Sefer Yechezkel, chapter 15. And the word of Hashem came to me, saying: Son of man, what shall the wood of the vine be more than any wood, the vine branch which is among the trees of the forest? Shall wood be taken of it to make any work? Or will men take a peg of it to hang any vessel upon it? Behold, it is given to the fire for fuel; the fire has devoured both its ends, and its midst is charred. Is it fit for any work? Behold, when it was whole it could not be used for any work; how much less, when the fire has devoured it and it is charred, shall it yet be fit for any work?
Let us explain. "And the word of Hashem came to me, saying: Son of man, what shall the wood of the vine be more than any wood." The Radak explains it as, so to speak, "what shall it be," and this is also implied by Rashi, and likewise implied by Targum Yonatan. "What shall the wood of the vine be more than any wood": in what way is the wood of the vine inferior to any other wood, in what way does the wood of the vine differ from all the trees. Of which vine am I asking you, that it is worse than all the trees? The Radak says: surely we are not speaking of a fruit bearing tree, for it is surely more praiseworthy than all the trees, as we recognize from Yotam's parable, about which it would surely not be said that it is inferior; a fruit bearing tree, when it is the vine, is the special and choicest tree. Rather, of what am I speaking? Of "the vine branch which is among the trees of the forest." I am speaking of the vine branch among the trees of the forest, those that do not bear fruit. About these I ask you, for it is even lower than the trees of the forest. Since these trees of the forest, though they do not bear fruit, are still fit for work. I can use them for building, I can use them for work, to make a peg out of them and so on in this manner, to make vessels out of them, to roof houses with them. But this wild vine that grows in the forest is not fit for fruit, and for work the wood of the vine was never among the good trunks fit and suited for work. So then, in what does this wood of the vine differ from all the other trees of the forest? It is not even like the trees of the forest, since the trees of the forest have some use, while this has no use at all. Shortly we will try to understand what he wants to convey here in the parable.
The Malbim, on the other hand, takes a different direction. He explains that when it is written "what shall the wood of the vine be more than any wood," the meaning is not in what way it differs, as the Targum says "how does the wood of the vine differ from any tree." The Malbim says: "what shall it be" does not mean how it differs. The Malbim says: "what shall it be" means what will come to be from it. This is the sense of "what shall it be," not in what way it differs. And what actually is the question? He says: after all, it was the way of the planters to graft and to layer branches of one fruit tree into another. I am not discussing now the halachic aspect; we are discussing now the botanical aspect, what their practice was to do. And what did they do? Through the grafting, the very branch that was grafted would draw nourishment from the tree into which it was grafted, and then it produces fruit that is intermediate between the branch that was grafted and the tree that forms the foundation and base for that graft. The grafting was usually done by cutting a T shaped incision in the bark of the tree, peeling back the two sides, and inserting there some shoot of a branch that had been split off from the vine, not necessarily a vine, any other tree, that had been split off from the tree, not cut but split, meaning as if broken from the place of its connection to the trunk, joining it to the new tree, between those two flaps of the letter T, as we said, where they peel a little, insert it, close the flaps upon it, seal it, tie it, and afterward it would heal and yield fruit that would be intermediate between the two kinds of trees. He says: this method was in order to add improvement to the part that I grafted. This is an example: they would take branches of a vine and layer them into a fig tree so that through this the vine branches would receive sweetness from the fig, for the fig said "should I forsake my sweetness," the fig being known as a very sweet fruit. Or as Chazal say, one does not insert a vine branch into a watermelon so that it would draw its water into it. This too was accepted practice, that they would, as it were, plant the vine branch inside the watermelon so that the watermelon's water would nourish the branch and through this impart sweetness to it. Likewise too, they would take a barren tree that was weak and graft it into a strong barren tree, so that through this it would thicken and become stronger.
