What is difficult here is something we already saw in Nefesh HaChaim. Nefesh HaChaim is a disc that came out this week, with God's help. In Nefesh HaChaim we saw that this pasuk is very puzzling. I will read its wording and explain the difficulty in the pasuk. This is a gloss in Nefesh HaChaim, and the gloss is by Rabbi Yitzchak of Volozhin. Nefesh HaChaim, Gate 2, Chapter 7. 'And with this we can understand the saying of our Sages: all mockery is forbidden except for mockery of idolatry, which is permitted, as it is written, Bel has bowed, Nevo stoops, they could not deliver the burden.' Now, on the face of it, according to this, the end of that matter there is very perplexing, for it concludes 'and I will bear and I will deliver.' And I have stumbled upon this. That is to say, we explained at the outset that idolatry is... they could not deliver the burden, they could not expel the excrement in their innards like others who relieve themselves properly. In short, the idol suffers from constipation. That is the idol, correct? That is how he mocked it. All mockery is forbidden except that of idolatry, and this is mockery of the idol. If so, I... 'And to old age I am He, and until gray hairs I will bear, I made and I will carry, I will bear and I will deliver.' Do you understand the difficulty here? The idol cannot deliver a burden, and I do deliver. How can such a thing be said about the Master of the Universe? What does a burden even have to do with the Master of the Universe? According to... let us follow that same line. All the commentators, from what we just explained, took a different line. They said no, 'I will deliver' means from troubles, I will deliver Israel. They took a different line from what Rashi explained at the beginning, that the intent of 'deliver' is to deliver the excrement in their innards. And if we go according to the first line, that 'they could not deliver the burden' means the idol cannot deliver the excrement in its innards, then how, God forbid, do we explain the continuation of the pasuk? The Holy One, blessed be He, says I will bear and likewise deliver. What? The excrement from My innards, God forbid? How can this pasuk be understood? 'And I have stumbled upon this,' so writes Rabbi Yitzchak of Volozhin. 'And according to these words of ours it is clear to the discerning.' As he wrote earlier, that everything we speak about Him, may He be blessed, is all only from the aspect of His connection, may He be blessed, to the worlds, which are all arranged as one, resembling the form of a man, as it were. And all the limbs and matters within him literally. And every deed of a Jewish person is nourishment for the body. And the deeds that are not good are those that turn within them into filth and defilement, and they are the forces of impurity. I will state the introduction to these matters, and afterward we will see how he explains based on this. There he explains at length the matter of 'in the image of God He made man.' And in essence, man's image, the form in which man is built, is the form of the Supernal Man. The Supernal Man means the form of the arrangement of the Sefirot. As we mention in 'Patach Eliyahu,' that in essence above there are the mochin, which is the aspect of the head, that is Keter, Chochmah, Binah. Afterward Chesed is the right arm, like a right arm. Gevurah is the left arm. Tiferet is the body. Yesod is the aspect of the foundation. And afterward right and left are Netzach and Hod. Netzach is right, Hod is left, that is the aspect of the lower Sefirot, the two thighs, the two legs. It turns out that the arrangement of the Sefirot in the supernal worlds is an arrangement resembling a man. Only it is forbidden to imagine and depict and think of the form of a man, for that is, God forbid, not... you saw no image. That is forbidden, that is... that is outright corporealizing the Divine, God forbid. But this is opposite that. The Ben Ish Chai has a special intention, whoever looks at the beginning of the year, it appears there at the start, that a person has free time either before prayer or in all sorts of examples, that he should consider himself a chariot for the Shechinah. He should close his eyes and contemplate how, as it were, his head is the aspect of Keter, Chochmah on the right, Binah on the left. And afterward his right arm is the aspect of Chesed, and his left arm the aspect of the Sefirah of Gevurah. He is, as it were, like a chariot for the Shechinah, for God made this opposite that. And when a person increases in Chesed, he builds, as it were, the right side of the supernal worlds, adding to them abundance, nourishment and vitality. And when he, God forbid, does the opposite, he adds damage and harm to the supernal worlds. For God made this opposite that.
