Chapter 14 of Zechariah depicts the End of Days: the war of Gog and Magog against Jerusalem, the downfall of the nations, and the great rectification that will follow. In the section before us, we examine the retribution that will strike the nations that waged war against Jerusalem, the turmoil that will fall upon their camps, the spoils that will remain for Israel, and later the survivors of the nations who will ascend to celebrate the festival of Sukkot - and the test they will face. The chapter concludes with a depiction of the holiness that will spread even to ordinary, mundane vessels: "Holy to Hashem" upon the bells of the horses, and every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to Hashem of Hosts.
וְזֹאת תִּהְיֶה הַמַּגֵּפָה אֲשֶׁר יִגֹּף יְהֹוָה אֶת־כָּל־הָעַמִּים אֲשֶׁר צָבְאוּ עַל־יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם, הָמֵק בְּשָׂרוֹ וְהוּא עֹמֵד עַל־רַגְלָיו, וְעֵינָיו תִּמַּקְנָה בְחֹרֵיהֶן, וּלְשׁוֹנוֹ תִּמַּק בְּפִיהֶם׃ - And this shall be the plague with which Hashem will strike all the peoples that waged war against Jerusalem: their flesh shall melt away while they stand on their feet, their eyes shall melt away in their sockets, and their tongue shall melt away in their mouth.
"Their flesh shall melt away" [hamek besaro] - Rashi explains that this refers to the falling off of limbs. That is to say, a person's limbs drop off from him; he walks along and his arm falls off, Heaven spare us. This will be the plague that strikes those nations.
And the prophet adds: "While they stand on their feet." Do not think that this person is bedridden; rather, while still standing on his feet, his flesh and limbs will rot away. The idea is chilling. These are phenomena known to us only in modern times, yet they were written so long ago. How can it be that a person is standing on his feet and melting? Such a thing exists only in the reality of atomic warfare, where the thermal radiation is boundlessly intense, and the heat at the epicenter of an atomic bomb is beyond imagination. This heat will cause a person's limbs to drop off while he is still standing on his feet - and so Radak wrote, some seven hundred years ago.
"Their eyes shall melt away in their sockets" - here too Radak explains: their eyes will dissolve inside their sockets. The eyes will simply melt; a person will begin to liquefy, as if completely vaporizing.
וְהָיָה בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא תִּהְיֶה מְהוּמַת־יְהֹוָה רַבָּה בָּהֶם, וְהֶחֱזִיקוּ אִישׁ יַד רֵעֵהוּ, וְעָלְתָה יָדוֹ עַל־יַד רֵעֵהוּ׃ - And on that day there shall be a great panic from Hashem among them; each man shall seize the hand of his fellow, and his hand shall rise against the hand of his fellow.
"There shall be a great panic from Hashem among them" - Rashi explains: to confound their minds and drive them mad. There will be tremendous confusion. As for the explanation of "Each man shall seize the hand of his fellow, and his hand shall rise against the hand of his fellow," the commentators differ. Radak explains: his hand will be severed as he holds his fellow's hand. He will grasp his friend's hand, and suddenly his own hand will detach and fall off. This is also the rendering of the Targum: "And his hand will be torn off from upon his fellow's hand."
Metzudat David explains: when one of them takes his fellow's hand to help him, the other will think he is not coming to help him, but to attack him. Therefore, "his hand shall rise against the hand of his fellow" - instead of leaning on his hand, he will strike the hand of the one who came to help him. This is part of the great panic: the one who comes to help will not only fail to assist, but the one being helped will strike the outstretched hand, believing it has come against him.
And the Malbim explains: when a person wishes to grasp the hand of his fellow to support him so that he does not fall, not only will he fail to support him, but he will actually bring him down - "and his hand shall rise against the hand of his fellow," his hand will overpower him and pull him down. Either way, it is clear from the verse that the panic will be so overwhelming that people will not distinguish between friend and foe, and the chaos will lead the warriors who came to fight against Jerusalem to fight one another.
