"For I am with you, says Hashem, to save you, for I will make a full end of all the nations among whom I have scattered you, but of you I will not make a full end, but I will correct you in measure, and will not let you go entirely unpunished." The Holy One says, I will save you, not like all the other nations. "For I will make a full end of all the nations among whom I have scattered you." All the other nations, the Chaldeans, Assyria, where Israel was in exile, we already explained that there was fear, the people of Israel were afraid that now, in the trouble passing over Bavel, we might be harmed, just as always, that when there are wars between enemies, Israel is caught in the middle and always suffers. Therefore He says you have nothing to worry about, I will make a full end of all the nations, the wars are not coming for you, they come to the nations to destroy them, the Chaldeans, Assyria, where Israel was in exile. And therefore He says you need not fear, there is none to terrify you, for they all are destroyed, all those who pose a threat against you are destroyed, so who will terrify you? "But of you I will not make a full end." On the other hand He says, of you I will not make a full end, meaning you, the people of Israel, will not be destroyed. Notice, He did not say you will have no suffering, He said you will not be destroyed. This implies that suffering there will indeed be. And this continues, "but I will correct you in measure." Destruction there will not be, but suffering there will be. "And will correct you in measure," as it is written in Amos: "Only you have I known of all the families of the earth, says Hashem, therefore I will visit upon you all your iniquities." What, because I have known you the Gemara asks, will I therefore visit upon you? Because Hashem loves us, "known" is connection, it is love, "and Adam knew Chava his wife." So because I have known you I will visit upon you? Yes. If someone tells you, sir, there are some children downstairs that I know are bothering someone, or destroying or ruining or something of that sort. What do you do? You go down, you see your precious one among them, whom do you punish? Perhaps you even give a slap? To your child. Father, there are ten more children here, precisely me, your son, you slapped? Yes. Precisely because you are my son, I slapped you. As for them, let them do what they want. So they will not be well raised, so they will be ruined, so they will be... that is their father's problem. Each one has his own father's problem. The nations, Hashem is not a father to them. Hashem is a father to Israel, "Israel is My firstborn son." And since Hashem loves us, when we stray from the path, the father sets his sons straight. All the redemption, all the future, everything depends on us, on the people of Israel. Therefore the Holy One says I will visit upon you. "I will correct you in measure," but "and will not let you go entirely unpunished." "Will not let you go entirely unpunished" means like being cut off, as the Radak explains. Like "and being emptied she shall sit upon the ground," "for whoever steals shall be cleansed away like it." It means, I will not clear you off from the world. A person who is cut off is like cleared away, the world is cleaned of him. You see they also use the expression "he came out clean of his possessions," meaning cut off from all his possessions. So too here, "and will not let you go entirely unpunished," means I will not destroy you, as the Targum also says "and destroying I will not destroy you," that is, I will not bring destruction upon you.
This is the external illness, "your wound is grievous, and your injury is severe." And also the internal illness, that too is a wound that is a very great sickness. And for this an extra remedy is needed, so to speak, in order to succeed in emerging from such a difficult condition. "There is none to plead your cause for healing, you have no remedies of recovery." "There is none to plead your cause for healing," there is no one who thinks you will have salvation. In short, the doctors are unanimous that it is worthwhile to prepare with public notices. Do you understand? "There is none to plead," with notices and loudspeakers, yes, it is worthwhile to prepare. "There is none to plead your cause for healing," no one sees a chance that you will have a cure.
What is a mazor (healing)? We already explained this several times, that mazor means a remedy, since they used to scatter (zorim) medicinal substances upon the wound. Therefore there is a prohibition to grind on Shabbat because of grinding substances, yes, lest one grind substances. There is no permission to make a remedy, pardon, because of grinding substances. If you make a remedy, you will come to grind substances and place them on the wound, and that is already the prohibition of grinding, which is a Torah prohibition. In any case, mazor was the substances that they used to scatter on the wound. And in the reality of the sick person who needed medicines scattered on his wound, "there is none to plead your cause for healing." There is no one who pleads your cause that you should have any remedies of recovery. What are "remedies of recovery" (refuot te'alah)? The Radak says that te'alah is a remedy, and the matter is doubled with different words. But Rashi explains that te'alah means "beneficial" (mo'ilah). "Remedies of recovery" means there is no one who claims that any remedy will benefit you. You have no beneficial remedy.
