Sefer Yeshayahu, chapter 12. "And you shall say on that day: I thank You, Hashem, for You were angry with me; Your anger has turned away and You have comforted me." This is a continuation of the previous chapter. In the previous chapter he began to describe for us that a shoot would come forth from the stock of Yishai, and he described the reality that the Melech HaMashiach would stand as a banner for the nations, that the peoples would seek him, and his resting place would be honor. He described the state of peace that would be in the world: the wolf will dwell with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the kid, and so on.
Now he describes what will be at that time. "And you shall say on that day: I thank You, Hashem, for You were angry with me; Your anger has turned away and You have comforted me." At the time of the redemption we will thank Hashem for all the troubles: "I thank You, Hashem, for You were angry with me." The Malbim asks, what is the difference between chemah (wrath) and af (anger)? "Anafta" is from the word af. What is the difference between af and chemah? Chemah is inner anger, as it is written regarding Achashverosh, "and his wrath burned within him." Whoever studies the Malbim there will understand why there was inner wrath there beyond the external anger; he has a wonderful explanation there, but it is not related to our subject so I would not want to enter into it. Chemah is inner anger. In contrast, af is when a person, as it were, has smoke rising from his nostrils; it is seen outwardly that his nose turns red, you see vapors coming out of his nose. Even if it is not minus ten below zero outside, you see his steam, you see him all aflame. That is called af. In contrast, chemah is what happens inside.
"And you shall say on that day: I thank You, Hashem, for You were angry with me." I thank You, Master of the World, that You showed me an angry face openly, that You poured out Your anger upon me; we will praise Hashem. Even though this reality caused me pain at that time, meaning we experienced Hashem's burning anger against us, on the contrary, through that very anger by which You collected from me then, from what I had to pay a price, through this "Your anger has turned away and You have comforted me." Like a person who was angry at his friend, released his anger, and from then on there is already room to be friends with him. So too, since You, Hashem, have already collected from us what needed to be collected from us, "I thank You, Hashem, for You were angry with me," because now this means that "Your anger has turned away and You have comforted me."
In contrast, if Hashem had not collected from us, then where would the anger have remained? Inside. He would not have revealed anger toward us, He would not have brought troubles upon us, but rather the anger would have remained inside. Anger that remains inside does not drain out and come out; it is a constant anger. It is anger that has no resolution. When a person releases his anger, through this we say he vented his anger, he collected from his friend, and now the account is settled. By the way, this is not permission for a person to release his anger against his fellow; a person must break his anger. We are speaking about the relationship between man and the Creator of the world.
"Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid, for Kah, Hashem, is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation." "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid." Now he explains to us what he means by "I will trust and not be afraid." I trust that Am Yisrael will no longer come into exile. The salvation will be an eternal salvation. For indeed we already had a situation in which we were saved, but that salvation did not last long. In the Second Temple period we returned here, we built the Beit HaMikdash, but after 420 years the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed. That is to say, the reality is that a salvation can be temporary. But here we are confident that the salvation is permanent. "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid." I do not fear that there might be yet another exile.
Why? For two reasons. A person who trusts in a man has cause for concern: if he is the one you rely on, he could die, and what will you do then? Upon whom will you rely? I do not trust in flesh and blood, I trust in Hashem. "Behold, God is my salvation," Hashem lives and endures forever. That is one thing. The second thing: a person who is helped by his fellow has cause for concern, lest the help not continue. Why? To understand this we must understand the difference between salvation (yeshuah) and help (ezrah). Whoever contemplates this will see that even in spoken language we use this distinction. When I tell someone, I am willing to help you, it means you will lend a hand and I too will lend a hand. It has no meaning that I will help you and you will sit aside while I... what is that, that is not called helping. To help means both of us together. When I come to help, I also need the one being helped. In contrast, with salvation we always express it when the person on his own was helpless, I came and saved him. What does it mean that I saved him? He did nothing. The entire salvation came from me.
The Malbim says, if the salvation from Hashem were in the category of help, that is, Hashem comes to help us but also needs us, what can we do for the salvation, for the help? What can we do? Mitzvot, good deeds. So the Holy One, blessed be He, says: well, you performed good deeds, you have righteous acts, you have... I too will come and help, and the redemption will come. If so, there is cause for concern, because perhaps we are not always righteous. Perhaps tomorrow something in us will change, as Yaakov feared lest the sin cause it. And then the Holy One, blessed be He, would say, in this state you are no longer worthy that I help you. But if Hashem does not use our merits at all, but rather comes to save us, and to save, as we explained, is someone who comes to save a helpless person without regard to his situation, without seeing what he can offer, but rather the Holy One, blessed be He, gives everything from Himself. Then will it change anything if we change our deeds for the worse? It will change nothing, because the Holy One, blessed be He, comes to save us. To save us means without looking at our merits. It is Hashem's kindness upon us.