וְגַם־יְהוּדָה תִּלָּחֵם בִּירוּשָׁלָ͏ִם, וְאֻסַּף חֵיל כָּל־הַגּוֹיִם סָבִיב, זָהָב וָכֶסֶף וּבְגָדִים לָרֹב מְאֹד׃ - And Judah, too, shall fight in Jerusalem, and the wealth of all the nations round about shall be gathered: gold, silver, and garments in great abundance.
What is meant by "shall fight in Jerusalem"? This can be understood in two ways. One possibility is that Judah will fight against Jerusalem. This presents a difficulty, however, for the people of Judah are the people of Jerusalem! Therefore, Radak explains: when the nations come, they will bring people from Judah along with them to assist in fighting against Jerusalem - acting as mercenaries or forced conscripts. By way of analogy: if the United States were to go to war against us, there would be Jews fighting on their side, since there are Jews serving in the American military. Yet when they witness the battle and the downfall of the nations, they will turn around to fight the nations instead, refusing to take part in the war against Jerusalem. Rashi follows a similar line, writing that Judah will be forced against its will to fight against Israel.
Ibn Ezra explains differently: we have already seen that "half of the city shall go out into exile" while half the people remain in Jerusalem - and those who remain in Jerusalem are the ones who will fight against the nations. These are the ones spoken of in the verse; they will wage war against the enemy and gather vast spoils: "gold, silver, and garments in great abundance." This connects back to what we saw at the beginning of the chapter: "I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem." Why did the Holy One, blessed be He, gather them to Jerusalem? So that they would leave behind all the gold and silver they took from Israel throughout all generations. They will bring everything here, leave it behind, and perish - and that will be the end of them. That was the divine purpose.
וְכֵן תִּהְיֶה מַגֵּפַת הַסּוּס, הַפֶּרֶד, הַגָּמָל וְהַחֲמוֹר, וְכָל־הַבְּהֵמָה אֲשֶׁר יִהְיֶה בַּמַּחֲנוֹת הָהֵמָּה, כַּמַּגֵּפָה הַזֹּאת׃ - And so shall be the plague of the horse, the mule, the camel, and the donkey, and of all the animals that will be in those camps, like this plague.
The very same plague that strikes the people - "their flesh shall rot away... and their eyes shall rot" - will strike the horse, the mule, the camel, and the donkey as well. Here a modern reader might wonder: what horse and what camel? Where are there camels in Jerusalem, aside from a few used for tourist rides around the Old City? One must recognize that the prophet speaks in the language of his own day, and we, living in another generation, must translate these concepts into our own terms. The horse, mule, and camel of that era correspond to today's tanks and aircraft, the instruments of destruction and war machines. The prophet is telling us: just as an immense plague will strike the soldiers, so too will it strike the weaponry they bring with them. If this refers to nuclear warfare, the idea is easy to grasp: the release of extreme heat melts everything, reducing even a tank to a molten mass of metal. The same destruction that strikes the people will strike their armaments. In the prophet's time, he could not speak of a "tank" or an "Apache," so he used the familiar terminology of horses and mules; today, that means the Merkava and other armored vehicles.
וְהָיָה כָּל־הַנּוֹתָר מִכָּל־הַגּוֹיִם הַבָּאִים עַל־יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם, וְעָלוּ מִדֵּי שָׁנָה בְשָׁנָה לְהִשְׁתַּחֲוֺת לְמֶלֶךְ יְהֹוָה צְבָאוֹת וְלָחֹג אֶת־חַג הַסֻּכּוֹת׃ - And it shall come to pass that everyone who remains of all the nations that came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to prostrate themselves before the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to celebrate the festival of Sukkot.
"Everyone who remains" refers to those who survive the war. The nations will not be wiped out entirely, and the survivors will recognize the greatness of Hashem, as it says: "On that day Hashem will be One and His Name One." And why specifically on the festival of Sukkot? Because the downfall of Gog will occur on Sukkot, and they will therefore ascend each year to commemorate the miracle that took place on that day.
