The chapter before us continues the confrontation of the prophet Yeshayahu with various sects that had taken root among the Jewish people, sects that leaned on philosophical notions prevalent in those generations. Baruch Hashem, those notions are long obsolete, and today no one occupies themselves with them anymore. Yet in their time, these were claims that people wielded in all seriousness, to the extent that even the Rambam found it necessary to compose The Guide for the Perplexed to confront philosophical ideas, and even Rabbeinu Bachya in "Sha'ar HaYichud" proves the truth of Hashem's existence using the philosophical framework of the day - meaning, it was necessary to speak to them in their own language. This introduction is essential for us to understand why the prophet enters specifically here into refuting these arguments.
After the prophet debated the first sect, which claimed that Hashem cannot be comprehended because He is sublime and exalted, he now turns to the second sect. They argued that the Holy One, Blessed be He, has no knowledge whatsoever of what transpires here with man: He has no knowledge of it, no interest in it, and does not see it. And if so - then prophecy is entirely irrelevant. For if the Holy One, Blessed be He, does not know what is happening with us, what purpose would there be in sending prophets to rebuke us and say, "You are doing such and such"?
And like their predecessors, they too purported to "exalt" Hashem: The Holy One, Blessed be He, is so exalted - would He occupy Himself with your physical affairs, with your bank overdraft? They imagined they were magnifying the Creator, but in reality, they were belittling Him. It is like saying: Does the prime minister care whether your garbage can was emptied? For that, there are clerks, there is city hall, there is a municipal hotline; it will never reach the prime minister. So the philosophers argued: Does the Holy One, Blessed be He, care about your little fingernail that has been hurting for two weeks?
And why is this argument ridiculous, and on the contrary - they are the ones belittling Him while we are magnifying Him? Consider an analogy to infinity. What is the distance from here to infinity? Infinity. And if I advance one million kilometers, does it leave "infinity minus a million"? That is absurd. Infinity always remains infinity. If the distance were a trillion kilometers, every kilometer you add brings you a little closer; but when the distance is infinite, no matter how much you add, you have not drawn any closer at all. They turned Hashem, Blessed be He, into a limited entity, something bounded and finite. And if He were finite - it would make sense that He deals with big things and not small things. But if Hashem is infinite, is there anything "large" before Him? Next to infinity, everything is zero, nothing. To infinity, there is no difference between a clash of superpowers, the existence of the galaxies, or the shalom bayis in your home. A prime minister is limited, so he deals with major matters and leaves the minor ones; One Who is unlimited - the great and the small are completely equal to Him.
הוֹי הַמַּעֲמִיקִים מֵה' לַסְתִּר עֵצָה, וְהָיָה בְמַחְשָׁךְ מַעֲשֵׂיהֶם, וַיֹּאמְרוּ מִי רֹאֵנוּ וּמִי יֹדְעֵנוּ׃ (טו) - "Woe to those who delve deep to conceal counsel from Hashem, and their deeds are in darkness, and they say, 'Who sees us and who knows of us?'" (15)
They had four arguments against Divine Providence, and the Malbim shows that the entire verse is structured to address them.
First argument: A multiplicity of knowledge implies a multiplicity in the essence of the knower. To know many things, one must be "many," yet the Holy One, Blessed be He, is One. The example is simple: a person alone cannot know everything happening in the world. Just like with a computer - how much memory you have determines how much you can store; a larger hard drive can contain more. A multiplicity of knowledge requires a larger vessel of capacity, and if the Creator is an absolute unity - there is no multiplicity in Him, and seemingly no multiplicity of knowledge. Against this it is said, "Woe to those who delve deep from Hashem" - who delved deeply into their philosophical inquiry regarding the oneness of Hashem.
Second argument: Free choice supposedly negates knowledge. Since the Holy One, Blessed be He, created man with free choice, man can do something new at any given moment; and if Hashem knew in advance - where is the free choice? This is the famous dilemma of divine foreknowledge and free will (which we will not delve into here; there is a full shiur on this matter in Sefer Iyov). In their view, the very granting of free choice precludes His knowledge, as new knowledge cannot arise within the Holy One, Blessed be He, since any innovation implies a change in Him. Against this it is said, "to conceal counsel" - as if man's counsel and plans are hidden from Hashem.
