Sefer Yeshayahu, chapter 42: "Behold My servant, whom I uphold, My chosen one, in whom My soul delights, I have placed My spirit upon him, he shall bring forth justice to the nations." The Malbim explains that now the prophet begins to elaborate on the entire scene we saw in the previous chapter, where he brought that Hashem would contend with the nations, as we saw in the previous chapter. I will recall the first pasuk: "Be silent to Me, you islands, and let the nations renew their strength, let them approach, then let them speak, together let us draw near for judgment." Now he begins to explain about whom he is actually speaking here. He says here, "Behold My servant" - My servant refers to the King Mashiach. Now he adds and says, "My chosen one, in whom My soul delights, I have placed My spirit upon him, he shall bring forth justice to the nations." The Malbim explains that among the conditions of prophecy, in order for a person to merit it, first there must be a chosen preparation.
A chosen preparation means that a person, through his own free choice, prepares himself: through purity, through sanctification, through engaging in the study of Torah. If you recall, we spoke about the sons of the prophets, for this was their path to advance toward prophecy. They would take shelter and gather in the shadow of the prophet and strengthen themselves in the service of Hashem through abstinence and holiness, and thus they would learn until they merited and received prophecy. About this he says "Behold My servant" - "My servant" refers to someone who serves Me faithfully and prepared himself properly. Not like other servants whom you cannot rely upon, but rather this is My servant "whom I uphold." "Whom I uphold" means like leaning upon him, relying upon him. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: this one serves Me faithfully, I can lean upon him with certainty, he will not betray his faith. This is the chosen preparation, this is "My chosen one."
Afterward he says that the natural preparation is also needed. The natural preparation means that already by nature and from the womb he was made fit for prophecy. As the Moreh Nevuchim explains, there is a reality in which the Holy One, blessed be He, creates a person who is naturally more prepared for prophecy, naturally more fit for the word of Hashem. This is the reality of the favor he found in the eyes of Hashem even before he was born. As it is written, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you." There are those who are on such a level that from Heaven they were born into a state that makes them more prepared for prophecy. I recently read about the righteous rabbi, Rav Mendel, who lived on Rechov Raavad in Bnei Brak. Rav Shach, as is known, would always send people to him to receive blessings. I recently read about him that when he was an infant, his mother tried to feed him and tried and tried, but he would not nurse. It reached a state that was truly one of danger to life. So they turned to one of the great sages of Israel, I believe it was the Satmar Rebbe, and he told them: you have a son with a very, very lofty soul, he will not eat until you cover his head. She began covering his head, and from then on he nursed. See what this means, already from what age, right when he was born. There is a reality of "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you." Already from the womb he was designated, designated for greatness: "Before you emerged from the womb I sanctified you."
And this is what he says: "My chosen one, in whom My soul delights." Still, why did I choose him? Because My soul delighted in him. I prepared him even before he was born, even before he came into the world I prepared him to be fit for this role, to be the Mashiach to redeem the people of Israel. And therefore "I have placed My spirit upon him" - I bestowed upon him an abundance of a spirit of holiness, so that not only would he be influenced for himself but would also influence others, and this is what is written: "he shall bring forth justice to the nations." That is, he will bring forth justice to the entire world, he will judge the entire world and lead the entire world. So he has two virtues: one from the aspect of "My servant," meaning servitude, what he did to advance in the service of Hashem like the sons of the prophets, and there is an additional aspect of "My chosen one, in whom My soul delights" - I chose him because I created him from the outset with those very powers and qualities that would be a help and support for him for the task placed upon him.
"He shall not cry out, nor lift up, nor make his voice heard in the street." His prophecy, says the Holy One, blessed be He, to Yeshayahu, will be a prophecy different from all the prophets. We have seen that the prophet had to cry out, he had to frighten the people with punishments. He will not be so, he will not cry out. The prophet would employ parables and figures of speech in order to plant his words in the hearts of the listeners, he would speak in parables, drawing the matters close to their hearts. But he will not, he will not lift up his parable. A third matter: the prophet would raise his voice, meaning he had to gather the public so that the public would hear what he had to say. He will not be so, he will not make his voice heard in the street. He will not need to gather the public so that they would know what he has to say. This Mashiach will be different from all the prophets that came before now.