The Malbim explains, that since you have no remedies of recovery, what are refuot te'alah? The Malbim explains that te'alah is from the word te'alah, a channel of a pool, so says the Malbim. And why is it called te'alah? Because we want to express that a person is at his full strength, so they say that his bones "blossom like tender grass." His bones are full of life. What is the difference, what is the opposite of this? It is when the bones have dried up. Like the vision of the dry bones. And when the bone is dried, it means the person is truly in decline, that his bones have grown ever drier. When the bones have high moisture, it means they are healthy, so the channels there are in order. There is a channel there, there is the fluid of the bones and the essential moisture that flows like a water channel, from which "his flesh is fresher than a child's, he returns to the days of his youth," in the language of the Malbim. This is written in Iyov. It means, by the power of the bones being healthy and the inner flow there being good, through this the flesh too returns and heals.
So then let us return, the Malbim says "there is none to plead your cause for healing," since you have no remedies of recovery, there is no fluid for the bones and no natural strength that can bear the remedy until nature overcomes its illness, and consequently there is no chance of a cure. It means, there are situations where the sick person, they tell you in this condition he needs to undergo surgery. Fine, why do they not do the surgery? They tell you he would not survive it. It means, surgery requires anesthesia, sometimes you cannot administer anesthesia to a patient, he will sleep an eternal sleep from the first anesthesia. Second possibility, the body will not withstand the surgery. For when you do surgery, you cut into the flesh, then you connect it, you need the body somehow to succeed in overcoming the trauma it went through. When the body is very weak, they perform surgery and that is it, the patient dies, it will be impossible to heal him from that surgery. Says the Malbim, so too here. You have no remedies of recovery, there is no fluid for the bones that will restore the bones to their health, so it turns out that any remedy you give him will not overcome the illness, since nature will overcome the illness. That is, nature, which is the nature of dry bones, is what will strengthen the illness. But when the nature is healthy, that is, the bones are good, then even if there is some illness in the flesh, we would define it as the foundations being good. When the foundations are good, then by the power of the healthy bones where there is a channel, there is flow, by this power the flesh too will be healed. What is the analogy here? Says the Malbim, he is essentially saying it is impossible for them to be healed by the prophets, by those who rebuke them. Since the foundations of faith, that is the bones, what are called the foundations of fear of Heaven, of morality, this they do not have. So consequently, whatever you give them as a remedy, there is none to plead your cause for healing. There is no chance of a cure, because you have no remedies of recovery, because there is no remedy for the bones, which is the foundation. And since this is absent, any remedies you give will not heal the flesh.
"All those who love you have forgotten you, they seek you not. For I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the greatness of your iniquity, because your sins were increased." "All those who love you have forgotten you," Assyria, Egypt, you used to go to them to seek help, they have forgotten you. "They seek you not," they do not seek you out. And why? Because "I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy." Since I placed you in the hand of the bitter and impetuous and cruel nation, says the Malbim, says the Radak, who are the Chaldeans, they cannot help you, for even for themselves, if we speak of Egypt and the other nations, even for themselves they cannot deliver from the hand of the Chaldeans. So then, "all those who love you have forgotten you, they seek you not." I myself fear him, shall I go and save you from his hand?
The Radak brings a further explanation in the name of his father, who explains "all those who love you have forgotten you," that this connects to the analogy he gave us earlier regarding illness. So he says, when people come to visit the sick person, it depends. If they see he still has chances of recovery, they visit him, they talk with him, after all he is still going to remain here. But when they see that the person is already with one foot in the grave, he is about to leave here, inclining to die, then his bad lovers, says the Radak, abandon him. Why? He tells you there is already nothing to receive from him. Nothing will come out of him anymore. Since nothing will come out of him, he leaves. But on the other hand the good lovers, those who are true friends, then one performs also true kindness. Even if he will receive nothing from him, he stays to attend to him in his illness until the very last, until the final moment. He says this is with the bad lovers. But the good ones, as we said, remain good. And with you? "All those who love you have forgotten you." All your lovers have forgotten you, both the bad and the good. That is "all those who love you." And they judged you as one whose illness leads to death. And why? Because "I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one." What is "the chastisement of a cruel one"? The Radak explains that it means the chastisement of a cruel person. A person who chastises, mussar is from the word suffering. Suffering by a cruel person, yes, that is, by the Chaldeans and Nevuchadnetzar who were wicked and cruel.