And this is what he says, the deeds that are not good turn within them, within what? Within the supernal Sefirot, into filth and defilement, and they are the forces of impurity. This is what the verse says, that the idol cannot restrain and bear, deliver and properly expel the burden of filth that defiles it. Rather 'its belly and its knee bowed together,' meaning they have no independent power to be able to drive out and expel the filth from themselves. The idol is a force of impurity, the sitra achra, it cannot purify itself, it cannot expel from itself the force of impurity and filth within it. Not so He, may His Name be blessed, awesome in deed, for He holds judgment in His hand, and does not hasten to send out, God forbid, all at once all the forces of judgment and the kelipot, which are the defilement and filth that were made in the corresponding worlds aligned with the digestive organs in man. For they would destroy, God forbid, the entire world. Rather He carries them and bears them, as it were, and delivers them from the worlds properly, little by little, to enact judgment in the world through afflictions little by little over the course of time. Like the matter of the verse, 'Only you have I known, therefore I will visit upon you all your iniquities.'
He says something very wonderful. In essence, man's corruption, as we said, man's parallel is to the supernal worlds. It turns out then that just as a person who ate something spoiled, what happens to him? An upset stomach. Likewise you can cause an upset stomach in the supernal worlds. Only note, he emphasized something earlier, that everything we speak of Him, may He be blessed, is from the aspect of His connection, may He be blessed, to the worlds, and not about His essence at all. His essence, may He be blessed, there is no permission to speak of it, that is the Holy One, blessed be He, who is outside the circle, outside the tzimtzum, that is the Ein Sof, no thought grasps Him at all, He has neither benefit nor harm nor... it is impossible to speak of Him, He also has no name. Of that we do not speak at all. We speak of the Holy One, blessed be He, of the Sefirot He created in the worlds.
The Sefirot He created in the worlds, when you commit a transgression, you, as it were, give nourishment and vitality to the Sefirot. The nourishment and vitality are the mitzvot you do. When you commit a transgression, you give spoiled nourishment to the Sefirot. And what happens to a person who eats spoiled food? He gets an upset stomach. When the Sefirot receive spoiled nourishment, meaning transgressions, an upset stomach is created in the supernal Sefirot. The corruption is defilement, it is filth that was created there in the supernal worlds. This filth must be expelled. This filth must be removed from the supernal Sefirot that were damaged from those worlds in which harm and corruption were caused.
How is this filth expelled? This filth is not expelled all at once, but little by little. And why? If it were all at once, the Holy One, blessed be He, expelling all those forces of impurity, as it were, from the holy Sefirot, these forces of impurity are harmful. These harmful ones would arrive in the world and in a single moment destroy the entire world. What does the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He removes those forces of impurity little by little. And then how, by what force are they removed? It is written that it is through afflictions that Israel receives. Through this, for when a person committed a transgression he created a destroyer. This destroyer wants to exact payment from him. What does the Holy One, blessed be He, do? If He were to release all these illuminations at once, then in a single moment the person is finished. What does the Holy One, blessed be He, do? Instead of throwing bricks, He throws gravel. He releases little by little, and then the person has afflictions he can withstand, and slowly these destroyers gradually diminish, on the condition that he does not continue creating new ones, right? These destroyers gradually diminish.
The Holy One, blessed be He, says, I will bear and I will deliver. What is 'I will bear'? I, as we say in the Thirteen Attributes, bear iniquity and transgression. You learned this here in Tomer Devorah. The Holy One, blessed be He, bears the iniquity. Why does He bear it? He bears the destroyer you created until you repent. For if He were to release it immediately, then the person would not... he would have no chance to repent, the destroyer would immediately exact payment from him. The Holy One, blessed be He, bears the iniquity until the person repents, and then slowly exacts payment from him through afflictions, and through this that destroyer diminishes and perishes. It turns out then that with the Holy One, blessed be He, there is the virtue of I will bear and I will deliver. The Holy One, blessed be He, says, I will bear, what does 'I will bear' mean? I bear and carry this destroyer, until at the end of the process I will also deliver. Slowly I will deliver those forces of impurity from the supernal Sefirot, so that those forces of impurity are completely finished, and through this the supernal worlds are cleansed in complete cleanliness. And this is what he says, rather He carries them and bears them, as it were, and delivers them from the worlds properly little by little, to enact judgment in the world through afflictions little by little over the course of time.