Says the Malbim, but on the other hand, if you take and graft the wood of the vine into a barren tree, through this you have accomplished nothing. Because the vine branch will not become strong enough to be used for building, and on the other hand the fruit that it gave until now will weaken or be nullified entirely, since the tree into which you have now grafted it is a barren tree. You will gain nothing from this; you will be left with a branch that is not fit for work and also not fit for fruit. And this is what he says here: "what shall the wood of the vine be more than any wood," what will come to be from it if it is grafted into another tree. This is the meaning of "more than any wood," if it is joined to any tree, what will come of it? And then he explains and says: the vine branch that we grafted into the trees of the forest, if you graft a weak barren tree into the thick trees of the forest, from this there will be a thick and strong tree. But here, on the contrary, nothing will come of it, we will gain nothing from it, what will come to be from the wood of the vine that in itself is very weak. And the Malbim also compels his interpretation, since "zemora" (branch) is always an expression for a branch that has been cut from the tree. According to the other commentators he is speaking here of a branch that is still growing, of a vine that is still growing. How do you call it "zemora"? It is not called "zemora"; a "zemora" is a branch that has been detached. Only according to my explanation, says the Malbim, will you understand it, because a "zemora" that we are speaking of has truly been detached from the vine and joined to another tree, and with this the term "zemora" is truly fitting.
"Shall wood be taken of it to make any work? Or will men take a peg of it to hang any vessel upon it?" Will you gain anything from the wood thickening and hardening through this so that you could use this branch as a vessel to do work? Or at least, even if not literally to make a vessel of it, at least to make a peg of it to hang a vessel upon. A peg means some rod that they would fix in the wall and upon which they would hang. So he says: could you make a peg of this to hang a vessel upon it? You have gained nothing from this, only loss you will have, for until now it stood to produce grapes and now it will no longer do so.
"Behold, it is given to the fire for fuel; the fire has devoured both its ends, and its midst is charred. Is it fit for any work? Behold, when it was whole it could not be used for any work; how much less, when the fire has devoured it and it is charred, shall it yet be fit for any work?" The Radak explains that in fact there is here a parable that compares the people of Israel to a vine, that the people of Israel are like the thin, feeble, weak vine, and they are the fewest of all the nations, as the verse says. And when it produces good fruit, then their fruit is special. But in the vine itself there is no advantage. In the vine itself, in the tree itself, it is a weak tree. Its uses are few; at most one can use the branches as, perhaps not as ropes, but as fodder for elephants, but at any rate not for building and not for making vessels; the body of the vine tree is weak. What does have use in it, as we said, is the fruit. The people of Israel are compared to a vine; Yeshayahu said, "My beloved had a vineyard on a fruitful hill; and he planted it with the choicest vine, and he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes." The people of Israel are compared to a vine. And behold, the people of Israel, instead of producing fruit, produced for us only a wild forest branch. A wild forest branch, we said, is a vine that grows in the forests that does not yield fruit. What use is it? It is only for fire. The people of Israel, since they do evil deeds, have no remedy except only for fire. "For fire" means to chastise them, with famine, with sword, with pestilence; that is the meaning of "for fire." He tells you: so indeed it was, and behold "the fire has devoured both its ends." As we saw, "Aram on the east and the Philistines behind, and they devoured Israel with open mouth." That is to say, this fire has already begun to take hold of this vineyard, of this branch. "And it set him aflame round about, yet he did not know; and it burned him, yet he did not take it to heart," as appears in Yeshayahu 42. That is to say, this process has already begun, that the fire takes hold of the people of Israel. And do not think that it is only from the ends, "and its midst is charred." What is within, what is the center of the Land of Israel? That is Yerushalayim. Yerushalayim is at the center, and behold, you will see that all that happened to the ten tribes and to all the mountains of Yehuda had no effect at all on Yerushalayim to change its ways. And you will see that nevertheless the inhabitants of Yerushalayim, who were already charred by the fire, took no lesson.