The Malbim explains, "all those who love you have forgotten you, they seek you not," that you were like a sick person whom everyone despairs of. And even when they come to see you, it means, even when they come as if to visit, he says they seek you not. They are not really at all interested whether your condition has improved, whether the illness is light. They look at you as a person living on borrowed time. He is already about to be in the grave. And why? Because what I wounded you with, the wound of an enemy, this is for the greatness of your iniquity. It is for the greatness of the iniquities, since the enemy in this example, we are speaking of a situation where the enemy kills and does not chastise. And if he is cruel, he adds to torment the wounded one with harsh suffering. And He says here I wounded you with the wound of an enemy, which is a mortal wound. The enemy, as we said, kills, he wants to conquer a country, so he kills all who stand in his way. He has no interest in tormenting. But the attribute of justice was angry here, this is worse than an enemy. Because here you say there is also great suffering. So this is worse than the enemy, "I wounded you with the chastisement of a cruel one." Why? Immediately the explanation, "for the greatness of your iniquity, because your sins were increased." Since you had the greatness of your iniquity, that is in quantity, and your sins were increased (atzmu), that is in quality. That is, there was here both abundance and iniquities that were of very great quality, meaning very severe and very great transgressions. Therefore the punishment fits accordingly.
"Why do you cry out for your affliction? Your pain is incurable. Because of the greatness of your iniquity, because your sins were increased, I have done these things to you." Let me read the verse again. "Why do you cry out for your affliction? Your pain is incurable. Because of the greatness of your iniquity, because your sins were increased, I have done these things to you." First of all "why do you cry out," he switches to speaking in the masculine. The previous verses were in the feminine. He said "there is none to plead your cause for healing, all those who love you have forgotten you." Says the Radak, do not be surprised, we have already written several times that when speaking to Israel one can speak in the masculine, Israel, one can speak in the feminine, Knesset Yisrael. One speaks of all of Israel also in the feminine. "Why do you cry out for your affliction," that is, the prophet tells them why do you cry out over your affliction? When a person cries out it is, as it were, a complaint toward Heaven. He says, admittedly you have an affliction, your pain is incurable, but this is because of the greatness of your iniquity, because your sins were increased. For this affliction is because of the iniquities, because of the sins. For if you had repented, the wounds and suffering would cease. So then what do you have to weep over? What do you have to cry out about? Over your iniquity, over your sins, for it is because of these that I did these things to you. Because of them you suffer.
The Malbim says what is the difference between iniquity (avon) and sin (chet)? Iniquity is intentional. It is a distortion of the intellect. That a person makes an ideology of it. In contrast, sin is inadvertent. Or something that stems from desire. Seemingly says the Malbim, if so, it should not have said "for the greatness of your iniquity, because your sins were increased." Because it would have been more fitting to attribute the abundance to the sins, "for the greatness of your sins." While to the iniquities it would be fitting to say "were increased in strength" (atzmu). For the iniquities have strength. What does that mean? Iniquities are evil, iniquities are malice. Why does He say "your sins were increased in strength" and "the greatness of your iniquity"? He reversed the fitting expression. Says the Malbim, he wanted to say here a novel emphasis. That even the iniquities, along with the fact that the very iniquity is something mighty and terrible, since iniquity is a distortion of the intellect to act intentionally, that is not enough for you, they even multiplied. It is not enough that they are mighty, they also, they also multiplied. You did many iniquities. The sins, which naturally are many because a person stumbles into sin inadvertently and so tends to stumble much, He says with you they are also mighty. These are not light sins, they carry kareit, they carry court-imposed death, which are harsh and severe sins. So then, your sins too were mighty.
"Therefore all who devour you shall be devoured, and all your adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity, and those who plunder you shall be plundered, and all who prey upon you I will give for prey." "Therefore all who devour you shall be devoured." And why? Afterward he continues "for I will restore health to you, and I will heal you of your wounds." The Malbim explains, since all the wounds were only for the iniquities, it turns out then that when the iniquities are atoned for, there is no point in continuing to give wounds. That is to say, even the very existence of those who strike, and those who strike are essentially the nations, their entire existence is so that Assyria should be the rod of My anger, so that they exact from us. And if so it turns out that when there is no longer a need to exact from us, since our deeds have already been corrected, then consequently there is also no reason to leave the nations, no reason to leave those who strike. Says the Malbim, there are those who harmed Israel in the body, there are those who harmed Israel in property. And each will receive measure for measure. Each will receive according to the nature and according to the matter that he did. Those who harmed in the body, this can be of two forms. Either they killed them, what are called those who wrought destruction on the people of Israel, or they took them into captivity, or they lost them. Corresponding to those who killed them, He says "all who devour you shall be devoured." "Shall be devoured" means death. Corresponding to those who oppressed them, took them into captivity, corresponding to them He says "all your adversaries shall go into captivity." Corresponding to those who harmed us in property, who robbed our wealth, there were two types among them. There were those who robbed the property in order to take. And there were those whose whole aim was to destroy. Even if not to take, but they had a goal in itself to destroy the property. About this He says, those whose aim was to destroy, "those who plunder you shall be plundered." "Plunder" (shoseh) is always a term of destruction. Corresponding to them He says "those who plunder you shall be plundered." And those who plundered the property for their enjoyment, not with intent to destroy, about them He says "all who prey upon you I will give for prey." That is, those whose aim was to take their spoil, them I will give for prey, that is, they shall be preyed upon. The Malbim says that "those who plunder you" (shosayich) is from the word shasah and mashseh, whose root is sh.s.s. And its definition is a person whose main intent is to destroy. That is the shosayich. In contrast the plunderer (bozez) wants spoil. He wants to plunder in order to take. The shoses is a person who may at first plunder, but if something remains, he makes sure nothing remains. So what does he do? He destroys what remains. That is called the definition of shosayich.