Like the matter of the verse, only you have I known of all the peoples, what is the continuation? Therefore I will visit upon you. Ah, that is a contradiction. How can it be? It is a contradiction, you say, it implies, the Holy One, blessed be He, says only you do I know, therefore I distribute slaps to you. 'Therefore I will visit upon you'? Because only you do I know, only you have I known? He would rather give... the gentile, God, as it were, does not exact payment from him. For in any case he has nothing above. For in any case Gehinnom awaits him there for all the transgressions he did. So with the gentile there is not this matter of 'therefore I will visit upon you.' But the Jew, God wants him to arrive purified in the supernal worlds, he has eternity. What does the Holy One, blessed be He, do? Therefore I will visit upon you. Therefore here in this world, slowly the Holy One, blessed be He, delivers the forces of the sitra achra and impurity that clung within the supernal worlds, and through this saves the people of Israel from those forces of impurity, so that, God forbid, they will not dominate them in the supernal worlds. Therefore I will visit upon you all your iniquities.
As is well known, the saying of our Sages on this, that in the fullness of days the filth of defilement, which are the forces of impurity, will be emptied out from the worlds entirely. Until it is completed... yes, until the receiving of a person's punishment is completed. As we wrote inside, that after the completion of receiving punishment, they perish of themselves. And then the worlds return to their strength, to their health and to their original repair. And understand this. So this is what is written here, I will bear and I will deliver, and not like the idol which is unable to deliver the excrement, the dung, unable to deliver from within itself.
To whom will you liken Me and equate Me, and compare Me that we should be alike. To whom will you liken Me and equate Me. The meaning is, to which force, to which idol do you, as it were, think to liken the Master of the Universe? To whom will you liken Me and equate Me? For it is impossible to liken the Holy One, blessed be He, to anything, all the more so not to an idol made of silver and gold, as he will mention in the previous pasuk... already in the coming pasuk.
The Malbim explains, what is 'liken Me,' 'equate Me,' 'compare Me.' Did you notice, there are three expressions here whose meaning is to liken and equate one thing to another. And as is well known, this is a broad field for the Malbim to explain to us a chapter in the holy tongue. The Malbim says, there are three levels. Let us begin from the highest to the lowest. That which is completely identical is called equal. That is called equating, complete equivalence. Less than that is likeness. There is a likeness between them. They are not equal, but there is a likeness between them. Less than that is a comparison. A comparison is even less than a likeness. And let us explain these matters.
Likeness, as we said, is in some part of the thing. To whom will you liken Me? The Holy One, blessed be He, says to them, can you find some quality that has any likeness between Me and the idol? And if you find some likeness, can you equate it? To whom will you liken Me? What likeness is there? And not just some likeness, if you say here there is something similar, possessing power, I don't know, you find some likeness. And equate Me? Can it truly be that it could be equal to Me? says the Holy One, blessed be He. And compare Me that we should be alike. He says, not only is it impossible for something to be likened to the Master of the Universe, but even the aspect of a comparison. For we said equivalence, likeness, comparison. Comparison is the lowest. A comparison is, I can bring a fox as a comparison regarding the service of God. Fox fables. A comparison is far from a likeness, it is to some degree, there is some closeness, that is a comparison. A comparison never has any... it is not... it does not speak of the same thing at all, it speaks of something else and uses it to illustrate something else. Which, as we said, is truly far. He says, can the Holy One, blessed be He, even be compared to something so that we should be alike? Is there any likeness at all by comparing the Holy One, blessed be He, to something? He says, no comparison, likeness or equating applies at all between an idol and God, may He be blessed. And certainly one cannot call an idol a comparison for the Holy One, blessed be He. What we said, that there is a likeness in the image of God within man, to the Holy One, blessed be He, to the Sefirot. But between an idol and the Holy One, blessed be He, there is no likeness, no comparison, and nothing at all.
Those who pour out gold from a purse, and weigh silver on the scale, they hire a goldsmith and he makes it into a god, they prostrate, they even bow down. Those who pour out gold from a purse. What is 'pour out'? Rashi brings one explanation from the language of 'water flows from his buckets,' meaning, as people express today, he pours out much gold from his purse. That is the basis of this pasuk. There is an explanation of the Radak, those who pour out gold from a purse, the meaning is he spends the gold cheaply, as it were, a person who freely pours out money from his purse, then people say the money is, as it were, cheap to him. It has no value to him, he spends it freely. So 'pour out' here, according to the Radak's explanation, is not from the language of 'flow,' liquid, but from the language of 'cheap.' He spends so much, so the gold is cheap to him. When he goes to make an idol, then the gold is truly cheap to him, he makes no accounting.