The Gemara in Tractate Avodah Zarah (3a) explains the connection of the nations to the festival of Sukkot. In the World to Come, the Holy One, blessed be He, will come to distribute reward, and the nations of the world will also present themselves and plead: "Master of the Universe, give us reward as well!" He will ask them: "For what?" They will answer: "We established bridges, built airplanes, and created telephones! And why? We did all this only for the sake of Israel - airplanes so they could ascend to the Land of Israel, and telephones so they could hear the voice of their language." The Holy One, blessed be He, will respond to them: "Fools! Whatever you did, you did only for yourselves!"
And as we have already explained: Why does He call them "fools" and not "liars"? After all, seemingly it is a lie - did they really do it for Israel? But in truth, even without their knowledge and without their intention, they indeed did it for Israel, for everything created in the world was created solely for the sake of Israel. This is like the Trans-Siberian Railway, which the Russian government built and no one understood why it was needed. Millions of laborers worked on it, many people died in the cold and backbreaking labor, and it was used very little. Only when the Mir Yeshiva fled the inferno and reached Shanghai via that very railway did people understand why the Russians were made to build it: to rescue the Mir Yeshiva.
The Rambam writes similarly: A person may build an entire tower, and the whole tower was built only so that some sage or tzaddik would pass by in the street one day, rain would begin to fall and bother him, and he would take shelter under it. And once that person leaves, the tower can already be destroyed - the Twin Towers can collapse - for the one who needed it already made use of it and went on his way, and it was for that very purpose that the tower was built. Everything created in the world was created for the sake of Israel. Therefore, the Holy One, blessed be He, says to them: You are not liars; you are right, everything you did was indeed for the sake of Israel. But you are fools - for had you possessed wisdom, you would have intended it, and then you would have received a reward. Since you had no such intention, it turns out you did it all only for your own benefit.
The nations continue and say: Master of the Universe, did You suspend the mountain over us like a vat? Had You held it over us, we too would have accepted the Torah! "Give it to us from the start and we will fulfill it." The Holy One, blessed be He, says to them: Fools of the world! He who toiled on Friday eats on Shabbat, but one who did not toil on Friday, from where will he eat on Shabbat? How can you come asking without having exerted any effort beforehand? Even so, the Holy One, blessed be He, does not deal tyrannically with His creatures, and therefore He tells them: I have an easy mitzvah, and Sukkah is its name; go and fulfill it.
The Gemara asks: But did not Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi say, "Which I command you today" - today to perform them, and not tomorrow to perform them; today to perform them, and not today to receive their reward? If so, how can the Holy One, blessed be He, allow them to fulfill a mitzvah in the Future to Come? The Gemara answers: The Holy One, blessed be He, does not deal tyrannically with His creatures - so that a person will have no claims or grievances, He gives them an opportunity. And why is the mitzvah of Sukkah called an "easy mitzvah"? Because it involves no financial loss: a person gathers a few branches and a few boards, and he has a sukkah.
Immediately, every one of them takes materials, goes, and builds a sukkah atop his roof. Then the Holy One, blessed be He, unleashes the sweltering sun upon them as in the season of Tammuz, and each and every one kicks his sukkah and leaves, as it is stated: "Let us snap their cords and cast off their ropes from us." He brings a little heat upon them, they lose their temper, and each one kicks his sukkah and walks out.
