Sefer Yechezkel chapter 5. "And you, son of man, take yourself a sharp sword, a barber's razor shall you take yourself, and pass it over your head and over your beard, and take yourself a balance scale and divide them. A third you shall burn in fire in the midst of the city when the days of the siege are complete, and take the third and strike it with the sword all around it, and the third you shall scatter to the wind, and I will unsheathe a sword after them. And take from there a few in number and bind them in the corners of your garment. And of them again take, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; from it a fire shall go forth to all the house of Israel."
There is a whole sequence here that the Holy One, blessed be He, commands the prophet to perform, and we will now explain the matters. I read several pesukim on purpose so that we will have a general picture of what is about to take place here. Hashem commands Yechezkel, "And you, son of man, take yourself a sharp sword," and this sharp sword you shall sharpen and make it into a razor. "A barber's razor." What is "a barber's razor"? Rashi brings one explanation: barbers (galavim) are leatherworkers. Leatherworkers means the cutters of hides, those who make straps, those who make sandals. In contrast, Rashi brings another explanation, which is the interpretation of most commentators, and which is also implied here from the plain meaning of the text: "a barber's razor" is a shaver's razor. The intent is the person who shaves the hair of the head and the beard, he has a razor. And this is "the barber's razor," which is very sharp, says the Radak, it cuts quickly. "There is no comparison in Scripture," it has no counterpart in Scripture, meaning we do not find this expression "galavim" anywhere else in Scripture. But we did see it in the Jerusalem Targum: "every full beard," says the Targum, "is shaved (megaliva)." What did he see? That the razor, the barber's razor, with it they would shave, meaning they would cut off the hairs, yes? Or in Bereishit Rabbah the Radak brings, "the angel stands and shaves (megalev)." So in practice this is the interpretation that most commentators here explain: the intent is to take a razor which is the one that shaves the head and the beard.
And regarding this He tells him, "and pass it over your head and over your beard." Take this razor and pass it over the hairs of your head and your beard. The Radak indeed says that this whole matter was in a prophetic vision. That is, the entire statement of taking the razor, passing it over his head and beard, taking and burning it in fire, all of this was in a prophetic vision. But we have already explained and seen on several occasions, with God's help, that there is a great dispute among the commentators as to how to explain quite a few passages, whether they are only in a prophetic vision or whether they actually happened, and this is one of the examples in which there is a dispute as to whether the prophet was actually commanded to do this or not. And if you ask, how could he pass a razor over his beard, is there not a prohibition to pass a razor over one's beard? The answer is that when Hashem commands, then the thing is permitted. And an example of this is like we saw with the prophet who was required to take a wife of harlotry and beget children from her, yes? So there too, there we in fact elaborated (whoever wishes may listen to it at the beginning of Hoshea), there we elaborated on this matter, what the intent of the words is, whether the meaning is that he actually married her and begot children from her or whether all of this was in a prophetic vision; that is the source of the great dispute in understanding the pesukim of Tanach, whether they are as a parable or whether the things were actually done in practice. And there we already mentioned the words of the Rambam, who takes matters in a very extreme way, even for things that everyone agrees actually happened in reality, such as the angels who came to visit Avraham; the Rambam maintains that the intent is that it all took place in a prophetic vision. Avraham, in a prophetic vision, speaks with Hashem and he sees three guests who come before him and he slaughters for them and so on, all of this in a prophetic vision, and they announce the tidings, all in a prophetic vision. But as I said and mentioned, so I will also mention now that this view is not accepted in the interpretations of the Torah, rather we understand that the matters are as their plain meaning, and even though there are places where it is possible to explain that it was in a prophetic vision, but passages such as the story of Avraham and other examples that the Rambam interprets in an extreme way as prophecy alone or as something that happened in a dream vision, this is a view that is not accepted by the vast majority of the commentators.