"For I will restore health to you, and I will heal you of your wounds, says Hashem, because they called you an outcast, saying, This is Zion, no one seeks after her." Hashem says, why shall "all who devour you be devoured, all your adversaries, every one of them, go into captivity"? What is the reason? Because as we said, the whole purpose of Hashem bringing the nations was to chastise us for our corrupt deeds, for the iniquities, for the sins. When we no longer have iniquities and sins, says the Holy One, consequently those who plunder and prey will be punished for the evil of their hearts. And this is what is written here, this reason is written here: "for I will restore health to you, and I will heal you of your wounds, says Hashem." Since I will restore health to you, that is, a cure, I will heal you from the wounds, then consequently there is no longer any point in leaving the nations to chastise you. What is the point of keeping the rod when there is no need for it? So I will restore health, and I will heal you of your wounds. There is a doubling here. Says the Malbim, "I will restore health" means the fracture will heal. And says the Malbim, why is it called arukhah? Because, as it were, there is a fracture, so now the flesh lengthens (mit'arech) and covers the place of the fracture. So that is arukhah. Arukhah, as it were the flesh lengthens. As you will see "health arose upon the walls of Jerusalem." Therefore, by the way, regarding the matter of arukhah a term of sprouting is written: "your healing shall spring forth speedily," so it is written in Yeshayahu 58. It means, since we are speaking here of the lengthening of the flesh, so the flesh sprouted. Therefore it is called arukhah. "For I will restore health to you, and I will heal you of your wounds." The internal wounds too, from these I will heal you. Both the matter of the fracture, and the matter of the wound. "Because they called you an outcast." Now he explains why they will actually be punished. For the famous and well-known question, if they did the will of Hashem, they deserve reward, not punishment. And Assyria is the rod of My anger, so why must this rod in the end be burned and harmed? For Hashem used it as a tool in order to correct us. So why then will they be punished? They will in the end be devoured and go into captivity, be for plunder and prey? Explains the Malbim that this is the reason the verse mentions here. "Because they called you an outcast, saying, This is Zion, no one seeks after her." They called you by the name outcast. That is, they said Zion is an outcast. As it were they do not remember that we are like a son who corrupted his ways with his father, and the father handed him over to someone in order to strike him so that the son would return to the father. And then you have a very great responsibility as one who strikes, not to exaggerate your blows beyond measure, for then the father will be angry with you. Since the father does this only so that the son will return to him. And they forgot this. They said Zion is an outcast. Hashem has banished them forever. So consequently strike them as much as you want. Strike them without limit. There is no one who will in the end demand a reckoning from you. Therefore you can strike them, because no one will seek their welfare and good. "This is Zion, no one seeks after her." There is no one who seeks after Zion, who will see what they did to her, who will try to plead her cause, no one seeks after her. Therefore the nations made a full and decisive end of us. And this is essentially the explanation familiar to all of us, the explanation that says the nations added much of their own accord. The Holy One says, I was angry a little and they helped toward evil. And since this is so, for this matter they deserve punishment, since in the end they did much beyond what was decreed upon us.
Says the Malbim, why is it written "outcast, no one seeks after her"? What is the doubling? Says the Malbim, it is possible that sometimes some sheep of the flock is cast out. It strayed off. And it is possible that sometimes the shepherd will also go to look for it. But here it is not enough that she is cast out, but no one seeks after her. Here the shepherd does not even go to look. So she is not merely cast out, it is that no one seeks after her.