So what hope is there for them that the fire will not consume them? He says: behold, you will see, they will not be fit for any work. What does "they will not be fit for any work" mean? It means there is no expectation to hope from them that they will repent, that they will improve their deeds; they have no remedy except only to return them to the fire so that the fire will finish the work and burn them completely. That is to say, that Yerushalayim will be a desolation. And this is what he says: "from the fire they went out, and the fire shall devour them." For from the fire they went out, perhaps so that there would be a remedy for them, but if we see that there is no remedy, then the fire shall devour them. And this is what he says: at first I thought that Yerushalayim would not be burned, that is, it would not become fuel for fire; I sent them prophets early and late in order to rebuke them, that they would correct their ways, so that the city would not be burned. And when this did not happen, then the fire shall devour them. And he continues and says: "behold, when it was whole it could not be used for any work; how much less, when the fire has devoured it and it is charred, shall it yet be fit for any work." "When it was whole" means when the people of Israel were still in their land, then they did not repent. Even though I would warn them through the prophets constantly, I would bring upon them the enemies to plunder their spoil, to take booty from them, so that through this they would have suffering and repent. He says: all the more so now, when the deeds have already become habitual, now that all the Land of Israel is destroyed except for Yerushalayim and they harden their heart even more, they accustom themselves to the deeds of the nations, going from evil to evil; they see that the nations succeed in their deeds, so they say let us do likewise. Says the Radak, as it is written about Achaz when he waged war against the king of Aram, he said the gods of Aram are helping them, "to them I will sacrifice that they may help me." That is to say, he goes and clings to the way of the nations. He says: if so, they have no hope, and so these people the fire shall devour. There is nothing to be done, only the fire shall devour them, for even when it was whole it could not be used for any work; even when it was here still before the exile, nothing came of them. So then, what hope is there from them now?
The Malbim explains that since there is no use in them, neither to produce fruit nor to do work, as we saw, then automatically it is fit only for fire. Only, says the Malbim, for fire I might say it serves to warm, to cook, to bake, no? He says: it will not serve to warm and to cook and to bake, only "for fuel." The meaning of this is that its heat is weak, there is no use in it. He says afterward, since it was given to fire and the fire devoured both its ends and its midst is also charred, he says: now can work be done with it? "Is it fit for any work?" After something has been burned, can work be done with it? He says: after all, even when it was whole, that is, even before it was burned, it was not fit for work. So now, after it has been burned, what are the chances of doing work with it? And shortly we will see what in fact the meaning is.
"Therefore thus says Hashem Elokim: as the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so have I given the inhabitants of Yerushalayim." Says the Malbim: now he explains the meaning. The people of Israel are compared to a vine, as we opened; from the aspect of their matter, their physicality, they are weak. What is their advantage? From the aspect of the form within them. And the form is the inwardness, the spiritual advantage. The people of Israel never gloried in strength. Just so you know, this is only a symptom of the last 70 years. Whoever looks at history will see that the people of Israel never gloried in strength. The people of Israel were not built upon physical might. The people of Israel always gloried in their connection with the Master of the Universe, in their spiritual fortitude, but not in valor and strength. Only in the last 70 years have we become a nation of army, a nation of might, a nation that projects valor. This was never the main thing. Always, when the spiritual matter took hold of the nation, then the spiritual matters were always the thing in which the people of Israel was praised and glorified, and not in matters of strength and not in weapon parades and the like. This was truly not the way of the people of Israel. And moreover, in no Jewish museum or pantheon will you find weapons. Whoever goes to any museum of any gentile will find bows, swords, spears, weapons of war, among all the nations. And with the Jewish people you will never find in a museum any example of some ancient Jewish weapon. Have you ever heard of such a thing? Perhaps a Chumash, a Torah, Jewish Judaica. Weapons you will never find. "By your sword you shall live" is not Jewish; "by your sword you shall live" is the way of the gentile. So the people of Israel never gloried in physical might. Their praise was always from the aspect of their spirituality; this is what the Malbim says, weak from the aspect of its matter and honored from the aspect of its form. The form of the people of Israel, their spiritual advantage, this is exactly the vine. The vine is a weak tree from the aspect of its matter, but what does it give? No other tree gives such special grapes from which is produced wine, which is the choicest of drinks. And he says this was for the purpose that it be ready to bear fruit. What does this mean? To do justice, to do righteousness, like "My beloved had a vineyard... and he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes." Hashem expected this vineyard to yield grapes, meaning that it should do justice and righteousness. "For the vineyard of Hashem of hosts is the house of Israel... and he expected justice, righteousness," as appears in Yeshayahu chapter 5.