The Malbim explains, what is the matter of shaving the head and the beard? Why does He say to shave both the head and the beard? The Malbim explains that the hair of the head they were accustomed to shave. One who would go around with long hair on his head, "a head of hair walking in its guilt." That is how my teacher in the Talmud Torah would say. "A head of hair walking in its guilt." One who goes around with a head of hair like this, with I don't know how many kilos of hair on his head, is walking in its guilt. Sometimes he would say, "your head upon you is like the Carmel, and the locks of your head." If your head is like the Carmel, this only indicates about the locks of your head. When there is much volume outside, this indicates a lack of content inside. Fine, in any case let us return to our topic; their way was to shave the hairs of the head. And in contrast, the hairs of the beard they would leave. This is also fitting according to the parameters of Halacha and according to the Kabbalists; according to Halacha there is no concern of leaving a forelock, according to the Kabbalists the hairs of the head represent judgments (dinim) and therefore there is a point to shaving them, the hairs of the beard represent kindnesses (chasadim) and therefore there is a point to growing them. And this thing comes to hint that the people were, as it were, attached to Hashem. And the Holy One, blessed be He, as it were, shaves them and removes them from Himself like the removal of hairs from a person's body. Hairs are attached to a person's body and he shaves and removes them. So too the people of Israel are attached to Hashem, and you shall perform an act of shaving that hints at the removal of the attachment from Hashem. Why the hair of the head and the hair of the beard? So the hair of the head, we said, this is the way, to shave the hair of the head. One who would go around with much hair, this is disgraceful. So consequently shaving the hairs of the head hints at the distancing of the wicked. The hairs of the beard are glory. Shaving the hairs of the beard hints at the distancing of the righteous. This comes to say that Hashem will sweep away the righteous with the wicked. Both the hairs of the head, which are the wicked, and the hairs of the beard, which are the righteous, all of them you shall shave.
What to do with this? "And take yourself a balance scale and divide them." Take yourself the balance scale, meaning a scale, and divide it into several parts. Now He will tell him: "A third you shall burn in fire in the midst of the city when the days of the siege are complete. And take the third and strike it with the sword all around it. And the third you shall scatter to the wind, and I will unsheathe a sword after them." "A third you shall burn in fire in the midst of the city." He tells him, you shall take a third of the hairs, divide the hairs by weight into three thirds. One third you shall burn in the midst of the city. Which city are we talking about? About the city that he engraved on the brick. We remember that He told him, take a brick and engrave on it the form of Jerusalem and set up against it, as it were, a rampart and a siege and so on. So He says, take a third of the hairs, burn it in the midst of the city that you engraved on the brick. And this comes to hint that the third would perish in the ravages of famine. Why the ravages of famine? Rashi says, because the ravages of famine are like fire. It is like burning. "Our skin has shriveled like an oven from the ravages of famine." "Shriveled" means like burned, heated. "Komer" means heating. So then this thing comes to hint that you shall burn a third of the hairs in the midst of the city, this comes to say that there will be here a heat of famine. The Malbim says that this thing is a parable for what will happen at the end of the days of the siege: a third of the people would perish from famine and pestilence within the city. And therefore He says, "and take the third," and this is the second third, "and strike it with the sword all around it," the intent being that this comes to hint that an additional third the enemy will strike with the sword around the city. "And the third," and afterward you have an additional third of hairs, that one you shall scatter to the wind. And this is a parable for those who fled from the enemy and were scattered to all the winds. "And I will unsheathe a sword after them." Pursue them, the sword will overtake them in the lands of their enemies. As Rashi brings, this is a sign for the exiles who went to Egypt, Yochanan ben Kareach and his company, and there it is written "I will unsheathe a sword after them," Nebuchadnezzar went and destroyed Egypt, so those who fled here from his sword were ultimately caught by the sword there in Egypt, there they were killed by him. So it turns out that "I will unsheathe a sword after them" means, I will draw out and unsheathe the sword from its scabbard to pursue them even there in Egypt.