The Malbim says, those who pour out gold from a purse. The Malbim says, they make idols. And how do they compare their idols to God, that the Holy One, blessed be He, is all-powerful? Now note, the Malbim says, the clauses of the verse are parallel. Meaning that if there are four statements in the pasuk, statement one corresponds to statement three, and statement two corresponds to statement four. Note. Those who pour out gold from a purse, they hire a goldsmith and he makes it into a god. And weigh silver on the scale, they prostrate, they even bow down. And let us now explain how, according to the Malbim, the pasuk is understood.
Those who pour out gold from a purse, they hire a goldsmith. And to hire a goldsmith you need to pay from the purse in gold coins. Coins that are in circulation, placed in a wallet. Those who pour out gold from a purse, for what purpose? They hire a goldsmith. In order to pay the goldsmith for his work, he receives currency valid for commerce. The making of the idol itself, the Malbim says, was done from silver. And this is what he says, and weigh silver on the scale. 'Kaneh' is the beam of the scales. The scales work by means of a beam. And silver, they weigh on the beam, why? And he makes it into a god. In order to make the god, by means of the silver they make the god. From the power of the silver, from the silver itself he builds the deity. From this 'and he makes it into a god.' From what? From the silver they weigh on the scale. The god is made... the god is made of silver.
They prostrate, they even bow down. What is the difference between prostrating and bowing down? This the Malbim already explained to us in the past. Prostrating, they would prostrate to the idol not for the sake of deity, not because I accept it as a deity, but as a segulah. This means, they had them like talismans through which they would draw down abundance from the supernal stars, so according to their conception, the star and constellation worshippers. And when he served, let us give an example, when Lavan served the terafim. He did not bow to the terafim as a deity. You are my god. Not in that sense. It may be that perhaps with Lavan it was indeed like that, but in certain types of idolatry, these were forces through which they would receive ministering angels from the supernal worlds, they would draw down abundance from the stars and constellations. So it turns out then that the prostration to it is more like a segulah, as a manner of service in order to receive the abundance, but not in order to accept it as a deity. In contrast, bowing down is always bowing down to a deity. You are my god, and as my god I bow down to you. So he says, they prostrate as a manner of receiving abundance, and not only that, but they even bow down. They would still go and bow down to that god, which he hired a goldsmith to make for him, from silver that he gave the goldsmith so that from it he would make that god, and even afterward he prostrates to it and bows down to it. This thing that you saw is the handiwork of the goldsmith, it is not some supernal god who formed you and created you. So do you consider it a deity?
They carry it on the shoulder, they bear it, and they set it in its place and it stands. From its place it does not move, one even cries out to it and it does not answer, from his trouble it does not save him. He continues and speaks about the futility of those idol worshippers. They carry it on the shoulder, they bear it. The god is supposed to carry you, and instead you carry it on your shoulders. Well, perhaps we will say but in any case it still has independent power. They set it in its place and it stands. For a god is powerful. What kind of powerful being is this that cannot move? They set it in its place, it stands. That's it, it does not move. Here it stands. It does not move. How can there be such a god that stands in its place? More than that he says, from its place it does not move. Well, there is one who stands, but as we say, moves in the same place, capable of a little right and left, forward and backward, has some local movement. It does not walk, fine, the god will not run away from you, don't worry. But here perhaps we will say it makes some movements, some vibrations. He says even that not. From its place it does not move. It has no sensation and no movement, it does not even stir, 'stir' is even a slight movement. And another thing, what will you say? Perhaps in any case, listen, correct, you are right, it does not walk, it does not move, but look, it works. I make requests, it grants them. It acts. To this he continues and says, behold you will see that this god, one even cries out to it and it does not answer. However much you cry out to it, it will not answer, the god does not answer you. What will you say to him? Listen, correct, my god is not among those who talk a lot, he acts. He does not answer you, but know that behind the scenes he arranges all matters. He does not answer in practice, but as for acting, he does act. Know that he does things. To this he continues, from his trouble it does not save him. Look at what actually happens, you asked that it deliver you from trouble, nothing, nothing at all, it does nothing. So this means that also do not think it acts behind the scenes, this too you see that it does not do and does not act.