Third argument: There is no connection between the supreme Light and the material world. When Hashem relates to the world, there is supposedly a dependency and connection between them; and how could the supreme Light, which cannot be grasped or attained, connect with a corporeal and material world? This is the meaning of "and their deeds are in darkness" - they argued that it is impossible for such immense light to occupy itself with such profound darkness.
Fourth argument: Knowledge depends on sight. A person first sees and only then knows; without seeing, one cannot know. First comes sight, and after it contemplation and thought. Therefore they said, "Who sees us?" - for Hashem, Blessed be He, has no eyes, and without an organ of sight, how could He see? (And note how limited the philosophers of that era were; today we know that even a camera can see.) And since "Who sees us?" - it follows that "and who knows of us?", He has no knowledge of our deeds.
הַפְכְּכֶם, אִם כְּחֹמֶר הַיֹּצֵר יֵחָשֵׁב, כִּי יֹאמַר מַעֲשֶׂה לְעֹשֵׂהוּ לֹא עָשָׂנִי, וְיֵצֶר אָמַר לְיֹצְרוֹ לֹא הֵבִין׃ (טז) - O your perversity! Shall the potter be considered as clay, that the object made should say of its maker, "He did not make me," or the thing formed say of its former, "He has no understanding"? (16)
The prophet tells them: On what are all your claims based? On human imagination. If I need eyes to see, how can Hashem see without eyes? If I need a greater intellect to comprehend more, how can Hashem acquire more knowledge without anything changing or increasing in Him? If I, were I great, would not occupy myself with petty matters - why would Hashem concern Himself with petty matters? If I do not know what tomorrow will bring (and if we did, we would all buy winning lottery tickets), how could Hashem know? All these questions stem from comparing the Creator to the creation, the Maker to man.
Yet they make a profound mistake. The Holy One, blessed be He, perceives everything in a way completely unlike man, as the Rambam phrases it: "Our knowledge is not like His knowledge." The Rambam stated this regarding the dilemma of divine foreknowledge and free will and did not elaborate further, and countless pens were broken over this (and the Ra'avad there challenges him as to why he even raised the question in the first place). The core principle is that Hashem's knowledge is fundamentally different from human knowledge. With man, seeing precedes knowing; with the Holy One, blessed be He, it is the reverse: He knows things from their very source before He ever "sees" them. This is why regarding Sodom it is written, "I will go down now and see" - the knowledge comes first, and He perceives matters in their full reality even prior to the seeing.
Furthermore: If you possess knowledge, does the Holy One, blessed be He, not possess it? "He who plants the ear, shall He not hear? He who forms the eye, shall He not see?" If your faculties of sight and hearing were given to you by Hashem, how could you imagine that sight is concealed from Him? How futile is the question that equates the Creator with man. On the contrary, Hashem's sight is on an incomparably higher plane: because man is physical, he must perceive first with his eyes and only then with his intellect, whereas with Hashem, comprehension originates directly in His mind.
This is the meaning of "that the object made should say of its maker, 'He did not make me'" - could it be that the formed object would tell its maker that he did not make it? "Or the thing formed say of its former, 'He has no understanding'" - could the creation say of its creator that he does not understand?! After all, the creator must be far wiser than the creation. Who is wiser, the computer or the person who invented it? Certainly the inventor. Consider how much people attempt to teach a computer artificial intelligence, yet without complete success: try having a computer translate a book. To this day, no software has been invented that can truly translate a book, nor will they succeed, for a simple reason - a word holds multiple nuances of meaning, and a human being grasps association and the broader context, whereas a computer lacks this. A computer is merely a golem.
And there is a true story: Rav Chaim Kanievsky was once asked how many times the name "Moshe" appears in the Torah, and he stated a number. Someone said to him, "Rebbe, the Rov missed one; that is what came up on my computer." He replied, "On the computer you find one more, because it also counts, 'If the household is too small for a lamb (mi-seh)' - to the computer that is M-S-H, but what does it understand?" That is artificial intelligence, and it does not reach human comprehension. If man is more intelligent than the computer he created, how much more so is the Creator far wiser than the human being He created! And if you are capable of seeing, is the Creator incapable? Thus, beyond any shadow of a doubt, the Holy One, blessed be He, knows and understands the thoughts of man, knows his plans, and everything is laid bare before Him, blessed be He.