The Gemara asks: He unleashes the sun upon them? But didn't you say that the Holy One, blessed be He, does not deal tyrannically with His creatures, so why put them through such an ordeal intentionally? It answers: Because with Israel too, sometimes the summer heat of Tammuz extends into the festival of Sukkot and causes them discomfort, yet they still strive to fulfill the mitzvah of Sukkah. The Gemara asks again: But can you really say they are obligated to persist? Didn't Rava say that one who suffers discomfort is exempt from the sukkah? If so, the Jewish people would be exempt and the nations would be exempt, and they left in accordance with the law! The Gemara responds: Granted that he is exempt, does one have to kick it? True, you are exempt, but leave with humility, like someone who was not privileged to fulfill a mitzvah and carry out his Creator's will; yet the gentile walks out and kicks the sukkah! That is already "Let us snap their cords," and in this test they fail. Immediately, the Holy One, blessed be He, sits and laughs at them, as it is stated: "He Who sits in heaven will laugh; the Lord will mock them." Rabbi Yitzchak said: There is no laughter before the Holy One, blessed be He, except on that single day.
There is another opinion: Rabbi Yose said that in the Future to Come, idolaters will come and convert. The Gemara asks: Do we accept converts in the Messianic era? Were converts not rejected both in the days of David and in the days of Solomon, for there is no greatness in converting when life is good for the Jewish people? Rather, they will become "dragged converts" - they will come, as it were, against our will; not that we accept them, but that they will attach themselves to us. They will place tefillin on their heads, tefillin on their arms, tzitzit on their garments, and a mezuzah on their doorways. But once they see the war of Gog and Magog, Gog asks them: "Against whom have you come?" They reply, "Against Hashem and against His anointed," as it is stated: "Why do nations rage, and peoples utter vain things? The kings of the earth take their stand..." And then each one tears off his mitzvot and leaves: this one takes off his tefillin, that one removes his tallit, and that one removes his mezuzah. All those who seemingly came to join the Jewish people will say: Israel is about to fall, Gog and Magog is coming to finish things off - as it is stated: "Let us snap their cords." And the Holy One, blessed be He, sits and laughs, as it is stated: "He Who sits in heaven will laugh." And some say that it was regarding this that Rabbi Yitzchak said: The Holy One, blessed be He, has no laughter except on that single day.
And this is what is written here: that at that time, they will come to prostrate themselves before the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to celebrate the festival of Sukkot, and then Hashem will test them. It is of this era that the prophet speaks here according to Rashi: the nations will be put to the test, and their test will be on the festival of Sukkot.
Why indeed will the test be on the festival of Sukkot? Because the entire essence of the nations is physical, material, whereas the essence of Israel is spiritual. Therefore, the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded Israel to dwell in a sukkah, and the sukkah represents the Clouds of Glory. And what is a cloud made of? Water. A cloud is a physical thing transformed into something spiritual: you take water, turn it into vapor, and the vapor rises upward. This is precisely what Israel does through their mitzvot. We are formed of clay, yet we take materiality and elevate it into spirituality: a person sanctifies his body, is meticulous about his food, his actions, and his marriage, and transforms everything from the physical to the spiritual. This is the refinement of the holy sparks.
In contrast, for the gentile, this does not apply: he is physical and material, and has no detachment from matter. Therefore, when the nations come and say, "Master of the Universe, had You given us the Torah we too would have been capable," the Holy One, blessed be He, tells them: Come and let Me show you that the Torah does not pertain to you. Here, I give you the mitzvah of Sukkah, which embodies this entire concept. What are you doing? The entire sukkah is physical: you took wood, branches, boards, and nails, and assembled them. And what is the sukkah? It is the shade of faith, "For He will conceal me in His sukkah" - I am sitting in the shadow of the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself. I took something physical and transformed it into the pinnacle of spirituality. Hashem says to them: You are incapable of this. And the proof is that the moment something minor bothers you physically - a little sun - you immediately kicked everything away. You are incapable of taking matter and elevating it to the realm of the spirit. Yet Israel engages in this all their days; they gave their lives for the sanctification of Hashem's Name, subdued their bodies, and elevated their spirits. They deserve the Torah, and they deserve the reward.