Remember this and be firm, return it to heart, transgressors. Remember this and be firm. What is 'be firm'? It is an expression we use often. Let us now learn its source. People say to you, he is recovering. From what language is 'recovery'? So the Radak brings two explanations, and brings a third explanation as well in the name of his father. One explanation, 'be firm' from the root 'man.' Be like men, be strong and be men, as the Philistines said. 'Man' expresses strength, as opposed to 'woman' which expresses weakness, 'my strength failed like a female,' as the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moshe. 'Man' expresses strength and might. Remember this and be firm, strengthen yourselves. Some explain 'be firm' as from the language of 'foundations of a wall.' 'Ashishei' means from the language of 'ushiyot.' What are 'ushiyot'? Foundations. 'Ushiyot' means foundations. The foundations of the building, the pillars of society, 'ushiyot' means foundations. So remember this and be firm, the meaning is be strong like foundations, the foundations are strong. And so it is also implied from the Targum Yonatan, which says 'and be strong,' be strong, possessing might. In contrast, the Radak brings an explanation in the name of his father, who explains that it is from the matter of fire. Remember this and be firm, the meaning is that fire will consume you when you remember the corrupt deeds you did, the flawed things you corrupted. As it were, sometimes something consumes a person from within, when he has regret, he has sorrow. Remember this and 'be firm,' and the fire will consume you from within, the fire of anguish, sorrow and regret. Return it to heart, transgressors, and through this the transgressors will repent.
The Malbim follows the line that it is from the language of 'men.' Remember this, remember what I told you in the disgrace of the idols, in the disgrace of the images, and then be firm, be men and people. What does this mean? For at the beginning he told them, you worship, your idols, your idol is an animal, it is a beast. He says to them, be men, do not be beasts. Do not go and worship beasts. You are a man, why do you worship beasts? You transgressors, return it to heart, that is, if you would only contemplate a little, you would immediately recognize your foolishness, that man, who is the crown of creation, goes and worships a beast which is lowly and inferior. Be firm, be the aspect of man.
Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other, God, and there is none like Me. Remember the former things of old, the miracles, the mighty acts I did from days of old, from this it will be clarified to you that I am God and there is no other. The opposite of those who say there are additional forces in creation, there are influencers, there are receivers. The Holy One, blessed be He, says, there is none like Me. The opposite of those who say there are two deities, the good god and the evil god, for with these conceptions he already verified the truth about God. There is none like Me, there is no other force apart from Me. There is none besides Him.
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things not yet done, saying My counsel shall stand and all My desire I will do. Declaring the end from the beginning. Rashi explains, the exile of Egypt, the redemption of Egypt, I already announced this at the Covenant Between the Parts, before it happened. The Malbim explains, what is 'declaring the end from the beginning,' 'and from ancient times things not yet done,' 'saying My counsel shall stand and all My desire I will do.' On the face of it, it repeats the matters in several different expressions. The Malbim says, the deeds that the Holy One, blessed be He, does are in two manners. There are things that the Holy One, blessed be He, does according to the laws of nature. There are laws of nature and within nature the Holy One, blessed be He, performs the miracle. On this he says, declaring the end from the beginning. The Holy One, blessed be He, at the beginning of the matter declares the thing that will ultimately be at its end, according to the laws that God bounded and set in creation. There is a reality in which the Holy One, blessed be He, does something above nature. Things that do not depend on any prior cause, but a thing that the Holy One, blessed be He, said and it was. And this is what he says, declaring the end from the beginning, these are things that are according to the laws of nature. The Holy One, blessed be He, announces in advance what will be according to the laws of nature. And beyond this, from ancient times things not yet done. The Holy One, blessed be He, announces even earlier things that have not been done, the meaning being that they have no foundation in nature. Something above nature. That is 'not yet done.' These are supernatural miracles. Things that are natural, then you say this is according to nature, so this is how the Holy One, blessed be He, created it in advance and only announced in advance that this thing would come, so this is within nature. But in contrast, that which is above nature was not made in advance at all. This is what he says, 'things not yet done,' 'and from ancient times things not yet done,' God already announces it from ancient times, even before its cause began, even before the causes at all, so that from this you understand that