[quiet] Sefer Yeshayahu chapter 20. "In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Ashur sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and captured it." In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, three years before the king of Ashur reached Yerushalayim, Tartan came, who was one of the officers of the king of Ashur, he came to Ashdod and captured it. And then, three years before the coming of the king of Ashur to Yerushalayim, when Tartan captured Ashdod, this prophecy was told to Yeshayahu: know that at the end of three years the king of Ashur will lead away the captives of Egypt, the exile of Kush, and bring them here. When will this be? When he besieges Chizkiyahu and Yerushalayim, and then he will hear that there is a war in his own country, and he will go and fight the king of Kush, go and fight Egypt, take captives from them, take silver and gold from them, come here, return in order to fight, and then at the gate of Yerushalayim one hundred and eighty thousand army commanders will fall. So three years earlier, when Tartan came to Ashdod, this prophecy was said, "and he fought against Ashdod and captured it."
Who is this Tartan who was sent by Sargon? Who is this Sargon? The Radak says, Sargon is Sancheriv. And our Sages of blessed memory said that he has eight names. The Gemara in Masechet Sanhedrin, page 94, says: let Chizkiyahu, who has eight names, come and exact punishment from Sancheriv, who has eight names. Chizkiyahu has eight names, and Sancheriv also has eight names. Regarding Chizkiyahu it is written, "For a child is born to us, a son is given to us, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name is called Pele Yoetz El Gibor Avi Ad Sar Shalom." The Gemara asks, but he has another name, Chizkiya? The Gemara answers no, Chizkiya refers to his situation, that Kah strengthened him. Another explanation: Chizkiya, that he strengthened Israel toward their Father in Heaven. The Gemara says, Sancheriv also has eight names. He was called Tiglat Pilneser, Pilneser, Shalmaneser, Pul, Sargon, Asnapar Rabba and Yakira. The Gemara asks, but there is Sancheriv? Well, Sancheriv is the classic name everyone knows, do you not count it? The Gemara answers, that his conversation was strife (sichato riv). The meaning is that always, all his speech, all his deeds were strife, war, his conversation was strife. Another explanation: that he spoke and blurted out words toward Heaven. Sancheriv means he spoke against Hashem with arrogance and contempt. Who is the God who can stand against me, I conquered and I did and I... this is Sancheriv, who hurled words toward Heaven.
"At that time Hashem spoke through Yeshayahu son of Amotz, saying, Go and loosen the sackcloth from your loins and remove your shoe from your foot; and he did so, walking naked and barefoot." The Holy One, blessed be He, gives a prophecy to Yeshayahu son of Amotz and tells him, go loosen the sackcloth from your loins. We must understand, when I say to someone loosen the sackcloth, that means that until now he had a sackcloth. And if so, we must understand where this sackcloth that was on Yeshayahu was mentioned, that now He needs a command to tell him to loosen the sackcloth from your loins. Remove your shoe from your foot, I understand, because an ordinary person walks with shoes, but an ordinary person does not walk with sackcloth. So the Radak explains, loosen the sackcloth, that same sackcloth that was tied on his loins, that was worn on his loins. Since when? Since the exile of the Tribes. He was mourning them, ever since the ten Tribes were exiled he was in grief, in mourning. Hashem says to him, go loosen that sackcloth and remove your shoes and walk naked and barefoot. Naked does not mean completely naked, rather the Targum Yonatan renders it "pachiach," as is written in the Shulchan Aruch, a "pocheach" raises his hands, and so on. What is a pocheach? A pocheach means a person with torn clothes, with short clothes, like a person walking in an undershirt and the like, that is called naked. But they do not mean to say he would be completely naked. And He tells him, loosen this sackcloth and walk naked and barefoot.