"And take from there a few in number and bind them in the corners of your garment." And take from there a few in number, and that few bind in the corners of your garment. What does He want to hint here? There are two explanations. Rashi comes to explain that this hints at those few who would be exiled to Bavel and live there. And therefore He hints, "and take from there a few in number, bind them in your corners." To bind them in your corners indicates that unlike all those we saw earlier who were in a very dangerous state, the portion burned in fire, struck with the sword, scattered to the wind and the sword unsheathed after them, He says, a few in number will be bound in your corners. Rashi says, those who will be exiled to Bavel will live. They will not have that reality of destruction that existed in the portion we saw earlier. They will be preserved until they return to the Land, like something bound and tied in the corner of the garment. And why does He say "a few in number"? Because they were few in number, ten thousand exiles, so this is called only a few in number. In contrast, the Malbim explains, "and take from there a few in number and bind them in your corners," the Malbim says this speaks of the poorest of the people whom Nebuzaradan left as vinedressers and farmers under the hand of Gedalyah ben Achikam. And seemingly this interpretation is more implied from the plain meaning of the text. Since You are speaking to me about the troubles that will be here, those who will burn in fire, those who will be struck with the sword, those who will be scattered to the wind and dispersed. And You are speaking to me about those who will be preserved. Preserved simply means not exiled. That is the meaning of preserved. They will be bound in your corners. What the Malbim says is seemingly more precise in the language of the text: these are those who will remain here in the Land, they will be preserved, they will not be exiled, they will be bound here. In contrast, if we explain like Rashi and the Radak, then why does He say "bind them in your corners," they are not bound in your corners? He should have given some parable that you will preserve them in a distant place, you are in fact exiling them but preserving them. Not "bind them in your corners," for binding in your corners indicates that they will not be exiled at all. This fits better with the poorest of the people who remained here in the Land.
"And of them again take, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; from it a fire shall go forth to all the house of Israel." Beyond this He tells him, "and of them again take." About whom is He speaking here? Pay attention, each approach according to its own way. According to Rashi and the Radak we saw that He is speaking here about those you bound in your corners. Those you bound in your corners, we saw there are two approaches as to who they are. According to Rashi and the Radak, those you bound in your corners are those who were exiled to Bavel. And some of them will be cast into the fire. About which portion here is He speaking? Rashi says this hints at Achav ben Kolyah and Tzidkiyah ben Ma'aseiyah, whom the king of Bavel roasted. There it is brought that they came to the house of Nebuchadnezzar and told her to seclude herself with them, they said, take, Hashem has commanded; she went to tell this to her father, her father said, how is this possible, the prophet told me that this thing is forbidden; they said to him, correct, we too are prophets. He said to them, fine, you need to be tested by me like Daniel, Chananyah, Mishael and Azaryah, yes? So whom did they ask to be with them? The Kohen Gadol, Yehoshua the Kohen Gadol. They said, let there be an aerial umbrella for us, yes? And in the end he roasted them in fire, like popcorn, pop pop pop they burned in the fire. And only he clung a little by the corner of his garment, which comes to hint at his sons who married unworthy women. This is what is hinted at here. "And of them again take, and cast them into the fire," those who will be there in Bavel, some of them will be cast into the fire. And there is a hint here: from these hints that I hint to you, calamity will go forth to all the house of Israel. This thing is a bit puzzling, since to say "and of them shall burn in fire," whom? About two such wicked men, that of them shall burn in fire, they are marginal of the marginal, is it about them that the prophet here comes to hint? Therefore I say again, here too the line of the Malbim is more reasonable, for the Malbim says that "of them shall burn in fire" comes to hint at what happened through Yishmael ben Netanyah. For there we saw that Yishmael ben Netanyah came and murdered Gedalyah ben Achikam, and from that a fire went forth through which they went to Egypt and no remnant of them remained there. So although Rashi's interpretation is more precise regarding this matter of fire, since with Tzidkiyah ben Ma'aseiyah and Achav ben Kolyah there was actual fire, but in any case, according to how the Malbim explains, this speaks of a calamity that will begin from here and in the end nothing of them will remain; "from it a fire shall go forth to all the house of Israel" means the entire house of Israel that remained here will in the end all perish, and this was the reality when the remnant of the survivors was exiled.
