in the second stage the people Israel begin to awaken on their own, and through this we do become worthy to be redeemed, either through good or Heaven forbid through afflictions that the Holy One blessed be He brings upon us.
"His arm brought salvation to Him." The Radak here notes an interesting grammatical point. "His arm brought salvation to Him." Whom does the Holy One blessed be He save? Us. It should have said "His arm brought salvation to us." Hashem saw that there was no man, no intercessor, and "His arm brought salvation to us." His arm saves us. What is "His arm brought salvation to Him"? Says the Radak, it is incumbent upon the master to save his servant. He is your servant, you are responsible for him. It is incumbent upon the master to save his servant. As the idolaters did to us, that they afflicted us, the one who must save us is the Master of the World, we are the servants of Hashem. And in the salvation of the servant the master is saved. What is the meaning of these words? We all know this from Pesach Eliyahu. The Shechina is in exile. From the day Israel went into exile, "I have not entered My house," says the Holy One blessed be He, "and My head is dampened," and so forth. This means, that when the people Israel are in exile, the Holy One blessed be He too, as it were, is in exile. And when the people Israel are in pain, what does the Shechina say? "My head is heavy upon Me, My arm is heavy upon Me." The intent is My head pains Me, My arm pains Me. As we once spoke about, we told of the revelation of the holy Shechina that occurred in the beit midrash of the Beit Yosef, they heard her wailing in a terrible and dreadful voice, that "because of your iniquities I am rolled in dust, and if you knew a little of the sorrow of the Shechina, eating and drinking would not be pleasant in your eyes." So in practice "His arm brought salvation to Him," when the Holy One blessed be He brings us out of the exile, then whom does He save? The Shechina which is in exile. This is essentially also a salvation for the Holy One blessed be He Himself, as it were.
The Malbim explains this whole progression here in a slightly different way. Says the Malbim, after he describes to us the state of Israel's lowliness, the state of the evil of their deeds, and this we saw in explicit and detailed verses how he describes it, "justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off, for truth has stumbled in the street, and uprightness cannot enter, we grope for the wall like the blind, like those without eyes we grope, we stumble at noon, we growl like bears and moan sorely like doves, we look for justice but there is none, salvation is far from us, transgressing and denying Hashem, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood." He describes a terrible and dreadful state, a decline in every parameter. After he describes such a terrible state, says the Malbim, Hashem saw how low the state of His people was, and He would no longer act for our sake, but rather would redeem us for the sake of His name. Even though we are no longer worthy, for as it were Hashem despaired of us. As it were, yes? Hashem despaired of us, from this the redemption would not sprout. And Hashem will perform this salvation, says the Malbim, not for the sake of the people Israel, as it were not in our merit. For when Hashem performs a salvation that is in our merit, says the Malbim, this is in two ways. Either through our deeds, since we did good deeds, through this we are worthy of salvation. Says the Malbim, this is called "helper." This merit helps the Holy One blessed be He to redeem us. For we add strength in holiness, as it were, and through this Hashem can redeem us. There is a second possibility, and this is through prayer. The tzaddik who prays for the redemption can, through his prayer and his request, not exactly help, but sustain. Regarding this he says that there is also no sustainer. There is also no one to pray for the redemption, no sustainer. You will ask the question, do we not pray for the redemption? We pray every day, "the offshoot of David Your servant speedily cause to sprout," we ask for the salvation. What is the plain meaning of this? Rather, we already spoke once that truly our prayers, it is written "why has the son of Yishai not come to the meal?" Why has the son of Yishai not come? For we pray both yesterday and the day before, we pray both yesterday and today, we pray all the time. So why has the son of Yishai not come? The answer is "to the meal." For your prayers are for the meal. That there be livelihood, that there be health, that everything be fine, that we be able to marry off the children, that there be nachas, that if there be wealth then that too would not hurt, thank God, all our requests are for the meal. Not for the son of Yishai, not for the Shechina which is in exile. So if that is the case, true prayer also has power in it, it is not "helper," but it is "sustainer." It is not exactly a helper, but it is a sustainer. "Sustainer" means like something that catches so it does not fall. "Helper" is really giving a hand and helping. So we have two possibilities. To justify our deeds and we will be in the category of "helper." And even if not, at least prayer from the depths of the heart, then this is at least in the category of "sustainer." And behold see, Hashem saw "that there was no man." There is no person worthy through his deeds to be in the category of "helper." And the thing that causes more astonishment, which is a wonder, a shock, "that there was no intercessor." "Intercessor" means to pray. "Do not pray for this people, and do not intercede with Me," where the intent is "and do not pray to Me." To seek through intercession. He says, well, at least perhaps a little sustaining through prayer? There too is no sustainer. And then there is no choice, as it were the Holy One blessed be He must perform the action by His own power. Not by the power of those below, not through us, for from us He has neither helper nor sustainer. And corresponding to there being no helper because we have no merits, "His arm brought salvation to Him." The arm of the Holy One blessed be He Himself, as it were, is what performs the salvation.