הֲלוֹא עוֹד מְעַט מִזְעָר, וְשָׁב לְבָנוֹן לַכַּרְמֶל, וְהַכַּרְמֶל לַיַּעַר יֵחָשֵׁב׃ (יז) - Is it not yet a very little while, and the Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest? (17)
The prophet tells them: You will yet see how all the words of the prophets will be fulfilled, and not a single word of His will fall to the ground. "A very little while" - in a brief, tiny span of time. "The Lebanon" symbolizes the forest, the forest of Lebanon, which bears no fruit but only barren trees, and barren trees are a metaphor for the wicked. "And the Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field" - those barren trees, the wicked, will become like a field producing crops and fruit; they will yet yield fruit. "And the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest" - a fruitful field has a disadvantage, in that grain is soft and delicate; but at that time, the fruitful field will become like a forest, strong and mighty. That is: the righteous will possess tremendous strength, far beyond the delicate power of grain. The wicked will become righteous, and the righteous themselves will attain immense power.
וְשָׁמְעוּ בַיּוֹם הַהוּא הַחֵרְשִׁים דִּבְרֵי סֵפֶר, וּמֵאֹפֶל וּמֵחֹשֶׁךְ עֵינֵי עִוְרִים תִּרְאֶינָה׃ (יח) - And on that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and out of obscurity and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. (18)
Here the prophet addresses the two factions with whom he debated. The first faction claimed that the words of Hashem are like a sealed book - the prophet himself does not understand what Hashem is saying to him, so how can he demand that we understand? To this, the prophet comes with a rebuke: "Because this people draws near with its mouth and honors Me with its lips, while its heart is far from Me" - ostensibly they honor Hashem and say that His words transcend human intellect, but their heart is far away. The real motive is to say that the Holy One, blessed be He, is not interested in our actions and does not delve into fine details, for if He does watch over everything - that places demands upon you. Therefore, it is convenient to claim, "Hashem is exalted and aloof."
Now the prophet tells them: those very same deaf individuals, who claimed that the Holy One, blessed be He, gave us a sealed book - they will understand the words of the book. And those people who claimed, "those who go deep from Hashem to conceal counsel, and their deeds are in darkness," believing that Hashem does not see what is done in the dark - not only will they recognize that Hashem knows and sees, and that before Him darkness is like light, but "the eyes of the blind shall see": those who are currently like the blind will attain lofty prophetic insights. Lofty vision is spiritual perception, as opposed to sensory vision, and they will merit to perceive spiritual reality through their physical eyes.
And the Malbim asks: Which is greater, ofel (gloom) or choshech (darkness)? Ofel. When describing total darkness, the Torah says "darkness and gloom" (choshech va'afelah), and an addition always intensifies. If so, the verse should have written "from darkness and from gloom" - that they would see in darkness, and even in gloom. Why was the order reversed? The Malbim explains that the verse is speaking here in terms of medical treatment. When healing a blind person and opening his eyes, it is dangerous to open them in direct sunlight, for he could suffer sun damage to his eyes or even go permanently blind from the intensity of the sudden light. Therefore, in the first stage, he is placed in a completely pitch-black house; in the second stage - after he has grown somewhat accustomed - in a dim house, which is less dark than pitch black; and only in the third stage is he brought outside. This is the meaning of "and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see": first in gloom, then in dim darkness, until they truly see. Those who claimed that Hashem does not see or scrutinize - they will attain insights in spirituality and prophecy, seeing just how much Hashem sees; and those deaf ones to whom the words of prophecy seemed obscure - they too will be able to hear and understand.