"Thus says Hashem Elokim: This is Jerusalem, in the midst of the nations I have set her, and lands around her." Thus says Hashem Elokim, this is Jerusalem, in the midst of the nations I have set her. What is "in the midst of the nations"? Rashi brings one explanation: the intent is in the center of the world. Jerusalem is the navel of the world. The Radak explains, I set her in the midst of the nations, since she is chosen from all the lands, beautiful in landscape, the joy of all the earth, she is in the center of the settled world. This comes to say the praise of Jerusalem, that Jerusalem is located in the center of the world. Chosen from all the lands, beautiful in landscape, the joy of all the earth, she is the center of the settled world. And therefore her air is good and temperate more than all the lands. In Jerusalem there is good and temperate air more than all the lands. What does "temperate more than all the lands" mean? That where you have air from the cold lands, then it is cold. When air from the hot lands, then it is hot. But if it is temperate, then it is average air. People ask, wait, are you saying Jerusalem is more beautiful than Switzerland? So what are you saying, "in the midst of the nations I have set her," you say chosen from all the lands, beautiful in landscape, the joy of all the earth, the center of the settled world. So in fact the Midrash already addresses this, the Midrash says, why did Hashem not make rivers in Jerusalem? For rivers are always a sign of beauty, it is a thing that turns a place into a wonderful and special place to dwell in. The Midrash says, so that people should not say that people ascend to Jerusalem because of the rivers. Why do they ascend? Ah, because they come to a summer retreat. They come for a vacation in Jerusalem, because Jerusalem has rivers there, it has, as it were, a place of beautiful waters; let them not come because of this. If they come, they come because the House of Hashem is there, the joy of all the earth. But in fact, if we already mentioned it, let us pause and reflect. You look at Switzerland in its summer pictures. But does anyone know what it means to be in Switzerland in winter? You are, for half a year and more, since the summer there is short, you are more than half a year in deep freeze. Deep freeze means there are several meters of snow so that you cannot even leave the house at all. So it is true it is pleasant to be there in summer and feel temperate weather and everything green, why should it not be green? Just think, two meters of snow melting, that is irrigation for the ground for months. So of course everything there is green. But who can survive there for half a year? How do people leave the house? How, this is an extraordinary limitation. So although it is pleasant to look at the summertime, but that is a few months. Go there for the rest of the year and see whether you would be willing to go and live in such a place. Jerusalem, in contrast, He tells you, come and see, chosen from all the lands, beautiful in landscape, the joy of all the earth, she is in the center of the settled world, therefore her air is good and temperate more than all the lands. In Jerusalem you can be in the summer and you sweat less than in Gush Dan, and you can also be in the winter and you can still survive. Because in Jerusalem even if there is a little snow then yes it is only a light blanket, but to survive there and travel and live you can, whether in summer or in winter. Her air is good and temperate more than all the lands, all the seasons, all the seasons of the year, not just for a short and limited period. What does this actually say? Why does He get into, I don't know, the changes of the weather, the synoptic map, what is this that really interests us here? Jerusalem in the midst of the nations, her air is temperate more than all the lands. The Radak says this is a reason they had to go in the straight path and perform My good laws. Since you merited such a special place, I gave you such an excellent place, so you should have gone in the straight path, you should have performed My good laws. And come and see that on the contrary, instead of them being better than all the nations because they received the most excellent place, they exchanged them for wickedness more than all the nations that are around them. As it is written, "and Menasheh led them astray to do more evil than the nations whom Hashem destroyed before the children of Israel." More evil than the nations whom Hashem destroyed before the children of Israel. And those nations who were around them, says the Radak, did not exchange their laws as we will soon see. "And My people exchanged My laws" to no avail. So in fact the claim against you is greater than against the nations. By the way, if we already mentioned Jerusalem, let us also mention the Land of Israel, that we have almost no other place in the world that is such a small place and has in it all types of weather. Whoever wants dry weather has it, whoever wants humid has it, whoever wants cold has it, whoever wants hot has it. Where do you find another such thing, that if you want summer in the middle of winter, travel to Eilat. And if you want snow, travel to the Hermon. You have it in the same country, and how long is it? A country of a few hundred kilometers. That is a neighborhood in the United States. That is not a village in China. And within this place you find that you have weather variations, whatever you choose, whatever you want, tell me what weather suits you, within this place which is such a small and confined place you have all types of climate or weather, and wherever you want you can go, the main thing is come to live in the Holy Land.