this is how it must be. Nevertheless, the Holy One, blessed be He, says, I announced it from ancient times. He said and it was. This is a far greater greatness. For if here for example the enemy is present with his army near the country, I say know that they will fight against the country and conquer it. Well, one need not be a great prophet. For naturally I already see the events. So one perhaps needs no special knowledge to know that they will win and not others, but according to nature I already see the developments. But there are things that I announce in advance about something you do not see at all, it has no causes and effects, it has no beginning at all, and I announce to you in advance, know that this is how it will be. This is a far, far greater knowledge. If I give perhaps more practical examples, to say that the gentiles, for example, Babylon, if the Holy One, blessed be He, had said during the Babylonian empire that Babylon would rule the world, then you would say, listen, there is a prophecy here, but this is a prophecy within nature. For we now see that Babylon is an empire, and the Holy One, blessed be He, announces know that this will be forever. But if the Holy One, blessed be He, says to him, know that Babylon, which you now see as enormous, know that it will be destroyed and never built again, the Babylonian empire will be erased. The people of Israel whom you now see as utterly nothing, know that they will rise and they are the ones who will rule, and they will remain forever. Well, this is something against nature, the opposite of what I see naturally. This is called declaring from ancient times things not yet done. There is not even a beginning to it. The beginning is the opposite. The beginning, I see that Babylon rules and Israel is low. And the Holy One, blessed be He, announces this from ancient times, things not yet done, that have not even a beginning.
The Malbim says, and here there are parallel statements. Corresponding to what he said, declaring the end from the beginning, he says My counsel shall stand. I say that My counsel shall stand, the meaning is those counsels that I advised in the governance of the world, for we explained that 'declaring the end from the beginning' is according to the laws of nature, what I advised then, those laws that I set, there is one possibility, I act within these laws. He says My counsel shall stand. And in contrast, what we said, 'and from ancient times things not yet done,' those things that are already not according to nature, and are the opposite of nature, and I already announce it from ancient times, the Holy One, blessed be He, says of this, and all My desire I will do. Since this is My desire, I do it, even though the thing has no beginning in nature and we do not see prior circumstances that this thing should occur. This is God's desire. Since 'all My desire I will do,' I do it, not because this thing has some preliminaries, but because it is God's desire.
Calling from the east a bird of prey, from a distant land the man of My counsel. I have spoken, I will also bring it about, I have formed it, I will also do it. Whom does He call from the east, a bird of prey, and what is this bird of prey here? So Rashi explains, calling from the east a bird of prey, the east is Aram. The Holy One, blessed be He, says, I called Avraham to be consulted in My counsel. 'Ayit' is the language of counsel. As it is written, 'return counsel and reason.' Return, respond with counsel and reason. 'Ayit' is from the language of counsel in Aramaic. So the Holy One, blessed be He, says, I call from the east, meaning from Aram, from Avraham's place, 'ayit,' counsel. Which counsel? What counsel is spoken of here? About the counsel of the Covenant Between the Parts, about that they would enslave and afflict them 400 years, the counsels that the Holy One, blessed be He, advises, the Holy One, blessed be He, already announced earlier to Avraham. And not only about this, but he continues and says, I have spoken, I will also bring it about. It is written that the Holy One, blessed be He, showed him all four exiles. He showed him all that was destined to be. And this too is 'I have spoken, I will also bring it about.' And incidentally the 'ayit' connects also to the bird of prey that was upon the carcasses, right? The Radak explains, this does not speak of Avraham, according to the Radak, but of Cyrus. And if you remember, the previous pesukim spoke of Cyrus, that the Holy One, blessed be He, designated him to redeem the people of Israel, and in the end Cyrus only gave permission to go up and did not carry out the redemption in practice. So He calls from the east a bird of prey. He calls Cyrus to come from his land which is east of Babylon, and he will come swiftly like the bird of prey that flies swiftly. The man of My counsel, he fulfilled what I advised regarding Babylon, which is? To fight against them. And 'even,' that is, not only that, but He also called him to come in order to free the people of Israel. As we said that Cyrus was called to send the people of Israel out from their exile. A third explanation the Radak brings, that this is about the Messiah king. The Messiah king, calling from the east a bird of prey, the Holy One, blessed be He, calls the Messiah king, called him a bird of prey that will fly swiftly and come in order to redeem the people of Israel.