Says the Malbim, a very interesting thing, and it is very true, the researcher already explained that those complete in form are weak in matter. This is reality: that if you take, search for the avreichim, the students of Torah, the Torah scholars, and in fact you know what, not necessarily them, even if you approach the other fields of wisdom, go search for the professors, the senior scientists and so on, none of them will you see with some wingspan of I don't know what, some two meters of muscles and might and such. None of them is an athlete nor occupied with all matters of physicality. And whoever is generally such an athlete and a person occupied with all matters of physicality is weak of mind. And whoever is strong of mind, as he says complete in form, is weak in matter. Usually these things do not go together. They do not go together. I am not saying it is not possible. It can be in principle, but it is a very very rare thing. We had an example in David the king, that David the king was a very powerful person, going out to battle and fighting and not returning until they were destroyed, and he himself would slay a thousand in a single battle, and with all this he refined and refined himself like a worm, and he composed for us the Book of Tehillim. These are very very rare things. Usually one comes at the expense of the other. Those complete in form are weak in matter. The people of Israel, says the Malbim, their strength, their power, is because of the divine form, that they keep Torah and mitzvot, they cling to Hashem. Not because of their matter, not because of their physical might; they are the fewest of all the nations. But what happened? When they mixed with the trees of the forest, they went to seek help from Egypt, they went to seek help from Ashur. Says the Malbim: this is the grafting. You took the vine branch, you went and grafted it into barren trees, you went and joined yourself to Egypt, to Ashur, as it is written, "you plant pleasant plants and set them with strange slips" (Yeshayahu 17). "And I planted you a choice vine, wholly a right seed; how then have you turned into the degenerate branches of a strange vine to me" (Yirmiyahu chapter 2). This is like when you graft a vine branch into a barren tree, whereby not only did you lose its form, you also lost its matter. That is to say, even from the aspect of matter you gained nothing; it will not be turned by this into some powerful branch. So here too, you attained and gained no help from the nations among whom you were, but rather you were only given to the fire for fuel. Nevuchadnetzar came and exiled them in the exile of Yehoyachin, in the exile of Yehoyakim, and those who remained in the time of Tzidkiyahu were already like a branch that the fire devoured from both sides and its midst charred. In simple words, only harm came to you from this connection, no use at all.
"And I will set my face against them; from the fire they went out, and the fire shall devour them; and you shall know that I am Hashem, when I set my face against them." "And I will set my face against them": says the Malbim, the meaning is that the Holy One is still ready to punish them. "My face," the meaning of "I will set my face against that man," is an expression that the Holy One turns away, as it were, from all His affairs and all His attention, God forbid, and directs it against that person. So this is "and I will set my face against them; from the fire they went out, and the fire shall devour them." They went out of the fire; we saw that those who remained in the days of Tzidkiyahu had already come out of the fire, they are no longer fit for work, so what use is there? To return them back into the fire so that the fire will devour and consume them. What is gained by this? Two things. First, I will gain "and you shall know that I am Hashem, when I set my face against them." Since there is here a punishment of My providence, this comes from Hashem when I set my face against them, and this, by the way, is the reason for the repetition. He said "and I will set my face against them... that I am Hashem, when I set my face against them." He says: there will be a gain here that you will know that I am Hashem, that you will see that there was here a punishment by providence, and we already saw in the past that when the punishment is given by providence, the hand of Hashem is recognizable in it. And the second thing, "and I will make the land desolate, because they have committed a trespass, says Hashem Elokim." "And I will make the land desolate" is deserved by them according to the evil deeds they did, and since this is so and they committed a trespass, He is obligated to punish them according to the strictures of justice, and this is that the land will be desolate. Targum Yonatan explains what is written "and I will set my face against them; from the fire they went out, and the fire shall devour them," he explains it by way of derash: "against the words of the Torah which were given from the midst of the fire they transgressed, and the nations who are mighty as fire shall destroy them." Do you hear what "from the fire they went out" means? You transgressed the words of the Torah which went out from the fire. The words of the Torah were given in fire at the standing at Mount Sinai, from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness. And therefore their punishment will be by fire, "the nations who are mighty as fire shall destroy them," the nations who are mighty as fire will destroy them, and through this you will know that I am Hashem when My wrath falls upon them.