The Malbim explains, thus says Hashem Elokim, this is Jerusalem, in the midst of the nations I have set her. The Malbim says here that now He is explaining the meaning of the parable. For the chapter opened with a parable. And the parable was about the hairs, as we explained, that He commanded him to cut and burn. Now He says, come and see, in the midst of the nations I set her. The meaning is that many nations dwelled in the Land, of the seven peoples. And there are also additional nations outside the Land of Israel, lands of other kings, so in the midst of the nations I set her.
"And she rebelled against My laws to wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the lands that are around her, for they despised My laws and My statutes they did not walk in them." Hashem says, and behold, come and see what happened. "And she rebelled against My laws to wickedness more than the nations." And she exchanged and altered My laws to wickedness more than the nations. Rashi says this is what is written about Menasheh: "and Menasheh led Yehudah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray to do more evil than the nations whom Hashem destroyed before the children of Israel." Pay attention that there is an error in Rashi here; Rashi on this in particular, Rashi on Nevi'im is far less proofread than Rashi on the Chumash. For it is written "about Menasheh," not "as is written in the Mishnah," in the Mishnah no such thing is written. Rather, "as is written about Menasheh, and Menasheh led Yehudah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray to do more evil than the nations whom Hashem destroyed before the children of Israel." The meaning is, "and she rebelled against My laws to wickedness" more than the nations. Regarding Menasheh it is written that he did wicked deeds more severe than the nations that were around him. So I set her in the midst of the nations and lands around her, and she went and did corruption more than the nations and the lands that were around them. Some explain, Rashi brings, that the nations did not receive Hashem's Torah. And the people of Israel received Hashem's Torah and transgressed it. So for them the severity is greater. What does the gentile understand, what does he know? He has no Torah. But you received Torah, so how did you become corrupt? Against you the claim is much greater. And the Radak also explains, "they despised My laws," and the nations did not despise their laws.