And this is what he says: behold, Hashem is God, "Behold, God is my salvation." Hashem is God; God, as we said, means strong, it is not flesh and blood in which I rely on someone who might fall tomorrow. The second thing, He is my salvation, not my helper. If He is my salvation, that means the salvation will be constant. The Malbim says a further point: because He is God, I trust in Him now, for He has power; God means one who possesses power. And because He is my salvation, which as we explained is kindness, we are not worthy, He does not help me but saves me, I will not be afraid. "Afraid" is in the future tense. Because through Hashem saving me, meaning without looking at your merits, in the future too you can be at ease. There is here an eternal salvation. Therefore "I will trust and not be afraid" is written in the future tense: I will not fear even in the future that Hashem's salvation might depart from us.
"For Kah, Hashem, is my strength and my song." Now he tells us a third reason why I fear no longer: because Hashem is my strength, He is my might, and this itself is "the song of Kah," this itself is the praise of Hashem. As it were, when Hashem is praised for His salvation, then here the Holy One, blessed be He, on account of His great Name, will not remove His salvation from us. For if He were to remove His salvation from us, why should it be said among the nations that Hashem lacks ability? His blessed Name would be desecrated. So this means there is a third reason, and it is the interest, as it were, of the Creator of the world, that His blessed Name not be desecrated among the nations, that they not say: behold, Hashem came to save them and in the end He raised His hands, He was not able. His Name would be desecrated among the nations. This is essentially what Moshe argued: why should it be said among the nations, "Where now is their God," why should it be said among the nations that Hashem lacks ability. So this means there is a third reason why I am confident that the salvation will be absolute, since the Holy One, blessed be He, will not want His great Name to be desecrated.
The Malbim says these are also the three reasons that Rabbi Yosef Albo explained in Sefer HaIkkarim, reasons that Hashem will necessarily fulfill His word. First, on account of His kindness which will never cease, as we said, "my salvation." Second, on account of the honor of His Name that it not be desecrated, "for Kah, Hashem, is my strength and my song," there is in this song and praise to His blessed Name. Third, His word will not return empty. As we said, when Hashem promises, His word does not return empty, and therefore "I will trust and not be afraid." And this is what is written in Tehillim, "for the sake of Your Name give honor," first His blessed Name, Hashem will act for the sake of His Name that it not be desecrated among the nations. Second, "for Your kindness," Hashem's kindness upon us, His salvation. Third, "and for Your truth," there is a promise, Hashem will fulfill His promise. "Your truth" means the fulfillment of His promise; if Hashem promised, without any doubt Hashem will fulfill it.
This is "and He has become my salvation." What does "and He has become my salvation" mean? This is the promise. The promise here is the third matter. I am not afraid because Hashem will be my salvation. So we have, then, three reasons. First, "God is my salvation," someone who is God, He is strong, the salvation is absolute. Second, "my salvation," this means the salvation is guaranteed over time. Third, the salvation is guaranteed, as we said, because Hashem will be my salvation, and not flesh and blood.
"And you shall draw water in joy from the wellsprings of salvation." He adds and says that we should not fear that the salvation might pass away from us, because the salvation will not be a one time event. It will be a salvation that keeps renewing itself, constantly renewing itself, similar to one who draws from the wellsprings of salvation. What is the difference between a spring and a river? A river flows from the sea or flows from rainfall. A spring, in contrast, constantly wells up from within itself. So a spring that wells up from within itself always has fresh water. "And you shall draw water in joy," we will draw in joy without fearing that it might run out, because it is "the wellsprings of salvation," a spring of salvations, a source whose waters do not fail. The Malbim says there is also a difference between drawing (sho'ev) and hauling up (doleh). To haul up is someone who brings up from a deep place, it requires effort, it requires exertion. In contrast, one who draws does so without exertion. He means to say, we will have salvations without effort, without exertion, and therefore the drawing will be in joy, we will receive salvations with gladness.