Now pay attention, the Malbim already taught us in the past that there is a difference between the hand of Hashem and the arm of Hashem. What is the difference? The hand of Hashem is when the thing is done through us by the power of Hashem. The arm of Hashem is when it is done by Hashem without our involvement. How, what is the difference? When you move the hand, we all know the hand does not move by itself. We know there are hidden muscles in the arm that cause, if I contracted the hand, the arm transmitted, transferred a force that caused the hand to contract. It turns out then that the arm is essentially the hidden part, the hand is the revealed part. When Hashem performs a salvation and we are as it were partners in this salvation, that it is also through us, then it is the hand of Hashem. The hand of Hashem, there is the hand, as it were, revealed, and the Holy One blessed be He acts, so to speak, behind the scenes. In contrast, when we are not involved at all, then the hand does not move at all. What moves? Only the arm, as it were. As it were this is only the upper part, only Hashem. Our part, of the hand, is not active. The arm is always what moves the hand, it is the origin of the whole action, and it remains there, for the hand itself does not move, but only the arm of Hashem, as it were, does everything. This corresponds to what he said, there is no helper. If there is no helper, there is no one from among us to do mitzvot and good deeds, then it is the arm of Hashem. So it remains only arm, without hand, and this is as it were only from Him, an awakening from above alone. And corresponding to the sustaining that Hashem expected the tzaddikim to pray, and this we would want that there be a sustainer, he tells you "His righteousness sustained Him." The supernal righteousness, for the sake of which the Holy One blessed be He acts without the deed of human beings, this is the sustaining. The supernal righteousness awakens Him to the salvation. The salvation is by the power of the arm. What begins everything? The supernal righteousness. Supernal righteousness means the supernal divine kindness, which is the power, I will read you his language, the sublime power that moves everything of itself without regard to any cause outside of it. Does anyone know what he means here?
In the books of the Kabbalists it is brought many times, and in particular the Ramchal expands on this, regarding two modes of conduct of the Master of the World. There is the conduct of unity and there is the conduct of justice. The conduct of justice means that the Holy One blessed be He gives abundance and runs His world in the manner of justice. In the language of the politician, they give, they receive. Worthy, deserving. Not worthy, not deserving. This is the conduct of justice. And in the conduct of justice the Holy One blessed be He, as it were, subjected Himself to clear laws when He created His world. There is the attribute of judgment, there is the attribute of mercy. When the attribute of judgment prosecutes, it is impossible to give abundance. There is no such possibility. For you cannot, the attribute of judgment does not permit it. The attribute of mercy must come and pour out mercy. How will it pour out mercy? It is impossible just like that. It is like a court. Do you have documents? Do you have evidence? Do you have proofs? Do you have arguments? Come argue. Seek merits. This is called the conduct of justice. The conduct of justice means the conduct by which the Holy One blessed be He conducts His world in a fixed manner, that this conduct is according to law and justice, according to the deeds of those below, according to what is due to them. In contrast, there is a state of the conduct of unity. The conduct of unity is a conduct that is not a constant conduct of the Master of the World, but rather a conduct by which the Master of the World conducts His world at the time of need. And when? According to His will and His thought and His knowledge of when the matter is needed. For example, one of the examples they bring is the exodus from Egypt. The exodus from Egypt was in the conduct of unity. What is the meaning of the conduct of unity? I will explain the concept of unity. Unity, what, when I say unity, what is the meaning? When I say to unify Hashem, what is the meaning of this? There is nothing besides Him. This is the conduct of unity. When I speak of the conduct of justice, then there are those on the right and those on the left. This appears as separate forces. There is the force of holiness, the chariot of holiness, and there is the chariot of impurity, the force of the sitra achra. Seemingly these appear as opposing things. Sorcery is called sorcery because