What are "laws" (mishpatim) and what are "statutes" (chukim)? The Malbim says, mishpatim are rational commandments. Chukim are commandments received by tradition (obedience-based). The divine intent was so that there would be an aspect of a light to the nations. Both regarding the mishpatim, mishpatim as we explained several times are between man and his fellow, "and these are the laws that you shall set before them," which are matters between man and his fellow, monetary matters and the like. And regarding the chukim. This is what He says here, "against My laws to wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the lands that are around her." "My statutes" means the statutes of the ways of divine service, between man and God. I set her in the midst of the nations so that they would be in this a symbol to the nations, so that the nations would learn conduct between man and his fellow, would learn conduct between man and God, from our conduct, that of the people of Israel. And come and see that the people of Israel, instead of being a symbol to them, the people of Israel became corrupt far more than them. They exchanged the laws for wickedness more than the nations. The Malbim explains, the nations also have laws. And the gentile is commanded to have justice. One of the commandments upon the gentiles, one of the seven Noahide commandments, is to establish judges for themselves. But pay attention, according to which laws are they to judge? They did not receive laws from Hashem. The command upon them is to establish judges for themselves, so that the judges will judge according to the laws of reason. Logical laws, laws accepted by common sense, by human reason, by logic. Do not murder, do not steal, do not harm another, and so on. All these are rational laws that the wise men of the nations established for themselves. And even though, says the Malbim, human etiquette is not sufficient, and this is our advantage, that we received divine etiquette, Torah from Hashem, and in contrast the gentile conducts himself with etiquette based on reason and logic, indeed this is not sufficient, says the Malbim truly, but it does not always contradict uprightness. Many times human etiquette conforms to uprightness. You can see this now in reality, that many of the laws that the nations legislate on their own, even unrelated to Torah and mitzvot, conform to uprightness. We spoke once that most of the mitzvot of the Ten Commandments are commandments accepted by all human beings, by the entire human race. And there is no community in the world that legislates laws against them. There is no community in the world that legislates a law against "do not steal," meaning the law says "steal." There is no community in the world, I mean a country, a proper place, where the law is "murder." There is no such thing. And so on in this manner. That is to say, there is the foundation, that the foundation of human morality is a morality accepted by the whole world. The Malbim says this does not always contradict uprightness, only what? They deviate from the divine law. They stray from the divine law. Because, for example, he will tell you that having an abortion is the woman's right over her body. Whereas according to Halacha this is complete murder. And with a gentile he is even executed for it. It is more severe than with a Jew. A gentile is even executed for an abortion. That is, if he performs an abortion he is judged as a murderer and they execute him. That is, you understand that although they deviate from the divine law, laws we received, we merited them. But in any case, not all their laws contradict the divine law, not all of them contradict uprightness. But in contrast, the people of Israel, you had divine law, you received statutes from Hashem, and you went and despised them. And moreover, says the Malbim, they always did the opposite of the divine law. And to do the opposite of the divine law, says the Malbim, is the absolute extreme opposite of good. Because the God who gave us Torah, gave us the best conduct for us. The laws of the Torah are the best conduct. And if you go and do the opposite of the laws of the Torah, you go to the extreme opposite of good. The Torah says that a man and a woman shall not be together, and a man and a man shall not be together. They go and legislate laws that it is forbidden to harm such people. Do you understand? It is forbidden to say to them, forbidden to reprove them, forbidden, one must hold pride parades. To legislate a law against the Torah. The Torah says, do not commit adultery. They go and legislate laws of a common-law partner. Do you hear? A person left his wife, went with someone else, and commits adultery, and not only that, according to Torah no inheritance at all comes to the woman, they went and established that the one who commits adultery with him will receive the inheritance. Have you ever heard such a thing? This is a thing that cannot be understood by reason. What did you do with this? This is Sodom and Amorah. You went and now caused every woman to look for someone somewhat financially settled, even though he is married, and "stolen waters are sweet," and you understand she will also receive an inheritance. So what does she care to even not be married to him? She is a common-law partner. We have Rav Shach who cried out terribly about this. And this is exactly what is written here. To go and do the opposite of the divine law is the extreme of, and this is the opposite of good. This is going to choose the other extreme of the good, that Hashem tells you, I gave you Torah, to no gentile did I give Torah. Only to you did I give Torah with the divine law which is the good and the complete, and you went to do the opposite of this? And so too regarding the statutes, says the Malbim, between man and his fellow, between man and God, they did the opposite of the divine statutes. And the nations, says the Malbim, they did not reverse the divine statutes, they did not know them. So when a gentile goes and does as he pleases, this is not the opposite of the laws of God, he does not know the divine law. But you, who know the divine law and do the opposite, this is severe sevenfold. And even though, says the Malbim, that the laws of the nations are not good, he did not do it deliberately against the will of Hashem. He did it according to his lack of knowledge. But deliberately against the will of Hashem? Certainly not. They did not do it intentionally and with loathing. The Malbim says, the nations that did not have some special kingdom, they had inferior laws which they received from the lands. For the great lands did have an orderly system, they had a king, they had a judge, "a king through justice establishes a land." Therefore he explains that there are "nations" and there are "lands." "Nations" (goy) means a nation, meaning a kingdom without a king. And then their conduct is much less, far less refined than "lands," because in "lands" there is conduct with a king. And "a king through justice establishes a land." Now, the nations indeed have no king, but what is called, they copied their laws from the lands, from the place where there is a king and where the laws are established. So it turns out then that there are lands, below them are nations, and below them Israel. We are even worse than the nations. And the lands are far from the Land of Israel, and the people of Israel and those nations had strange laws, and we are worse than them, as we said, that we even do the opposite of the laws of the Torah.