"Thus says Hashem, Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Yaakov, and have compassion on his dwellings, and the city shall be rebuilt upon its mound, and the palace shall stand where it should." The Holy One says, Zion is not an outcast. "Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Yaakov." At the beginning it is in the category of a tent. The next stage will be for them to have a permanent dwelling, "and have compassion on his dwellings." And afterward "the city shall be rebuilt upon its mound." Afterward the whole city will be rebuilt upon its mound. That is, at first there will be dwellings like in tents. Afterward they will already have real dwellings. And in the final stage Zion will be rebuilt as it was of old, when the Beit HaMikdash will be built, "the palace shall stand where it should," and the king will sit in his palace according to the laws of the Beit HaMikdash which from the hand of Hashem He instructed him. Therefore it is "the palace where it should." What is "the palace where it should"? One does not build the Beit HaMikdash, as we already learned in the Book of Melachim, one does not build according to architectural data. One builds the Beit HaMikdash according to a precise plan from Hashem. It is all from the hand of Hashem, He instructed him. So that in fact it must be as it should. And this is what he says, "the palace shall stand where it should." The king will sit in the palace which will be built as it should. Meaning Hashem will dwell in the Beit HaMikdash, when the Beit HaMikdash will be built according to its statutes and laws.
"And out of them shall come thanksgiving and the voice of those who make merry, and I will multiply them and they shall not be few, and I will honor them and they shall not be small." "And out of them shall come thanksgiving." Thanksgiving means gratitude for the miracles done for them. "And the voice of those who make merry," it means from the abundance of good that the Holy One will bestow upon them, they will have the voice of those who make merry, the voice of laughter, laughter is joy. "And I will multiply them," it means with a multitude of people, "and they shall not be few," that they shall not be a small people but a great people. "And I will honor them and they shall not be small." "I will honor them," many explain that it means an expression of increase. But this is not understood, for you have doubled it. "I will multiply them" and "I will honor them," what need is there to double? Rather they explain that "I will honor them" refers to honor and position. They will have authority. "And I will honor them and they shall not be small." "They shall not be small" means few. But here it does not mean few in quantity, but small in quality. That we had no honor, we were degraded. This is the meaning of "and your beginning was small." "And I will honor them," so they will have honor and shall not be small, they will not be small in their honor but their standing will grow great.
"And his children shall be as of old, and his congregation shall be established before Me, and I will punish all who oppress him." "And his children shall be as of old," that they shall be children of the living God. "And his congregation" means the whole congregation and the Sanhedrin. "Shall be established before Me. And I will punish all who oppress him." What is "shall be established before Me"? It means I will dwell among them. And they will not be like at the beginning when they abandoned Hashem and Hashem handed them over to the nations, but now "I will punish all who oppress him." Whoever oppresses Israel, the Holy One will exact from him.
"And their leader shall be from among them, and their ruler shall come forth from their midst, and I will bring him near and he shall approach Me, for who is he who has pledged his heart to approach Me, says Hashem?" "And their leader shall be from among them," it means now we have rulers, as it were, from the nations. Even if you say today we have a prime minister and we have a government, but we all know how independent this government is. And we all know that the one with the hundred is the one with the opinion, and Uncle Sam is the one who decides whether they will put a balcony here or not. And he is the one who decides where we will build and how we will build and what we will do. So we see there is no leader from among them. We are still subject to the nations. He tells you "and their leader shall be from among them," but at the time of the redemption, the leader, the ruler, will be from within the people, not a stranger. And it will not be like in the Second Temple period, when the leaders were from the peoples around us, they were the ones who ruled over us. "For their ruler shall come forth from their midst." Says the Malbim, by the choice of the people. Interesting. The Malbim says by the choice of the people, perhaps the Malbim here is prophesying democracy? Says the Malbim, their ruler shall come forth from their midst by the choice of the people. But the plain meaning is that the ruler will be pleasing to the people. It means the people will want that ruler. By the choice of the people. And when this happens, "and I will bring him near." I will bring him near to be among those close to Hashem who stand in His hall. As it is written "happy is the one You choose and bring near, that he may dwell in Your courts, we shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, the holiness of Your hall," right? They say this at a brit milah, right? "Happy is the one You choose and bring near." The Holy One separated you from the congregation of Israel to bring you near to Him. This will be through the will of Hashem, that the Holy One chose for Himself a person, that this person will be a treasure