וְהָיָה אֲשֶׁר לֹא־יַעֲלֶה מֵאֵת מִשְׁפְּחוֹת הָאָרֶץ אֶל־יְרוּשָׁלַ͏ִם לְהִשְׁתַּחֲוֺת לְמֶלֶךְ יְהֹוָה צְבָאוֹת, וְלֹא עֲלֵיהֶם יִהְיֶה הַגָּשֶׁם׃ - And it shall be, that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to prostrate itself before the King, the Lord of Hosts, upon them there will be no rain.
In the future to come, the earth will be filled with the knowledge of Hashem as the waters cover the sea, and everyone will declare, "Hashem is one and His name is one," and the nations will ascend to Jerusalem to prostrate themselves before the King, the Lord of Hosts. And whoever does not go up, his punishment will be a withholding of rain. This, too, connects to the festival of Sukkot: on Sukkot we pray for rain, it is the time of the water libation, to appease the Almighty concerning the waters, and the Four Species of the lulav serve to halt harmful dews and damaging winds, which is why we wave them toward the four corners of heaven. The verse tells us: whoever doubts or disregards the festival of Sukkot and does not go up - that abundance provided by Sukkot, which is rain, will not come upon him.
וְאִם־מִשְׁפַּחַת מִצְרַיִם לֹא־תַעֲלֶה וְלֹא בָאָה וְלֹא עֲלֵיהֶם, תִּהְיֶה הַמַּגֵּפָה אֲשֶׁר יִגֹּף יְהֹוָה אֶת־הַגּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר לֹא יַעֲלוּ לָחֹג אֶת־חַג הַסֻּכּוֹת׃ - And if the family of Egypt does not go up and does not come, not upon them [shall be the rain]; there shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike the nations that do not go up to celebrate the festival of Sukkot.
This verse is difficult in itself, both in its plain meaning and in its syntax and phrasing. Seemingly, if Egypt does not go up, that is a reason to strike them, not the reverse; if so, what is the meaning of "and not upon them shall be the plague"?
Rashi explains: "And not upon them" - one pauses here. That is to say: and not upon them will be the rain mentioned previously. However, in Egypt one cannot speak of rain, since Egypt is not sustained by rain from heaven but by the Nile, as the Nile rises and irrigates the fields. Therefore, "and not upon them" means that the Nile will not rise to irrigate them. Egypt does not go up to Jerusalem because they say: We have no need for rain, we have the Nile - and for this they will be punished, that the Nile will not rise. Targum Yonatan translates similarly: "The Nile will not rise upon them" to water them, and this will be their punishment. The verse then adds: "There shall be the plague with which Hashem will strike the nations" - meaning that in addition to this, Hashem will strike them with a plague, just like all those who do not come to celebrate the festival of Sukkot.
Ibn Ezra explains "and not upon them" similarly to Rashi, that rain will not fall upon them, but that calamity will strike whoever does not go up, and the word "upon them" serves both clauses - "upon them shall be the plague." That is to say: "And if the family of Egypt does not go up and does not come" - comma; "and not" - will rain fall upon them; and from that same word one continues: "upon them shall be the plague with which Hashem will strike." The word "upon them" points, as it were, both to the right and to the left, serving both backward and forward.
Here a question arises: who determines the punctuation? After all, there are verses that have no definitive resolution, where the Sages debate whether the phrasing leans in one direction or the other. And if one should ask: do not the cantillation marks decide the matter? The answer is that the cantillation marks were established according to one opinion, and proponents of another view would arrange them differently. Examples of this include: "its knobs and its flowers shall be of one piece with it," as well as in the passage of the blasphemer, and similarly: "You shall not do so to Hashem your God, but rather to the place that Hashem shall choose" - whether this refers back to what precedes it or forward to what follows. One cannot simply say, "but the cantillation marks indicate this," because the cantillation marks were placed according to that particular approach, while according to another approach the cantillation would be read differently.