Therefore, "thus says Hashem Elokim: Because you were tumultuous more than the nations that are around you, in My statutes you did not walk and My laws you did not perform, and according to the laws of the nations that are around you you did not act." What is "because you were tumultuous (hamanchem) more than the nations that are around you"? What is "hamanchem"? Rashi explains, "hamanchem" is like "you appointed yourselves." You appointed yourselves to be more licentious than the nations. From what expression is "hamanchem" like "appointed"? Rashi explains, like "and the king appointed for them." "And the king appointed for them" means the king designated for them. So here too, "hamanchem more than the nations that are around you," you appointed yourselves to be evil and worse than the nations that are around you. In contrast, Rashi brings an additional explanation which he brings from Menachem, who explains "hamanchem" from the expression of "multitude" (hamon) and "tumult" (hemyah). Like "the nations were tumultuous." We explained once that the multitude are called "hamon" because in a place where there are multitudes there is bustling, there is tumult. So therefore this is called "hamonchem." So "because of your tumult more than the nations," you are tumultuous like the nations that are around you. "And according to the laws of the nations that are around you you did not act," as we said, that the nations have a faith, the nations have laws, they did not exchange their faith and their laws for another faith. But you exchanged My glory for what does not avail. Chazal say, like the refined among them you did not act, like the corrupt among them you acted. Consequently, if you exchanged your conduct to be like a gentile, be at least like the refined among them. But here you went to be like the corrupt among the nations, you took from each nation its corruptions and this you attached to yourself, this you brought to us here to the Land. Once they brought in Yated some photograph of a book, what is called a travel book. This book describes in every place in the world what one can see, what places are recommended for visiting and so on. This was apparently still before the internet era, once people still read books. So in short, there he brings that in the book they describe Tel Aviv. And they describe there, I don't remember exactly the wordings, but the general line of the idea was that it is an open and pluralistic city like the most open cities in Europe. In simple words, as it were, he wanted to say, it is unpleasant to say, licentiousness. But he wanted to tell you this expression, so he told you that Tel Aviv is like, you understand? What a disgrace, do you understand? What a shame. Like the refined among them you did not act, like the corrupt among them you acted. This is the harshest claim. Consequently, since you already took from the nations, you could perhaps take also good things. But to learn from their corruptions? And do not understand incorrectly. We explained more than once that we have nothing at all to take from the nations. Nothing. Many say, listen, one can also learn from the gentiles, they have all sorts of good conducts and all sorts of things. This is a complete and absolute distortion. A person who says this is a person lacking faith. What is the simple reason? I want you to understand. The Holy One, blessed be He, gave us a Torah of life to conduct ourselves by. Do you think there could be one thing that is good and Hashem did not give it to us in the Torah? Could there be such a thing? Whoever thinks such a thing is a heretic. Since the Holy One, blessed be He, is the perfection of good, and the Torah is a Torah of life, statutes by which a person shall live. What does this person say? Listen, it is true in Judaism there are good and beautiful things, but there is also something to learn from the gentiles. Either way: if it is written in the Torah, I do not need the gentile in order to learn from him. And if it is not written in the Torah, then the Holy One, blessed be He, told me not to do it. Do not learn from him. But what kind of distortion is this, to come and say there are also good things among the gentiles. Now, do not understand me incorrectly, I am not saying there are gentiles, that there are no gentiles who behave well. That is not what I am saying. It may be that there are gentiles who behave well. Are you telling me that we need to learn from them? We need to learn from the Torah, not from them. From the Torah one must learn. And if it is not written in the Torah and this conduct does