"A crushed reed he shall not break, and a dimming flax wick he shall not extinguish, he shall bring forth justice in truth." Many of the prophets established their words and upheld them by exacting punishment from the wicked. For example, Elisha caused the death of the children through the bears, forty-two children. Eliyahu slaughtered the prophets of the Baal. We see that there were situations in which it was necessary to carry out judgment against the wicked in order to exact retribution from them and in order to establish the force of prophecy so as to create influence upon the people. Now there were two types among these. There was one type of wicked people who were wicked through lusts, through bad character traits. These he compares to a crushed reed. They are a crushed reed, it has no more power of growth; a reed that has broken can grow no more. There were, in contrast, others whose intellect itself was their downfall. Their intellect caused them to begin inclining toward heresy, toward apostasy, and they abandoned the way of Hashem. Not out of lusts and bad character traits, but out of intellect, and this is far worse. That is, they went and created new ideologies about why one need not serve Hashem, or why one should specifically serve idolatry. This is the second part, this is "a dimming flax wick he shall not extinguish." The wick made of flax with which they would light the lamp. This is the aspect of a lamp, which is light, the light of the intellect that illuminates. And then he says that what happened was a dimming flax wick, whose light had already grown faint. How? Through the corrupt views of those people. These two types of wicked people the prophet will not put to death. The prophet will not judge them with the judgment as Elisha did who caused the death of the children, or as Eliyahu did who killed the prophets of the Baal. He tells you: a crushed reed he shall not break, and a dimming flax wick, whose light has grown faint because of corruption of the mind, he shall not extinguish, he will not extinguish that lamp's light, but on the contrary, he will bring them all back in teshuvah, "he shall bring forth justice in truth." Not by waging war against the wicked and striking them, but on the contrary, even though this reed is crushed he will not continue to break it but will strengthen it. And the flax wick is dim and the light of the intellect has grown faint and the lamp's light has grown faint, on the contrary he shall not extinguish it, "he shall bring forth justice in truth," he will bring forth the justice of truth in order to bring them back in teshuvah.
"He shall not grow dim nor be crushed until he establishes justice in the land, and for his teaching the islands shall wait." He gives us here further signs in order to recognize the true Mashiach. The Malbim says: we have already had, to our sorrow, several false messiahs, and foremost among them Shabtai Tzvi, may the name of the wicked rot, familiar to all. There were many others before him. There is a book called The False Messiahs Throughout the Generations, and it describes all those people who fell into the category of false messiahs. In the end there was a very great disappointment for the people of Israel from that Shabtai Tzvi. Nearly all the great sages of Israel followed after him and believed in him; there were only a few who recognized his falsehoods already in the early stages, among them Rav Sasportas, who went out and fought against him in a most bitter battle, and the damage they caused to the Jewish people was great and immense. He tells you: know that with the Mashiach it will not be so. "He shall not grow dim nor be crushed until he establishes justice in the land." "He shall not grow dim" means with respect to the soul and faith. "Nor be crushed" means from the expression of being crushed, broken. He will not be shattered, but rather his strength will remain with him throughout the entire path. That Mashiach about whom we spoke, Shabtai Tzvi, was shattered and grew dim. What happened to him? He converted his religion and in the end the king even killed him. What did you see? That this was a messiah at the beginning, but in the end he broke. There was another such reality of people who fell into the category of having a hope of a messiah coming from them, but to our sorrow we did not reach its fulfillment. One of them was Shimshon. When Yaakov saw him in his prophecy, he said: behold, this one is fit to be the messiah. But in the end he said, "For Your salvation I hope, Hashem." I hope only for the salvation of Hashem, meaning there will be no other salvation except only His salvation, blessed be He. He says that with the true Mashiach it will not be so, he will not be shattered nor will his light grow dim, but rather only "in the land he shall establish justice, and for his teaching the islands shall wait."
What is the difference between "he shall establish justice in the land" and "for his teaching the islands shall wait"? The Malbim explains: justice refers to the conduct between man and man. His teaching generally refers to the beliefs, the mitzvot, yes, what is permitted, what is forbidden, what one is obligated in, what one is exempt from. As we see, "according to the Torah that they will instruct you" - what is this? Between blood and blood. "According to the Torah that they will instruct you": impure blood, pure blood. Between one law and another, about this he says, "according to the judgment that they will tell you, you shall do." You see that judgment is between one law and another, a law that exists between two people. So here he tells us: "until he establishes justice in the land" refers to matters between man and his fellow, and "for his teaching the islands shall wait" refers to matters between man and God, that even the distant islands of the world will wait for the teaching of the Mashiach, to hear what the Mashiach has to say, what one must do, how the conduct should be. That is, his justice and his teaching will spread throughout the entire world. So now you understand pasuk 2, why "he shall not cry out, nor lift up, nor make his voice heard in the street"? He does not need all this. "For his teaching the islands shall wait," so he does not need to gather the people, he needs parables in order to succeed in gathering them, he does not need this, everyone will wait to hear the teaching of the Mashiach.