The Radak says, this matter cannot be explained literally, that Hashem commanded the prophet to walk naked and barefoot, Heaven forbid. Any greatest person you know is not even a small fingernail of a prophet. Just as none of us would imagine that the leader of the generation would walk in an undershirt or even a short shirt, all the more so we could not picture him walking as a pocheach. And He tells him to walk naked and barefoot with only sackcloth, how is that possible? The Radak now presents a principle that will accompany us in the coming chapters as well. The Radak says, and likewise what God said to Hoshea, "Take for yourself a wife of harlotry and come to her," and so on. And likewise what He said to Yechezkel, "and pass a razor over your head and over your beard," to shave with a razor his head and his beard. And likewise what He told him, that he should eat a barley cake baked on cattle dung. All these and those similar to them are not things that God commanded His prophets to do, but rather all of it was in the vision of prophecy. When the prophet would see in the vision of prophecy that God commanded him to do so, he would do so in that vision of prophecy. So when you hear that it is written "and he did so," "and he took Gomer daughter of Divlayim," and so on and so on, do not mistakenly think that, Heaven forbid, a holy prophet of Hashem went and joined a woman whose ways were corrupt, God protect us, and even fathered children with her, and so on. He tells you certainly this cannot enter one's mind, rather all of it was in the vision of prophecy. And even though the time is lengthy, as in this prophecy, three years He tells him, as it were, to walk this way, as we will see in the next verse. And in Hoshea's prophecy it is written, "and he took, and she conceived and bore a son, and she conceived and bore a daughter." Tell me, all of this is a dream? All of this is prophecy? He tells you yes, a long prophecy. You should not think that the prophecy lasted several years. Just as in a dream a long time can pass, and the dream itself is only a few seconds, so too know that in prophecy he sees an entire process, while in truth the process is short, it is not as long as you see or read in its description. This is the view of the Radak. It is important to emphasize, there are those who disagree. It is important to emphasize that there are those who understand the matters literally, and when there is a prophecy and Hashem tells him go do so, then the prophet would go and do the things literally.
Soon, in the explanation of the Malbim, we will see later on what the matter here actually was. What I want is to see here the explanation of Rashi. According to the Radak, and along the same line the Malbim also went, the sackcloth was on his loins from the time of the exile of the ten Tribes, and Hashem told him now loosen the sackcloth, "and loosen the sackcloth from your loins." Only that the Malbim says that he did not need to walk with it for three years, rather the Malbim says, He told him only one day or a short hour in his house. In this way the Malbim actually escaped the difficulty of the Radak, how would the prophet walk when he is half naked, going around like that, what kind of form is that? He tells you, even one moment in the house, he does not need to be in that state for three years. Why really, what was the matter and why does the Malbim specifically explain the things literally, we will see later on.
I would just like to bring Rashi here. Rashi says, "and loosen the sackcloth," Rashi says, the Targum Yonatan renders it "and gird sackcloth on your loins." Rashi explains, like its Targum. And its Targum says, place upon yourself the sackcloth. Not loosen the sackcloth, but rather place upon yourself sackcloth. The commentary on Rashi explains, what is the necessity? For until now He did not command him to gird sackcloth. As we explained earlier, why would I be told to remove sackcloth when I did not find previously that they told him to place sackcloth? So what am I to remove? From where would I have sackcloth? Therefore they explained that he himself placed it because of the ten Tribes. But Rashi does not explain this way. Therefore Rashi says the meaning is place upon yourself the sackcloth. And in particular, Rashi says, the continuation proves it. He told him remove your shoes. Now, what does the removal of shoes symbolize? Mourning. And if so, on the contrary, why remove the sackcloth? Put on sackcloth. If you want mourning and therefore you tell me to remove the shoes, then tell me to put on sackcloth. Why do you say to remove it? Therefore Rashi says, from this it is proven that the meaning is place upon yourself sackcloth, because a mourner would place sackcloth upon himself.
What then is "and loosen the sackcloth from your loins"? This is indeed somewhat difficult for Rashi. Why is it not written and place the sackcloth on your loins? And tie the sackcloth on your loins? "And loosen the sackcloth," to loosen means to remove. "Let not one who girds boast like one who loosens" (opens). One who girds puts on the girdle, one who loosens takes it off. How here do you want to explain "and loosen the sackcloth from your loins" to mean put on sackcloth over your loins? So Rashi here has a very original explanation. Rashi says, "and loosen" (u'fitachta) is like "you shall engrave upon them the names of the sons of Israel, engraved like the engravings of a seal." Why is it called "pitachta"? Because when you take the sackcloth and close it tightly on your loins, then the protrusions of the body are visible through the sackcloth, because the sackcloth is tightened. And then it is like an engraved stone, a stone in which they carve and the carvings and protrusions are visible, so too "and you shall engrave the sackcloth," tighten it so that it appears like the engravings of a seal. What is "from your loins"? This too seemingly proves like the explanation of the Radak and the Malbim, loosen it from your loins. According to Rashi it should have said on your loins. Why "from above"? "From above" means remove it from over them. Therefore Rashi explains, "from your loins" means above your loins, like from above your loins. Place the sackcloth, but do not remove it from over your loins, rather place it above your loins.
