Sefer Yirmiyahu, chapter 10. Hear the word that Hashem has spoken concerning you, house of Israel. So says Hashem: do not learn the way of the nations, and do not be dismayed by the signs of the heavens, for the nations are dismayed by them. So says Hashem: do not learn the way of the nations, do not do the things that the nations do, and do not fear what the nations fear.
If you are saying to serve idols as the nations served idols, what actually is idolatry? We must understand that idolatry was their way of drawing down abundance from the influences of the stars. They believed, and this belief has something to base itself on, that there truly are influences from the constellations. From the constellations means from the stars, that is, a certain star symbolizes evil, a certain star symbolizes good, two stars that stand in a certain position on the horizon create influences upon one another. Astrology is something that has substance to it. But He tells them, know this: if you think, well then let us go serve the stars, because when you serve the star you draw good influences from the star, and if you do not serve it then the star will become angry with you and then woe and alas, so it is very worthwhile for you, then, to serve the stars. So He says, you need not fear the stars.
And why did they fear? He says, the sun, which by the way was also considered one of the stars they served, the sun has dominion over the earth, the grain, the fruits, "and by the bounty of the sun's produce." And if we serve it, the crops will increase. If we do not serve it, the crops will be lacking. Not only that, when the sun is in a state of eclipse, a solar eclipse, when the luminaries are darkened, it is a bad sign for the world. So ostensibly we do need to reckon with the heavenly bodies. He tells them, do not be dismayed by it and do not be dismayed by the stars. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: all these forces are subordinate to Hashem, they are the doers of His word. And if you serve the Master, you no longer need to serve the servant. All these are servants to Hashem, they do His will. The influences of the Holy One, blessed be He, descend through the stars, but the star has no power of its own. And if so, the moment you are submitted to the Master, the servant automatically cannot do anything to you. And if the Master is angry with you, then what is there to beg the servant for? What will the servant help you if the Master is angry with you and decides, Heaven forbid, that there will be a curse upon his crops? What will it help to pray there to the sun, that it should bestow good abundance upon you? It will not help you at all, since it is with the Master that you have quarreled.
What do you say? But look, it works. Among the nations it works. The Holy One, blessed be He, tells them: for the nations are dismayed by them. They, the nations, they truly are dismayed by them, but you have nothing to fear from them. And why? Because in truth the way the nations are governed is through the heavenly bodies. The Holy One, blessed be He, placed them under the stars and constellations. Israel, by contrast, is above the constellation, and we have no influence from the stars and constellations but only from Hashem. And it is written there that the Holy One, blessed be He, let the nations slip after them, the Holy One, blessed be He, as it were allowed them to err after the stars and constellations and made them dependent on them. We, the people of Israel, by contrast, have no connection and no link to the stars and constellations, and we need not fear them at all, but only to know that everything is from Him.
A certain man related that he studied astrology for a long period, and he went to some great astrologer and asked him to map out his astrological chart. And the astrologer made him an astrological chart and began to say things about him. And to every single thing he said, he told him no. He told him, you had such and such, he told him no. He told him such and such, no. You did such and such, no. Everything, no. That fellow, all his prestige is now at stake here. What is this? He is someone who is supposed to know everything and anything according to astrology, and then he says, tell me, are you Jewish? He tells him yes. He said to him, if so then forget it, take everything, he tells him, on Jews it does not work. That is what he told him. He said, on Jews it does not work. He tells him, I have been forced to see countless times that all that I say from astrology and so on, he says, among gentiles it works one to one. But when I get to Jews, Israel is above the constellation. A Jew can, through prayer, can, through a righteous grandfather in Heaven, can through a thousand and one things by which the Holy One, blessed be He, changes the entire wheel of the constellations. "Go out from your astrology," the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Avraham. Avram does not father children, Avraham fathers children. And it is written that Avraham was a great astrologer and had vast and great knowledge. The Holy One, blessed be He, tells him: the people of Israel are above the constellation. The Holy One, blessed be He, can elevate the people of Israel and raise them up so that the reality of the constellation will not affect them at all. And therefore this means that we are forbidden to take all these matters and all these calculations into account.