The Malbim says, the bird of prey is a bird that preys and tears. The Holy One, blessed be He, called from the east the bird of prey, as we explained according to the Radak, the meaning being to prey upon Babylon. And therefore it is called a bird of prey, for a bird of prey is a predatory bird. An impure bird. And He also called from a distant land the man of My counsel. This returns to Cyrus. Only the Holy One, blessed be He, called him two callings. One calling, subdue Babylon. A second calling, free the people of Israel. Give the people of Israel permission to go up. And therefore this is called the man of My counsel, for he will fulfill My counsel to save the people of Israel in order to build the Temple. And therefore corresponding to the command to prey upon Babylon, he said I called from the east, which is east of Babylon, I called Cyrus. And corresponding to the command to save Israel, he says from a distant land, for relative to Israel he is truly distant. So this fits here both the east, for it is east of Babylon, and a distant land, for it is far from the Land of Israel. I have spoken, and in this calling, the Malbim says, we saw the two matters mentioned above. For we said the Holy One, blessed be He, acts according to nature and also acts not according to nature. According to the laws of nature, the Holy One, blessed be He, says, this is not a new thing. I have spoken, what is destined to be, I will also bring it about. And what is above nature, I have formed a new creation, I will also do it. What is the new creation? It is the miracle of the redemption of the people of Israel. And this is what he continues and says, listen to Me, mighty of heart, who are far from righteousness.
You sons of Babylon, you are cruel, you are mighty of heart, you are far from righteousness. What does 'far from righteousness' mean? The Holy One, blessed be He, will perform an act of righteousness. With whom? Not with you. You are far from the righteousness that the Holy One, blessed be He, is about to perform. This righteousness will benefit someone else, the people of Israel, as we will see in the next pasuk. The Radak too explains along the same line, that the meaning is listen to Me, mighty of heart, who are far from righteousness, is negative. These are the people of Babylon, mighty of heart and cruel to the people of Israel. According to the Radak, 'far from righteousness' means they are far from doing righteousness to the people of Israel. But note, Rashi has an interesting explanation. Rashi says exactly the opposite. These expressions refer to the people of Israel. Listen to Me, mighty of heart, 'abir' means strong. Strong of heart, who strengthened your heart and clung to Me. This is praise for the people of Israel. Not mighty of heart regarding the gentiles who were, as we said, mighty of heart and cruel, but mighty of heart, mightiness of heart to cling to the Holy One, blessed be He, even in difficult times. 'Who are far from righteousness,' the days grew long for you and I did not show you the righteousness I promised, to redeem you. This is the meaning of 'far from righteousness.' You need to be redeemed and I have not yet redeemed you according to the promise I promised you.
I have brought near My righteousness, it is not far, and My salvation shall not delay. And I will place salvation in Zion, for Israel My glory. I have brought near My righteousness, according to Rashi's explanation that the meaning is you, people of Israel, are mighty of heart, you clung to God, until now you were far from righteousness, from now My righteousness shall not be far. I have brought near My righteousness, I will redeem you. According to the Malbim's explanation, that here it is all said in a negative manner, you are mighty of heart, the Babylonians, you are far from righteousness, the meaning is the righteousness that I will do will not apply to you. So to whom will it apply? I have brought near My righteousness, it is not far, the Holy One, blessed be He, says, the righteousness will be for the people of Israel. I will atone for their iniquities, I will recall their merits, and from the power of this My salvation shall not delay. Through there being righteousness, God judges Israel justly, recalling their merits, and consequently the salvation will come. So although, the Malbim says, the salvation has a time, according to the fullness of seventy years for Babylon, the salvation by which God redeemed them indeed has a time, for we are speaking of the period when the Holy One, blessed be He, plans to redeem the people of Israel from the Babylonian exile through Cyrus. He says, nevertheless, the thing will be by way of righteousness. And I will place salvation in Zion for Israel, for I glory in their good deeds, the Holy One, blessed be He, says, in any case it will be by way of righteousness and kindness, that redemption will be for whom? For Israel My glory. Not for you Babylonians, not for you who are mighty of heart, far from righteousness, but the righteousness will come specifically upon the people of Israel. May God redeem us with an eternal redemption speedily, amen and amen.