"And Hashem said, Just as My servant Yeshayahu has walked naked and barefoot three years, a sign and a wonder concerning Egypt and concerning Kush." Hashem says, just as My servant Yeshayahu walked naked and barefoot three years, a sign and a wonder concerning Egypt and concerning Kush. What was the matter in this? The Malbim says, I already explained elsewhere, and we have already returned to this matter in several places, I mention it also in the book Mishnat HaChalomot. Every word of Hashem, when Hashem prophesies evil through a prophet, this thing will not necessarily come to pass. This depends on the deeds of the nation, on the deeds of the person. If the person changes his deeds, repents, the evil decree will be removed. And therefore when a prophet comes and prophesies a prophecy for evil, we do not test him by it. The Rambam says, if you want to test the prophet to know whether he is a true prophet, as it is written in the Torah, the Torah warns to test the prophet in the first times until he is established in our eyes as a true prophet, we test him only in a decree of prophecy for good. For a prophecy for good Hashem does not retract. In contrast, the Malbim says, there is some situation in which the Holy One, blessed be He, decrees a decree for evil and does not retract from it. When? When Hashem, may He be blessed, tells the prophet to perform a physical action together with the prophecy. The Holy One, blessed be He, is not content with the prophecy, but rather tells him go perform an action. That action brings down, as it were, the matter from the realm of thought, from the realm of something abstract, spiritual, to something real, tangible, physical, earthly. This taking of the physical object, its purpose is to turn the matter physical, to bring it down here to the earth. And through this the matter must come, there is no possibility that the matter will be nullified. And therefore when we see prophecies in which the Holy One, blessed be He, says take a flask or a bottle and write in it such and such and throw it into the river and say thus shall Bavel sink and the like, all these prophecies were done with a physical reality. And according to the Malbim, explicitly, not as the Radak explained that he saw it in the vision of prophecy. Now we understand why the Malbim needs to say that for at least one moment he walked with the sackcloth. Because there is a matter here of bringing the thing down to physicality. As we saw with Elisha, that he told him to take arrows and shoot toward Aram, and so on, afterward strike the arrows on the ground. Every physical action, its purpose is to bring the matter down to physical reality, and through this the matter will certainly come to pass. All the more so, says the Malbim, if this physical thing is a strange thing, if it is something that astonishes the eyes of those who see it. The stranger and more astonishing the thing is, that means its fulfillment will be stronger. And therefore he says, it is written here that this thing, that Yeshayahu would be naked and barefoot, would be a sign and a wonder concerning Egypt and Kush. A sign and a wonder means, this will be a sign and a mark and a remembrance. And a wonder, what is a wonder? Always a wonder means something that deviates from the bounds of nature, that is the meaning of a wonder. The wonder is something strange for people to see, like this thing. As Hashem commanded Hoshea to take a harlot woman, and so on. The Malbim says, this thing was meant to instill, and the more perplexing the thing is, it is in the category of a wonder, so it is not only a sign that thus it will be, it is a wonder. And a wonder, as we said, is something that deviates from the way of nature, an unusual thing, and this thing guarantees that the matter will come to pass.