And He says, and even if you think that for the idolaters it helps in their service, know that for you it will not help. And regarding the idolaters we certainly know that it does not help, for who is so foolish as to think that if you pray to the sun it will give you something? That it will change? For astrology is a fixed thing. What is astrology, after all? It is influences from the stars, and their movements are fixed. So what will it help that you pray to the sun? Does it have power of its own? Whatever it was charged with, that is what it influences. So know that in truth even for the nations there is no influence from the stars. All the more so you, whose reality is above the laws of the stars, then certainly do not be dismayed by them. For the customs of the peoples are futility, for it is a tree cut from the forest, the work of a craftsman's hands with the axe.
The Radak says: the prophet turns to them and says, come and see what brought the nations to this worship, that from the worship of the stars they came to the worship of idols. The meaning of the matter is this: they worshiped the stars, a star in the heavens. They believed that the influence is drawn from the stars downward. And afterward they deteriorated and began to make an image, and they took wood and carved it and made an image, and it they worshiped. How did they arrive from the worship of the stars, which is on some level still a loftier worship, since one worships some higher power, to the worship of an image where one takes a block of wood, as we will soon see how he describes how they fashion this image with their own hands and afterward bow down to it? How did they come to this? The Radak says: the priests would tell them, this image is made in place of the sun, it is made in honor of the sun. And whoever worships the image, it is as if he worships the sun. Like the golden image that Nevuchadnezzar made for the sun, and likewise they would make images for the rest of the stars. And then they accustomed them to this matter, until the masses began to believe that the image itself does harm and does good. What was originally that the image was supposed, as it were, to draw influences from the sun, they began to believe that the image itself, it need not draw from anywhere, pray to it, bow to it, it will bestow good upon you. And this is certainly a thing that is futility and a thing that has no substance. For behold He tells you, understand, this image is after all wood, and they cut it from the forest, and it is the work of a craftsman's hands who fashioned it with an axe. That is to say, it has no power at all, so how do you believe in this futility?
The Malbim explains that here He actually comes to describe to them the disgrace of the image from four aspects: from the aspect of the material, the form, the maker, and the purpose. And now he will explain. Against the material, He says, what is this image? Observe, it is wood. And do not think it is some special wood, some prestigious wood, for they cut the tree from the forest. Just a piece of wood from the forest. Against the maker, He says, how was it made? See who made it, what made it? The work of a craftsman's hands. Who made it? Merely some man, a carpenter, he is the one who made this statue. Do not think it is some statue created by spiritual heavenly forces. Some man took it and carved it, the work of a craftsman's hands. And do not think he made it with some special tools, a laser beam. No, with an axe. The axe is a tool specifically for carving, a simple tool, with it he made the image.
They adorn it with silver and gold, with nails and hammers they fasten them so that it will not totter. They adorn it with silver and gold: he who takes this statue and beautifies it with silver and gold. The Malbim says, here he speaks of the external form. Do not think this statue is something prestigious, since the silver and gold are only external, it is merely plating and covering. The silver is not the body of the image. And he would fasten them with nails. What, about what is he speaking here? The meaning is this: they would make a covering for the thing. How did they do this? They would take a plate, hammer it thin to match that thing, and afterward attach it to it. For example, if they wanted to make wood with engravings, they would make the wood with the engravings, then take a plate, which is thinned gold, and place it over the engravings, and gently they would tap it in such a way until it took on the shape of the wood's engravings. Fine, afterward it could fall off. So they would attach it with nails. Small nails would attach the gold to the wood so that it would not fall and not come off. So this is what he describes, exactly how he made the image. They adorn it with silver and gold, with nails and hammers, hammers meaning a mallet, they fasten them so that it will not totter. What is "so that it will not totter"? The Malbim explains that "so that it will not totter" is from the language of not coming loose. I need the gold not to detach from it, that it remain attached. How does it not totter, how does it not come off, from the language of coming out? By fastening it with hammers and nails.
There is another explanation, which the Radak brings, that "so that it will not totter" is from the language of not failing. That it not depart from its form, which is from the language of failure, like weakness of the knees. Rashi too connects this with weakness of the knees. But from Rashi it is implied that "so that it will not totter" here does not speak of the covering, but rather from Rashi it is implied that "so that it will not totter" refers back to the statue itself. That the statue, as it were, they would attach it and strengthen it with nails and hammers so that it would not totter, meaning that it would not buckle at its knees. When it stands, the statue needs to stand. So that it not totter, from the language of a stumbling block and obstacle, from the language of weakness of the knees, they would strengthen it with nails so that it would stand and appear upright.