The Malbim offers another interpretation: Egypt will not go up because they do not need rain. Furthermore, Egypt will be among the first to arrive alongside Gog. A certain Knesset member has not ceased warning in recent years: We are complacent and at ease, while Egypt is arming itself. And there is good reason to heed this warning - for on the day of Gog, Egypt will be a partner, and for that it needs weapons. They, too, study the Prophets (whether or not they study the Malbim), and it is written that Egypt will come to wage war, which is why they are arming themselves. And because they were the first to come and fight, they are all the more deserving of receiving their punishment. We have already seen in Yechezkel 38 that a punishment will come upon them and they will be struck by a plague; now the plague will strike them a second time - and not only upon them, but it will spread from them to all the nations that did not go up to Jerusalem. This is the meaning of "and not upon them [alone] shall be the plague" - the plague will fall not only upon them, but also upon all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the festival of Sukkot.
The Radak offers a fourth explanation: "And not upon them" is understood like Rashi, that rain will not fall upon them; and since they do not need rain and cannot be punished through drought, the plague will inevitably strike them - their punishment will be a fatal plague instead of withholding rain.
זֹאת תִּהְיֶה חַטַּאת מִצְרָיִם, וְחַטַּאת כָּל־הַגּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר לֹא יַעֲלוּ לָחֹג אֶת־חַג הַסֻּכּוֹת׃ - This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the festival of Sukkot.
This will be the punishment of Egypt and of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the festival of Sukkot - that is, the plague of which we spoke.
בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא יִהְיֶה עַל־מְצִלּוֹת הַסּוּס קֹדֶשׁ לַיהֹוָה, וְהָיָה הַסִּירוֹת בְּבֵית יְהֹוָה כַּמִּזְרָקִים לִפְנֵי הַמִּזְבֵּחַ׃ - On that day, there shall be upon the bells of the horse: Holy to Hashem; and the pots in the House of Hashem shall be like the basins before the altar.
"Metzilot" is from the language of chiming (tziltzulim) - bells that were hung on horses, some say between its eyes and some say around its neck. The prophet says that on that day, they will take the bells off the horses and engrave upon them, "Holy to Hashem"; everything will be dedicated to Hashem, blessed be He.
There is also an opinion in Chazal that interprets this differently. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: The Holy One, blessed be He, will in the future add to the Land of Israel up to the distance a horse runs and casts shade (metzel). And what is meant by "runs and casts shade"? Some say: as far as it can run until it seeks shade, which is half a day. And some say "casts shade" means until the time that if it stands, it casts a shadow directly beneath itself, which is also half a day, since the sun is then in the middle of the sky and the shadow is right beneath it. In other words, the Land of Israel will expand. Therefore, to all those who ask what we will do with all the new immigrants who will arrive - do not worry; the Land of Israel is called Eretz HaTzvi (the Land of the Deer), and like the skin of a deer, it stretches, and everything will be fine.
"And the pots in the House of Hashem shall be like the basins before the altar" - sirot are cooking pots. There will be an immense quantity of pots in the House of Hashem that people will donate and bring for the needs of offering sacrifices: that which goes up onto the altar goes onto the altar, and that which the owners eat is cooked in a pot. The quantity will be like the number of basins before the altar; and why? Because they will dedicate all the silver and gold to make ministering vessels from them for the House of Hashem.
וְהָיָה כָּל־סִיר בִּירוּשָׁלַ͏ִם וּבִיהוּדָה קֹדֶשׁ לַיהֹוָה צְבָאוֹת, וּבָאוּ כָּל־הַזֹּבְחִים וְלָקְחוּ מֵהֶם וּבִשְּׁלוּ בָהֶם, וְלֹא־יִהְיֶה כְנַעֲנִי עוֹד בְּבֵית־יְהֹוָה צְבָאוֹת בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא׃ - And every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holy to Hashem of Hosts, and all who sacrifice shall come and take of them and cook in them, and there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the House of Hashem of Hosts on that day.