"Thus said the God, Hashem, who creates the heavens and stretches them out, who spreads out the earth and its produce, who gives a soul to the people upon it and a spirit to those who walk on it." Thus said Hashem, blessed be He, who is the Creator of the heavens. The Radak explains: how many times did it happen that there were people who would not accept the word of the prophet. And why? Because they believed that the world was not created but rather the world is eternal. And it is essentially a caused thing that has a cause. What does this mean? A caused thing that has a cause means it was created from a prior cause, and that prior cause also had a cause, and so on in this manner. Like a thing created from another thing. If, for example, I have a fruit here, then the fruit is a caused thing. A caused thing means it was created from a cause, created from a reason, an effect. What is its cause? Its cause is the tree. And the tree too is a caused thing. From what is the tree caused? From the seed. And from what is the seed caused? That is, what is its cause? What brought it about? What is its reason? It is the fruit. And where is the fruit from? And so on in this manner. That is, each of them is a stage that comes from a cause of something preceding it. Thus they believed that the world is eternal and comes from prior stages and causes. There are those who believed that the world came about by chance. The world is by chance, it has no creator and no cause but rather suddenly came into being. A big bang. There was a bang, something exploded there, and behold, suddenly we are here. Wonderful indeed. Now the prophet had to establish the truth against these conceptions, against these corrupt views. And therefore he would always return and emphasize this matter, that the Holy One, blessed be He, is the one who created the world, He is the one who innovated it, He is the one who brought the world from the state of nothingness to the state of existence in a single moment. Everything was done by His will. And therefore he said, "Thus said the God, Hashem, who creates the heavens." Do not think that the heavens existed from time immemorial, but rather the Holy One, blessed be He, created them and innovated them. "And stretches them out," He stretched them like a tent over the earth. "Who spreads out the earth and its produce" means the entire world was water, and it was necessary for the Holy One, blessed be He, to spread out the earth. To spread out is like taking a metal plate and hammering it until it becomes flattened, becomes thinned. The Holy One, blessed be He, spread out the earth, laid it out here, spread it out, like one flattens sheets of gold, and He made the earth as a place of habitation, "and its produce," through this the earth is able to bring forth produce. What is meant? To grow plants, to bring forth people, human beings, animals, and so on in this manner. Everything that exists in the world, all its produce, is from the aspect that Hashem spread out the earth. And without His spreading out the earth, everything would be sea, and then it would be impossible to exist here in the world.
"Who gives a soul to the people upon it and a spirit to those who walk on it." The Holy One, blessed be He, gave a soul to the people upon it. When was this? On the sixth day, when the Holy One, blessed be He, created man, He breathed into him a soul, as it is written, "and He breathed into his nostrils the soul of life." He then gave a soul to the people dwelling in the land, and He also created other living creatures, "and a spirit to those who walk on it." Note: regarding man he uses "soul," but animals have no soul, they have only a basic power of spirit which is the life force. And if so, one might ask, is it not written "all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life"? He says that there too, "soul" refers to man, and "spirit" refers to the other living creatures. "Soul" always expresses man. And if so, he says, "who gives a soul to the people upon it" and likewise "a spirit" to all the living creatures that exist upon it. In simple terms, says the Radak, this entire pasuk comes to reject the corrupt view of those who believed that the world is eternal or that the world was created by chance. He says: know that God creates the heavens, He stretched them out above, He spread out the earth below, all its produce is from Him, the soul that is in man is from Him, blessed be He, and likewise the spirit that living creatures have, the Holy One, blessed be He, bestowed upon them.