Like a palm of turned work they are, and they do not speak, they must be carried for they cannot step. Do not fear them, for they cannot do harm, and to do good is also not within them. Against the inner form, He says, do not think there is some inner content within it, a power to speak. He says, behold, come and see, there is not in them the form of the speaking soul. Like a palm of turned work they are, and they do not speak. Like a palm of turned work, "palm" meaning like a palm tree, and they have no capacity for speech whatsoever. And do not think there is in them the vital soul, which is the power of movement, for a dog too cannot speak, but it can at least move. So perhaps, like the animals, they have the power of movement? He tells you, where indeed, they must be carried and they cannot step. When one wants to take it from place to place, it is unable to walk on its own. It must be lifted, they must be carried. It must be borne in order to take it from place to place, it does not step of itself.
What will you say? But perhaps at least it is of use to do good or to do harm? He says, do not fear them and do not be dismayed by them, since there is no power in them either to do good or to do harm. They have no power to do harm, so you have nothing to fear from them. And do not say perhaps from some segulah that is in them, then yes there would be usefulness in them to do good. For they believed in all sorts of things, that whoever does such and such will see such and such benefit. Just as, to distinguish between them, there is within Judaism the concept that a certain thing is a segulah for such and such, so they too believed, perhaps this image is a segulah. There are people who put a horseshoe in the car, one hangs a shoe, and a third garlic, a fourth a hamsa, and all sorts of such various follies. When people have no faith in Hashem, the true God, then they seek substitutes. So one hangs up all sorts of things that he believes in. There is no reality of a person living without faith. He will always seek to believe in something. So these people believe in follies, he thinks it is a segulah. And by the way, do not think, these can be very educated people, and as the Steipler says, the soul of a person always yearns to believe in something, and therefore they will always seek something to believe in. There was once, I once read an article in Yated, about all sorts of theater actors, who are supposedly the society people, as if from the upper crust, and they, each one of them has some segulah-like thing. There was one who says he always goes with some old cap, and if he does not take it to the show, the whole show he messes up. One comes with an antique suitcase from sixty years ago, and if he does not come with it to the show, one time he did not come with it, he had the most serious blunders. In short, each one grabs some folly and believes in it. So perhaps they will think, there, it may not be a god, but what can I tell you, it has a segulah, I noticed with this statue, the day I stand before it to pray, it has a segulah, you have abundance. He says, this too you do not have. To do good is also not within them. There is in them no usefulness and no goodness, so that certainly there is nothing to fear from them at all.
The Radak explains: like a palm of turned work they are, the Radak says, like the palm tree that is even and has no crookedness in its body. The meaning is this: every tree has branches coming out of it. The palm, by contrast, is smooth all the way up, only at the top do the branches come out. So too they make the image straight, in the form of a man, upright. And they have no power to speak, and they must be carried, meaning they lift them and carry them from place to place, and they have no power to do good, and they have no power to do harm, but rather, as we said, this whole thing is made of wood and is futility.
There is none like You, Hashem; You are great, and Your name is great in might. From what we see and know, there is none like You, the Radak says, neither among the upper worlds nor among the lower. We know that You are great and Your name is great in might. What is "You" and what is "Your name"? The Radak says, to make known that He is His name and His name is He. The meaning is this: the name is not separate from the Holy One, blessed be He, but rather the Holy One, blessed be He, and His name are one. Therefore You are great and Your name is great in might.
The Malbim explains that "You, Hashem" includes all the perfections, that there is not found one as perfect as You. For You are great. The Malbim says, with the term "great" we have a problem. Since the term "great" is often a relative term. I say he is great, you ask me great relative to what? I ask you, is a truck big? You tell me big. What is big? Next to an airplane it is big? No, it is big relatively. And so on in this manner. Anything you tell me is big is relatively big. On this he says, with the Holy One, blessed be He, it is not so. For You are great. With You the greatness is essential greatness, not relative to anything. I do not say You are greater than something, and then I say, well then perhaps just as He is greater than something, there is someone greater than Him. But if I say He is essentially great, that is to say it is a greatness whose greatness is essential and there is nothing greater than Him. This is what "You are great" means, in Yourself and not relative to others. And also, only You are great. The meaning is this: since You are the first of causes and the last of the caused. The meaning is this: "Master of the world, who reigned before any creature was created, and after all has ceased, He alone will reign, awesome." You are the beginning of all and You are also the end of all.