it denies the heavenly retinue, for it gives a sort of impression that there is something besides Him, Heaven forbid. The conduct of unity means there is nothing besides Him. There is nothing besides Him means, when the Holy One blessed be He wants to redeem the people Israel, even if there are prosecutors, these are idolaters and these are idolaters, Hashem in His complete unity, that there is nothing besides Him, acts according to His will. So they may prosecute and rise up against and be accusers and... there is nothing besides Him. Hashem in His complete unity, that there is nothing besides Him, acts according to His will. This is the conduct of unity. Says the Malbim, what he essentially hints at here is that there will be an aspect of righteousness. What is the aspect of righteousness? The supernal righteousness through which "His arm brought salvation to Him." The Holy One blessed be He will activate His arm even without the hand, as we said, whose meaning is only by the will of the Creator, which is a power, the sublime power that moves everything of itself without regard to any other cause outside of it. As it were He sees no one, there is only the Master of the World. And if there is only the Master of the World, then there is no judgment, no justice, no prosecutors, there is nothing, for there is nothing besides Him. But Hashem did not conduct His world constantly in this way. The conduct of unity is a conduct, as the Ramchal writes, that the Holy One blessed be He uses only in very specific situations. For the ordinary conduct is the conduct of justice. And when we ask that the Holy One blessed be He be revealed in His world, we want there to be the conduct of unity, and then worthy, not worthy, deserving, not deserving, the Holy One blessed be He redeems us. Why? From the aspect that Hashem is God and there is nothing besides Him. But there are no merits, but there are prosecutors, but... the conduct of unity. Unity means Hashem does whatever arises in His will without taking into account other forces. So this is what is destined to be, says the Malbim, when there is no man and no intercessor, then His righteousness. What is His righteousness? The supernal righteousness, which is complete and infinite kindness, that He will redeem us from the aspect of His will, without the deed of human beings and their righteousness at all.
"And He put on righteousness as a coat of mail, and a helmet of salvation upon His head, and He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak." Says the Malbim, in order to understand this verse correctly, you need to have basic knowledge in the holy tongue. Since there are several matters here that require understanding. What is a coat of mail and what is a helmet of salvation? What is righteousness and what is salvation? What is vengeance and what is zeal? What is "putting on" and what is "clothing"? And why is "cloak" written once and "garments" written once? All these are apparent redundancies that essentially require us to understand what the prophet intends to say here in these words, and essentially if we understand the matters correctly we will also understand the nature of the salvation and the redemption that is destined to be.
Says the Malbim, always when "righteousness" is written, the intent is regarding deeds that the Holy One blessed be He does out of kindness. It is not due to us, Hashem did righteousness with us. This is always the expression of righteousness. Righteousness means not according to what is due, beyond the letter of the law, out of kindness, not out of merit. Says the Malbim, as you see that among human beings there is justice and righteousness. An expression that appears many times in Scripture, to do righteousness and justice. And when this is said in relation to people, that I say this person did righteousness and justice, what is the difference between righteousness and justice? The Malbim explains, and we already saw this several times in the past, justice we do in matters that concern the side that is man, meaning between man and his fellow. Justice, as I say, he sued him to court, he did justice between one man and his fellow. Justice means in the laws between man and his fellow. Righteousness is between man and God. When a person does righteousness, he does righteousness with the Master of the World. This is between man and God. When we speak of the Holy One blessed be He, then it is the opposite. When the Holy One blessed be He performs justice, this is justice among the nations. When He performs righteousness, this is righteousness with the people Israel. So if that is the case, righteousness is the salvation of the people Israel. Justice is the vengeance upon the nations.