The Malbim explains: "Thus said the God, Hashem" - since the Holy One, blessed be He, is the one who created the heavens, as we explained, from the aspect of something from nothing. And also "who stretches them out," meaning as we explained, He stretched them over the earth, made them like a tent. And He is also "who spreads out the earth and its produce." What is the meaning of these matters? The Malbim says, based on what he explained in Sefer Bereishit, that the heavens and the earth are two opposing things. Two things that are seemingly utterly different. Heaven is a spiritual reality, earth is a physical reality. The heavens exist forever, whereas those who dwell on the earth continually change. A generation goes and a generation comes. Now, from the craftsmanship of the artisan, says the Malbim: when the artisan creates two opposing things, and the observer might doubt, perhaps the one who made this did not make that, for behold I see that this is made in this way and the other is made entirely of different materials. So it seems very likely that one made this and another made that. For example, an artisan who works in metal, and suddenly I see some very special work in glass. Presumably he has no expertise in glass, he is known as a metal artisan. And the other is known as a glass artisan. What does this artisan do to make his craftsmanship known? He creates a special vessel composed of metal and glass. A most wondrous combination, something upon which without any doubt are the artisan's fingerprints, and everyone sees, ah, so that metalwork we saw is his, and that glasswork we saw is also his. How do you know? Behold, see this composite thing that is both metal and glass mixed together and joined with wondrous craftsmanship. The Holy One, blessed be He, created the physical world. A person might doubt: true, the physical world was created by Him, but who says the spiritual world was? The Holy One, blessed be He, created the spiritual world. A person might doubt: true, the spiritual world was created by Him, but the physical is entirely different from the spiritual reality. What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He created a reality of something composed of the spiritual and the physical. And who is that? It is in fact man. Man has within him the physical body, material like an animal. The Gemara says that in several matters man is like an animal and in several matters he is like the ministering angels. Man sleeps like an animal, eats like an animal, relieves himself like an animal, and in several other matters man is like an animal. This shows that everything created here in the physical world is from Him, blessed be He. And the Holy One, blessed be He, breathed into his nostrils the soul of life, which is a proof: behold, see that spirituality too is from Him, blessed be He. Since this thing, man, is composed also of spirituality which is a portion of God from above, a supreme unlimited spiritual power, which is the soul of man, this is the seal of the Holy One, blessed be He: behold, see, I made everything, both the physical and the spiritual. This matter seems simple to us, but we should know that in ancient times they divided the world into deities, into powers. Whoever knows about the Greek pantheon and others, there they attribute matters to deities, there is a god of the sea and a god of the land and a god of war and a god of love and so on. They believed in many powers. So it was natural for them to believe that one god created the physical reality and another god created the spiritual reality. The Holy One, blessed be He, created a composite reality in order to prove: behold, the Creator of everything is from Him, blessed be He. And this is what he says: the Holy One, blessed be He, creates the heavens, the heavens being the spiritual part, and the Holy One, blessed be He, spreads out the earth, the earth being the physical part. And lest you think that these are two separate powers, how does the pasuk immediately conclude? "Who gives a soul to the people upon it and a spirit to those who walk on it." In order to prove that everything is from Him, blessed be He, Hashem gave a soul to the people upon it, joined the soul with the body, and through this everyone can know and recognize that everything is from Him, blessed be He.
And then, if you understand these things, that the Holy One, blessed be He, will establish for them a Mashiach. If the Holy One, blessed be He, created the reality of man in the world, you will understand that the Holy One, blessed be He, will also bring about for this man a reality of redemption that will bring him out of that reality of exile, since this is not really the purpose; exile is not the purpose. The purpose is to reach redemption, that the glory of Hashem be revealed in the world. Only, the Holy One, blessed be He, wants man to labor in order to merit eternal life, for otherwise man would have "bread of shame," and therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, gave temporarily a reality of toil here in the world. But there will come a stage in which the curtain will fall and here the Holy One, blessed be He, will announce: game over, the game is finished, the Mashiach will come, and whatever man has achieved is what he will have. However much a person toiled and labored is what he will have, and whatever he did not do, we are finished, he can no longer do more. And this is what he says: since the Holy One, blessed be He, created everything and everything came in fact for a certain purpose and goal, then know that the Holy One, blessed be He, will also send the redemption and will send the Mashiach. And therefore, "I, Hashem, have called you in righteousness and will hold your hand and will keep you and will make you a covenant of the people, a light unto the nations."