וְיָסְפוּ עֲנָוִים בַּה' שִׂמְחָה, וְאֶבְיוֹנֵי אָדָם בִּקְדוֹשׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל יָגִילוּ׃ (יט) - And the humble shall increase joy in Hashem, and the needy of mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel. (19)
There are three distinctions here. First, there is a difference between the Name "Hashem" - which denotes that the Holy One, blessed be He, creates and guides the world through nature, "He was, He is, and He will be" - and "the Holy One of Israel," which signifies Divine providence and the performance of supernatural signs and wonders. Second, there is a difference between simchah (joy) and gil (exultation): simchah expresses an ongoing, continuous joy - a person is said to be "dwelling in joy," not "dwelling in exultation" - whereas gil is a renewed, momentary experience; when good tidings arrive, one has moments and bursts of exultation. Third, "the humble" (anavim) refers to the righteous (tzaddikim), from the language of humility, while "the needy of mankind" (evyonei adam) are the common masses.
Now for the explanation of the verse: The humble, who are the righteous, do not need wonders or alterations of nature. They perceive the hand of Hashem even in the natural order - "He Who commanded oil to burn will command vinegar to burn"; the righteous person does not require a miracle, and for him vinegar burns just as oil burns. They believe in the Creator because He is the Creator of the world and guides it continuously, and they do not need supernatural miracles to recognize that Hashem is present. Therefore, "and the humble shall increase joy in Hashem" - they already possessed continuous joy, and now additional joy will be added to them, specifically in the Name "Hashem," in the natural governance of the world. In contrast, "the needy of mankind," who are the masses, were not joyful until now and did not recognize Hashem in His continuous guidance; but when they witness the miracles and wonders, which corresponds to "the Holy One of Israel" - the Holy One, blessed be He, acting above nature and being sanctified and exalted - then "they shall exult," a fresh, momentary exultation that will begin now in response to what they see.
כִּי אָפֵס עָרִיץ וְכָלָה לֵץ, וְנִכְרְתוּ כָּל שֹׁקְדֵי אָוֶן׃ (כ) - For the tyrant has ceased, and the scorner is consumed, and all who watch for iniquity are cut off. (20)
Until now, there were three causes that caused the people to stumble and prevented them from walking in the way of Hashem, to the point that the deaf did not hear the words of the book and the humble did not rejoice in Hashem. Now the situation will change.
"For the tyrant has ceased" - The tyrants are the powerful rulers who prevented the people from serving Hashem. Even when they wished to serve Hashem, these rulers prevented them from making the pilgrimage to Jerusalem and forced them to practice idolatry. Those wicked leaders, such as Achav, Yerovam, and Hoshea ben Elah - will cease to exist.
"And the scorner is consumed" - The scorners would incite the people to stray from the path of Hashem through mockery and ridicule; they made fun of the prophets and the words of prophecy. They, too, will be consumed.
"And all who watch for iniquity shall be cut off" - these are those who commit sins publicly. One of the greatest challenges to faith is when a person sees that under every leafy tree and in every town there are transgressors committing their sins openly; this weakens his faith. For when a person sees observers of the mitzvot everywhere, it strengthens him to do as they do, as the Rambam expresses it: it is human nature to be drawn after the people of one's place; if they are wicked, one is drawn after them, and if they are righteous, one is drawn after them. This is especially true when a person asks: How is it that Hashem does nothing to them, and how are they so successful? The very success of the wicked undermines the faith of someone whose belief is weak.
A story is told of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, who arrived at an inn he used to frequent, and saw that the innkeeper, who had been known as a God-fearing and observant Jew, had removed his kippah and was conducting himself in a secular manner. The Rabbi was astonished and asked: What happened? What changed? Is there new information that we haven't heard? Did the Holy One, blessed be He, send updates; is there a new religion?
The innkeeper said to him: I will tell you the truth. A heretic came here and began to argue with me: Why don't you sell pork? I told him that I sell only kosher food. He said to me: What difference does it make whether it is kosher or not? Look, if there is a Creator of the world, watch this pork that I am eating right now; he took a bite and said: If there is a Creator of the world, I should choke right this second. And behold, I saw that nothing happened to him, and from that my faith was deeply shaken. How can it be that the Holy One, blessed be He, directs His world, yet a person can violate His word like this and nothing happens to him?
Just then, the innkeeper's daughter entered, holding a diploma she had received from the music conservatory, a degree in piano performance. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter said to her: Well, who says you know how to play? Play something, and then we will know if you really know how. She replied: Of course not! Am I going to sit down and play for anyone who asks me to play just to prove my skills? Why did I receive a diploma? The diploma proves that I know how to play!