And Your name is great in might. The Malbim says, there is someone who is great in himself, but actions do not come forth from him outward. For example, a person who is a great sage, he can understand everything that happens, but that does not necessarily mean he can create. That is to say, Einstein, for example, who let us say for the sake of argument deciphered the atom, does not necessarily, or certainly cannot, create an atom. To understand a certain thing and to create it are two different things. I can understand a thing and not necessarily create that same thing. Today scientists have succeeded in understanding the human body quite well, but they have not succeeded in producing even a single drop of blood. That is to say, to understand a certain thing is not necessarily also the power to create that same thing. The Malbim says, so there is someone great in wisdom who grasps all things, understands them, but has no power to bring them into being and produce them. And there is one whose name is great, but he is not great in himself. Like a great warrior, who is not great from his own aspect but from his mighty deeds, which people hear of and know about him. He says, with the Holy One, blessed be He, it is not so. With the Holy One, blessed be He, we say You are great from Your own aspect, You are great from the aspect of Your wisdom, for You are the source of wisdom. And Your name is great, this speaks of the might and the ability. The Malbim explains in greater detail and says, there were those who would depict the Holy One, blessed be He, as it were describing Him, as a sage who arranged all that we see in the world, but who, as it were, does not have the power to bring things into actuality. And therefore they described that He has helpers. That is to say, He is like a chief administrator, He is like a manufacturer, let us define it for the sake of argument, like when you built a factory, but now you bring workers to work on the production lines. As it were, the Holy One, blessed be He, created the world, but for the purpose of running the world, the Holy One, blessed be He, brought a sun and moon and stars to manage it, for they believed that all governance is carried out by the stars. And therefore they believed in many deities, in order, as it were, to draw influence from each deity according to its matter. There is a god of the sea, when they went out to sea they would pray to him, Poseidon, for anyone who has ever eaten tuna. And there are all sorts of other deities, they believed in love and in hatred and in war and so on and so forth. And to each god they would pray and serve it, when they needed salvation from it. Why? Because they believed that although the Holy One, blessed be He, is the God of gods, He is above all, He does not actually engage in running the world, in the governance of the world. That, as it were, He gave over to lower governors. So too whoever heard our recording on Iyov, these were the essence of Iyov's claims. That the Holy One, blessed be He, is a true God, He created the world in truth and justice, but the governance was handed over to a foolish man. The governance was handed over to those who do injustice, and they are the stars. And then his companions try to confront him and say to him, if you claim that Hashem is righteous, only that He handed over the governance to the wicked, who are the governance of the stars, then again you have, as it were, made the Holy One, blessed be He, wicked, for He handed over governance to such unfit ones. On this part of the debate there proceeds. So in any case, the Malbim says, they believed that as it were Hashem is the master of wisdom, and He is the one who built the world and produced the world, but He does not have the power to bring things into actuality, and therefore they believed in many powers. And there are those who believed the opposite, that the Holy One, blessed be He, has might but not wisdom. The meaning is this: Hashem has the ability to bring everything forth, but He needs advisers. He has no wisdom, but rather He needs, so to speak, to consult in order to see how to do each thing. And what advises Him? The signs of the heavens, as it were, they are what show Him, they are what assist Him, which decrees to decree, which counsels, they are His advisers. And for these reasons they would serve either the stars, since they believed the stars are the ones who carry out, or the advisers, the signs of the heavens. As He told them, do not be dismayed by the signs of the heavens. Suddenly they see some lunar or solar eclipse, suddenly they see some signs in the firmament, and they would draw all sorts of conclusions from this. For they believed that as it were the Holy One, blessed be He, either is not wise enough and then the signs of the heavens assist Him, or He is wise but has no power to bring into actuality and then the stars assist Him. And therefore they went and served those powers, for they thought that the Holy One, blessed be He, is as it were dependent on them. Against this He says, for You are great. You are great in wisdom, in the arrangement of all things. This is from the aspect that the Holy One, blessed be He, does not need advisers, He is wise of Himself. And also Your name is great in might, might being the governance. He does not need the stars either in order to govern, but rather of Himself He has the power, the ability, and the might to bring everything forth and to govern everything alone, so that He has no helper, neither in counsel nor in might.