About whom is he speaking here? "I, Hashem, have called you in righteousness" - whom? "Will hold your hand, will keep you, will make you a covenant of the people, a light unto the nations" - about whom is he speaking here? There are three interpretations here. The Radak explains that here the address is to the people of Israel. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: I who did all this, as we said, the earth and the heavens and man, rely on Me that I can also bring you out of the exile. "I have called you in righteousness" - when the time comes, according to righteousness and law to bring you out of the exile, I have called you in righteousness. "And will hold your hand," I will hold your hand in order to bring you out of the exile. What might you say, but the nations will not agree at all? "And will keep you," I will guard you so that the nations will not harm you. "And will make you a covenant of the people" means you will be the sustenance of all the nations. For from one end of the world to the other the nations will say that the entire world is sustained only through the merit of the people of Israel. This is the conclusion that in the end they will reach, "and will make you a covenant of the people." "A light unto the nations," you will be the aspect of a light unto the nations. What is the meaning of a light unto the nations? Two things. From one aspect, the people of Israel will reprove many nations, so you will be the light for them. And this, incidentally, is the source for the concept of a light unto the nations. For in fact the goal was that the people of Israel would be in the aspect of a light unto the nations, that they would be the ones everyone would see, would follow their ways, would be drawn after their paths. The people of Israel were supposed to be in the aspect of a lighthouse that would illuminate the way and the path for all the nations. But we see that in the end it was not so. To our sorrow, the people of Israel, instead of being a light unto the nations, were even like the lowliest of the nations, and this is much of the reproof with which the prophets reprove the people of Israel, that they behaved in matters that even among the nations they would not do, and to our sorrow the people of Israel did them. So against this there was reproof. But when the Mashiach comes, then when He redeems you a complete redemption, you will be a light unto the nations. The Radak says: first, from the aspect that we will reprove the nations, and second, through us and what they will see of us they will begin to keep the seven Noahide mitzvot, for the nations are not required to convert; they will begin to keep the seven Noahide mitzvot, and then it turns out that in our deeds there was an aspect of a light unto the nations.
The Metzudat David explains that here they are speaking about the Mashiach. They are speaking here about the Mashiach, and he says: "I, Hashem, have called you in righteousness and will hold your hand and will keep you and will make you a covenant of the people." "I have called you in righteousness" - I have already, from long ago, announced through My servants the prophets that there would be a Mashiach, so "I have called you," like I have already called for you from the outset, I have already spoken about you, and this is in righteousness, behold this is truth and righteousness, the matter will be fulfilled. "And will hold your hand," that you will prevail over all the nations. I will guard you against the nations that will not want to accept you. "And will make you a covenant of the people," I will give you the power to cause the people to incline and turn to the service of Hashem. "Will make you a covenant of the people," you will bring the people back to the covenant, this is the meaning. The people of Israel have a covenant with the Holy One, blessed be He: "This is My covenant with them," said Hashem. There is a covenant with Hashem, blessed be He. You will bring the people to uphold this covenant. What does this covenant say? That we keep the mitzvot of Hashem and the Holy One, blessed be He, protects and saves us. He guards us so that we are never destroyed; this is the covenant. The Holy One, blessed be He, has upheld His covenant to this day, but we, to our sorrow, have many times strayed from the way. So the Mashiach will come, and you, with the help of Hashem, will through this be a covenant of the people, you will turn the people of Israel back to that old covenant with the Holy One, blessed be He. And you will also be a light unto the nations, a light unto the nations, you will illuminate the eyes of the nations to know that Hashem is God. So this is already a second interpretation. According to the Radak they speak about Israel, according to the Metzudat David "I, Hashem, have called you" refers to the Mashiach.