Rabbi Yisrael Salanter said to the innkeeper: Did you hear what your daughter said? The Holy One, blessed be He, already revealed Himself at Mount Sinai before the eyes of millions of people: "I am Hashem your God; you shall have no other gods before Me." He opened seven heavens above and seven below and showed them that there is none else besides Him. And now, every heretic and every fool will say, "Who says there is a Creator of the world?" - and the Holy One, blessed be He, should stage a private Mount Sinai revelation for him? Your daughter is not willing to play for anyone who doubts her skill, and the Creator of the universe should alter the entire order of nature because some snot-nosed upstart questions His power? The Holy One, blessed be He, has already proven it, and we have a clear and pure faith passed down from person to person, something that cannot be denied. No nation in the world has a tradition like the Jewish people; no religion in the world begins with millions of eyewitnesses. With all of them, this one said, and Muhammad said, and his attendant said, and Jesus said and his apostles said, and they lived a hundred years after him. Only the Jewish people can recount millions who witnessed divine revelation. The man heard these words, was persuaded, and returned to his roots.
From here we learn how much those who watch for iniquity, who commit sins publicly, cause faith to weaken among the vulnerable: "Look, he rebels against Hashem, yet how does he survive, and how does he prosper?" But at that time, "the ruthless one shall cease, and the scorner shall be consumed" - these are those who mock and make light of the words of the Torah, and in our day one might include the broadcast media, the various television and cable channels; "and all who watch for iniquity shall be cut off" - those whose sins are public, including those who flaunt their misconduct openly; all of them will perish entirely.
מַחֲטִיאֵי אָדָם בְּדָבָר, וְלַמּוֹכִיחַ בַּשַּׁעַר יְקֹשׁוּן, וַיַּטּוּ בַתֹּהוּ צַדִּיק׃ (כא) - Who declare a person guilty for a word, and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate, and turn aside the righteous with emptiness. (21)
Radak explains: "Who declare a person guilty for a word" - when someone reproves them with words, they treat his rebuke as a sin, as if he had physically struck them. This is very reminiscent of the media in our time: when Rabbi Peretz spoke back then about the Habonim disaster, and when the Torah leaders of Israel gave awakening admonitions about various troubles, in their eyes it was as though they had been struck, and what an uproar they caused over it! And over what? Because someone stood up and spoke the upright truth.
"And lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate" - related to the word mokesh (snare): they search for stumbling blocks for him, tripping him up in his ways to show how flawed he is and where he has failed, thereby presenting him as an indecent person. Radak also brings another original explanation: yekoshun comes from the gathering of straw (kishush kash), as in "Gather yourselves together, yea, gather" (hitkosheshu vakoshu), which is like a gatherer of wood who picks up sticks from here and there. So too do they: when someone comes to reprove them, they launch an "investigation" against him; they go around hearing what this one says about him and what that one says about him, collecting stories to find flaws in him. Then they tell you: "This is a reprover? Look, that fellow says that seventeen years ago, when he gave him change at the grocery store, he didn't give him all seventeen agorot." They dig through his history, revile and disparage, and tell him: You did such-and-such, so how can you come and rebuke us?
The Malbim explains that this verse corresponds to the three types of instigators mentioned in the preceding verse. "Who declare a person guilty for a word" corresponds to the scorners, who caused the people to sin through mockery and speech. "And lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate" corresponds to those who watch for iniquity, who committed their deeds publicly before all; when the reprover came and rebuked them for their wrongdoing, they laid a snare for him. "And turn aside the righteous with emptiness" corresponds to the ruthless one, those leaders who caused the people to sin and led them into idolatry, inventing false pretexts against the righteous to execute and destroy them, just as Ahab and Jezebel persecuted the prophets of Hashem. They sought reasons to persecute the righteous so that the people would not follow them, but would instead listen to them and worship idols.