Every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to Hashem of Hosts. That is, the pots in the Beit HaMikdash will not suffice, for everyone will come to offer sacrifices and must cook the sacrificial meat in a pot; therefore, they will consecrate all the pots in Jerusalem and in Judah to the Beit HaMikdash - since more and more people will arrive and there will not be enough pots in which to cook.
"And there shall no longer be a Canaanite" - a Canaanite means a merchant, a trader. We find this similarly regarding Yehudah, "a Canaanite man named Hirah," which means a merchant, as Rashi explains, for the Canaanites were merchants. Another explanation: "Kena'ani" is a compound of "ein kan ani" (there is no poor person here), meaning there will no longer be poverty. And what is the meaning of "there shall no longer be a merchant"? The commentators explain: there will be no need to engage in commerce and order pots and utensils, because there will be a tremendous influx of donations that everyone will contribute to the Beit HaMikdash, and they will not need merchants to sell utensils as they always had to buy from them.
The Malbim also explains the continuation in this manner: "and all who sacrifice shall come and take of them and cook in them, and there shall no longer be a Canaanite" - those who come to offer sacrifices will not need merchants who sell calves, turtledoves, and young pigeons, because everyone will donate their animals to the Beit HaMikdash, and consequently they will have no need for merchants to supply animals.
By way of hint (remez), the Me'am Lo'ez cites, and the Yalkut Eliezer similarly explains homiletically (derush): "There shall no longer be a Canaanite" - there will no longer be merchants who merit Torah and mitzvot solely through supporting Torah study. No longer will it be a matter of "I donate to the yeshivah"; rather, everyone will study, everyone will be in the yeshivah. He will not merely donate to the yeshivah - he will be in the yeshivah! We are approaching this time, for we see that the wealth of supporters of Torah, even the wealthiest in the world, is dwindling, which brings them closer to hearing: "Go and learn yourself; do not think your money can simply purchase this." Certainly supporting Torah is wonderful, but in the future to come, everyone will study: "And all your children shall be taught of Hashem" - everyone will engage in Torah study.
The Ohel Yaakov further explains: they will not need to dispatch merchants to purchase the spices for the ketoret (incense). After all, to procure the spices they had to send merchants, one bringing from here and another from there; there are rare spices - spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon - that are not readily found, with some brought from India and others from far-off places. Yet in the time of Shlomo, there was no need to send emissaries, because Shlomo was knowledgeable in the subterranean veins of the earth. What are the veins of the earth? The Land of Israel has veins that reach underground to all the lands of the world. Shlomo knew where the veins connected to India, and there he planted flora native to India; where the veins reached Siberia and Russia, and there he planted what was suited for there; and where the veins reached Africa, and there he planted tropical flora. So will it be in the future to come: that great wisdom will return, and we will know precisely where the soil connects by subterranean veins to those places in the world, and we will no longer need merchants to bring us goods from there; rather, we will be able to plant and sow right here, and have our own.
At the conclusion of the chapter, the downfall of the nations that amassed against Jerusalem is described: a plague wherein their flesh rots while they are still standing on their feet, a divine panic in which each man strikes his fellow, and a similar plague striking their beasts of war. Judah will fight and gather immense spoil, for it was for this very purpose that Hashem gathered the nations to Jerusalem - so that they would leave behind everything they had plundered from Israel. The survivors among the nations will ascend every year to celebrate the festival of Sukkot, in commemoration of the downfall of Gog, and through it they will be put to the test: the sukkah represents taking the physical and elevating it to the spiritual, something a Gentile is incapable of doing, and when the Holy One, blessed be He, makes the sun beat down fiercely upon them, they kick it and leave. Whoever does not go up will be punished with the withholding of rain, while Egypt - which does not depend on rain - will be punished by the Nile not rising, and by the plague. Finally, holiness will permeate everything: 'Holy to Hashem' upon the bells of the horses, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to Hashem of Hosts, and there will no longer be a merchant in the House of Hashem - for everything will be abundance and generous giving, and all your children will be students of Hashem.