And if so, who would not fear You, King of the nations, for it befits You, for among all the wise men of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is none like You. Who would not fear, who would not fear You, King of the nations. After everything comes forth from You, both the counsel and the might, everything from You, then from whom is it fitting to fear? Only from the Holy One, blessed be He. It befits You. Both regarding the matter of wisdom and regarding the matter of might, for there is none like You. That is to say, in all their kingdoms they know that there is none like You. The sages grasp Your wisdom. The kings grasp Your ability. And therefore He says, take note, among all the wise men of the nations and in all their kingdoms. And we will soon see a more detailed explanation in the Radak. So they truly know that only to You does the fear befit.
The Malbim explains that "befit" is a matter of one becoming agreeable to another according to conditions between them. Like for example, "by this the men will consent to us." What, in what will they consent to us? By being circumcised and so forth, by this they will consent to us. What is "consent"? That he becomes agreeable to him according to some agreement, we will perform circumcision and then we can intermarry with one another. This is also connected to someone drawing near to another. Someone who draws near to another, from the language of "ata," to come. So "befit" is to make, we become agreeable to you, that is to say we create closeness between us, we draw near to you. And what this thing comes to express here, he says, is that all fear of anything ultimately comes to the Holy One, blessed be He. This is the meaning here of "for it befits You." That is to say, if I see a man who is a great warrior and holds a sword, then of whom am I afraid? Of the sword or of the one holding it? Certainly of the one holding it. What can the sword do? Lying in the closet, it did no harm. How, why does it do harm? Because there is now someone holding it. It emerges, then, that if I understand that there is a primary acting power, then all the fear is only of Him. For He is essentially like a warrior holding in His hand all that is in the world. This is what He says, who would not fear You, King of the nations, for it befits You. All fear is fitting to be toward You. What is "befits You"? From the language of coming. For anything you are apprehensive of, from where does it come? What is its source? From the Holy One, blessed be He. As is brought there about the pious man, brought by the Chovot HaLevavot, who was sleeping in the desert. And they asked him, are you not afraid to sleep in a place of dangerous beasts and fiery serpents and scorpions? So he said, I am ashamed before the Holy One, blessed be He, that He should see me fearing anything other than Him. I am ashamed before the Holy One, blessed be He, that He should see that I fear someone other than Him. That is to say, the true person knows that in truth the true fear is only of the Holy One, blessed be He. So then, all the things that there are to fear, they are all only a tool in the hand of Hashem, like a sword in the hand of the warrior. So they all come to Him, this is "it befits You." All fear comes to Him, for ultimately it stems from Him and comes forth from Him.
The Radak says, for it befits You. The Radak says, the kingship befits You. That is to say, the kingship is to be attributed only to the Holy One, blessed be He. For among all the wise men of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is none like You. The meaning is this: the wise men of the nations, let us define it thus, the nations were divided into the ignorant and the wise. And among the nations you may believe there is wisdom. But most of the world were ignorant people, rural people, boorish people, whom it was easy to deceive and take advantage of. And therefore when I come to speak of those who know the truth, I speak of the wise ones among them. It is about them that I speak. And therefore He says, who would not fear You, King of the nations, for the kingship befits You, for among all the wise men of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is none like You. The wise men of the nations, they truly know that there is nothing in the image. And if they serve it, it is only because they believe that it draws powers from the stars, from the higher powers. But they do not serve it of itself. They have no belief that within the image itself there is power. And nevertheless, in this too there is a sin. What will you say? But he after all knows that it is from a higher power. He says, true, but the Holy One, blessed be He, is high, yet He regards the lowly. The Holy One, blessed be He, tells him, do not make an image or any likeness with Me. What is "with Me"? The Sages say, even to serve Me through it. And this was the sin of the sin of the Golden Calf. That they went and made an image in order to serve the Holy One, blessed be He. And the Holy One, blessed be He, says, to Me one need not turn through intermediaries, through go-betweens. To Me you shall turn directly. So the wise men of the nations, although they already had some knowledge that the image of itself has no power, still they erred in this, that they thought the image is some intermediary between them and Hashem, between them and the higher powers. And on this He says, also in all their kingdoms. Why? Because the kings for the most part are wise. There too there are wise ones among them. So I speak of the wise or of the kings, for the kings were either wise or had wise advisers. And they know that the true kingship befits You. Why? Because the kingship of man ceases. The kingship of man ends at some point. By contrast, Your kingship is the kingship of all worlds. The Holy One, blessed be He, His kingship is an infinite kingship for all eternity. Therefore He says, who would not fear You, King of the nations, for it befits You, for among all the wise men of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is none like You. Both their wise ones and their kings, they know the truth that there is none like You. But the ignorant, what can be done, they were misled, and in their great foolishness they go and serve the image and think it has power of itself.