לָכֵן כֹּה אָמַר ה' אֶל בֵּית יַעֲקֹב אֲשֶׁר פָּדָה אֶת אַבְרָהָם: לֹא עַתָּה יֵבוֹשׁ יַעֲקֹב, וְלֹא עַתָּה פָּנָיו יֶחֱוָרוּ׃ (כב) - Therefore, so said Hashem concerning the House of Yaakov, He Who redeemed Avraham: Yaakov shall not now be ashamed, nor shall his face now turn pale. (22)
Both the Radak and the Malbim explain that the word order of the verse is inverted, as it were: "Therefore, so said Hashem Who redeemed Avraham" - Hashem, blessed be He, Who redeemed Avraham, is the One speaking to the House of Yaakov, who are the people of Israel.
The Radak explains: "Yaakov" is the name used for Israel when they are on a lower spiritual level, related to eikev (heel), in contrast to "Yeshurun" and "Yisrael," which denote authority and indicate a high level. "Yaakov shall not now be ashamed" - until now, Yaakov was ashamed of his children, like a father embarrassed by a son who has gone astray; when the son runs around outside with a bad crowd, the father wants to bury his face in the ground and is ashamed to go out. From now on, he will no longer be ashamed.
And why? "He Who redeemed Avraham" - just as Avraham Avinu lived among the wicked and the Holy One, blessed be He, redeemed him and took him out from there with "Go forth from your land," so too the humble ones we spoke of, who were surrounded by wicked people and could not serve Hashem publicly - the Holy One, blessed be He, will redeem them from the hands of the wicked, topple the reign of wickedness, and enable them to serve Hashem openly. Until now they were under duress, and the One Who redeemed Avraham and took him out from among the wicked so that he could spread the Name of Heaven in the world - so He will do for the righteous, redeeming them so that they too can spread the Name of Heaven. The Radak adds: then they will truly be called "the House of Yaakov," the authentic House of Yaakov; Yaakov will not be ashamed of their deeds, but rather rejoice in the deeds of his children. This refers to the days of Chizkiyahu, who reformed the people and brought them to teshuvah after the actions of his father, at which point the wicked perished and the righteous remained.
The Malbim adds: when Avraham began to proclaim faith in Hashem, blessed be He, he was one against many; they persecuted him, cast him into the fiery furnace, and tried to undo all his work. And so it was throughout the generations: they persecuted Yitzchak and stopped up the wells he had dug. Those who spread the Name of Heaven in the world have always been persecuted, yet Hashem redeemed Avraham and saved him. So too, the Holy One, blessed be He, will help this nation as well - the survivors whom Hashem calls, who cling to Him - them He will redeem and help.
What is the difference between "shall be ashamed" (yeivosh) and "turn pale" (yechevaru)? The Malbim explains: "shame" (boshah) is always internal, coming from within oneself - as in "I am filled with shame," referring to a person who did something or suffered something that causes him to feel ashamed of himself. By contrast, the paleness of the face always comes from an external force, in the sense of public humiliation (halbanat panim). Until now, both existed: from within - shame over Israel's lowly state, downtrodden and suffering; and from those around them - humiliation, as people would say, "Where is Hashem's providence? Look at this nation, how abandoned it is; Hashem has hidden His providence from them." Now, all of that will come to an end.
כִּי בִרְאֹתוֹ יְלָדָיו מַעֲשֵׂה יָדַי בְּקִרְבּוֹ יַקְדִּישׁוּ שְׁמִי, וְהִקְדִּישׁוּ אֶת קְדוֹשׁ יַעֲקֹב, וְאֶת אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל יַעֲרִיצוּ׃ (כג) - For when he sees his children, the work of My hands, in his midst, they shall sanctify My Name; and they shall sanctify the Holy One of Yaakov, and revere the God of Israel. (23)
The Malbim explains: "The work of My hands" refers to the signs, miracles, and wonders that the Holy One, blessed be He, will perform, through which Yaakov will attain honor among the nations, unlike before when they suffered humiliation and people said that Hashem had forsaken them. Not only will Yaakov not feel shame from within - for until now he was embarrassed by the evil deeds of his children, and shame is an internal matter - but now he will rejoice in seeing his children as righteous: "They shall sanctify My Name." Through their good deeds, the Name of Heaven will be sanctified in the world, for when the people of Israel do the will of Hashem and blessing rests upon them, His Name is sanctified in the world and His guidance becomes evident. Furthermore, the miracles He will perform for them will cause the people to lift their heads, walk in the path of Hashem, and strengthen themselves in His service, while also earning them respect in the eyes of the nations. "And revere the God of Israel" - everyone will see the boundless, immense power of the Holy One, blessed be He, and revere the God of Israel, so that Yaakov's face will no longer pale and no one will put him to shame.