"So shall the king of Ashur lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Kush, young and old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt." So shall the king of Ashur lead away the captives of Egypt. "Just as My servant Yeshayahu walked naked and barefoot three years," according to the Malbim it does not mean that for three years he walked naked and barefoot, but rather it means that in three years thus it will be. That is the meaning of "three years." What will happen then? The king of Ashur will lead away the captives of Egypt. The king of Ashur will conquer Egypt, and then he will lead away those whom he captured from Egypt. The king of Ashur will fight against Kush, and then he will also lead away the exile of Kush. Let us note, he said "captives of Egypt" and "exile of Kush." He did not say exile of Egypt and captives of Kush. What is the difference between captives and exile? Seemingly it is the same thing, he captured them and exiled them. The Malbim explains, Egypt he did not exile. He only captured captives from it. That is, the main body of Egypt remained in its place, and he captured people from it and took them with him. In contrast, Kush he exiled entirely. And therefore this is called "the exile of Kush," all of Kush was exiled. Young and old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. What is the meaning of "with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt"? "Shet," according to what Rashi explains, means the place where excrement comes out. "And he cut off their garments to their buttocks." This is cited, why would they receive this? It is written that this recompense was for Egypt, because Egypt is the grandson of whom? Of Cham. The grandson, Put and Mitzrayim, correct? And Canaan, Put and Canaan and Mitzrayim. And they are actually descendants of Cham. And Cham saw the nakedness of his father and did not cover it. And therefore their punishment is measure for measure, you will be naked and barefoot and with buttocks uncovered. The Radak says, after it said naked and barefoot, seemingly what need is there to add "with buttocks uncovered"? For this is included in that. Rather, naked does not necessarily mean completely naked, but often naked means lacking clothes, as we explained earlier, a pocheach, a person with torn clothes, a person with short clothes, that is called naked. In contrast, he says here, this will be naked to the point that the buttocks are uncovered. Buttocks uncovered means, as we explained, their backsides exposed. "Shet" is the term for the buttocks, and also a term for the private parts. Right? And this will be for Egypt as a punishment for them, because Egypt is called, the Malbim says, the woman of lewdness. And the prophets always condemned Egypt and always spoke about the nakedness of Egypt. And Egypt always symbolized impurity, Egypt always symbolized all the matters of lewdness. For fifty gates of impurity were in Egypt. And therefore he says, their punishment is measure for measure, "with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt," the king of Ashur will lead them away as the captives of Egypt.
"And they shall be dismayed and ashamed of Kush their expectation, and of Egypt their glory." The Malbim says, the verses are parallel. That is, and they shall be dismayed of Kush their expectation. And they shall be ashamed of Egypt their glory. The meaning is this: those who looked, their expectation, toward Kush, was toward Kush in order to obtain help from them, in order to receive assistance from them, now they shall be dismayed. Dismayed means broken. For behold, these whom we hoped would help us, they themselves are not able to help. And they shall be ashamed of Egypt their glory. Those who used to boast, do not worry, we are friends of Egypt. Egypt has a mutual aid and assistance agreement with us, you have nothing to worry about, we are set. So they shall be ashamed. Egypt, whom you rely on and are confident in, come and see what happened when Sancheriv came to deal with them. So those who relied on Egypt, on Kush, will have shame, will have brokenness. And it actually points here to Yehuda, that Yehuda thought they had nothing to worry about because they had someone to lean on, on Kush, on Egypt. You will have shame and disgrace, you relied on these, and come and see how they were broken first.
"And the inhabitant of this coastland shall say on that day, Behold, such is our expectation to which we fled for help, to be saved from before the king of Ashur; and how shall we ourselves escape?" And then the inhabitant of this coastland (i) shall say. This "i" speaks about the Land of Israel, about Yehuda. Why does he call it "i" (island/coastland)? There are two explanations for this. One explanation, the Radak explains, "i" because it borders the sea. An "i" does not have to be what today is called an island, like for example the country of Britain, surrounded on all sides by the sea. An "i" can be even if it is partially surrounded. The Land of Israel is called "i" because it has a border with the sea. This is the Radak's view. The Malbim, in contrast, says, "i" is not connected to what today we call an island. "I" means a district. And he brings, you see that Yerushalayim is called "i," even though Yerushalayim is not an island and has no sea except the Sea of Shlomo, it has no sea, and nevertheless it is called "i." What does "i" mean? "I" means a district. And the inhabitant of this coastland shall say on that day, that is, the inhabitants of Yerushalayim, the land of Yehuda, they who trusted in Egypt, in Kush, that they too are with us in the same pot and they will help us to be saved from Sancheriv, and then they will see, "Behold, such is our expectation to which we fled for help." We cast a look toward them, we hoped they would help us be saved from before the king of Ashur, and how shall we ourselves escape? If they did not protect themselves, how will we be able to be protected and preserved through them? And this will cause them to understand that they have no one to lean on and rely on, and in the end the Holy One, blessed be He, is the One who saved them. [quiet]