"And you shall say on that day: Give thanks to Hashem, call upon His Name, make His deeds known among the peoples, proclaim that His Name is exalted." The Malbim says there is a difference between two types of Hashem's governance. There is governance in which the Holy One, blessed be He, runs the world according to nature, and this is called an act of Hashem, a deed of Hashem, according to nature. In contrast, there is miraculous governance, in which Hashem overturns the systems of nature and runs the world through miracles, through wonders. This is called "alilot" (deeds). Alilot means governance of the Holy One, blessed be He, not in the ordinary way, in a supernatural way. The gentiles recognize only the natural governance. They do not recognize the miraculous governance, because Hashem never governed them with miraculous governance; He always governs them through the way of nature. Individual providence exists for Am Yisrael. Over the nations there is species providence. Hashem cares for the nation as a whole, but as for each individual, exactly what he did at every given moment, Hashem does not watch over him. Now, according to Chassidut there is individual providence even over a worm, but I am speaking according to the great Jewish philosophers: the providence over the nations is providence like that over animals, species providence. In contrast, over Am Yisrael it is individual providence over each of the individuals within the totality of the human species.
So the gentiles, as we said, do not recognize the miraculous governance, they recognize only the natural governance. But in the future, "Give thanks to Hashem," they will give thanks to Hashem, "call upon His Name," for the miracles that Hashem, may He be blessed, will perform for us at every moment, and through this "make His deeds known among the peoples." Alilot, as we explained, is supernatural governance. And through us living constantly with supernatural governance, constantly living with miracles, then the peoples too will know His deeds. They too will recognize the supernatural providence of the Holy One, blessed be He, the individual providence. And in addition to this, "proclaim that His Name is exalted." Proclaim, to tell of His wonders, "for His Name is exalted." This means that Hashem's Name is exalted even in the eyes of the nations. Even the nations who believed in all the deities, I speak also of the periods when they worshiped idolatry, not only today when monotheistic faith is the most widespread faith in the world, faith in one God, today everyone believes, except for those idol worshipers who exist in various places around the globe, but in general people believe in Hashem. Even in ancient periods when they believed that the Baal and idolatry were the ones providing, they believed that these are on the lower level of influence, but on the upper level there is the God of gods. There is the Holy One, blessed be He, who is the one who bestows. Only that, we need to receive the flow from a certain constellation, from a certain idol, but who is above them all? The God of gods. So why not turn to Him? Because according to their conception He is too high. He does not deal with those below. Nothing that happens here is relevant to Him, but rather more general matters. But the god who deals with and cares about what happens with us, that is the Baal, Dagon, Kemosh, all the idolatry. That is how they believed then.
So he says, therefore "proclaim that His Name is exalted." When you mention the Name of God, you are not telling them something new. Hashem's Name was already exalted among the nations even then. Therefore "proclaim that His Name is exalted," for His Name was already exalted among the peoples. Only now they will come to see that Hashem performs alilot for mankind, meaning He performs miracles above nature.
"Sing to Hashem, for He has done exalted things; this is known in all the earth." But now sing and give praise to Hashem in particular, why? "For He has done exalted things." What does "He has done exalted things" mean? Exaltedness (ge'ut), which is mentioned regarding the Holy One, blessed be He, says the Malbim, means that He rises and exalts Himself above the natural governance and runs His world with miraculous governance. And this is not like the miracles of ancient periods that did not become publicized, but rather "this is known in all the earth." The miracles about which he wrote to us "and you shall draw water in joy from the wellsprings of salvation," the miracles about which he said "make His deeds known among the peoples," these miracles will spread and become publicized in all the earth. Everyone will know, "this is known in all the earth," even though it is miraculous governance and all the earth recognized only natural governance, now the whole world will recognize His miraculous governance.
"Cry aloud and sing, O inhabitant of Tzion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Yisrael." Cry aloud and sing especially you, Am Yisrael, inhabitant of Tzion. Why? "For great in your midst is the Holy One of Yisrael." That is to say, a person might come to err: well then, there will be miracles, there will be wonders, but for whom? For the whole world. So what, we will become some sort of cog within this whole great machine? He tells you no, in no way. Always and forever Am Yisrael will remain in its lofty status. Why? Because in your midst He is great, "great in your midst is the Holy One of Yisrael." The miracles, the wonders, everything will be for the sake of Am Yisrael. Why? Because He is the Holy One of Yisrael, because we sanctify and glorify and exalt His Name. The essence of the signs and wonders will be for the sake of Am Yisrael, not for the sake of the nations. Therefore know, says the Holy One, blessed be He, to Am Yisrael, that you should rejoice, cry aloud and sing, since Hashem is in your midst and all that He will do, He will do for your sake.