And as one they are brutish and foolish, the instruction of follies is wood. And as one they are brutish. As one the idolaters are brutish. "They are brutish" is from the language of brute, the language of a fool, they are brutish and foolish. In one thing they become of the category of brute and fool. And what is the one thing? The instruction of the follies of their wood, they are afflicted over it, over that foolishness, over that image which he made of wood, they do not understand that this thing over which you afflict yourself is futility, there is no substance in it. That one for which you torment yourself, there is no usefulness in it. The Radak explains that the wise men of the idolaters as one are brutish and foolish. They as it were push the people and torment the people and compel the people to serve the idols. And these idols, as we saw, are futility, they are wood overlaid with silver and gold, they have no power to carry themselves, they have no spirit of life, there is nothing in them, made of the lowliest of created things, which is the inanimate. Which is the lowest of the three categories of existence: living, growing, and inanimate. The Radak says, it is the lowest of them. So behold, this is the thing over which you torment the people, what? The instruction of follies, the instruction to serve the futility that is wood. This is the low and lowly thing.
The Malbim explains that their serving the wood was not from the aspect of, as it were, denying the wisdom of Hashem, the ability of Hashem. For they all believed that there is a God who is the God of gods. And the Malbim says, as it is written everywhere, "incense is offered and presented to My name, and My name is awesome among the nations." And the nations believed, and we see this in several places in the Prophets, that the nations believed in the God of gods. That is to say, they believed that there is a higher spiritual power that is above all. Only, as we have spoken several times, they held that this God is so lofty and exalted that He does not engage in trivialities. He does not engage in earthly matters, He does not engage in what you lack and what you need. And for this you must turn to the stars, and for this you must turn to the heavenly bodies and to all the messengers, as it were, of the Holy One, blessed be He, who are the ones who act here. For Hashem is too lofty and exalted to engage in all the low physicality. We have already spoken about this several times in the past, about the futility of this claim, and refuted it, but we will not repeat it. In any case, He says, this thing, this they did out of foolishness. And what is the foolishness? For they say, the instruction of follies is wood. The meaning is this: listen to how the Malbim explains the verse. The Malbim says, they said, the governance that comes forth from the Holy One, blessed be He, is a higher governance, spiritual, lofty, from Hashem who is without limit. "Without limit" means infinite. The Infinite One, blessed be He. In any case, the governance of this world is not similar, for the governance of this world, on the contrary, is the governance of a limited world. That is to say, this world is a perishing world, it is a passing world, it is a world of falsehood, it is a world that is not eternal. If so, it is not fitting that a power without limit, meaning infinite, should govern a world that is finite. It is not fitting for someone exalted and lofty to govern a low and lowly world. For someone eternal to govern a world that is temporary. So what does this mean? It means that a temporary world should also have a temporary governor. And if Hashem is infinite, He governs infinite worlds. And if we are a finite world, and a temporary world, and an earthly and physical world, then we need a governor to match. One like Bibi, yes, a governor that indeed suits us. As that one said, a generation in its time, the face of the generation is like the face of a dog. He says, this is what we need, this is not what we need, we need better, but this is essentially what suits us. See that this claim already existed back then. They claimed, you are right, Hashem is the God of gods, He is exalted, He is high, He is lofty. But this physical, material world, here it truly suits that an image too should govern it. Also wood that has no substance. Why? You claim, but it is physical, it is earthly. True, this world is earthly. But it is temporary. True, this world too is temporary. That is to say, they understood, on the contrary, that the physical reality here of the world suits a poor and inferior governance according to the reality of the world, that this world is futility and has no substance. And therefore they held that the instruction of the