The Malbim, in contrast, explains that here they are speaking about Yeshayahu himself. The Holy One, blessed be He, here addresses Yeshayahu personally and says to him: "I, Hashem, have called you in righteousness." I, Hashem, as it were, like a person who calls to his fellow from afar - calling is always from afar. I have called you from afar so that you would come and be the prophet, be the one who announces to the people the truth and the righteousness. And afterward the Holy One, blessed be He, says "and will hold your hand," meaning I have given you the power to lead this people. And afterward, when He called him from afar, He brought him home like one who manages the house, and after this, within the house, I guard you from harm, this is the third part, "and will keep you." What is the analogue? The analogue is "I have called you" - behold you see, you, Yeshayahu, by your nature were prepared, as we explained above, for Hashem said "My chosen one, in whom My soul delights," I prepared him naturally fit for prophecy, as capable of prophecy, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you." "And will hold your hand," this is what the Holy One, blessed be He, helped him and assisted him to attain prophecy. Meaning he exerted himself on his own part and the Holy One, blessed be He, held his hand. And this corresponds to what was said above, "Behold My servant." "Behold My servant" means that you on your own part were in the aspect of a servant, you served Hashem and then you merited. And these are the two things that are needed. On one hand, that a person on his own part exerts himself, and on the other hand, it is also necessary that he have the natural preparation. But do not err: if I have the natural preparation, then I can rest. No, there is no such thing; if you do not exert yourself, you will not merit what your natural preparation makes possible for you. This is like a person for whom it was decreed, this is like a person who prayed to the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the world, grant me wealth, Master of the world, I want to win the lottery, Master of the world, I want to win the lottery. Thus he badgered for a very, very long time. The angels came and said: Master of the world, this person prays so much, come, do something. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: no problem, only let him buy a ticket. It is decreed upon you that you will win, but what will you do without a ticket? The Holy One, blessed be He, says: I created you potentially as one fit for prophecy, but were you not My servant? Were it not that you exerted yourself to receive it, it would not help you that you have the preparation if you did not exert yourself at all. And therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, says: I will help you, I am in the category of help, but you must begin. And this is the meaning of "and will hold your hand." "Will hold your hand" - you act and I grasp your hand for you, I hold your hand for you, but you need to rise, you also need to act. And this is "and will hold your hand." And I will also guard you so that there will be no stumbling under your hand, for who can discern errors? And therefore he says "and will keep you," you will have no stumbling blocks. "And will make you a covenant of the people," this is the people of Israel with whom I made a covenant, you will be the means through which the covenant will be upheld, for you bring the people of Israel close to their Father in Heaven. And afterward "a light unto the nations," you will illuminate the faith, that even the nations will recognize that there is a Creator of the world, even the nations will recognize that there is none besides Him, even the nations will recognize that the people of Israel are the chosen people and to them it is fitting to cleave.
"To open blind eyes, to bring out the prisoner from confinement, from the prison house those who dwell in darkness." "To open blind eyes" - according to how the Malbim explained, Yeshayahu was destined to transmit the light also to the nations. And incidentally we see many prophecies that were said also to the nations. The oracle of Edom, the oracle of Bavel, there were prophecies said also to the nations. Now this reality of prophecy to the nations was destined so that they too would recognize the light of Hashem. Now, does the light of Hashem exist, or does Yeshayahu create it through his words? Certainly it exists. So it turns out that the nations who until now did not see it, what were they? Blind. For the light exists, and if the light exists and you did not see it, that is a sign that you are blind. And this is what he continues, "to open blind eyes," since the light of Hashem exists, only the nations did not see it until now, so what you were sent to do is simply to open blind eyes, he will open their eyes and they will be able to see the light of Hashem. And corresponding to the people of Israel who are in exile, and you were destined to convey to them prophecies in order to strengthen them, "to bring out the prisoner from confinement." "The prisoner from confinement" refers to the people of Israel who are in exile. Now there are two kinds of exiles. In fact there are two parts of the people of Israel who went into exile. There is the tribe of Yehudah and Binyamin who were scattered to the four winds of heaven, and in fact all of us are of the people of the tribes of Yehudah and Binyamin, since the ten tribes, the remaining ten tribes, disappeared, they were exiled to Chalach, Chavor, and the river of Gozan. We know the places, we do not know exactly where they are there, we do not know who they are there, every so often someone is brought to us with some mitzvah, a remnant of some mitzvah of tzitzit, one walks around with threads on his garments, and they tell you: behold, this is a descendant of Jews. Maybe yes, maybe no. There are those who say that Al-Qaeda somewhat resemble Jews with their beards and hats. Whatever the case, it is clear to us that they are in such a reality that we no longer see them and do not recognize them. So he says there are two kinds there. Those who were scattered to the four winds of heaven, Yehudah and Binyamin, these are the ones who were exiled last, from whom in fact all the known Jews in the world are, they are called "prisoners." They are imprisoned in several places, like enclosed in several places.