not appear in the Torah, then do not learn it, because Hashem told me not to do this conduct. But to come and say that I need to learn from the gentile? One does not need to learn anything from the gentile, I need to learn only from the Torah. And if this conduct is written in the Torah then on the contrary, we will adopt it without needing the gentile. And this is exactly also what Chazal say, "wisdom among the nations, believe it," but Chazal say, "Torah among the nations, do not believe." What does this mean? If they tell you that there are gentiles who have wisdom, believe it, accept it. Come, he will tell you, listen, we invented such a thing, we discovered thus, we have some understanding regarding the heavenly bodies, there are things that the sages of Israel heard from the sages of the nations. The Gemara says the sages of Israel conceded to the sages of the nations. Wisdom I can accept. Torah, if someone comes and tells you, come see there is a Torah, Torah means instruction, it means conduct, there is some way of conduct that one should learn from the gentiles, do not believe it. Do not believe it, because if the conduct is correct it is written in our Torah. There is no need to learn it from their Torah. There is no need to learn it from their conducts. If it is wisdom, if someone comes and tells you, listen, there is a professor here who is, I don't know, a genius and so on, learn from him, you need to learn from him some wisdom, go learn from him. Wisdom among the nations, believe it. If you need it, yes, we do not have any point of just going to learn from the gentile. But if you need this wisdom, believe it. But if it is Torah, which means to straighten a person's conduct and character traits, this is what is needed, it is written in the Torah. And what is not written in the Torah is not needed.
"And Yeshurun grew fat and kicked"; that same silver and gold that I multiplied for you, they went and made into Baal. "And according to the laws of the nations that are around you you did not act," for as we said, they did not exchange their gods, and you exchanged Me for what does not avail. The Malbim explains that the sin of Israel here is in fact double. First, that they learned from the nations not to walk in the statutes and laws of Hashem. The nations do not know the statutes of Hashem. And then consequently you imitate him, and this was always the concern in closeness to a gentile, since then you will imitate the gentile and then consequently you will distance yourself from the statutes and laws of Hashem without any evil intent. It is enough that you send your child to a secular school so that the child will grow up there with everything they do and he will not keep a single mitzvah. Just make the calculation, so what is a gentile school? So inevitably he grows up in such a place, so the first thing, he does not keep mitzvot. So you learned from the gentile not to walk in the statutes and laws of Hashem. And this is what He says, "because of your tumult more than the nations, in My statutes you did not walk." "Your tumult more than the nations," the Malbim says that the term "hamon" (multitude/tumult) comes for the most part in a derogatory sense, "and you a great multitude," which comes to say that this people is tumultuous, disorderly, and lowly, and you became lowly and tumultuous more than the nations. From where did you become so lowly, so degenerate, "your tumult"? You learned this from the nations.
Another thing: "and the good laws of the nations you did not perform." On the other hand, but the nations also have good laws. He says, in his good laws you did not conduct yourselves. That is to say, at least if you had taken the good conduct as a package deal, it would be fine. But you took the conduct of the gentile in order to learn from him the corrupt things, and the things he conducts himself in according to uprightness, as we said that there are things they conduct themselves in according to uprightness and as according to the general line of the Torah, He says, this you did not do, this you did not learn from the gentile. So you did things that neither one who believes in the religion of Israel does, nor those who conduct themselves according to the conducts of the nations. In short, you remained empty of this and of that. If at least you had taken the customs of the gentile all the way, then perhaps you would also have received their etiquette, their conducts. But you left the Jewish religion, and the laws of the nations in their conducts and etiquette you did not take, you remained empty of everything.