from among all of Israel, whom Hashem brings near and he will be a ruler. Like the tribe of Levi, like the seed of Aharon, like the dynasty of David, that the Holy One brought someone near to Him and he will be the ruler and leader. And through the fact that I bring him near to Me, then through this he approaches Me. "And I will bring him near and he shall approach Me. For who is he who has pledged his heart to approach Me, says Hashem?" For who is he who has pledged his heart to approach Me, says Hashem, when I have not brought him near to Me? Who has pledged his heart to approach Me not by My will? An example, Uziyahu who approached to offer the incense in the Beit HaMikdash. And immediately what happened? The tzaraat blossomed on his forehead. Who is he who will approach Me, who has pledged his heart to approach Me not by the will of Hashem? You approach Me not by the will of Hashem, God forbid this brings immediate punishment. It is written that in the Second Temple they used to replace the High Priests every year. And they did not need to dismiss them. On Yom Kippur, with a chain they bring him into the Holy of Holies, and afterward they pull him. Afterward they pull him out because he would not survive. So Hashem says, who has pledged his heart to approach Me? Who has pledged his heart to approach Me without My having brought him near? And this is what happened to Korach, that Korach too pledged his heart to approach Hashem, and we see what happened to him. And this too, with a thousand distinctions, applies to Nadav and Avihu, who too pledged their hearts to approach Hashem to offer and bring a foreign fire that Hashem did not command. Says Hashem, "and I will bring him near and he shall approach Me." Only the one whom I bring near, he shall approach Me. For who has pledged his heart to approach Me, says Hashem?
Rashi, in contrast, explains that "who has pledged his heart to approach Me" refers to the nations. That today, that is, in the Second Temple period for example, if they wanted to appoint themselves a ruler of their own, the nations would prevent it. And they would appoint some puppet on their behalf who would do their will. And many times they rebelled against them, like Tzidkiyahu and others. Says Hashem, but then their leader will be from among them. Says the Holy One, and their ruler shall come forth from their midst. And what will you say, that the nations will prevent it? "Who is he who has pledged his heart to approach Me, says Hashem?" According to Rashi, who is he who has pledged his heart to approach Me and to annul an appointment that I appointed? So who has pledged his heart, it means we are speaking of the nations. Who will approach Me for war in order to protest against Me, as it were?
"And you shall be My people, and I will be your God." Says Hashem, the whole nation, first of all they will be My people, through their good deeds, and through this I will be their God. That is, it will begin with an awakening from below, from us, from below, and then through this an awakening from above will be aroused, that "I will be your God."
"Behold, the storm of Hashem, fury goes forth, a sweeping tempest, it shall whirl upon the head of the wicked." Says Hashem, all this will be at the beginning, even before the complete rectification arrives. But there will yet come the Day of Hashem, which is the great Day of Judgment, when in the complete rectification, "the storm of Hashem, fury goes forth." The fury restrained in the heart of Hashem over the deeds of the wicked, this fury will turn into a storm. And this tempest will lodge and whirl upon the head of the wicked. "Yitgorer" is like we say today mitgorer, encamps and dwells, yes, "the land of my dwelling." So this tempest will as if dwell upon the head of the wicked to punish them.
"The fierce anger of Hashem shall not turn back until He has executed and until He has established the purposes of His heart, in the latter days you will understand it." The fierce anger of Hashem shall not turn back until He carries out the purposes of His heart, to execute judgment on the wicked, as it is written "behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the wicked shall be stubble," and so on. And this will be in the latter days, when you will understand it and recognize that this is the hand of Hashem, that this is the work of Hashem. And then notice, it will not be like before when He told us "and you shall be My people, and I will be your God." You begin and I afterward. "At that time, says Hashem, I will be God to all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people." For in the time to come, says Hashem, first of all I will be their God, and afterward they will be My people. The cleaving of God to them, through, as the Malbim defines it, the kindness that does not regard the preparation of the recipient, whether he is worthy of it or not. The kindness of Hashem at the high level, which does not regard the preparation of the recipient. Hashem does not look at whether you are worthy, whether your preparation is worthy of that kindness. This kindness is the kindness that exists forever, as we discussed in the past, which is an aspect of the conduct of the Unity. And the conduct of the Unity is giving and kindness without limit, even not according to the known rules, even not according to the rules of justice. And then the resting of the divine Presence will begin, as it were, from Him. And through Hashem cleaving to them, then they will be My people. "At that time, says Hashem, I will be God to all the families of Israel," and afterward they will be My people. And this is a higher level than what was before, that before an awakening from below was required, and now Hashem says it will begin with an awakening from above.