follies of things is the wooden idol. That is to say, this world does not deserve a higher instruction, does not deserve a loftier governor. And this is out of what they are brutish and foolish. The brute is out of lack of knowledge, out of lack of learning. The fool, as we have explained several times, can be a highly intelligent person, with vast and wondrous knowledge, but he is driven by desire. So they, both from the aspect of the brutishness within them, the lack of knowledge, and from the aspect of the foolishness, which is the will and craving for desires, out of this they come and claim, on the contrary, it is fitting for the lowly world to be governed by lowly powers, which are the images and idols. So all the arguments and proofs you find me, that all these things are lowly, only strengthens me in my claim. True, true, you are right, they are very lowly. To the lowly world they are suited. This is what fits. There needs to be something low, because the world is low. You speak of Hashem, high and exalted, He does not suit a lowly world, one that perishes and passes away.
Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish and gold from Ufaz, the work of a craftsman and the hands of a goldsmith, blue and purple is their clothing, the work of skilled men, all of them. He now continues and describes the baseness of the images. He says beaten silver, as we explained, they would beat out the gold plates, thinning the sheets in order to overlay the idol with it. And they would further trouble themselves, the Radak says, to bring good silver from Tarshish and gold from Ufaz. Tarshish, the Targum Yonatan says is Africa. And Ufaz, the Targum Yonatan says is Ofir. Even though they live far from these places, personal import, they would import the silver and the gold. And not only that, they would also clothe them in embroidery, blue, purple. That is to say, for their idols they would make clothing, they would as it were dress them in prestigious garments, they would also put on them prestigious ornaments that they would buy for the image and the idol. And all this was intended to show the masses its beauty, for this was the way to draw the masses. When one comes and sees some mighty image, huge, standing, and it is entirely of gold, and sees it dressed in some prestigious garments, then this would give him, so to speak, to see in it some higher power, some tremendous strength. All this was intended to draw the masses to the worship of the images. The Malbim explains that this is a continuation of the previous verse. We saw in the previous verse that they claimed, on the contrary, the idol, the image, is the one fitting for governance here in the inferior and lowly world. Against this He comes and tells them, how do you say that the idol, the image, is the fitting one, is the governor? For even what they beat the idol with gold and silver, He says, behold, look, there is no importance in it. They bring it from Tarshish, do not think it is something that descended with the clouds of heaven. Where, after all, did they bring it from? From Tarshish. This is gold that we know where they brought it from. The gold from Ufaz. Over the silver they would make gold, this is the work of a craftsman. There is no advantage in it, neither from the aspect of place nor from the aspect of the maker. What is a craftsman? A carpenter. He is the man whose role was to solder and attach the silver to the wood. And also the blue and purple is their clothing, the work of skilled men. What do you think, the blue and purple there, from where did it descend from heaven? It is the work of skilled men. It is people who are merely expert in weaving and they wove the blue and the purple garments. So they have no quality of divinity at all. By the way, the Malbim here notes the change, the work of a craftsman and the hands of a goldsmith. He says, what is the difference? The goldsmith's role was to refine the silver. What is to refine? To refine means to purify. The role of the goldsmith was to purify the silver. He would melt it and remove the dross from it. Silver, gold, it does not matter. The craftsman, by contrast, was the man who makes the vessel. The fashioner is called a craftsman. There is a woodworker, there is a metalworker, there is a goldworker. The fashioner is called a craftsman. And therefore against the beaten silver He said the work of a craftsman, for they would thin it and they would perform the act of clothing the wood with the silver. And against its refining, its purification, against this He mentioned the goldsmith, who refines and purifies the gold until it is of Ufaz. What is Ufaz? Precious gold, fine gold. "More precious than fine gold." Which is the more choice gold, the more precious.