The Malbim says: know that in the holy tongue there is a difference between "asir" (prisoner) and "one who dwells in prison." The Malbim says: one who dwells in prison is only confined and cannot leave, but he is not bound, he is not tied up. As it is written, "and their children they confined in the house," from the sheepfolds. In contrast, if within the prison they also bound him, what is he called? Asur, asir. "Asir" from the expression of being bound. Whoever knows the story of the one who once boarded a train with a dog and asks the conductor, is it permitted to board the train with a dog? So he told him: bound is permitted, loose is forbidden. Do you understand? If it is bound, if it is tied up, then it is permitted. But if it is loose, if you untied its bonds, then it is forbidden. Bound is permitted, loose is forbidden. A play on words. So here too "asur" is from the expression of being bound. So he says: a person whom they placed in prison and also bound, they fear he will escape, who knows what tricks he will find to escape, so they also bound him in chains, he is called "asur" (bound). Therefore it is written, "and he bound him in the prison house." That is, he was not content to place him in the prison house, he also bound him. And this is what he says here, "to bring out the prisoner from confinement," the prisoner, as we explained, is the bound one, and he is enclosed with the bindings. Who is this? It is the two and a half tribes, Yehudah and Binyamin, whom one must bring out from confinement, for they are like bound in the places of their scattering. One knows where they are, but they are bound there. Like behind the Iron Curtain for decades, who were in the aspect of bound in the literal sense, that it was impossible to bring them out. In contrast, there are those who are confined, dwellers in darkness, they are not bound there, they are not tied up there, but they are in darkness. Go bring them out - do you know where they are? It is a dark place, I cannot see. So they too, it is impossible to see where those ten tribes are, and because of this it is also impossible to redeem them from the reality in which they are.
"I am Hashem, that is My name, and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to graven images." "I am Hashem" - the Malbim says: "I am Hashem," I Myself, from the aspect of My essence, since when we speak of the Y-H-V-H name we speak of His essence, blessed be He, of the name that is in the aspect of concealed from all comprehension, concealed also with respect to its pronunciation, for we do not at all know how to pronounce the Y-H-V-H name, and there is also an absolute prohibition to pronounce this name with its letters, therefore we say it with a kuf and not with a heh, Y-K-V-K, for it is forbidden to pronounce the name with its letters. The Holy One, blessed be He, who is necessary of existence by His very essence, was and is and will be, the letters of existence. Y-K-V-K, was, is, and will be, that is, He does not depend on anything else. Depending on another - if we return to the fruit and the seed, then the seed depends on another; on what does it depend? On the existence of a fruit. And the fruit too depends on another, on the existence of a tree. And the tree too did not create itself, it depends on another, on the fact that a seed was planted here, and so on in this manner. The Holy One, blessed be He, when I say "I am Hashem" means He exists and brings into existence all of reality and does not depend on any other. "I am Hashem, Y-K-V-K." "And I am Hashem, that is My name," "that is My name" means I am recognized by all My creatures through the actions that I perform, that I bring into existence and originate and oversee them all. And therefore "My glory I will not give to another."
The philosophers, says the Malbim, discerned that there is a reality of Hashem and that the Holy One, blessed be He, is necessary of existence and is in the aspect of the Infinite; only, they said that the Holy One, blessed be He, has no desire and will and change of knowledge applicable to Him. As they believed in all kinds of wisdoms of what is called among them metaphysics. The Malbim defines this as the wisdom of what is beyond nature. "What is beyond nature" means things that are supernatural, above the natural reality, what is called metaphysics. Through this they denied the innovation of the world by the will of Hashem, for they said Hashem has no will. Hashem created the world but did not innovate it at some stage; rather the world is eternal. That is, there is no change of will with Hashem, blessed be He - thus the philosophers believed. And if so, the glory of Hashem, what is its meaning? That the Holy One, blessed be He, now desires something and that thing comes to be, that something new is innovated here by His will, blessed be He - from this aspect there is the glory of Hashem forever. In what is His glory expressed? That the Holy One, blessed be He, said "let there be," the Holy One, blessed be He, desired something and that thing was brought into actuality. The Holy One, blessed be He, says "and My glory I will not give to another," that is, to claim and say that the Holy One, blessed be He, created everything, and indeed everything is from Him, blessed be He, but not according to His will, but rather as it were everything stems from cause and effect - he says this is certainly not applicable, "and My glory I will not give to another," but rather know that everything was created by Hashem by a will that began at a certain moment and arose in the will of the Emanator to create the world. And this is the ABC of the wisdom that speaks about the creation of the world, the wisdom of Kabbalah that speaks about how, the moment it arose in the will of the Emanator, the Holy One, blessed be He, contracted His light and created a thin line and so on, as we once discussed at length, which is the reality of the Holy One, blessed be He, creating the world.