The Radak addresses an interesting question here: Why does it say "the Holy One of Yaakov"? We find that Scripture consistently associates the holiness of God with Yaakov, something we do not find with the other Patriarchs: "the Holy One of Yaakov," "the Holy One of Israel, the Mighty One of Yaakov," "the Holy One of Israel, your Savior," "your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel," "the Holy One of Israel and his Maker," "the Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One." Although in some of these verses "Israel" can be interpreted as the nation of Israel, there are verses that can only be understood as referring to Yaakov himself. Why do we never find "the Holy One of Avraham" or "the Holy One of Yitzchak"? The Radak answers: It is very likely because Yaakov perceived the holiness of God in a prophetic vision, in the vision of the ladder in Parashat Vayeitzei - "a ladder set on the earth, and its top reached toward heaven." Yaakov was privileged to gaze upward and perceive the holiness of Hashem, and therefore the attribute of holiness is uniquely associated with him.
וְיָדְעוּ תֹעֵי רוּחַ בִּינָה, וְרוֹגְנִים יִלְמְדוּ לֶקַח׃ (כד) - And those who erred in spirit shall gain understanding, and those who grumbled shall learn instruction. (24)
"Those who erred in spirit," the Malbim explains, are those who stray from the paths of binah (understanding) - those who are swayed by all kinds of counterfeit signs, omens, and wonders. They lack binah, the essence of which, as explained previously, is deducing one matter from another - what we would call the process of drawing logical conclusions. Then, "those who erred in spirit shall gain understanding" - they will comprehend the true signs and wonders that prove His absolute truth, blessed be He, rather than the phenomena that previously led them astray from the path of truth. For in their day, the forces of impurity and idolatry also produced supernatural wonders and feats. At that time, they will achieve genuine binah and a true understanding of the reality of Hashem, blessed be He.
"And those who grumbled shall learn instruction" - the grumblers, says the Malbim, are those who err willfully, deliberately contending against the word of Hashem. The former group still possessed wisdom (chochmah) and merely lacked understanding (binah), being unable to draw proper conclusions; but these people lack even basic wisdom. Roganim is related to "A murmurer [nirgan] alienates a close friend" (Mishlei 16:28) and "You grumbled [vateragnu] in your tents" (Devarim 1:27) - those who harbor grievances and resentment, refuse to listen, and come only to quarrel and dispute: why was this done this way, and why that? They always have complaints. They lack even fundamental intellect, not just the ability to deduce one matter from another. Hashem will teach them "instruction" [lekach], meaning words of wisdom, as in the verse, "For I have given you good doctrine [lekach tov]" (Mishlei 4:2) - not in the modern colloquial sense of "teaching someone a lesson" through retribution or suffering, but rather imparting the laws of wisdom for them to study, so that they cease their grumbling.
In this chapter, the prophet confronts the philosophical sect that denied Hashem's knowledge and divine providence, ostensibly arguing for His transcendence while in practice diminishing Him. The prophet proves that the root of all their claims is equating the Creator with the object He formed, whereas the Creator's knowledge is entirely different from human knowledge: with Him, knowledge precedes sight, and He who fashioned the eye and the ear certainly sees and hears. Following the rebuke comes the consolation: the forest will turn into a fruitful field and the fruitful field into a forest, the deaf will hear the words of the book, the blind will see gradually out of gloom and darkness, the humble will increase their joy in Hashem, and the poorest of men will exult in the Holy One of Israel. Then the tyrant, the scorner, and those who plot iniquity to cause the people to stumble will cease to exist; Yaakov will no longer be ashamed of his children, nor will his face grow pale, for his children will sanctify His Name, and even those who erred in spirit and the grumblers will gain understanding and learn instruction. May Hashem help us, speedily in our days, Amen.