In contrast, there were nations who acknowledged that the Holy One, blessed be He, truly innovated the world by His will, but that Hashem is physical. They believed that the Holy One, blessed be He, is a physical reality, they attributed to Him physical descriptions, and from this they came to the service of idolatry. For if Hashem is physical, then one can also err in other things, in graven images and all kinds of other physical things. And about this the Holy One, blessed be He, says "nor My praise to graven images." "I am Hashem, that is My name, My glory I will not give to another," and likewise "nor will I give My praise to graven images." The meaning is: I have will, and also, lest you err that I am a physical reality, rather know that I am a spiritual reality.
A spiritual reality distinct from all physical reality is Hashem, blessed be He, and if so, "My praise is not to graven images." I am not like one of the graven images which are physical things that they would worship, but rather it means the essential will of the Creator, blessed be He, which is a thing distinct from all matter and which the graspers of thought cannot grasp, and we have no thought or conception of it at all, a thing that all spiritual reality that we know becomes physical in comparison to the reality of the Creator.
"The former things, behold they have come, and new things I declare, before they sprout forth I let you hear them." What are those former things that have already come, and the new things that the Holy One, blessed be He, now declares? "The former things, behold they have come" - Rashi says: what I promised to Avraham about the exile of Egypt, and I said to him, "and also the nation whom they will serve I will judge," this is "the former things, behold they have come." You see, I kept My promise, the people of Israel went into exile and the Holy One, blessed be He, judged the nation that punished us, the nation that oppressed us. "And now the new things I declare," meaning about a second exile. "Before they sprout forth I let you hear them."
The Radak explains that this does not refer back to the prophecy of Egypt; it refers back to the earlier prophecies that I prophesied about Sancheriv. Behold, see, in the days of Yeshayahu the prophet, this has already come, you have already seen; I prophesied that Sancheriv would come to besiege Yerushalayim, and Sancheriv came, and I prophesied that he would fall, and Sancheriv fell. "The former things, behold they have come." "And new things I declare," I now announce to you about new prophecies that you have not heard, and I announce them to you even before they come. Who says this will happen? Just as the former things have come, you saw that you are speaking with someone who is a possessor of power, He has the power to announce and the power to fulfill; so too know that the future prophecies that say Hashem will bring the people of Israel out of the exile, that He will redeem them an eternal redemption, this too will come with complete certainty. If the former things have come, why should we doubt regarding the future ones?
What is the expression "they sprout forth"? The Radak explains that it is from the expression "I will cause a horn to sprout for the house of Israel," "I will cause David My servant to sprout," meaning to innovate a thing and cause it to sprout anew; this is called "they sprout forth."
The Malbim explains: a person who announces something that is going to be, we will not believe him for one of two reasons. Either he is experienced, that until now he made promises, we saw that everything he said, he announced future things, everything he said came to pass. Or that what he tells us now has already begun now and he announces what will be in the end. He tells us how the story will conclude. About this he tells us "the former things, behold they have come." That is, it arises beforehand, what will we not accept? We will not accept a person who wants to tell me about something that will be in another fifty years. Here, what is your experience? Did you tell of things and they came to pass? No. This story has not even begun yet, so I have no basis at all to believe you. But if you have one of two virtues, either you announce to me about something that will indeed be in another fifty years, but you have a track record, that until now everything you announced many years earlier came exactly to pass. Then I am certain that what you say now is correct. Or that what you say has already begun to come now, so here I have a basis to believe you, for, well, any moment now we will see how it concludes; will it conclude as you say or will it conclude in another way?
In this too I have a reason to believe you. And this is what he says: "the former things, behold they have come." Behold you already have experience with Me, that I announced things and they were fulfilled, I announced them in advance, a long time before, and they were fulfilled. Second, he tells you: "and new things I declare." Since I have the virtue of "the former things, behold they have come," I do not need the second virtue of saying something that has already begun. I do not need that. I have a greater virtue: I already have experience in the past, and I announced things even before they came and they came. So if so, such a person no longer needs to stand for testing. So he can also tell me new things that have not even begun, and I will believe him. For you see that he has experience: in the past he announced things that had not yet begun, and they happened. So here too, I do not need this to begin with something in order to see that what he says is correct. "And new things I declare." He can tell me here entirely new things that will happen in so and so many years, and I will believe him with complete faith. This is what the Holy One, blessed be He, says: you already have experience with Me, for "the former things, behold they have come," so consequently I can also declare new things and you will accept them.